1/48 Eurofighter Typhoon by Pat Camp

Having thoroughly enjoyed the building of Revell’s Rafale M French naval fighter, I was really looking forward to constructing their recent release of the single seat version of the Eurofighter Typhoon. My intention was, like the Rafale, to build it straight from the box as a quick build. Unlike the Rafale, this one was a bit of a roller coaster when my first initial enthusiasm became quickly dashed, then construction of the complicated fuselage (particularly the jet intake areas) lead me to make a conscious decision to depart from the kit instructions and didn’t know for quite a while whether this would be a disastrous mistake. However, in the end (that is, with the assembly substantially completed and ready for primer and paint) I think the kit looks superb and well worth all my troubles.

The kit comes in a large end-opening box and contains loads of parts. There are plenty of underwing stores to choose from and one of the decisions you may want to make is to limit yourself to those that are in service use so far or to go for the maximum “bling”. That is a decision to be made early on, as you will need to drill out holes for pylons before the wings are glued together. I used a fine drill to mark the centres of the holes and these were opened up from the outside when the time came to glue the pylons in place. At least then, had I had a change of mind, all there would be is a pinhole to fill rather than 2mm ones.

Construction starts with the cockpit. The floor and side consoles are a single moulding. The control stick (I wouldn’t call it a control column, as it is more like a computer’s “joystick”) locates into a separate housing that is glued to the main moulding. One thing you must do with this kit is to test fit parts well in advance, as I found it necessary to remove lots of material from this part to enable the ejector seat to fit in (although I left the ejector seat out until much later on in the build). The control panel fits nicely and I used Microscale Liquitape to hold it in place for painting (this it to be pulled apart and reattached as convenient). Masking tape was added to where the ejector seat would be glued to the floor and then the assembly was airbrushed with Alclad primer followed by Humbrol 127 enamel. Revell supply a superb decal sheet in the kit and this includes items for the instrument panel and consoles. These need to be applied on top of moulded detail and, not wanting to get this wrong, Paul Adams tried the first one for me whilst we were on the club stand at the Salisbury model show. After a minor hiccup, the results looked good. Then back to me. Disaster. Those large decals on the side consoles distorted all over the place and fine lines that should have been straight ended up all twisted and turned [1]. So, in the end, I removed them using a tooth brush and soapy water and painted in the detail by hand and the decision made to glue the canopy closed so you can’t look too closely! The various large VDUs were painted in with Tamiya IJN Green [2]. If I were building this kit anew, I would strongly consider buying the Eduard Zoom set that contains pre-painted parts for the cockpit.

The fuselage halves can be joined together quite early on: there is only the cockpit and some nose weight to trap between them. As is becoming usual, I put half a church roof of lead into the front rather than the mere 30gr stated in the instructions. The instructions would also have you attach the canard wings before gluing the two halves together, but I will put them on with Liquitape during painting and fix them permanently at the end. Unlike the Rafale, the canards are not linked so if you leave them hinged chances are that one will settle at a different angle to the other and look totally daft. The halves were glued in stages, starting from the front, to get everything correctly lined up. A strip of plasticard was glued beneath the spine to reinforce the joint in this area. Once fully dried, I jumped a few steps in the instructions and attached the air brake, rear cockpit deck and spine piece. Not wanting to sound too derogatory, but these parts are more reminiscent of Airfix ones when it comes to poor fit and soft detail. I decided to have the air brake closed and this meant sawing away the internal detail on the spine (Part 46). The airbrake was sanded on a flat sheet of wet or dry until it fitted flush with the fuselage. The spine piece had the locating tabs cut off and then given the wet or dry treatment (I always use the paper wet) so it matched the air brake at the front and the fuelage at the rear. The ends of each of the three pieces were then fettled until the neatest result was achieved, glued into place and followed up with Mr Surfacer (an essential aid to the builder!) applied with a chisel edged cocktail stick to complete the job.

Now came my major departure from the kit instructions: assembly of the jet air intakes. The kit has upper and lower halves which are glued together [3] and then attached to the lower wing. There is also a blanking piece to close off the intake an inch or two in. Internal surfaces of the fuselage halves fill in gaps along each side of the intakes. All in all, a complicated affair difficult to assemble without gaps. These gaps would also be awkward to fill and smooth. Internal painting would also be difficult. Consequently, I decided to build the intakes into the fuselage rather than the lower wing, and left the blanking plate off until all the gluing, filling, sanding and painting was completed in this area [4].  I found it necessary to use some plastic strip to fill gaps at the fuselage sides and copious amounts of Mr Surfacer to fill the numerous seams. 2400 grade Micromesh wrapped around an X-Acto handle was used for the first stage of sanding. 4000 grade folded over and held by self-gripping tweezers was a most convenient way to do the finishing and get access to all the surfaces. The Micromesh was used wet to minimise clogging.

The intake nozzles were sprayed with Alclad primer that, unfortunately, dried rough and so I had to do another round with the 4000 grade Micromesh. Once this was completed, the blanking plate was glued to the rear of the intakes. The blanking plate is a bit of a surprise to me, in that it is clearly visible from the front of the aircraft but lacks any detailing, such as compressor fan blades. I painted the blanking plate dark grey and painted on some (hardly convincing looking) blades in the lower halves.

