The Stencel SEU-3/A ejection seat was used in the US Marine Corps’ AV-8A, later -S, as a cheaper and less capable replacement for the standard Martin-Baker MB.9 seat used by everyone else who operated first-generation Harriers.

This new product by Aires of the Czech Republic, will replace the IM seat from the Kinetic or Monogram AV-8A kits, or for anyone wishing to convert their Airfix Harrier GR.3 into an AV-8A (good luck with that). The product has 6 parts moulded in mid-grey resin, two in soft black resin, a small PE fret for belt buckles and other greeblies, plus a short length of very fine copper wire. The PE fret is tiny, but has 16 parts, some of which are barely over 1mm square! Be sure to get your maximum-strength optical visors out!

Detail on the parts is excellent and this is a light year ahead of the Kinetic kit parts and galaxies away from the comfy armchairs of earlier kits.

Basic assembly instructions are included, but the tech diagrams of the seat do not include any colour callouts at all. FYI, the seat frame should be black, while the seat, back and head rest cushions are all in light olive green. Belts are light grey, pull handles in yellow with black stripes. References online are surprisingly sparse, but there are a couple of colour photos that I found to be of use.

This is a nice product for anyone wishing to replace their AV-8A seat, but I recommend you have lots of experience with PE if you want to do a bang-up job on this. My thanks to Aires for the review sample.