Aires

1/72 J35 Draken Cockpit Set For the Hasegawa or Revell Draken

Stock Number: 7202

Reviewed By  Mike Hinderliter, IPMS# 45124

MSRP: $17.45 Website: www.aires.cz Aires now offers the Draken cockpit set for the new Revell or Hasegawa kit. I had ordered a Revell kit (#4381), but the kit was the old (1960s) kit, and I found out once I got it, that the cockpit tub wouldn’t fit. You really need to make sure which Revell kit you order. Another thing to note is that it fit nicely in an old Heller kit that I had. The next thing I did was order the Hasegawa kit. The Aires cockpit fits into the Hasegawa fuselage pretty well, but I did need to do some sanding on the sides of the resin cockpit to allow both halves of the fuselage fit together snug. I also had to add a little Tenax glue to the model’s forward fuselage to get a tight seal at the front of the cockpit area, because regular model glue didn’t seem to want to hold.

The main thing to say about this set is WOW! This set even has the rear view mirrors for the canopy. In 1/72, this is almost microscopic. Everything inside the tub went together pretty easily, and the resin is flawless. Another thing to note is that this is the first resin and photo-etch cockpit set that I have ever used and I was able to get it together well, thanks to the clearly-detailed instructions. After everything was done, it really did add to the model. I still can’t get over those mirrors on the canopy. I’m very happy with the results and I have to rest my eyes.

I highly recommend this set if you really want to add this level of detail to your kit, especially since the price is equivalent to the price of a full kit in this scale. I also learned some new modeling skills that were needed to complete this set. I had a great feeling of accomplishment when I saw how great the kit looked when it was finished. Many thanks to Aires for providing the review kit, and IPMS/USA for giving me a chance to learn new modeling skills.