Designed for the Trumpeter/Hobbycraft 1/32 F-105G is Aires’ new cockpit set, which is comprised of 33 gray resin, one clear resin and almost 100 photoetch parts. Casting is flawless, which is normal for Aires. The photoetch has nice relief.

I sanded the cockpit and sidewalls down and test fit them in the Trumpeter kit. The fit is good and not much thinning will be needed. You will need to sand the pour area off of the bottom of the cockpit. The test fit did show that the back of the cockpit interferes with the bomb bay in the kit. This was easily remedied by cutting the back bottom portion off of the kit at an angle and the fit tightened right up. The sidewalls required a slight trimming but fit tight and looked great.

The seats have a lot of pour material below the legs and scads between the legs. It would have been better designed to cut the bottom of the seat flat and have the legs separately. Getting the legs thin now risks breaking them off. I did finish one seat and added the belts and painted the entire seat. It looks fantastic but realize that there are 28 separate photoetch pieces to add to each seat. Patience is the key here.

Other parts of the cockpit include the instrument panels which are photoetch and film construction as well as a new instrument coaming and area between the pilot and RIO. A clear piece of resin is included here for the windows between the front and back cockpit.

Also included in the kit is photoetch to enhance both canopies, including detailed sidewalls to each canopy and mirrors.

So there you have it - lots of resin and photoetch to make your Wild Weasel’s cockpit shine. The set is superb and leaves nothing out. Fit appears to be good also. Recommended to those with some resin experience and to those looking to add aftermarket to their first kit. My thanks to David Lajer and Aires for the review sample and to IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review it.