discussion Pete's tiny Typhoon

[stillp]

Sorry I haven't been posting much recently, I haven't felt much like modelling. My eyesight has been playing up, and my hands shaky, so what could be a better choice that this:

Yes, 1/144, and just about 4 inches long.I blame Tony (Yak Face), because he made this scale look easy!
2 schemes, one German, but I'll be doing the 3 Squadron version from Coningsby. Whoops! Photographed the wrong one! Plenty of underwing stores to play with.

Lots of decals too:


A couple of sprue photos:

Nicely moulded, but has some really tiny parts, like the control column shown above. This is the two-seater Typhoon, so there are two of them. The clear sprue isn't so good:

Doesn't really show in the photo, but the lower edge of the canopy has a sort of rippled effect. That should stop anyone seeing the mistakes in the cockpit!
The first few stages are the construction of two cockpit tubs, and fitting decals for the IP and the side consoles.

They look better in real life, honest.
Fuselage halves went together perfectly, most of the join being hidden on the top by the ridge, that's provided as a separate part. There's a small part (looks just like the sidelight on my TR4A!) to be fitted to the front LH side of the fuselage, (part 33 here)

but there's no location for it, and it was clearly going to be tricky to hold, so I left it attached to a small section of sprue, glued it to the fuselage:

then cut the sprue off after the glue had dried.



That'll do for tonight I think. Wings tomorrow maybe.
Cheers
Pete

 

[Jim R]

Hi Peter
Well there's a lot there for something only 4 inches long. Looks as if you're off to a fine start.
Jim

 

[Tim Marlow]

Good stuff so far Peter. Looks like there’s more decals than parts.

 

[BattleshipBob]

1/144 Pete, good god i could not find the box :nerd:

Hope you feel better soon

Bob

 

[PaulTRose]

good luck

only done a couple in that scale and were fun despite the size

 

[papa 695]

Cracking start.

 

[yak face]

Brilliant start pete ! This looks like another beautifully detailed 1/144 kit from Revell . The decal sheet would put many a 1/48 to shame , although some of those stencils must be TINY! This looks like its going to go on my ‘to get‘ list , cheers tony

 

[spanner570]

...just trying to figure out just where that small, one piece decal goes?

You will no doubt try and fool me by writing they are all diddy separate ones!

 

[boatman]

HI Pete looks like it gonna be a great build an i'll be followin an yes i know what these small 1/144 scale kits are like as i built over 50 of these kits but in the tomcats an other planes for my nimitz carrier an these kits may be small but they look good
chris

 

[stillp]

Still struggling with some health issues as well as a poorly cat, but I've got the canopy on, masked and the interior framing colour on:

Made a start cleaning up the fuel tanks, Taurus pod and Storm Shadow.

There are some Sidewinders as well as AMRAAM, Iris-T and Meteor missiles, so lots to do yet. Does anyone have any tips on how to hold the missiles for painting without the mounting points getting clogged with paint?
Pete

 

[langy71]

. Does anyone have any tips on how to hold the missiles for painting without the mounting points getting clogged with paint?
Pete

If it helps I tend to put a cocktail stick into the mounting holes, then pull it out after I've finished with paint and weathering..

 

[boatman]

Still struggling with some health issues as well as a poorly cat, but I've got the canopy on, masked and the interior framing colour on:

Made a start cleaning up the fuel tanks, Taurus pod and Storm Shadow.

There are some Sidewinders as well as AMRAAM, Iris-T and Meteor missiles, so lots to do yet. Does anyone have any tips on how to hold the missiles for painting without the mounting points getting clogged with paint?
Pete

HI Pete regards painting misseles normaly now say if its a sidewinder but one of the newer missles they are normally blue with black tip from what ive seen so hold the tip while the main part of the missles bein painted then when paint dry then paint the tip black simple
chris

 

[stillp]

If it helps I tend to put a cocktail stick into the mounting holes, then pull it out after I've finished with paint and weathering..

Yes, I'd do that if they had mounting holes, but they're too small so the mountings are just tiny grooves, on the Sidewinders about 2 mm long. The missile body is only 0.7 mm diameter.

HI Pete regards painting misseles normaly now say if its a sidewinder but one of the newer missles they are normally blue with black tip from what ive seen so hold the tip while the main part of the missles bein painted then when paint dry then paint the tip black simple
chris

OK for the Sidewinder and AMRAAM Chris, but the others don't have a different colour on the tip.

Anyone know what a 3 Squadron Typhoon would carry?
Pete

 

[scottie3158]

Pete,
That's a neat looking build mate.

 

[stillp]

Just found this on jetwashaviationphotos.com " The 'Southern QRA' (Quick Reaction Alert) is part of the UK Air Defence System and previously the domain of the Tornado F.3 fleet. Taken over by 3 Sqn at RAF Coningsby on 29th June 2007 with the Typhoon F.2, the standard QRA weapons fit is two x 200 gallon (1,000 ltr) drop-tanks, four x Raytheon AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missiles (AMRAAM) and four x AIM-132 Advanced Short Range Air to Air Missiles (ASRAAM). " No ASRAAMs in the kit though so I'll use some of the others.
Pete

 

[stillp]

Pete,
That's a neat looking build mate.

Thanks Paul. The fit and moulding quality is really good, as with most recent Revell kits - this one is 2014. I haven't found any serious fit issues yet.
Pete

 

[stillp]

Time I did a bit more on this.
The Storm Shadows were first painted according to the Revell instructions, but cam out much to dark, so I looked for some online images, and gave them a coat of RAF Ocean Grey, which seems about right.
Sorry about the poor focus. You can see I followed Chris's suggestion and stuck them on a toothpick so I could paint them all round - I had to open out the mounting holes a bit as they were both too small and too shallow. That wasn't possible on the short range missiles, Sidewinder and AMRAAM, as they are just too small, so I just cut away as many of the attachment points as I could, and left them on the sprue for painting
Before:

And after:

The aircraft has had a coat of Tamiya XF19 Sky Grey, which came out a bit patchy. I'd attached the external fuel tanks before painting and now I think that was a mistake as I can't get the airbrush in there to get an even coat on the underside. Henceforth the patchiness shall be referred to as "modulation".

I still have to attach the undercarriage and bay doors, but I think it might be better to add the decals first and the sticky-out bits later. The decals will be, um, 'interesting' - the Sidewinders for example are only about 20 mm long and less that a millimetre diameter, but they have 4 decals. 6 on the fuel tanks, 8 on each of the Storm Shadows plus two on each pylon... I may be gone some time!
Pete

 

[papa 695]

Looking very nice Peter.

 

[stillp]

Thanks Ian.
Pete

 

[Guest]

The pictures next to the TET bottle show just how small this is! :surprised:

Looking great for something so tiny.