Aires

1/48 GR-7 Harrier Cockpit Set For the Hasegawa kit

Stock Number: 4342

Reviewed By  Rod Lees, IPMS# 10821

MSRP: $23.49 Website: www.aires.cz Aires arguably has some of the best interior and resin sets around. They usually require serious modification to the kit parts, but in the end are almost "real" in detail. This set is one of their better efforts; no thinning of the plastic sidewalls in the cockpit section is required (although you will want to remove any details from the interior, and sand down the underside of the cockpit tub; The sidewalls will need to be reduced to paper thin-cross section). Unlike other kits, I did not end up having to resort to removing too much resin. The resin parts actually fit into the locator slot on the front bulkhead, and the back section fits nicely into the aft portion of the cockpit area. I have provided kit part photographs for comparison; Aires wins hands down in the "added detail" department.

The seat harness took me an evening to thread, paint, and install; the same for the instrument panel. I had to remove a bit of the etched Multi-function display where they fit next to the central control box, but other than that everything went together well. If you look at the kit ejection seat, the starboard (right) side of the seat frame has a handle sticking out of it. This is not on the Aires seat, but there is a handle on the PORT side of the Aires set that attaches to the aft cockpit bulkhead in approximately the same place. I cannot, by the references I have, determine what that handle is for, and whether it should be on the right or left. I decided to just go with the Aires part location for this build.

In the end the kit cockpit is acceptable (and requires a harness) but the Aires set addresses the AMS side of my brain with its superior detail, earning it a "Highly recommended" rating. Sincere thanks to David Lajer and Aires for providing the cockpit set and IPMS for allowing me to swim in the aftermarket pool once again…