As a modeler afflicted with AMS, the one aftermarket detail that I have the greatest weakness for is a resin cockpit. This is especially true for jet cockpits, where I find it difficult to duplicate the detail. So when Aires made this cockpit available for review, I was excited, having a Kinetic F-16D on the shelf. In general, I find Aires cockpits to be very detailed, pretty accurate, and durable during fitting. However, the sets have a reputation for being ill-fitting. My experience to date has been positive, with the sets I have reviewed fitting as advertised or requiring just a little work. This set snapped that trend.

This Aires release is a replacement cockpit for the Kinetic F-16D Block 40. As with most Aires products, this is a multi-media set with resin and PE details. The set is made up of 15 parts (with the PE fret counted as one). The parts are cast in the typically durable gray resin used by Aires, which provides crisp detail and a reduced vulnerability to breakage. The tub is cast as a single part. The PE is double-relief etched.

While the Kinetic cockpit is detailed in comparison to similar jet cockpits, this Aires set provides a far more detailed cockpit that the kit’s. The Kinetic cockpit is too shallow and the seats are a bit shorter to accommodate the dimensional change and not be noticeable. No doubt, Kinetic did these to ease construction. Aires provides the full-depth of cockpit and seats (more about this later). The set also includes new sidewalls, coamings, and instrument panels in single castings, which are much more detailed as well. The instrument panel receives additional detail with PE. The ACES II ejection seats are cast in a single piece of resin with PE details harnesses added.

For this review, I wanted to build and fit it into the fuselage of the Kinetic kit. Aires provides nice diagrams for building up the set but no instructions on how to fit it into the kit. In most cases, the fit is intuitive, but in this set no so; from the start, I was unsure where the tub should sit in relationship to the kit opening. I commenced the build by removing the rather substantial pour block at the bottom of the cockpit tub. It was evident through dry fit that it had to go if the two fuselage halves were going to close. The durability of the resin made removal with a handsaw tough going, but I was afraid of removing too much material if I used a power tool. The cut marks in the picture show the difficulty I had. With the pour block removed, there are holes opened under each ejection seat. While they are hidden by the seat, I chose to cover them with very thin sheet styrene to keep washes from leaking through later. I added the control sticks on the right side.

Next, I worked to fit the cockpit tub. Since I wanted to use the Aires coamings, I had to remove the kit coamings from the upper fuselage. Given the tub alignment concerns that I had, I pre-marked the location of the kit coamings for future reference and was later glad that I did. Further dry fit revealed that the cockpit opening in the kit upper fuselage was too narrow for the Aires tub with the control sticks in place, so I filed the kit plastic back to the molded raised line, which I assume represents the canopy gasket. I also attached the kit spine to the upper fuselage to check the fit of the rear ejection seat rails, filling the seam before proceeding. After much dry-fitting and research of F-16D cockpits, and after checking against the reference marks I made for the coamings, I determined that the resin behind the aft ejection seat rails was supposed to fit under the kit plastic and not in front of it. That turned out to be the easy part. A quick dry-fit of the tub in place with both the upper and lower fuselage halves revealed a ¼ in. gap all around that I had to close somehow. My motivation melted away and this became a several month review rather than several weeks.

My next step was to figure out how to close the gap. I proceeded to add the sidewalls to the tub, to get a better idea of the tolerances involved and the challenges ahead. I removed the side walls from their pour blocks and added the arm rests (the locating information for these was weak in the instructions and I relied on photos). After painting the tub and sidewalls Dark Gull Gray and adding a black wash, I painted the console panels and knobs. With this done, I glued the side walls in place, but first had to trim the bottom of the arm rests. The fit was okay. The sidewalls have reinforcement strips molded at the joints which added to the width of the tub assembly and worsened the dry fit. Next, I removed the kit sidewall detail from the upper fuselage with a #10 X-acto blade. The cockpit tub was still too wide and continued to cause the upper fuselage to flare out. So I filed the tub and removed the side wall reinforcement strips, using superglue on the outside to reinforce these joints. Now I had a clear view of how the tub impinged on the kit upper fuselage, and kept filing. As you can see by the dust and shaving in the photos, it was a lot of work. After much trial and error I was able to fit the tub assembly into the upper fuselage half. I installed it with superglue.

That still left a 1/8 inch gap between the two fuselage halves. Again, more grinding and filing. This time I worked on the lower fuselage half and the underside of the cockpit tub. I was concerned about filing through the resin floor. As you can see I used a battery powered grinder and a heavy file. After much dry-fitting and identifying continued high spots, I was able to close the fuselage top to bottom and side to side (with no flaring). The last work I did was to trim the coamings to get them to fit the intended openings. Again, Aires instructions did not provide any assistance. I didn’t get as tight of a fit as I would have liked. With that work done, I declared victory and decided to forgo the rest of the build-up in order to submit the review.

It is not clear which kit this set was designed for, but it clearly was not designed with the Kinetic kit in mind. I have an old Black Box brand F-16D tub, designed for the Hasegawa kit (similar shape to the Kinetic), and it is more rounded for such a tight space. My guess is that Aires was more concerned with achieving the proper scale dimensions rather than the fit. I really wish that Aires would provide some fitting instructions like other manufacturers, but they are not alone in not doing so. Regardless, be prepared for a long slog to get this cockpit into place. I have to say that during this multi-month process of rough handling, I did not have any breakage of the Aires resin, especially the vulnerable ejection seat rails. While a problematic fit, it is a very detailed set for a highly visible part of the aircraft, the last picture showing a comparison between the kit and Aires parts, and for that reason I recommend it.

I would definitely like to thank Aries for supplying the cockpit tub and IPMS/USA for allowing me the opportunity to review it.