Czech manufacturer Eduard has a great reputation for its aftermarket instrument panel and now it provides the modeler with the ultimate instrument panel: the ¼ scale Bf 110 instrument panel.

This kit was first available as a bonus for the Bf 110 Royal Class edition and now it is been released as a ‘stand-alone’ kit in a Limited Edition format. You get a whole instrument panel, a sprue full of bezels and levers, two sprues of clear parts, two fret of pre-painted PE and a set of vinyl instrument faces.

Plastic parts are molded in very accurate colors. Still I’ve decided to paint the instrument bezels in black and the back of the instrument panel in RLM 66.

Thanks to Jake of Reid Air Publications and to IPMS USA for giving me the opportunity to review this astonishing book.

I do not use the term astonishing lightly. I have quite a few built-up F-18A and later models in my collection, dating back to a highly modified and corrected Testors F-18 in 72-scale, ca. 1982. I swore at the Italeri kit, released and built about 9 or so years ago in 48-scale. I started research on an EA-18G recently. Every single question, concern, and nagging detail consideration on any Super Hornet kit I’ve wrestled with is answered by this book. A modeler in research mode will find answers less in the chapter text, but more in a very thoroughly documented or captioned series of photographs, often referencing back to page numbers in the text. Reproductions of some tech data are included, for example, weapons and stores loadout charts.

Thanks once again to Aires for providing IPMS/USA the opportunity to review yet one more of their excellent cockpit sets.

Included are 10 resin parts for the cockpit tub, seat, instrument panel, and a control stick; there are also a couple smaller resin parts to represent the whiskey compass on the forward canopy framing. A photoetch fret is included to provide realistic seat harness components, including buckles, etc.

Another outstanding addition to the Aires line of resin cockpit sets. This set for the Hasegawa 1:72^nd scale J-35 Draken is beautifully cast in a medium grey resin and features extremely minute details to include sidewall structure. Anyone who loves The Saab Draken will want to add this set to their model. .

The only problem I had and one to pay attention to is fitting of the glare shield under the front windscreen. I inadvertently removed too much plastic and this left gaps near where the windscreen fits to the fuselage. I recommend test fitting often and only remove a very small amount of the plastic at a time. It is way too easy to remove too much material.

The Story

I bought this book because it was recommended to me by David W. Menard, the noted aviation historian and photographer, after I asked him some questions about American liaison aircraft used in Europe during World War II. Dave suggested that I contact Terry Love, the author, and the result was that I now have a copy of the book. I’m glad I bought it, because it certainly fills a gap in my library, and fills me in on some of the “L” types that were used during the war, and the reason why they were developed at that time. Although the book was originally published in 2001, I was not aware of it until now.