The Academy Spitfire Mk.XIVc is a really nice kit but it is let down by the cockpit. Aires rectifies that with this new set. Molded in light grey and tan resin that is blemish and bubble free the amount of detail is impressive. The casting is flawless and some of the undercuts are really deep. I don’t know how they can do it. Besides the 12 pieces of resin there is a film for the instruments and a fret of photo etch. The breakdown is logical and well thought out.

The hardest part of the whole conversion will be the need to thin down the side kit sidewalls. Everything else is just as simple as removing the parts from the pour stubs and assembling them. The resin parts are precisely made and look fantastic. If you have this kit you’ll want this interior.

Simple yet effective, this interior will add immensely to the Academy kit.

Highly recommended

Pavla models has added an ejection seat to their 1/72 aircraft accessory line. This one is for the F-5, T-38. Pavla Models doesn’t specify a kit for this seat, but it will have to be a kit that has a cockpit in it. I picked the Italeri F-5A freedom fighter, kit # 1231.

This offering is a quality piece of resin; smooth, seamless and bubble free. The detail is also very nice and doesn’t need any extra work to bring out the detail. All that I needed to do to make it fit the kits cockpit was to just remove the molding block and paint it. A drop of super glue and it was installed.

When it is compared to the kit’s seat, you can see how superior it is. The kit seat is molded in two parts and there is a seam that runs right down the middle of the seat back. The seatbelts for the kit ejection seat is a decal. The Pavla ejection seat is one piece and the seat belts are molded onto the seat, making them pop out. I was really pleased with the end result.

If you are old enough, you may remember a great science fiction movie in 1952 called “When Worlds Collide”. The story line was that astronomers have discovered a sun and a planet on a collision course with the planet Earth.

After a great deal of discussion it is decided to build an “Ark”, a large rocket, capable of evacuating the best minds of science, engineering, animal husbandry, farming and other “best and brightest” citizens of the planet Earth to a new planet, and there to start a new race in peace and harmony. As would be expected, chaos erupts at the last hour, caused by the unfortunate people who are to be left behind. The Ark is launched just in time to avoid the collision and proceeds to the new Earth, finding it a paradise.