Aires in their AEROBONUS line has started offering resin aircrew figures. This is a great initiative, because there have not been a lot of quality aircrew and ground figures for those of us who want to add one to a plane or scene; a figure can give a model context and a better sense of scale. This product lines includes pilot which are seated (molded to the ejection seat), standing and in the case of this review, climbing into the cockpit. What is nice about a climbing pilot is that you get the sense of animation as well as scale without the pilot obscuring all of the work you may have put into the cockpit.

This particular figure represents an early Cold War pilot suitable for first generation jets including the Yak-15, Yak-17, Mig-9, Mig-15, Mig-17 and Il-28. It is crisply molded in four parts in grey resin with no imperfections. The detail is very sharp especially for a figure of this scale. Assembly was very straight forward with little cleanup required. My only issue is that I feel the neck is a bit short and the head buries in the collar. The improve painting I added a slice a sprue to the base of the neck to give a little clearance. Once I assembled and cleaned up, I primed the figure with Tamiya fine primer from a spray can.

Not having any good period color photos of early cold war Soviet pilots, I relied on the paint guide provided in the instructions. I used Testors enamels throughout and used the following colors:

• Skin – Testors Flat light Tan (¼ oz bottle)
• Pants - Model Master RAF PRU Blue
• Jacket – Model Master SAC Bomber Tan
• Shoes, helmet and color – Model Master Flat Black
• Parachute – Model Master Flat Interior Tan
• Harness – Model Master Wood
• Zipper – Testors Gold (1/4 oz bottle)
• Parachute pull handle – Metalizer non-buffing Aluminum

The more I painted the, more I appreciated the detail put into this figure, which had a natural pose and the equipment a natural ride on the body. I found the sharp details easy to paint, especially the raised profile of the harness. Even the zipper was easy to pick out on the jacket. I used a black wash on the body and a brown wash on the skin and then went back and drybrushed the raised detail. The sharp features of the face took the wash nicely and gave the figure a nice look without the need for extensive painting (not my strength). I sealed the figure with dull cote.

I am not a figure modeler, but have done a few, and this is by far the was most enjoyable experience I have had working on a figure. I posed the pilot climbing into the AMK L-29 to demonstrate how well the pose works. I plan to buy more figures from the Aerobonus line for my collection of Cold War aircraft. Highly recommended.