Search the Community

B-57G Night Hawk Cockpit Set for Italeri Kit 1:72 Pavla The B-57G Night Hawks were B-57Bs modified as night intruders with FLIR, LLTV, and laser designator in the nose, capable of using laser-guided bombs; 16 converted for The Vietnam war. Italeri have brought us a decent model of the B-57G but it is lacking in the cockpit area. The kit supplied seats are good only for the first test version and the kit cockpit does not re-produce the Night Hawk. To remedy this Pavla have now brought us a complete new cockpit set. This includes the main tub, correct ejection seats, correct front & rear instrument panels,control yoke; and canopy ram. The parts are well cast though one of the rear ejection rails was missing from the review sample. It had not broken off in the box as its not in there at all. Conclusion This set from Pavla will enhance your B-57G model. Highly recommended. Review samples courtesy of

B-57 Seats. 1:72 Pavla Pavla have brought us two sets of seats for the B-57 in 1:72 scale. The first is the Mechanics Inc Seat. The second is the ESCAPAC seat. The "production" B.57G had the ESCAPAC rocket seat, as did the RB/WB.57F in both cases though the prototype aircraft had the Mechanics Inc. seats, as did the B.57A, RB.57A, EB.57A. B/RB.57B, B/RB.57C RB/EB.57D B/RB/EB.57E. Around 1972(ish) the USAF introduced a Mod for all B.57's to get the new rocket seat. But in effect this only applied to the EB.57E's (Thanks to John from the Canberra SIG for this info) Mechanics Inc Seat ESCAPAC Seat Conclusion Kit seats in 1.72 will never match resin seats for detail. These seats from Pavla will enhance your kit. Highly recommended. Review samples courtesy of

Mirage 2000C Cockpit, Intakes & Control Surfaces sets for Heller Kit 1:72 Pavla Hellers Mirage 2000C Kit has been around for a while now, as with other kits the cockpit and seats are limited by injection moulding in this scale. This resin cockpit is designed to replace the original kit item in its entirety. Due to the front wheel bay being on the bottom of the cockpit Pavla have moulded this from the with minimal clan up required. The set is comprised of a cockpit tub, complete with sidewalls and consoles, a replacement ejection seat, instrument panel, and control levers. All of the resin parts are nicely cast and crisply detailed, and there are no bubbles or casting flaws in evidence. The control and instrument details are nicely rendered, and the straps on the ejection seats are very realistically done. A Vac form canopy is provided; which is available as a part in its own right. Cockpit Set Canopy Also offered by Pavla for the kit are a set of intakes which include FOD guards. These are well moulded and come with the separate fence which is attached to the side of the intake. Intakes Another item for the Mirage 2000C is a set of control surfaces. Flaps and flap actuators are provided here. Control Surfaces Conclusion The Heller kit is a great kit, however it will benefit from these sets. Whether you just want a nice cockpit, covered intakes; or different control surfaces. You could go the whole hog with all of them! Either way these details from Pavla will enhance your kit. Highly recommended. Review samples courtesy of

My latest: Heller’s old 1/48 Mirage 2000C. This has had a fair bit of other stuff thrown at it. You can read about it in my separate hints and tips here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234968266-heller-mirage-2000c-with-pavla-upgrades-hints-tips/ - but, to sum up, I’ve added a Pavla cockpit, Pavla control surfaces, Pavla wheels, a Master pitot probe, and an Eduard tank very kindly supplied by horrido109. The camouflage is the specific Mirage blue-greys from Xtracolor, brushed on as always, and the usual variety of this and that for the rest. I’ve drawn in the panel lines but done no weathering. So far as I can tell, apart from the centreline tank these things stay pretty clean - or at least they did back in 1991. Not like the two-seat attack variants. Markings are from the kit: EC 2/5 Ile de France, at Orange. The decals were twenty years old and most went on flawlessly with only a little help from Microsol and Klear. Apart from a slight register problem, I was very impressed. But can anyone spot where they went wrong?

