F-4D Phantom II (early)Cockpit

1/48 scale for Hasegawa

Aires

Aires' 1/48 scale F-4D Phantom II cockpit set will be available online from Squadron.com

Beautifully moulded in pale grey resin Aires has captured in 1/48 scale all of the fine detail of the very busy F4D cockpit.

There are 17 resin parts that go together to complete the set that has been specifically designed for the 1/48 scale Hasegawa F4D Phantom.

Also included is a metal fret containing 43 etched metal parts and a photographic film with the instrument panel backing.

Assembly is very straight forward with no modification required of the kit plastic to allow the new cockpit to fit. Even a novice modeller could use this detail set.

On opening the kit all that I could think was wow! The detail is incredible even for 1/48 scale. Comparing the cockpit with reference photographs there appears to be little detail missing. All of the intricate switches, console panels and instrument panels have been faithfully reproduced and would look great highlighted with a wash to capture the detail. The massive circuit breaker panel in the rear cockpit has been captured in intricate detail. The instrument panels are etched metal and require the film reproduction to be carefully aligned and glued to the rear. Once fixed the back of the film can be painted white and for the attitude indicator medium grey to make the instrument dials come to life.

The kit parts are no comparison to those supplied by Aires.

The remaining parts are the ejection seats and these surpass any detail that has ever been supplied in an aftermarket kit that I have reviewed. Having worked on a few ejection seats all details are readily identifiable with even the backrest capturing the texture folds that appear over time. The etched metal fret contains all of the seat harness and upper ejection seat handles required to complete the detail for the seats.

Overall, this is a vast improvement on the now aged and simplified kit detail.

Highly Recommended.

Thanks to Aires for the review sample.