Black Box

1/48 AV-8B Harrier cockpit set

Product # 48018 for Monogram kit

Product Article by Steve Bamford

 

 

 

Master modeler Michael Kirchoff has once again produced a stunning cockpit detail set.  This most recent set contains 19 cast resin pieces for the old Monogram Harrier. Below you'll see the major components of the detail set in close-up detail photos...the detail on this set is very crisp and flawless.  The seat is a special thing, because to the best of my knowledge no one makes an aftermarket seat for this model.  So up till now you were stuck with the kit seat and it's molded into the cockpit.  Needless to say it's a very nice seat...typical Black Box perfection.  The only flaw I found on my sample set was a slight warp on the thin shade cover above the instrument panel.  I quickly fixed this slight flaw in under 2 minutes with a pair of tweezers and a bit of steam from my kettle (before and after pictures are below in this review).  This little flaw was no big deal at all, but I thought it was best to fix it and show that it's no big deal to deal with.  I could have done a slightly better job with a few more minutes of time, but I was a bit rushed for time.  This set includes some very tiny thin parts for the sides of the HUD display and these are very nicely done.  The cockpit tub is way out of the league when compared to the kit cockpit tub.  The Black Box tub has detail galore all over the place.  A big improvement over the bland kit tub.  Yup, all in all a very nice set.

This was added after my original review.

There seems to be some fit problems with the seat being too wide for the cockpit tub. After following this for the past day or so on the ARC dissucssion board, I decided to  haul out my Black Box AV-8B cockpit set and see what was going on. To ensure I was accurate I hauled out my micrometer.  Here's what I found.....sorry measurements are in mm but it will still make sense (roughly 24mm to the inch in case you're curious) 

The rear bottom of the seat is 9.9mm wide
The front bottom of the seat is 9.6mm wide
The rear top of the seat is 9.7mm wide
The front top of seat is 9.7mm wide

When I say "front top" or "rear top" I'm referring to the part of the seat that will touch the inner sidewalls of the cockpit tub (I hope that makes sense). So I'm not actually talking about the top of the seat.....just the upper most part of the seat that could give width problems in the fit. 

Now the cockpit tub measures at 9.8mm at the rear and 9.5 mm at the front part by the front of the seat.  So the seat is too wide for the cockpit tub.

But I also noticed the sidewalls right next to the seat were wider at the bottom than the top. This seems to be a case of "too soft" resin being handled before it was fully hardened and I doubt this flaw was part of the masters that Michael Kirchoff made up for Black Box. Do you know what I going to say next? ;-)

I hauled out my trusty electric kettle and made a cup of tea.....then I used a pair of tweezers to hold the tub for 3 to 5 seconds over the steam at the boiling kettle opening. CAREFUL OF STEAM BURNS. I then widened the opening for the seat in the cockpit tub a tiny bit. The resin becomes very easy to adjust after 3 to 5 seconds of a steam.

My seat now rattles in the cockpit tub opening. You can always sand a bit of resin from the outside of the cockpit tub if it's too wide to fit in the model. Also invest in a micrometer....they are critical for this hobby when you get into problems.

Steve Bamford

(click on pictures below to bring up full screen pictures)

 

Photos and text © by Steve Bamford