1:72 MiG-21 R - LooK Set (for Eduard Kits)

A finished pilot's workplace with no painting of dials

The most laborious part of a cockpit tends to be the front panel. In this scale it is barely two centimeters wide and yet it is supposed to carry more than twenty legible instruments, each with its own dial face. Painting by hand manages this only roughly, and a decal laid on smooth plastic looks flat.

The set solves both at once. The panel is printed, so it has real depth at the edges of the dials, and the color and the lettering are applied at the factory. With it come seat harness straps in steel strip, which hold their shape after bending and do not spring back as ordinary photo-etch does.

For whom this is the right choice

This is the quickest route to a good-looking cockpit. It calls for no cutting into the fuselage and no trying of the fit, and the work is done in one evening. Anyone who builds several models a year and does not want to spend two weekends on the cockpit of each one will appreciate exactly this ratio.

Where the limits are

The side consoles and the walls of the tub stay as the mold made them. If you are building a model with the canopy slid back and want it to stand a close look, the panel on its own is not enough and it is better to reach for a whole resin tub. With a closed cockpit, on the other hand, the more expensive variant has nothing to show.

The straps are bent with tweezers over an edge, not between the fingers. The material stands one precise bend; repeated straightening will crack it.

The package holds two small parts, but finished ones. No paint work is needed on them, and the print keeps the lettering legible even in a format this small.