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Help needed... Please...


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Greetings all. I have these 1/48 Aires ACES II seats for a 1/48 F-15...  In terms of the photo etch seat belts, I am pretty much lost. The instructions really have no rhyme or reason to them, to a point where Im borderline angry with who made them. They make little to no sense... I guess if it comes down to it, I can Google images visually look at the real belts and wing it I guess, but Im sure this isn't the correct way. 

 

Are there any of you who have done this, or know of any video of somebody who has done this? I found a guy online who did a Minibus su-33 and seeing him doing the belts, make all the sense in the world. 

 

Any thoughts or tips Id really love to hear. Thank you all.. 

 

-Ed 

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First time using Aires?  Good luck with the instructions.  Sometimes they’re good, most of the time you need a medicine man to help interpret their vision.  A quick google

search for an Aires ACES II seat should turn up a good bit of completed pics of the seat.

 

This review shows the completed seat: ACES II Seat

 

This product page shows a build up, not sure if you have the early or the late seat, but this should help some.

Ejection Seat

 

 

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1 hour ago, lockheed2004 said:

First time using Aires?  Good luck with the instructions.  Sometimes they’re good, most of the time you need a medicine man to help interpret their vision.  A quick google

search for an Aires ACES II seat should turn up a good bit of completed pics of the seat.

 

This review shows the completed seat: ACES II Seat

 

This product page shows a build up, not sure if you have the early or the late seat, but this should help some.

Ejection Seat

 

 

Thank you for the reply!! Im not sure either.. Just got it about a month or so ago, but the instructions in the link you sent are the exact ones. I spent about 2 hours of my life, that mind you I will never get back, staring at the pieces and instructions trying to make sense of this until my head hurt. I have worked with photo etch before and have the tools, I don't have an issue cutting, bending, crimping etc but my God where do these pieces fit! 

 

You sort of have to look at the photos and wing it I guess. I might also just cut my losses and order the Quickboost seats. Some photo etch on top, but the belts are cast... 

 

Thanks for the advice man.. -Ed 

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1 hour ago, lockheed2004 said:

First time using Aires?  Good luck with the instructions.  Sometimes they’re good, most of the time you need a medicine man to help interpret their vision.  A quick google

search for an Aires ACES II seat should turn up a good bit of completed pics of the seat.

 

This review shows the completed seat: ACES II Seat

 

This product page shows a build up, not sure if you have the early or the late seat, but this should help some.

Ejection Seat

 

 

Actually, I have the newer version. I have many more photo etch parts for the straps... Lucky me. 

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Aires.

 

Best advice I can give it to study the parts with interest then google some good pictures of the real thing and figure out what part you have and what it looks like in real life then make it work.

 

Last time I used one of their sets was for a Revell F-15E. I ended up on google for what the seat is supposed to look like and put it together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Nice in the end though.

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2 hours ago, ElectroSoldier said:

Aires.

 

Best advice I can give it to study the parts with interest then google some good pictures of the real thing and figure out what part you have and what it looks like in real life then make it work.

 

Last time I used one of their sets was for a Revell F-15E. I ended up on google for what the seat is supposed to look like and put it together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Nice in the end though.

You are 100% correct. Thats pretty much all I can do. In some cases, I've found some pretty cool variations of the way the belts are folded and lay and maybe I could make this happen. The instructions are only good for attaching the buckle to the clip that's really it. Any-who, that's for the suggestions! Not sure if you are a Flanker builder or not, however, there is a YouTube video of a guy who does the Minibase Sea Flanker. This kit is probably one of the most complex kits on the market, but stunning. The guy does the seatbelts step by damn step!!! It's amazing, and even though more complex than the F-15 belts, it makes all the sense in the world watching him do it! I was hoping there was someone who did this for the F-15 but can't find any... 

