Aires Cockpit Fit Issues???

[LSP_Ron]

Ouch!  but looks like it's working out.

[LSP_K2]

2 hours ago, LSP_Ron said:

Ouch!  but looks like it's working out.

 

Indeed it does.

[LSP_Ray]

Like I said before: I wish they would offer the sidewalls separate. It would make fitting a lot easier.

[thierry laurent]

Bill, 

 

Did you sand the kit fuselage sides as well? 

 

Thierry 

[cbk57]

Looks to me like you finally did it.  Maybe I am wrong but i feel this is just what you might have to deal with in adding resin parts and that you may have to make them fit.  Congratulations on getting it in there.  It looks great after all of the hard work.

 

I sometimes ask myself, do I feel like going through the pain and suffering to do X?  In modeling if it looks like too much work maybe it is, however i don't always feel that way, it just depends.  If you want result X bad enough then the work is worth it.  

 

My first aires experience was putting their F-15E pit into a Monogram 1/48 Strike Eagle.  It was much like you show above, it took hours of sanding, scraping and generally forcing it all together.  I got there in  the end and it looked good but those big complex jet castings seem to be an absolute beast with aires.  I assume if there was a better way someone would be offering it and doing it differently and we would eagerly buy that product.  There is a lot of AM competition out there.

[AlanG]

Hmm this thread has made me wonder about my purchase of the Aries wheel bay for my Hasegawa Fw190A. Has anyone fitted it here and if so did you encounter any problems?

[Rick Griewski]

I think I remember that it fit because I have another one on my to buy list. But I will go verify that I know what I am talking about.

 

Rick

Edited December 3, 2018 by Rick Griewski
IPad key board is goofy; cannot type,on,it ,too fast

[cbk57]

I know Aries is hard to work with but in all fairness if they are doing their job, they are trying to make a more accurate part than the kit part.  So if their pit is more dimensionally accurate as a rule we have to stick a aftermarket piece that is scaled down from 1/32 of real life to fit into a space that externally is scaled down to 1/32 but internally because of the thickness of the side plastic is not to scale.  Aircraft sidewalls are normally probably in the range of less than 1mm thick but on a plastic model they scale to probably between two and three inches thick.  So something has to give.  This all assumes that the models proportions are accurate because if they are shaped slightly wrong and even if the real thing is an inch more in one spot and an inch less in another in a three dimensional space those inches a millimeters add up to a diagnosis nightmare.  

 

I see many modelers laying up their parts against two dimensional drawings to check fuselage accuracy, the cockpit is a magnitude more complicated.  I just don’t see Aires as fundamentally flawed in any way, just that if you want to use their produce, it will require in many cases a lot of work.  However, if the end result will look better and more real it may well be worth that effort.  

 

My belief based upon appearance of Aires parts is that they are trying to replicate the layout of the real thing, I don’t know what compromises they build in. But I suspect that they are more focused on the wow factor of the parts and the thinnest margin of fit to get something with more scale detail into the space that can be allocated to the part.  That will mean the space has to be optimized to fit the Aires part(lots of sanding on both the Aires part and the kit part).

[Bill Cross]

On 11/30/2018 at 7:16 PM, LSP_Ron said:

Ouch!  but looks like it's working out.

Slowly. I can't work on it too much as it depresses me.

[Bill Cross]

1 hour ago, cbk57 said:

My belief based upon appearance of Aires parts is that they are trying to replicate the layout of the real thing, I don’t know what compromises they build in. But I suspect that they are more focused on the wow factor of the parts and the thinnest margin of fit to get something with more scale detail into the space that can be allocated to the part.  That will mean the space has to be optimized to fit the Aires part(lots of sanding on both the Aires part and the kit part).

I appreciate accuracy, but at the end of the day, the 'pit needs to fit. I'm not sure it really does. Certainly I regret buying the electronics bay, and if I had it to do over, would have the closed up.

 

The value of this thread will be for those who are contemplating an Aires AM purchase to make sure they are up for the slog. It's a little like planning on hiking across Antarctica: you might think you're up to it, but you'd better be sure. If I could rewind the tape, I might not have gone for the Whole Monty on this build.

[Dave Williams]

To be honest, I’d be surprised if Aires actually goes out and measures in detail a real cockpit or wheel well for every single one of their sets.  Aside from the time and effort involved, I can’t see them getting access to everything, especially some of the modern stuff.  In any case, I’d rather have a set that fits and is proportional to the size of the kit, taking into account the realities that plastic kit parts have a certain thickness.  If that means that some walls or tubs are 1/33 or 1/34 scale to fit, that’s fine as long as it looks proportionally accurate to the 1/32 parts, or very close.  Just my 2 cents.

[Rick Griewski]

On December 2, 2018 at 10:12 AM, AlanG said:

Hmm this thread has made me wonder about my purchase of the Aries wheel bay for my Hasegawa Fw190A. Has anyone fitted it here and if so did you encounter any problems?

 

I just successfully installed the Fw-190A main wheel bay.  I needed to sand/thin the topside roof of the part to match/live within the shape of the chord of the wing.  There is plenty of material left on the part.  15-20 minute job.  I am pleased with the fit.

 

Rick

[Bill Cross]

On 12/4/2018 at 10:44 AM, Jennings Heilig said:

These are not small scale real airplanes, they are artistic representations of the real thing (albeit, hopefully, with good scale fidelity).... You can have a very accurate and convincing "layout" of the parts that looks like the real thing while at the same time making enough of an adjustment to make them fit into the kit they're supposed to fit into.  Lots of other resin manufacturers are able to do it, and their stuff is just as accurate as Aires' stuff.  

Eminently sensible in my opinion. I'm looking to purchase something that will make the building experience enjoyable. I will be very careful before buying any Aires wheel wells, cockpits, and other add-ons that could have fit issues.

[Frosty1984]

Thing with Aires is that at first glance it looks like prety much a drop-in upgrade... But it never is.  Some resarch needs to be done before every purchase.

In 1/48 scale fitting the cockpits in particular is a long process that requires sanding both the kit parts and resin itself to a paper thickness. Been there myself with Hasegawa's Phantom, Crusader etc. In 1/32 i'd say the problem is exact opposite: large resin parts suffer from shrink issues: Myself I had trouble with F8F cockpit floor and rear bulkhead, F-4J Phantom cockpit is also a bit short...  But those problems can be worked around. However there are also some items that are simply un-usable - like F/A-18 exhausts with too small diameter - issue that can't really be fixed

[BiggTim]

I've been working on the Aries pit for my Ju87G-2 build, and I can echo much of what's been said here about fit issues. I'm still very pleased with their level of detail and accuracy for the most part, but the large pieces in this set seem to have shrunk or warped and do not align with each other anymore. Overall, good, but not great.