I've just posted my Mirage 2000 here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234968265-dassault-mirage-2000c/ in Ready for Inspection. Here are some tips for building it, and the Pavla parts I added, in the hope that someone might find them useful. Cockpit Pavla make a cockpit for the Heller kit, but that’s not what I had; I had the one for the Kinetic kit as a review sample. This is very similar but, of course, designed for a slightly different piece of plastic. Still, it’s a better idea than the NeOmega cockpit, which is designed for the old Italeri kit (not the newer Kinetic rebox). Large differences in the way it fits to the nosegear well would have caused a lot of trouble making it fit. (I’m selling it if anyone’s interested!) The cockpit for Kinetic can be made to fit Heller with a lot of sanding of both plastic and resin. This probably applies if you’re putting in a Kinetic kit, of course, but differently. I think I took out too little plastic, which has made my cockpit narrow. I had to mount the side-walls a bit far in: they’re meant to sit on ledges next to the side consoles, while mine are just about on top of them. On one side the ledge was a little too small anyway, so you might want to watch for this. I ended up having to shave off the bottoms of the side-walls to give them room to sit above the buttons and switches. Though it doesn’t really show. Even allowing for this, the fit’s not brilliant behind the seat; but that can be concealed under the rear bow of the canopy. The coaming is much nicer than NeOmega’s (this set is almost worth having for that alone) but, again, it’s a tight squeeze. No matter which set you have, be prepared to shave off corners and to have to remove more kit plastic than you realised. Painting instructions are a bit haphazard. As always, check your references (and bear in mind that not all seats found in a Mirage 2000 use the same colours). Canopy This was the single trickiest stage of the whole build. The Pavla cockpit set includes a vac-formed acetate canopy. This has its attractions: thinner, reasonably clear, separate canopy and windscreen. The detail is a bit soft but it’s on a par with the kit’s. Neither Heller’s nor Pavla’s parts fitted. In part this must be down to my not having trimmed the cockpit tub enough. The effect on the cockpit parts themselves was to pinch in the sides (as above) but the effect on the fuselage parts was to spread them slightly. In the end I pressed on with Pavla. Because neither Pavla nor Heller supplied an actuator, I wanted to leave the canopy shut while allowing the cockpit to be seen, and Pavla’s problems were more manageable. In particular, I knew it would need some flexing and poking to make it fit, which acetate could take better than polystyrene. My diagnosis notwithstanding, I don’t think all the bother was down to me. This is because both canopy and windscreen were wider than the fuselage at the bottom front corners, and narrower at the bottom rear. That can’t have been caused by a wide fuselage. The windscreen also sat too high at the front. This could have been addressed by trimming the front end, but that would have removed the frame and its bolt details; trimming the other end would have removed the rear frame. The only remedy I could find was to plonk it on, then fair in the front end by building up two thin plies of plastic sheet and slopping on Mr Dissolved Putty. If you’re forced to do this, take care over the mounting for the FR probe. If you can leave some plastic showing through the filler, it will be a lot easier to attach. The canopy tended to a different curve from the windscreen - it seemed twisted to the right and so was too high on that side and too low on the other. The soft detail also made it hard to know where there was excess acetate, and on reflection I probably trimmed away a little less canopy than I should have. It might have fitted better but for that. Well, anyway, I muddled through and bodged most of the resulting dips and gaps. The filler here was Clearfix because, as well as all that, the rear frame of the canopy wouldn’t reach the fuselage spine at the bottom corners - not only too narrow but too short. There’s some swarf inside the canopy. I suspect this is not so much unavoidable as obligatory. There’s also some glue. I’d have preferred to use PVA but I knew it wouldn’t stand up to the manipulation. And, despite a coat of Klear inside and out, there was enough CA to create some fogging. The lesson is to use more Klear - I couldn’t have avoided using that much glue. On balance I’d have preferred a one-piece vac-formed canopy with the option of separating the pieces. Who knows how it might have fitted, but at least there wouldn’t have been a mismatch between canopy and windscreen. Control surfaces Pavla’s elevons are nice to have because they show the hinge covers better than the kit parts and have finer external hinges on the underside. Those hinges are how the elevons attach to the wing. But there’s a problem. To fit the elevons you remove the kit parts by sawing along the hinge line. To avoid steps from the remains of the engraved line, you need to remove all of it. This effectively puts the mounting line for the new parts too far forward. On the real thing, when the elevons droop there’s not much space between their top surfaces and the fixed structure. Pavla’s seem to have dropped slightly. They sit low, leaving a large space behind the wing. It’s not a gap - you can’t see daylight through it - but it’s not the correct snug fit either. I suppose I might have attached the hinges in the wrong place. But I followed Pavla’s incised marks on the elevons. And, with the geometry, it doesn’t seem possible to fix it by mounting the hinges further back. That would tend to raise the elevons, but it wouldn’t leave enough room for their leading edge, which is already in contact with the wing. My solution was to attach a length of 1.5mm L-section strip along the wing trailing edge. This give a false impression of how the edge looks, but it covers that space reasonably well. I suspect it also puts back a little bit of chord lost because of Heller’s slightly coarse hinge line. Where it’s not all that easy to fiddle is the wing root, where the Kármánn fairing starts. You can create the curve by building it up with thin plastic, or by leaving the end of the L-section free and bending it before you glue it in separately. I ended up doing both, on opposite sides - still not sure why. One small mystery is that Pavla’s hinges are all slightly inboard of the kit ones. At the outboard end, Pavla also gives you replacement wingtips with slightly better rendered RWR receivers. I discovered only on attaching them that these are mounted nose-up, which isn’t right. I can’t think of a correction. Another feature is that the rear of these bits has a little recess to take the nose of that section of elevon. This is nice to have, but no earthly use when the rest of the elevon hinge has to be sawn away and there’s no replacement structure. I defy anyone to create a hinge line that looks right and still allows room for the elevons. If you’re doing what I did with covering the elevon hinge line, bear in mind that the wingtips are slightly longer in chord than the ends of the wings after you’ve cut away the kit elevons. I should have extended that L-shaped strip into a narrower bit on the wingtip. The antenna fairing is partly on the wingtip and partly on the elevon, so you’ll want to ensure they line up. Judicious sanding of the inner end of the elevon or the wing root fairing should take care of it. Also, the nose of the elevon portion needs chamfering, or it will foul the tail of the