AMS Resin, Advanced Modelers Syndrome, specializes in resin sets for aircraft from the 50’s to 70’s in 1/32, 1/35 and 1/48 scale. Their products are available through Sprue Brothers.

Their offering of this 1/32 F-86 cockpit is intended for the F-86F-40 kit produced by Hasegawa, but there are cockpit color descriptions for many variants. Included information is provided on a small CD. I stress the small CD because it may not work in all CD drives. It contains 20 excellent color photographs of operational cockpits as well as instructions for installation, with painting and historical information.

My sample arrived with a broken throttle handle and HUD supports, both of which were easily repaired using original kit parts and sheet plastic. The pouring sprues are well placed and easily removed with a small saw or hobby knife. The casting is crisp and clean with few, if any, air bubbles. The only bubble I found was one easily filled on the stick grip. The surface detail is very well defined. The undercuts, especially on the seat, are very good and really make the detail stand out. The fit throughout is excellent. However, my complacency was shaken when I tried to install the cockpit tub between the fuselage halves. I had to do a fair amount of grinding with my motor tool on the tub sides and interior sidewalls of the fuselage to make it fit. The only other kit preparation requires some plastic surgery by removing plastic from the front and rear of the cockpit opening to be replaced by resin parts. An option to the rear deck removal is to sand the resin part very thin and glue it on top. I chose to remove it and fit the resin part.

As with all resin, it is recommended to wash the parts to remove any molding agents. I then primed by airbrushing Alclad II Gray Primer. The project was then hand-brush completed with Vallejo Acrylic paints and their washes to tone some of the colors down and expose the detail. Each instrument face then received a dab of Micro Kristal Klear.

This kit really goes a long way toward making the front office special. I found myself becoming so involved in this resin that I almost forgot about the rest of the model. It became a kit unto itself. I certainly recommend this to anyone building Hasegawa’s F-86.

I want to thank the folks at AMS Resin for making their outstanding cockpit available for review, and IPMS/USA for allowing me to review it. Also, my appreciation to Harold Offield’s skills in making the masters.