 

Have a great day! -Ed 

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3 hours ago, Ed DeVivo said:

You are 100% correct. Thats pretty much all I can do. In some cases, I've found some pretty cool variations of the way the belts are folded and lay and maybe I could make this happen. The instructions are only good for attaching the buckle to the clip that's really it. Any-who, that's for the suggestions! Not sure if you are a Flanker builder or not, however, there is a YouTube video of a guy who does the Minibase Sea Flanker. This kit is probably one of the most complex kits on the market, but stunning. The guy does the seatbelts step by damn step!!! It's amazing, and even though more complex than the F-15 belts, it makes all the sense in the world watching him do it! I was hoping there was someone who did this for the F-15 but can't find any... 

 

Have a great day! -Ed 

Im not really a Flanker fan, I built one a couple of years ago for a friend of mine who flew them but I seem to remember the painting of it was hard work because I wanted to recreate the jet he flew scrapped together from a couple of photographs. That was a Sea Flanker because the wings were folded up. But I dont know much about them. I much prefer the air forces of NATO countries.

But I do know what you mean about using youtube videos to give you some direction when the instructions dont give you any real help.

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On 2/14/2023 at 3:14 PM, Ed DeVivo said:

Greetings all. I have these 1/48 Aires ACES II seats for a 1/48 F-15...  In terms of the photo etch seat belts, I am pretty much lost. The instructions really have no rhyme or reason to them, to a point where Im borderline angry with who made them. They make little to no sense... I guess if it comes down to it, I can Google images visually look at the real belts and wing it I guess, but Im sure this isn't the correct way. 

 

Are there any of you who have done this, or know of any video of somebody who has done this? I found a guy online who did a Minibus su-33 and seeing him doing the belts, make all the sense in the world. 

 

Any thoughts or tips Id really love to hear. Thank you all.. 

 

-Ed 

Another option is to buy a set of the Aires Quickboost F-15 seats that already have the seat belts molded in.  I used the Aires F-15E cockpit set for the Revell kit and decided I wasn't going to even attempt to mess with the overly complex PE belts.  The Quickboost seat is the same base seat, just with belts added.  If you are also doing an F-15E, you will need to use the PE canopy breakers from the main cockpit set.

 

Another option is to check out Quinta products.  Their cockpit sets typically include a full set of seat details.  I've found their belt are easier to work with than PE and are easy to apply after painting the seat.  This is a Kinetic F-16A build with an Eduard seat.  The Quinta set was meant for the kit seat, but fit the Eduard seat fine.20230130_230818.thumb.jpg.a6784c9717a21a11c61534541a7236cd.jpg

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1 hour ago, sigtau said:

Another option is to buy a set of the Aires Quickboost F-15 seats that already have the seat belts molded in.  I used the Aires F-15E cockpit set for the Revell kit and decided I wasn't going to even attempt to mess with the overly complex PE belts.  The Quickboost seat is the same base seat, just with belts added.  If you are also doing an F-15E, you will need to use the PE canopy breakers from the main cockpit set.

 

Another option is to check out Quinta products.  Their cockpit sets typically include a full set of seat details.  I've found their belt are easier to work with than PE and are easy to apply after painting the seat.  This is a Kinetic F-16A build with an Eduard seat.  The Quinta set was meant for the kit seat, but fit the Eduard seat fine.20230130_230818.thumb.jpg.a6784c9717a21a11c61534541a7236cd.jpg

I already ordered the QuickBoost.. lol.. Funny, because I already built out two QuickBoost seats I had stashed for several years. They came out great, but as I was priming, I dropped one and needless to say the top part with the photo-etch canopy breakers flew off to God knows where. So I ordered the Aires. The resin is better, but my God, the instructions are erroneous. You are supposed to loop the straps through the end of each buckle, but here is no loop to do so. SO everything about it is wrong, even if you are comfortable bending, twisting etc. I spent some time studying the way the real  belts are positioned and feel I could get it right with extreme care, but you cannot loop the straps. You have to basically just glue the end to another end..  Ill give it a shot but have the QB coming as a backup... FYI awesome cockpit man!! 

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