wingtip portion. Finally, this set includes replacement rear ends for the Kármánn fairings (the bits inboard of the elevons that lie alongside the rear fuselage). I’m not sure why. Neither kit part nor replacement is a brilliant fit and there’s not much to choose in the sharpness of their edges. This Pavla set doesn’t include the fairings with the Spirale dispensers. The kit does - well, sort of, they’re pretty coarse. The only way to get better ones is to buy Pavla’s control surfaces set for the later Kinetic Mirages - eg the 2000D. Two more small tips. The outboard pylons are wrongly shaped at the rear end and will foul the elevons; and the rear end of the rail, where the Magics attach, fouls their rear fins. A little filing is needed (or the Pavla pylon set). On one of my elevons there was also a slight bend. My attempt to flex it back snapped it, but that wasn’t a problem as it was along the panel line and the two halves can be made to marry up again. If I hadn’t also snapped a hinge, I might have done the same on the other side. Intakes These are a shocking fit. Your goal is to ensure that the leading edge of the splitter plate is flush with the intake lip. As designed, the kit will probably make it protrude slightly. There’s a choice of ways to address this. None is “right” in the sense of minimising trouble; your best bet is to dry-fit, see out where the gaps are, and decide which of them you least fancy trying to fix. Personally I fitted the intakes after the wing, contrary to the instructions. This seemed to make the gaps easier to deal with. But, as I should have expected, it all changed between dry-fit and final fit, and there’s packing everywhere. Having said that, I still don’t think attaching them to the fuselage first would have been significantly better. The intake strakes are far too fat. But they fit into plain holes, directly to the outer surface of the intakes, so you can thin them to your heart’s content. A common feature of Heller kits is that the locating pins are smaller than the corresponding holes*, so a bit of filling will be needed too. Be warned that your strakes may actually be fatter towards the ends, in defiance of all that we think we know about mould design. * if you think this is bad, you should see the pitot heads. Undercarriage The undercarriage legs are fairly sturdy and shouldn’t need replacing for strength. But there are problems. The retraction struts on the maingear fit poorly to the legs and have no location at all in the wells. You can brace them well enough but they’re just touching, with no obvious reason to be there. The same goes for the inner doors. The nosegear arrangement, as assembled, leaves the retraction strut floating free. It should attach at the top front corner of the well - still no proper detail there, but at least the location would be right. But it’s too short and barely reaches the lip of the well. If you try to get the leg raked slightly aft as it ought to be, the strut misses the well altogether. On reflection I think this is because the leg is slightly too long, or at least its location points in the well are too low. I realised this far, far too late. All the wells are very plain. You can hide a lot by leaving all the larger doors shut, as is the norm on the ground. But even then a little detail in the outer portions of the maingear wells is worth adding. NB: I don’t think the inner doors are curved to match the underside. My solution was to mount them ajar, which is also seen on the ground. The roof of the maingear well is mostly on the wing parts, but one slice doesn’t appear until you attach the wing to the fuselage - it’s under the wing root fairing. There will be gaps. The fuselage section is the right depth on the outer side, but it’s too shallow and too narrow on the inner side. Even with the doors fully shut, these gaps can be seen, so they’ll need fixing. The small doors to either side of the nosegear fit poorly. The curved hinges are quite nice, but they foul the nosegear leg. File and fit to taste. Overall, I’d say it wouldn’t be a bad idea to seek replacement undercarriage and wells. I love those resin wheels, though. My cavil about the brake actuators is trivial compared with the overall effect. VOR aerials These mount to either side of the fin. Like the intake strakes, they’re far too chunky. But unlike the intakes, Heller moulded little plinths on the fin to attach them to. These are the same thickness and they’d be very tricky to thin. I decided to leave it in the end. Exhaust I used the kit part. It’s a bit plain and it’s stuck in the fully-open position, but I was happy with the representation of the inner nozzle. I scribed some lines on each outer petal and used Mr Metal paints for a passable result. An obvious alternative is an Aires exhaust. Whatever you choose, the ring at the end of the fuselage is in one piece on the kit, but 64 tiny sections on the real thing. If you like, you can scribe them in: four for each exhaust petal. Counterweight No nose weight is mentioned in the instructions. As the build progressed it seemed none was needed - the extra weight of the elevons was balanced by the weight of the cockpit. As it’s turned out the model is just balanced, and I think that’s only because of the position of the centreline tank. If you were to add a resin exhaust as well, you’d definitely have a tail-sitter. So I’d recommend half an ounce or so. There’s plenty of room in the nose. The rest of the kit A familiar problem here: iffy fit, and panel lines not always meeting where they cross the joins. The part where you should pay the most attention is the fin root. If you can get this level, your job when attaching the fin will be much easier. The fin itself needs the right-hand half thinning, or it will sit proud. There’s also rough fit just behind the nosegear well, and the inserted ventral panel takes some fiddling too. I’m still trying to work out why there’s a separate panel there. The wing-to-fuselage junction is very uneven: at some points the wing is higher, at others it’s lower, that’s not symmetrical, and the gaps (just about all the way along) vary in width. If you can leave a trace of them, though, it’s a help, as there are real panel lines there. Note that they’re not smooth curves - they really do kink to and fro as the kit parts do. But at least the wing is in one piece, goes on evenly, and sets the correct anhedral. This is a major plus compared with the Kinetic kit. You can do a bit of surgery on that to fix it, but it’s nice not to have to. Overall This kit definitely falls into the category of some modelling skills needed. I don’t mind this approach where you get, say, basic shapes and you have to add detail. I find it less acceptable where it amounts to having to compensate for poor design. Being fatalistic about it - or, worse, having a go at people who object to it because they’re not “proper modellers” - does nothing to encourage kit manufacturers to improve their fit and finish. (This is an old kit, though, and Heller hasn’t done much of late, so that boat has probably sailed.) Unfortunately the upgrades are also some modelling skills needed. While I created my own problem by using a cockpit aimed at a different kit, a lot of the fit was ropey, the instructions were murky, and I don’t think quite enough thought went into how the resin was meant to attach to the plastic. Nor am I very impressed with acetate canopies. I’m quite glad I didn’t pay for this stuff. But the detail is, on the whole, improved for having it. And, having said all that, I’ve rather enjoyed myself. I’ve always thought the Mirage 2000 was a dainty little thing, and I’m quite pleased with the end result.

