One Kit Is Never Enough Part 11 - The Eurofighter Typhoon

One Kit Is Never Enough Part 11 - The Eurofighter Typhoon  

For the moment the Challenger is on hold as we have had four new arrivals in our house, Hera, Odin, Dain and Thorin, four eight week old kittens that have come to join the rest of the cats we have living with us. Because of their age and the natural “annoyance” of some of the older cats we are keeping the kittens separated until they are older. The only room in the house suitable for this is the room where my models are painted. So for the next few weeks I will not be able to do any spraying. However all is not lost because I thought it was time to talk about a jet that I built while during my week off work.  

The base kit for the Typhoon is the Revel 1/48^th scale two seater. This version was on the cards from the moment the single seater was released and although Revel did not take the opportunity to address a couple of issues from the single seat kit it was still a fun build and definitely value for money.  

In a couple of areas the kit is a bit weak, especially around the exhausts where some of the detail just fades away and needs re-scribing. The other problematic area is the fit of the intakes, nothing too major but a bit of an annoyance that needs careful handling to achieve an acceptable fit/finish. The air brake is not the best fitting either but this can be solved simply by having it in the open position. However if you want to do an in flight model it would not take a lot of work to get the air brake to fit correctly. All of the issues mentioned are easy enough to fix and should not distract from what is an excellent value for money kit. It just goes to show you do not need to charge the exorbitant prices some manufacturers do these days.  

So what else is in the kit?  

An excellent decal sheet providing options for German and RAF versions. The German decals are very nice and are easy to apply, almost on par with aftermarket sets. The weapons load out is very impressive as well, everything you would need to depict a Typhoon during the campaign in Libya in fact, another plus point for this kit. The cockpit is ok, but could benefit from some aftermarket resin seats. Careful painting will produce excellent results here and there should be no need to replace the cockpit, unless you really want to. Apart from the aforementioned issues the overall fit of the kit is very good, with most seams only needing a small amount of filler and a quick sand to render them invisible. Careful assembly of the under carriage is needed and the main gear legs do need a slight repositioning to allow for the doors to fit correctly, but again, nothing the average modeller should have any issues with.

The build followed the usual pattern for aircraft, cockpit first, painted of course, then the assembly of the fuselage and wings. Once this was out of the way it was time to rub the fuselage and wings down to achieve a smooth finish. This did not take too long and then it was a case of priming, rub down, pre shade, rub down and then base coat. The primer was my usual Halfords Acrylic Grey Primer from a rattle can. LifeColor Dark Sea Grey, LC-US532, was used for the pre shade and then the base coat was LifeColor Barley Grey, LC-UA079. When this was dry a few drops of white was added to the Barley Grey and this was sprayed in a random pattern onto the panels to depict the bleaching effect of the sun. Do not over do this as the aircraft are kept in good condition, but the lighter shade does help to liven up an otherwise boring single colour scheme. The exhausts were painting using the Alclad Lacquers and these lacquers really do make replicating metal finishes very easy and accurate. For best effects always spray them onto a gloss black surface as this adds depth to the colour.  

The Typhoon was left for 24 hours to dry and then after a quick polish to make sure the surface was smooth three coats of Klear were applied with my Iwata Eclipse CS airbrush. While waiting for the Klear to dry it was time to start cutting out the decals. In total there are nearly 200 decals to apply and this is a time consuming job. However all of the decals went on without any trouble although Micro Sol and Micro Set were used to be on the safe side. The quality of the decals is very impressive, being very thin and in register.  

When the decals had dried it was time for another couple of coats of Klear to seal them before the final weathering stage. A panel wash was applied with Flory Models excellent washes and after leaving this to dry for half an hour the excess was removed. Always remember when removing the excess to do so in the direction of the air flow. If done correctly this can add another layer of shading to the model.  

Now that the painting and weathering was complete it was time to add the under carriage, fuel tanks and weapons. I decided to go for a minimal weapons load on this Typhoon, mainly because the two seat version is the nominal training version, although it is totally mission capable.  

Despite the issues that have been mentioned this was a very good kit to build and one that is definitely worth the money. I already have plans to build the single seat version, when I get around to buying it, and think Revel should be congratulated for releasing both single seat and twin seat versions of the Typhoon.