Aires

1/48 EE Lightning Undercarriage Bays Set and Cockpit Set For the Airfix kit

Stock Number: 4319 & 4320

Reviewed By  Paul Bradley, IPMS# 35554

MSRP: $21.95 per set The Airfix 1/48 Lightning kits are now about 10 years old and as with most Airfix kits, they need a little help, detail-wise. Aires have released a selection of resin detail sets that will greatly enhance the kit. I received the cockpit and undercarriage bay sets; there is also an exhaust set available. Each set is neatly packaged in a plastic bubble pack and secured in place with a foam insert. Instructions are printed on a small sheet. The resin parts are very cleanly molded in medium grey and exhibit an astonishing amount of very fine detail. The cockpit set included a small etched metal set that includes the main instrument panel and a set of seat belts for the resin seat, plus a small transparency for the instrument panel detail. There are a couple of points that will need addressing from a quick overview of the parts. Installing the highly detailed main undercarriage bays will require the removal of the molded bays, and significant thinning of the resin parts. The nosewheel bay/radar housing part reduces the volume of space available for adding weight to the nose to prevent tail-sitting. And despite the great detail of the cockpit parts, there is no detail to add to the inside of the canopy that you will now assuredly wish to leave open. I will report back with a detailed review of the parts, and the kit, in a future article. Unfortunately, events have caught up with these lovely sets - Airfix has, temporarily, disappeared and the base kits have become rather difficult to find. There will of course be a large market for those kits kept in stashes and attics around the world, and I hope that the Lightning kits, some of Airfix's best, will re-appear on store shelves in the near future once Hornby have re-organized. In the meantime, dust down the Lightning in your loft and invest in these excellent enhancements! My thanks to Aires for the review samples. Aires products can be seen at their website: www.aires.cz and are available from most major online retailers.

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