My gesture of self-sacrifice for the modelling community - finished just in time Sword and then RS Models released their state-of-the-art Sagittario kits. Well, at least I wasn't then spoilt for choice and yes, I still managed to use a few Pavla parts (however, modified)... Some in-progress pictures:

F-89D/J Scorpion Cockpit, Canopy and Seats for Revell Kit 1:72 Pavla Revells F-89 kit has been around now since the early 1990s and is a great kit. Like many kits the cockpit and seats are limited by injection moulding in this scale. This resin cockpit is designed to replace the original kit item in its entirety. The set is comprised of a cockpit tub, complete with sidewalls and consoles, replacement ejection seats, front & rear instrument panels, control column, rudder pedals and the coamings for the cockpit sides. All of the resin parts are nicely cast and crisply detailed, and there are no bubbles or casting flaws in evidence. The control and instrument details are nicely rendered, and the straps on the ejection seats are very realistically done. Different foot pans are provided for both the pilots and observers seats. Vac form clear parts are provided with a complete canopy, and the clear screen to cover the observer. If you don't fancy shelling out on the whole cockpit, you can always opt to buy the seats on there own. They are great items and if you intend to leave the cockpit canopy closed, it will probably be enough. If you just wish to buy the clear and thin vac canopy then Pavla also offer this as stand alone item. Conclusion The Revell kit is a great kit, but the cockpit can be a little lacking. Whether you just want a nice pair of detailed seats, or want to go the whole hog with the full cockpit set, these details from Pavla will enhance your kit. Highly recommended. Review samples courtesy of

