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I been looking at these for some time and can't decide to get them or not. Are they just metal bits essentially that you glue onto models? If so how are they in terms of detail and holding paint. I like these idea of them but not quite sure why they made them in brass, if they were made of plastic or resin, I would have gotten them already.

Here's an example of one for Space Wolves.

https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-AU/Etched-Brass-Space-Wolves-Symbols

The etched brass stuff is essentially a tool for easy freehanding onto vehicles and banners. It's metal so that you can bend and smooth it over whatever surface you want to have the design. As far as painting, you definitely want to prime it first but it takes paint fine. The only thing to be careful of is when clipping it off the sprue. Those pieces are SHARP, and will jab right through your finger if you're not careful.

 Badablack wrote:
The etched brass stuff is essentially a tool for easy freehanding onto vehicles and banners.

This is a bit misleading.
It's a way of adding relief to a model. It's easier to paint relief detail than it is to freehand.

It's made from brass because the level of detail (read sharpness) is much higher than with plastic or resin. The brass is more easily workable without snapping and it will also retain it's shape on a curved surface without the need for heat, clamps or chemicals etc.

It's really good stuff and has been a mainstay of super detailed modelling for a long time.

Scale the picture on the link that you provided to 80mm (3.2 inches) by 120mm (4.75 inches) and you'll get an idea of whether this stuff is fit for your needs and you can appreciate the tiny scale and level of detail/sharpness.

What Alex said.

Photo etch is a mainstay in scale modeling, especially when it comes to armor with things like screens, pull handles, hooks, and any other fine detail not easily molding in plastic. It's fairly common in aircraft modeling as well, especially in cockpits.

There are some idiosyncrasies with it make it different than working with plastic. For one, to remove it from the fret, place it on a hard surface (like a porcelain tile or a piece of thick acrylic sheet) and use a sharp hobby blade to cut it as close to the part as possible. It's pretty difficult to clean excess material off an itty bitty piece so you need to minimize the need for it. It's also very fragile and easily damaged, so it's best to add it to your model last and minimize handling it once you attach it. Since it has to be attaches with super glue, which is brittle in it's own right, it's pretty easy to knock a piece off a model while painting it.

Just to clarify one more bit.
It's not only used in adding relief, some small components such as bike chains, aerials, grills, windscreen wipers, wheel spokes etc are often made out of brass etch.

Here's a picture of a Welbike (not my work), a kit that I've had some experience with, note the spokes and chain!
Dragon make some very fine kits out of pure plastic but the brass really allows you to do things that you can't do in plastic.

See also in this tank picture (not my work) that you can see through the mesh into the engine. A pure plastic piece would be a solid plate.