JAS-39 Gripen – exhaust nozzle opened
Scale: 1/48
Catalog number: 4603

The 1:48 scale Kitty Hawk's JAS-39 Gripen was a warmly welcomed kit. After a very long time it broke the monopoly of an Italeri's kit. With the great improvement and rise of standards of producing plastic kit the Italeri kit was simply outdated nowadays. Just a bit more than three months before I write these review Kitty Hawk have released their Gripen.

The new Gripen kit was reviewed on Aeroscale by Rowan Baylis. You can read his article by following this link. Technology of its production has some limitations. The tools and metal moulds don't allow to produce as precise and delicate three-dimensional details as it would be possible with soft silicone casting molds or metal photo-etched parts. Aires comes to the rescue for modelers interested in improving and detailing engine exhaust nozzles in their Gripens, providing four improvement sets made of resin with an addition of a photo-etched part.

Czech producer provides four different sets of exhaust nozzles designed for improving the Kitty Hawk kits. The sets comes as follows:

• Set 4603 – JAS-39A - opened
  
• Set 4604 – JAS-39C – closed
  
• Set 4608- JAS-39C – opened
  
• Set 4609 – JAS-39A – closed

For the purpose of the review we take a look on the first of the sets listed above – an opened nozzle dedicated to the A version of Gripen.

In total each set contains four resin parts and one photo-etched. Generally the sets differs between each other with combination of just two details: a PE part which represents the jet turbine appropriate for A or C version and the nozzle in fully open or closed positions, depending on the engine thrust. Level of details represented in this replacement is very good. Details which are only symbolic on the plastic parts in this set looks almost like in the real plane. You can easily feel the dimensional structure of the nozzle, including nozzle's internal structure. The parts are absolutely seem-less so there's no need to worry about gluing halves and filling joints.

Castings are in a typical quality of Aires products. I don't see any flaw, air bubbles or deformations of parts shapes.

I think this is one of the necessary improvements if you wish to build a good looking Gripen. As the kit is really nice in general , it would be a pity to leave it with one of its weakest points visible. Of course there is still an option of covering the nozzle with a tarpaulin or something similar but I think it's always better to show some good looking details on a model instead of hiding its weaknesses.

Please remember, when contacting retailers or manufacturers, to mention that you saw their products highlighted here - on AEROSCALE.