For those modelers who love ultimate detail and are charmed by aviation technology and everything it takes to fly an airplane, Esci has taken the initiative to produce large 1/12 scale cockpits of wellknown aircraft. The first kit to be released was the F-16 cockpit, followed by the F-104. The F-16 is reviewed here for the simple reason that the F-104 cockpit was not yet available when this book was set up. Opening the box is a breathtaking experience. First of all it takes a while to get used to the size of the model. The large bathtub and big parts of the seat and instrument panel is beyond the experience of most modelers. The detail is at first sight overwhelming. You cannot help but being amazed by the molding detail on the panels, switches, seat and so on. However, if you know your bits and pieces of the F-16 and start checking out the detail, you will find various mistakes. But they are not of such a nature that it is close to impossible to correct them. The biggest problem is the headrest of the seat. Even without correcting these faulty details the kit is very impressive when finished. The model depicts an F-16A block 10 cockpit, but for those who want to make a block 15 cockpit, it is a piece of cake. You just have to change the location of some panels and instruments and make two new ones. Our book 'Lock-on n° 2 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon' will prove to be a great help both in completing the kit as is or converting it into a block 15. And if you want to go for the ultimate realism, we produce authentic film-type instruments for this model. Their use is depicted in this chapter.
