I typically start my reviews with a brief history of the item that I am reviewing, but in this instance, the item represented is a pilot for either an F-16 or an F/A-18. What I will tell you is that the latest 1/48 scale figure offering by PJ Production from Belgium is a nicely designed figure wearing an HGU-55 helmet along with a standard flight suit, G-suit, and Nomex gloves. The figure comes with a single left arm and two different right arms, as the controls are different for the Falcon and Hornet (the Falcon has its control stick located on the right console where the Hornet is centered in front of the pilot).

There are a mere five parts for this particular figure, consisting of the legs, torso, and head, and the aforementioned three arms. I appreciated the way that the molding was set up as you can see that I was able to leave the figure attached to the mold base during my painting and assembly process. I found the resin easy to work with as I cut the parts using my trusty sprue nipper, and then sanded the remaining stubs off. There was no issue with the fit of any of the parts for the figure, so no filler of any type was needed to fill gaps between pieces, which can sometimes happen with resin. I used Gorilla brand super glue to assemble my figure, and this held the parts in place with no issues whatsoever.

To paint my figure, I used Andrea Field Grey for the flight suit, Vallejo US Army Tank Crew for the G-suit, and the flesh was painted with colors from the Vallejo flesh set. The helmet was painted with Model Master Acryl Dark Ghost Gray and Gunship Gray, while the oxygen mask is Acryl Aircraft Gray, the oxygen hose is Acryl Aircraft Interior Black, and the visor is Acryl Gloss Black. With a little extra magnification (I will admit to being an aging modeler), I could make out the faint molded lines for the dark sides on the helmet, which were a help in painting, and also identify the helmet type as an HGU-55. The gloves were painted Model Master Acryl Dark Ghost Gray on the underside and Andrea Field Grey on the topside and thumb (on the real gloves the underside has an almost leather-like appearance that runs under the four fingers and back to the opening on the glove).

My hits for this release would start with the fact that you can fill either the cockpit of an F-16 or an F/A-18 with the same figure. I thought that the level of detail was very good for this scale, and that the moldings were crisp for the most part, especially with the side areas being delicately represented on the helmet, and the straps and fittings all look very convincing.

I do not have any misses to mention on this particular item, as the assembly went well and, even though there was some clean-up needed, it was minimal and did not take much time at all to perform. My one piece of feedback would be that it would have been nice to have some color recommendations for painting, but this is not a big issue, and a person purchasing this item will likely have reference materials on hand to aid him as I did.

In conclusion, I would highly recommend this figure to anyone wanting to add a nice pilot to the cockpit of his latest Falcon or Hornet. With some minor clean-up, this item quickly builds up into a very nice figure representing the current outfitting of a typical pilot (there are new and improved items, especially in the form of helmets on their way, of course).

I would like to thank the folks at PJ Production for providing this kit to the IPMS/USA for review, to Steve Collins, who runs the review corps, for selecting me to do the build, and to you for taking the time to read my comments.