Eduard has put together another nice PE kit. This kit comes with two PE sheets with a total of 77 parts.

The first sheet has parts 1 to 36 for the cockpit control panels, foot pedals and seat belts. Each part has been pre-painted and has self-adhesive glue on the back. The etchings look sharp and the colors are correct for the scale.

The second sheet has parts 37 to 77 that include the armor plating and side wall details, along with some of the small control handles and interior details. Altogether, the two sheets replace most of the interior of the cockpit with PE.

Got to say, I wish I had this kit when I made my 109 a few months ago, it would have been a very nice upgrade. So I guess I have to build another one to take advantage of these items.

Highly recommend it to all detail lovers! This kit will bring a smile to your face when see the details on your finished masterpiece.

On the underside of the F-4 Phantom and the British variants are two doors astride the centerline which open outward. These two small doors always open when the landing gear extended to provide extra cooling air to flow to the engines. The underside of the wing in all of the Hasegawa kits has these doors molded open, revealing the hollow void of the fuselage. Now in fairness, when the model is displayed on its landing gear, especially with stores, the emptiness is not that noticeable. But if you are a modeler who does not like open voids, Aires has a solution. This particular set is designed for the Spey powered British Phantoms, but Aires offers them for the USN and USAF variants as well; I am unsure of the differences if any.

We’ve come a long way in aircraft modeling when you can find a company dedicated to making after market pitot tubes for specific subjects in different scales. Way back when, a straight pin instead of a kit piece was “advanced modeling.” My review is for both the 1/72 and 1/32 versions of this product. Master has provided us with an exquisite, turned-metal replica of the BAe Hawk pitot tube. It perfectly captures the two stage taper and bulged end of the real thing. Though you can easily see this in 1/32 scale, it is also the same for the 1/72 scale copy.

Master made it easy for us modelers to mount the replacement pitot tube since there is a peg protruding from the back of the pitot that fits into a hole on the model. Just add some CA glue, insert the part, and you’re all set. The package includes a small sheet showing the size drill needed for the hole and the location for the new part.

Pavla has come out with a cockpit and operators station set for the Hasegawa 1/72 S-3A Viking. The big difference between the Hasegawa cockpit and the Pavla one is that Pavla’s also includes the operators’ stations behind the pilots.

This offering is really a quality set of resin pieces – smooth, seamless, and bubble-free. The detail is also very nice and doesn’t need any extra work to bring out the detail; just a little bit of dry-brushing and it just pops out. As with most of the Pavla aftermarket parts, there is some cutting involved. There is a nice sheet included that shows where all the cutting is to be done. They also include the area from the entrance hatch to the cockpit, and that involves the removal of a pretty stout piece of plastic.

The fine folks at Aires and Quickboost continue to add to their line of aircraft detail parts. For this review I will be looking at their set of gun barrels for the Hasegawa 1/48 WWII Japanese Navy N1K1 Shiden fighter.

The Shiden (George) was a late war fighter, considered by many to be one of the best the Japanese used during the war. Hasegawa has several different boxings of this kit on the market today, and this detail set will work with them all.

As shown in the photos, this offering contains a small resin set of four cannon and one pitot tube. The detail on these parts is very good, and clearly a step above what is supplied in the kit. This set allows you to simply paint these parts and glue them in place – far easier than working with the kit parts, and much cheaper than the brass or metal alternatives on the market today.