Aires with this detail set has provided the modeler with the means to upgrade the 1/72 Su-27UB Trumpeter kit. This resin accessory kit comes with eight resin parts that will assembly into two exhaust nozzles and one small piece of photo-etch that has two afterburner rings, one for each nozzle. The resin is typical for Aires being fine grain and flash free. The photo-etch looks to be stainless steel; at least no bending is required in this case.

The instruction sheet shows you where to cut off the excess resin. I used a Zona saw and had the casting gates cut off in no time and used a fine sandpaper block to square off the ends. It probably would be a good idea to make your cuts so some excess material remains that way you can sand the remaining off closer to your cut off line. Putting the four resin parts together doesn't pose a problem, but you'll have to remember that when you slide the resin part that goes inside the outer exhaust nozzle to push it forward till it protrudes above the nozzle rim by about .020 inches.

While the Aires parts assembly easily and quickly, getting the two resin nozzles to fit inside of the Trumpeter Su-27UB does not go easily. The aft section of the resin burner can is just too big in diameter to fit into the rear of the plastic kit. The upper and lower fuselage halves will not close up around the resin nozzles. To make matters worst the resin part has thin walls so you can't take off any resin to make it fit. What I did and you'll have to do, is get out your Dremel tool or a large round file and remove plastic material from the ends where the nozzles fit. That means the plastic lip will have to go, but that was there to help position the kit's plastic nozzles and right now it's in the way. I used a round ball bit to remove most of the plastic and switched over to a round file to get the last bits of plastic out to allow the resin part to fit. Take your time and keep fitting the part till it fits. That may sound like a lot of time, but you'll find that it may only take about 10-15 minutes per nozzle. In addition, you'll have to remove a lot of resin on the bottom of the resin fan blade part to get the resin nozzle assembly to fit.

I can recommend this resin accessory because even with the work it takes to make it fit, the results are worth it. The Trumpeter nozzles have soft outer details and almost none on the interior: whereas, the Aires details inside and out are superior. So the Aires accessory is a good upgrade for your Trumpeter Su-27UB. I want to thank IPMS/USA and Aires for the chance to review this item.