F3D-2 / EF-10B Skyknight Cockpit, and Seats for Sword & Matchbox Kits 1:72 Pavla For many years the old Matchbox kit was the only game in town for a 1/72 Skyknight. This was not a bad kit but getting harder to get hold of. Now Sword has increased their 1.72 US range with a new tool Skyknight. The cockpit in the old Matchbox kit was virtually non existent and Sword one is limited by the injection plastic used. This resin cockpit is designed to replace the original kit item in its entirety. The set is comprised of a cockpit tub, instrument panel (for both versions though you will need to consult your refs) & combing, replacement seats, control column, rudder pedals and a couple of side panels for the cockpit sides. All of the resin parts are nicely cast and crisply detailed, and there are no bubbles or casting flaws in evidence. The rear of the cockpit gives the entrance to the escape chute (no ejection seats then!) The control and instrument details are nicely rendered, and the straps on the ejection seats are very realistic. Different sets are provided for the different kits. The same parts are on each they are just sized for the relevant kit. Sword Kit Matchbox Kit If you don't fancy shelling out on the whole cockpit, you can always opt to buy the seats on there own. They are great items and will look good on their own. Conclusion The Sword kit is a great improvement over the matchbox, but the cockpits are lacking on both. Whether you just want a nice pair of detailed seats, or want to go the whole hog with the full cockpit set, these details from Pavla will enhance your kit. Highly recommended. Review samples courtesy of

