One of the weak spots in a kit’s accuracy and detail is often the cockpit, mainly due to that area’s complexity on the real plane and the difficulty involved in recreating it in small scale.  Over the last decade or so, we modelers have become spoiled by having resin cockpits, with phenomenal detail, to replace the kit parts.  Trumpeter’s F-100D cockpit isn’t too bad, but it could use some help.  First out of the gate was Avionix with their resin cockpit.  While it looks nice, it has some issues, most obviously, the parachute is molded into the seat.  Most of the time, the pilot’s parachute was not left in the jet.  For those of us who can be somewhat picky (to put it mildly) about these little details, Harold Offield, of the appropriately-names AMS Resin, has come to our rescue.  He has released two seats, one with seat belts, and one without, that are direct replacements for the Avionix seat.  These seats can also be dropped directly into the kit cockpit, with a minimum of modification.

 Both seats are beautifully cast, without any air bubbles or sink marks.  Since the kit cockpit isn’t too bad to begin with, adding just this seat will go a long way toward dressing up Trumpeter’s big Super Sabre. 

 Highly recommended! 

 Thanks to Harold Offield for the samples.

Ben Brown

September 2007