Eduard has long been an industry leader when it comes to photo-etched detail sets. Beginning in January, 2010 they introduced their “Brassin” line of aftermarket goodies. These Brassin sets include their usual high quality photo-etched details combined with their new resin pieces in one complete package. These Brassin sets are designed to fill the niche between OOB kit parts and ultra high detail, (and high dollar) full cockpits and wheels/wheel wells. The model builder wishing to upgrade his or her kit only a modest amount but with high quality aftermarket parts now has another option with Eduards Brassin packages.

The Brassin sets in this review are the F-22A seat in 1/48 scale #648 002 (m.r.p. $12.95), and the F-22A wheel set in the same scale #648 003 (m.r.p. $9.95) designed for the Academy F-22 Raptor kit.

F-22A Seat

Eduards F-22A seat includes a photo-etched set of their usual outstanding quality. In this set you will find 28 individual pieces. The colors are printed in shades of blues, reds, yellows, black and white. Some of the colors on these pieces (seat belts) are not accurate but can be painted over to match reference material. Even the “Remove Before Flight” ribbon is legible without magnification.

The other half of this package is the resin seat. This is made up of 4 individual parts of nicely molded resin. Eduard makes these pieces using HI 3D technologies. No, I have no idea what that means, but I do know that it is one of the nicest ejection seats I have seen from any manufacturer to date. That’s quite a feat considering that Eduard is new in the aftermarket resin business. My example had only a very small amount of flash that will have to be removed but it has a high level of detail for such a small piece. I have purchased aftermarket resin seats from many different manufacturers and these seem to be near the top of the scale in detail. The only thing I would change would be to cast the seat cushion separately to make the final assembly easier to paint and detail.

The ejection seat rail and its accompanying parts are molded in a darker grey color than the actual seat. Don’t know if this is a different resin mixture but it seems to be a bit more like plastic and less brittle than the normal resin we are all used to. I’ll reserve my opinion on this until I actually work with it in the assembly process.

F-22A Wheel Set

Eduards other new offering in the Brassin line is its resin wheel set for the F-22A. Included in this set are two main landing gear resin wheels, one resin nose wheel, six wheel chocks for the front and rear wheels, and a complete tire masking set for painting the wheels.

All three wheels are made of the same light grey resin as the ejection seat and are very well done. Looking at my reference book, the wheels themselves and the bolts look very accurate as does the tread pattern. There is even a subtle Michelin stamped on the sidewalls. There are no photo-etched pieces included for brake lines, etc.
Test fitting Eduards resin wheels to my Academy F-22 kits landing gear proved to be no problem. Actually, the fit was snug enough that I will probably not use glue to secure the wheels during final assembly.
As mentioned above, this kit includes 6 chocks molded in a plastic-like resin. The 6 pieces are molded with slots in them and are designed to be grouped in twos using thin thread. Four pieces are provided for the back wheels and two smaller pieces will make up the front chock.

Eduard is definitely on the right track with these Brassin sets. At a retail price of around $13.00 for the seat and $8.00 for the wheels they are within almost any modelers budget. If you want to spend an extra hundred bucks, there are better and more extreme upgrades on the market, but If you are going to build the already great Academy F-22 kit and want even more detail without breaking your wallet, these Eduard Brassin upgrades will be hard to beat.

Please remember, when contacting retailers or manufacturers, to mention that you saw their products highlighted here - on AEROSCALE.