An upgrade set gathers several separate aftermarket items into one package built around a single kit. Instead of buying etch, masks and resin wheels one at a time, you get a matched selection intended for one specific boxing, whose exact designation appears in the set title. The backbone of this section consists of established ranges built around photo-etched parts, resin castings, pre-painted instrument panels and stitched fabric belts.
Below we explain how the ranges differ in approach, and how to make sure the package matches the box on your bench.
Push a kit as far as it will go and you normally end up with a small pile of individual purchases: etch for the interior, masks for the canopy, resin wheels. An upgrade set replaces that pile with one package. The manufacturer selects parts that work together and fit one particular set of mouldings, then supplies them as one item instead of several separate purchases to be matched up. There is also less risk of a set designed for a different boxing ending up unused in a drawer.
Each range has its own centre of gravity. Packages built around etch and masks address cockpit detail and the airframe surface. Resin-led packages concentrate on castings: engines, weapons, wheels and exhausts. Sets whose core is a pre-painted instrument panel are the quickest route to a convincing cockpit. Others stand out for stitched textile harnesses that drape the way real webbing does.
The decisive fact is always the kit named in the set title. A package designed for one firm's Spitfire will not transfer to another firm's Spitfire, because the differences between the mouldings are too large. Check the manufacturer and the edition of your box before ordering.
The widest choice of sets is for 1:48 aircraft kits, where detail work is comfortable, and for the ubiquitous 1:72 aircraft kits, where sets rescue cramped cockpits. Packages for 1:32 and 1:24 appear as well, and they make the most visual difference of all.
Not sure which kind of upgrade would help your build most? Start from the overview of aircraft model accessories.
