Aires

1:48 - ACES II "late" Ejection Seat For the F-16

Stock Number: 4441

Reviewed By  Andy Renshaw, IPMS# 35806

MSRP: $7.49 Website: www.aires.cz The ACES II or "Advanced Concept Ejection Seat" is a third-generation seat for modern aircraft and is currently installed on most current US Airforce aircraft including the A-10, F-16, B-1, F-15, and F-22. It has zero-zero capability and is considered a "smart" seat from its ability to judge the correct mode depending on the ejection parameters such as airspeed and altitude as well as compensate for misalignments in center-of-gravity of the seat which allows for safer ejections. Aires needs no introduction, as they have been known for over a decade for fine resin details and upgrade sets for scale models in all scales. This example of the ACES II is no exception and is very finely cast in medium grey resin with extremely fine details. You also get a small photo-etch fret for belts and other items such as the pitot tube supports. Also included is a single page of instructions to assemble the seat.

Preparation of the resin was easy enough, just remove the casting block. Working with the photo-etch however required some skill and patience as the parts are very small and numerous. Each belt has to be formed and attached in assemblies to complete the harness. While tedious, the end result is very realistic and looks far better than a solid resin cast seat. Once everything was assembled I painted the entire seat in a very dark grey, which also acted as a primer. Then I used Vallejo paint to do the overall colors and detail painting. Note that the colors of these seats vary quite a bit depending on what they are installed in. Mainly the differences are in the colors of the headrest and cushions. Finding more references as I went, I still have some more detail painting and a few minor adjustments to make, however the overall seat looks very good and is far better than anything supplied in the stock kits. I test fitted this into both a Tamiya and Hasegawa F-16 cockpit, and it looks like a drop in replacement for the kit seats with no additional work required. The cockpits in the Tamiya kits are excellent in their own right, but this seat will add a final touch of detail. All that is needed is a RBF tag and it will be ready to go. Highly recommended, this inexpensive detail will add a lot to a stock kit 'pit and is going to quickly make its way into one of my own F-16 models. Thanks to Aires for the sample!