When I opened the sturdy shipping box containing the Super Bug Models resin cockpit set for my Special Hobby 1/32 scale X-15, I was immediately impressed by the quality of the casting, the weight of the parts and the many additional small bits and pieces that are included over and above what you get as a cockpit in the Special Hobby kit. I inspected the parts and found no marks, pinholes or air bubble marks of any kind. The fine details of the casting are superb with special care and detail spent on electrical cabling, various conduits and sidewall details that make this a complete kit in itself.
Included are the main cockpit tub moulded with rear bulkhead, floor, side switch panel consoles and ejection rail, a finely creafted ejection seat complete with excellent renditions of the X-15's seat belts and harness arrangement as well as foot wells, elbow rests and other small details. There's also two very well rendered cockpit side walls with cabling detail, a very nice instrument panel with forward combing and centre console. Rudder pedals, ejection seat fold-out stabilization wings, various actuating handles, a small rear canopy bulkhead, and the main controls stick and side console controllers round out the rest of the small detail parts.
On closer inspection, there are finely rendered rivet or snap fastener details on the forward combing, stabilization wings and in the appropriate spots on the sidewalls. The effect here is spot on and really look like the real thing and will add much to the finished details. The instrument panel looks every bit to be the part, but it's hard to comment on the accuracy because the real panels changed from fligh to flight and could look different depending on which test profile was being flown.
The only things missing are any details which appear on the inside the canopy such as electrical cabling, film camera and the pilot's deceleration rest for his forehead. These items will have to be scratchbuilt but without too much difficulty I expect.
Thanks for looking in. Respectfully and Happy Modelling; Bob Read
SUMMARY
Highs: Very finely rendered and seemingly accurate details greatly improve on the supplied cockpit in the Special Hobby kit. This is a very well rendered resin kit and will build into a fine replica of the real thing. The only place where I'm going to have to maLows: I have to say, the only thing that drags this experience down for me so far was the painfully inept order fulfillment process of Super Bug Models. I ordered this kit online directly from Super Bug Models on December 13th and it just arrived on my doorstepVerdict: The casting is first rate, the accuracy of the details seems to be right on and I'm looking forward to building this into a well detailed cockpit of my favourite X Plane. As far as the experience from ordering directly from Superbug Models was concerned,
Hi - an adendum to my review above
The fields to fill in the form online are very brief and I couldn't get everything in that I wanted to say. In a nutshell, the set is very nice with first rate detail and nicely moulded without any air bubbles or blemishes to speak of. The only problems I had were with the Superbug Models order fulfilment process which was, frankly, abysmal. Now that Great Models Webstore is distributing their product, that might be a problem of the past. I feel that if it weren't for Great Models, I wouldn't ever have received the set. It took almost 3 months to get delivery. Once I had contacted Great Models, it was delivered in literally a matter of days.
Nice set but poor customer service on Superbug's part. Many thanks to Great Models Webstore.
Bob
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