Designed to be towed behind a U-boat as an observation post but only used a few times as they were unpopular with all concerned. The rotors weren't powered but acted rather like a kite to keep the pilot airborne. In an emergency the rotors could be jettisoned and the pilot descend by parachute to (hopefully) be recovered before the U-boat submerged. Bought this when it first came out many years ago and it has been sitting in the stash ever since feeling dejected! It came in an A4 sized box and managed to occupy less than a quarter of it so I decided it was taking up too much space that could be better filled by something else (as usual......) When I opened it up I resisted thinking "It won't take long, there's not much too it!" as that has caught me out before with lots of fiddly etched brass parts. Still I was amazed when I'd got the bulk of it built that night and the remainder done the following night. Just had to add the small(er) details such as seat belts and then decals the next day. Pavla have moulded the rotors the wrong way up but it's simple enough to just turn the whole rotor assembly upside down before adding the etched brass parts. Looks far bigger here than it really is; Here with a tin of Humbrol paint just to give a bit of scale to it Thanks Steve

Resin Avro Lancaster Propellers 1:72 Pavla for the New Airfix Kit It's no surprise that with the new Airfix Lancaster in the shops, there would be aftermarket interest in improving what is already a great kit. More importantly, there's probable little complaining too, being such a popular subject. Pavla have recently released some replacement propellers to take care of both needle and paddle type units fitted to the Mk.I/III aircraft. Both sets come with complete hub units and separate prop blades that locate into the hub recesses. Moulded in light grey resin, they are fine replacements should you choose this route. A razor saw will be necessary to remove the hubs from the backing block U72-147 The paddle blade props have a noticeably wider chord than the parts supplied in the kit. Comparing photographs of the real thing, they appear to be more accurate in this respect. The thickness of the blades is slightly thinner than the kit parts too giving a more scale accurate look. There are a few air bubbles present in some of the blades as you may be able to see from the pictures, however they are very small and easily dealt with. U72-146 The needle blade props look very similar in chord profile to the kit parts, but again benefit from being thinner in thickness. A benefit of using these is the lack of sprue connections to carefully cut / file off and slight flash found on the kit parts. Conclusion For a subtle improvement, these sets will be handy. A blade setting tool would of been a useful addition to assist in getting the blades positioned correctly. The paddle set offers greater value in terms of giving a more accurate chord on the blades. Review samples courtesy of

Resin F-101B Voodoo Cockpit Pavla 1:72 for Revell Kit Revell rereleased their kit of the Voodoo last year. This strange yet likeable aircraft was a two seat derivative of the Voodoo designed around the fighter intercept role. Key features of this aircraft were the two seat cockpit and extended afterburner sections which 'hung' out of the rear of the aircraft. This set offers a significant improvement to the kit cockpit. Moulded in light grey resin, the tub has noticeable improvements to the side consoles including throttles and more detailed switch panels. Both front and rear forward panels have very detailed instrument faces and the ejection seats are works of art including harnesses, seat cushions and complex framework / ejector rails. I'd recommend some dry fitting of the tub into the fuselage halves as traditionally, some filing of the resin tub may be necessary to get everything to close up correctly, but everything else should be quite straight forwards due to the minimal parts count. Conclusion If you're a fan of the Voodoo, adding this to your build will offer a big improvement over the kit parts. The detail is quite stunning. Review samples courtesy of

