Aires has released a complete replacement cockpit for Hasegawa's excellent 1/32 scale Junkers Ju 87 D/G family of kits.

27 parts are provided in Aires' familiar grey resin, with another 12 in cream and a single part in clear resin.

Detail is excellent, especially the long sidewalls with their structural detail, boxes, switches and wiring already cast in place. Casting quality is also first class, with no imperfections obvious on my sample.

The clear resin instrument panel is a bit of an innovation from Aires. Acetate instruments are still included to deliver the dial detail. I will probably take the following steps to prepare this panel for use:

• dip the entire panel in Future and alow to dry

• punch relevant sized circles from Tamiya tape using my Waldron Punch and Die set

• mask each of the instrument dials using the punched tape disks

• spray the instrument panel RLM 66

• pick out the detail with a fine brush

• remove the dial masks

• install the acetate instruments on the back, being careful to line the dials with the clear circles.

Of course, if you have a keen eye and a steady hand you could paint the panel by brush instead!

A photo-etched fret adds even more fine detail to the cockpit including harness straps, ammunition belts and ring gunsights for the twin machine guns.

Although this is a fairly straightforward detail set, some experience will be helpful in preparing the parts.

The "Zwiling" machine guns are provided, but they are also available separately as set number 2081.

Aires' 1/32 scale Junkers Ju 87 D/G cockpit represents a fabulously detailed improvement to Hasegawa's large scale late Stukas for experienced modellers.

Thanks to Aires for the review samples

Text and Images Copyright © 2008 by Brett Green
Page Created 24 October, 2008
Last updated 24 October, 2008

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