Background

Meng’s 1/72nd F-102A Delta Dagger is the best kit of this iconic Century series fighter produced in this scale, as reviewed here and here. Pavla have a reputation of producing updated and better parts for aircraft in need of some love and attention , does Meng’s “Deuce” need this set, well read on...

In the pack

Packed in the standard card and plastic blister pack the F-102 cockpit set is comprised of 11 resin parts.
The cockpit tub is completely replaced by the resin offering, which is more refined than the plastic equivalent and also has separate resin rudder pedals, replacing the kits moulded on pedals. A very small resin lever is added to the left hand side console.
The bang seat, which can be bought alone (S 72080 £2.25) is also replaced and is far superior to the kits seat, as the resin two piece affair has a ejection guide rail to be added and moulded on harness’s.
The instrument panel supplied with the kit is pretty good, and comes with a decal for the dials, but the resin replacement is just a little more crisp. This is one of the parts where if you were to use the decal for the dials it would be a little pointless using the resin part!
Other parts that are replaced is the 2 part canopy mechanism, which is a lot more detailed and does benefit the kit as long as you have the canopy open.
The HUD is also replaced with a resin insert. The kits HUD is moulded as part of the fuselage halves and will need to be removed for the inclusion of this more polished part.
The kits control column is still used.
The instructions are on two pages and are easy to follow with internal paint colours given for every piece.

Conclusion

So does Meng’s F-102 need this set, well the answer is really how much do you want to update it lol. The kit really does need the seat, and a couple of other parts are more detailed, such as the canopy mechanism and the HUD. Personally I will use a combination of the kit and resin parts. I will use most of the resin parts apart from probably the main instrument panel, as painting such a tiny area with dials is pretty much beyond my eyesight.

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