Short Sunderland Mk.I Resin Upgrades for Italeri Kit 1:72 Pavla Italeris Sunderland was hotly anticipated prior to its release last year, but the way in which Italeri chose to render the surface details surprised many and drew some criticism from the modelling fraternity. Nevertheless, the kit is nicely detailed, builds up into a pleasing replica and, best of all, is now available from many retailers for a reduced price. Now that Pavla have released a host of resin goodies for the kit, there has never been a better time to buy one. Short Sunderland Mk.I Cockpit (for Italeri kit) First up is this comprehensive cockpit set. The basis of the set is a large piece which forms the cockpit floor. To this part, the rear bulkhead and the dividing wall between the flight deck and the navigators and flight engineers compartments. Flight deck detail includes a new instrument panel, dual rudder pedals and control columns, seats for the pilot and co-pilot, the hydraulic reservoir for the nose turret, and the autopilot controller wheels. Moving behind the flight deck wall are the compartments for the navigator and radio operator. The chart table is included, as are the radio sets and a pair of chairs for the crew members. The parts are all richly detailed, right down to a full set of tiny throttle levers for the instrument panel. The set is rounded off by a set of stairs down to the lower deck. The lower deck from the kit has not been replaced, which makes sense as it is quite a nicely detailed part anyway. The set is rounded off by a vacuum formed canopy. It looks a little opaque to me, but a quick polish and a dip in Klear should improve it. Overall this is a very impressive set. The resin is smooth and free from blemishes, and the level of cast detail is excellent. The whole package comes supplied in a sturdy cardboard box too, which means it should arrive in perfect condition a small thing, but worth its weight in gold. Sunderland Mk.I Engine Cowlings (for Italeri kit) This set contains four complete engine cowlings, designed to be direct replacements for the kit versions. The resin parts are thinner and more finely detailed than their plastic equivalents, making them an option worth considering. Best of all, the exhaust pipes and air intakes have hollow ends, adding a sense of realism to the model. Once again the quality of casting is very good, and the smooth, glossy resin shows the detail off to good effect. Sunderland Mk.I Propellers (for Italeri kit) This package is comprised of a complete set of replacement resin propellers. Once again, the casting is very good and the parts are more finely detailed than the kit versions. The blades look to be a slightly different shape compared to the kit parts too, but I should caveat that comment as I havent had the chance to measure them properly yet. My only concern comes from the fact that the replacement prop blades have to be fixed to the hub via a simple but joint, which might not be very strong. Wire reinforcement might be a worthwhile, if time consuming, solution. Sunderland Mk.I Propeller Spinners (for Italeri kit) In case you dont feel like using the kit versions, this last set contains four replacement propeller spinners. As before, the parts look good, although there is a small bubble in one of my hubs which will have to be filled. Conclusion The resin cockpit is an excellent starting point for a super-detailing project involving the new Sunderland from Italeri. If you want to go to town, the other sets are worth considering too, particularly as they are quite reasonably priced. Review samples courtesy of

Eurofighter Typhoon Resin Cockpit for Hasegawa Kit 1:72 Pavla Those wishing to build a model of the Eurofighter Typhoon are very well catered for these days. The type has been kitted in all of the major scales and there are usually a couple of options to choose from. In 1:72 scale I can think of at least five different kits of the twin-engined multirole fighter - from Airfix, Hobbyboss, Italeri, Revell and now Hasegawa. Until recently, the very good Revell kit was at the top of the tree. Hasegawas brand new kit has given it a run for its money, however, and edges the Revell kit in terms of engineering and finesse of detail, if not price. Pavla already produce resin cockpit sets for some of the other available Typhoon kits Now they have released a resin cockpit for the new Hasegawa kit. Included are all the usual bits and pieces that you would expect to find in a set like this. There is a cockpit tub, a Martin Baker Mk.16A ejection seat, an instrument panel, rudder pedals, centre console and control column, as well as the rear decking. The quality of the casting is excellent and detail on features such as the instrument panel is clean and sharp. The ejector seat is nicely detailed, with harnesses in place, and it compare well to pictures on Martin Bakers website. Overall this is a great little set and it can be firmly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Source: http://aeroscale.kitmaker.net/modules.php?...le&sid=9649 V.P