The Product

My sample arrived in the standard blister pack commonly associated with Aires brand resin sets. Its contents were well protected and intact. This multi-media set is comprised of cast resin parts, a photo-etch fret and a small printed acetate film featuring the instrumentation dials and gun sight reflector glass. The small blue fold out instruction sheet is clearly printed and easy to understand. The resin parts have delicate details and look very nice. They include: a seat, seat back pad, oxygen bottles, radio set, armor plate, internal structures, complete sidewall replacement panels, flare gun, control stick, gun sight and forward instrument panel structure. The photo-etch fret is equally as nice and it includes; instrument panel face, complete seat harness, trim wheels, lots of levers, rear view mirror, rudder pedals with straps, charging handles and other nostalgic items.

The Installation

First lets examine a few things about the Zvezda kit and the Aires set. The Zvezda kit is no ordinary kit and it doesn’t follow the conventional rules of construction. In brief, the Zvezda designers incorporated a inner cockpit skeleton, it attaches to the wing before you enclose the fuselage halves around it. To further complicate this the fuselage halves have molded cockpit sidewall details. The inner structure contains; forward ammo boxes, the instrument panel and the floor. More importantly it also includes the engine bearer mount. Noting, it’s function is essential to properly completing the kit.

The Aires cockpit is fundamentally a drop in replacement, only requiring a little plastic surgery.

To begin I recently reviewed and decided to use a Quick Boost replacement seat. However you can see the Aires seat in the photos. Moving back on track I removed the cockpit sidewall detail from the kit parts and test fitted the resin replacements. The Aires resin sidewalls have lots of detail and plenty of brass photo-etch embellishments. When completed they look great. The larger pieces that make up the bulk of the cockpit fit together relatively well.

Now the Aires set does not include the engine bearer mount and it must be salvaged from the kit. So I decided that it would be easier to build up the Zvezda engine mount/cockpit skeleton, then just divide the sections where the Aires left off. The preassembled engine mount section was easily attached to the resin cockpit. I also added the necessary kit supplied structural ribbing to the aft section.

Bottom Line

I Give this one 9 outta 10 on the Greg-O-Meter it’s a must have but you gotta do proper test fitting as you go. I would like to thank Aires and IPMS for the opportunity to present this fine offering to my IPMS brothers and sisters.