The A-37A/B (sometimes referred to as an OA-37A/B) was developed from Cessna’s T-37B trainer. With upgraded engines and eight hardpoints for ordinance, the original concept for the A-37A was ground support of troops. The A-37B had provisions for air-to-air refueling, and the ability to carry slightly more ordinance.

Aires has come up with an excellent replacement for Monogram’s kit cockpit. This kit has resin, printed film, and photo-etched (PE) parts The details in the Aires kit’s ejection seats alone make this kit worth it, but when you add in the instrument panel, Aires’ aftermarket kit really makes the Monogram kit come alive.

One nice feature of the Aires kit is that four control sticks are provided when only two are required. This nice touch gives you some spares in case one column is lost or broken.

Some things to watch out for in this kit is that the fit of the cockpit tub, especially on the bottom, can be a problem. To be honest, the fill plug for the cockpit tub is on the bottom of the tub. I found it to be difficult to fit the bottom of the tub to the kit. I would recommend thinning both the sidewalls and the bottom of the cockpit as much as possible, along with cutting the mounting for the speedbrake separate from the kit fuselage.

I left off all of the PE on top of the instrument dash to keep them from being smashed or lost during assembly. I found that painting the backside of the film parts to the instrument panels really makes the images pop and look like the real thing – otherwise, the instruments are too dark to see. What is unique is there are three separate instrument panels that make up the main instrument panel.

This is a great aftermarket kit that adds a lot of realism to Monogram’s kit, and I highly recommend it for anyone building the Monogram A-37 kit. My thanks go out to Aires for providing my sample kit.