It has to be said that the cockpit provided by Airfix in their Sea Fury is pretty decent - certainly as good or better than most mainstream kits in this scale. But there's always room for improvement and master modeller Roy Sutherland has designed a complete replacement "office", which completely eclipses the styrene original and takes things to an entirely new level of detail.

The set arrives in a neat zip-lock bag, accompanied by an A-4 sheet of full-colour instructions.

The casting is essentially perfect on the sample set and the detail is quite superb. In total there are 27 beige resin parts - although one of these is an optional seat to allow you to go with an integral harness or add your own. Backing up the resin parts is a small decal sheet providing instrument faces for the main panel and side consoles.

Many of the parts are small and delicate, so be careful removing them from their casting blocks. I would also only remove the items as you need them - or else keep them separate and clearly numbered. It's essential to read Roy's well-written and detailed instructions to make sure you prepare the new parts correctly and make the small modifications needed to the Airfix kit accurately. Each step is illustrated by good quality colour photos and diagrams, and a larger version of the instructions can be viewed and downloaded on the Barracuda Studios website.

At first glance, you might look at the photo of the decal sheet and assume that the best option is to use a punch and die to separate the instrument faces and just throw away the rest because it's simply carrier film to keep the dials in the right place. Look closer though, and you'll see there's a mass of tiny white lines and data-text for both the main panel and the side consoles which will really help bring the basically black Sea Fury cockpit to life.

Roy advises slicing the decals into segments, so you probably could still punch out the dials and apply them separately - keeping the rest as overlays, using plenty of decal solution to snuggle everything down over the crisply cast raised details.

Basically, everything you need for a super-detailed new cockpit is provided - the only exceptions being two small straps to add from tape or foil between the seat and the rear bulkhead if you opt for the moulded-on seat harness.

Set #BR48347 Hawker Sea Fury Complete Cockpit Set is available now direct from Barracuda Studios - Price: $17.95

Conclusion

Roy Sutherland's work is always ranks among the very best available, and his new Sea Fury cockpit underlines why he has such a well deserved reputation. It's almost eye-wateringly well detailed - and the price is very reasonable in my opinion for a set of this quality.

It's probably not really suitable for anyone brand new to working with resin, but anyone with a bit of experience with fine detail sets should have few problems. Thoroughly recommended.

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