A huge “thanks!” to our friends at Aires; they continue to provide IPMS USA with plenty of review opportunities for upgrades to our favorite aircraft…!

This is a simple conversion to the Hasegawa kit parts. Included are augmenter burner cans, turbine faces with integral mounting pegs to fit the Hasegawa kit, flameholders in photoetch, and the nozzles themselves. Instructions are clear and clean on the standard blue folded sheet, showing exactly what is needed to install the parts. The nozzles, a major feature of the F-22, are intended to be shown in this case in the “open” position.

This allows one to look directly down the exhaust and view the excellent detail provided by this set.

As you can see in the composite kit provided parts photo the kit turbines are not detailed other than having the flameholders; no turbine detail is provided. The kit augmenter cans are two-sided items requiring the usual filling of a seam as would be expected in the case.

Not so with Aires, who provide turbines and depth that seriously upgrades the kit when viewed from behind.

You will need to remove the standoff posts at the extreme aft portion of the fuselage exhaust openings on the bottom and top; test fit and you will see what is required. In my case it took five minutes with a Dremel ® drum sander. Although the Hasegawa kit exhaust deflectors are provided with photoetch upgrade facings, the Aires detail (a subtle patchwork) provides a more refined look.

The Aires photoetch side plates slide in and do not require major surgery to install. The resin “Z” fairings just in front of the nozzles on the external portion of the upgrade close up the resultant gap; take your time and they will fit well.

(In my case, as you can see in the photo, I will be doing more work here!)

Final vote: All in all, this upgrade is well worth acquiring; 10 of 10 Aires and a thank you to Aires and IPMS/USA for my sample for reviewing.