The lower wing was added next, having first assembled and painted the main wheel wells. These assembled fairly easily, the only thing to watch for being the installation of a pair of bent pipes running axially: if positioned incorrectly they foul on the inside of the fuselage halves when you come to put the wing in place. The wells were sprayed with Alclad primer followed by RN10 off-white from the White Ensign Models (WEM) range, thinned using the wonderful Humbrol enamel thinners. The white was directed from the underside of the wheel well and only lightly coated on those shaded areas deep into the bay. Parts of the wheel well are included on the fuselage and upper wing halves so remember to do those at the same time. I used a wash to bring out some of the detail, but this is probably better done during the weathering stages later on.

I found it necessary to do a lot of filing on the fuselage to get the wing to line up correctly. I also glued scraps of Plasticard in place to support the wing in position. The upper halves were added once the glue had set and, once again, scraps of Plasticard were glued along the wing root to help align and support these [5]. I applied glue to the scraps and attached them to the root. The upper wing half was then fitted and this pushed the scraps into the required positions. These were left to harden off before the wing was finally glued into position. Clothes pegs were used to clamp around the edges and a strip of wood (a coffee stirrer from Costa Coffee!) pressed the wing down along the root [6]. All that was necessary after this had set was to add Mr Surfacer and sand along all the seams.

After my experience when adding the pylons to the Rafale kit, I decided this time to glue them in place before painting the model. I find it useful to have a piece of thick Plasticard that I use to help me select drill sizes. I drill through the plastic and write alongside the hole the size of the drill. If you are then looking to drill a hole to insert some wire (or, in this case, the locating stubs for the pylons) just try it in the drill selector to get the closest fit.

Having decided to assemble the aircraft with the cockpit closed (to hide away the mistakes with the consoles), attention now turned to completing the assembly of this area. The instrument scuttle, sidewalls and rear decking (including a separate piece that attaches to the canopy, were airbrushed with Alclad primer followed by Tamiya German Grey and Lifecolor black along the sides of the scuttle to emphasise the curvature. Some details were highlighted using light grey. I then studied my efforts and decided I didn’t like it one bit! The scuttle, in particular, had a rough finish so this was smoothed off with Micromesh and painted using four shades of grey mixed from Ivory Black, Paynes Grey and Titanium White oil paint, with Liquin added to improve the fluidity and accelerate the drying time. The lightest shade was applied along the centre of the scuttle, brushing the paint out thoroughly. The next shade was used to apply a stripe each side and this was continued with the darker shades down to the edges of the scuttle. Once this was done, a large brush that was free of paint and thinners was used to blend the tones and the end result was well worth the effort [7]. I noticed on photos of the aircraft (which reminds me to thank Vic very much for lending me his books) a couple of white lines at the forward end, so I trimmed some decal (left over from the Hobbyboss Corsair kit) and applied these [8]. The other thing I didn’t like was the dry brushing, and it improved things enormously when I applied the highlights using oil paint (with plenty of Liquin) as fine lines using a small brush.

The ejector seat had assembled fairly well, although I did find a problem with the back panel at the bottom edge that needed some attention with the file. The cushioning on the ejector sheet was hand brushed with Lifecolor Faded Olive Drab followed by a couple of glaze coats of Humbrol Olive Drab 41 (from their good old “Camouflage Colours” range) with Liquin. Detailed shade was added using neat paint and highlights were brushed in using Citadel “Rotting Flesh” (sounds charming)! I was really pleased with how the ejector seat turned out [9].

The HUD was airbrushed with Tamiya Clear Green well thinned with Tamiya thinners.

I mentioned there was a separate piece that fits into the canopy. Well, it probably fits if you glue the canopy open, but it sure doesn’t if you want it closed. So out came the “Dremel” and a lot of the detail at the back of the rear decking was cut away until everything fitted nicely [10].

The canopies are lovely mouldings. I dipped them in Johnson’s Klear and that added some nice shine. Then I noticed I hadn’t removed the moulding mark that runs along the centre of the canopy, so I said “Oh dear, that’s a shame” (or words to that effect).

I normally glue the windscreen in place before the hood goes on. I have discovered that it is a really good idea to hold the hood in position when you glue the windscreen on: when I fail to do this (which is nearly always!) the windscreen ends up skewed to one side. At least I remembered to do it this time [11].

So at this point the airframe is about ready for painting, and I must say it really looks good. Yes, nearly looks as good as a Rafale! The main problem has centred around the complicated air intake arrangement, so if you see one of the aftermarket companies offering a resin replacement for this area I suggest you give it strong consideration!

Colouring in!

Roger kindly sent me details of the colour scheme for the RAF variants and I went through my paint collection to try and find some good matches. I compared colours against those in books (thanks again for the loan of them, Vic!) and model magazines and found it really difficult: each photo seemed to have a different tone (even after taking into account the Luftwaffe and prototype aircraft being finished differently from the others). Most modellers would opt for Xtracolor X-17 RAF Barley Grey, but I thought it looked too blue. I decided to go for Humbrol Camouflage colour HI-5 for my main coat. Before doing that, however, I needed to get some primer on and do some under-toning.

The model was given two airbrushed coats of Alclad primer with micromesh 600 used after each coat [14,15]. Take particular care around the wing fillets where the paint can easily become too rough: remember what Robin told us to do; apply paint into the various nooks and crannies first and then apply paint over the wider areas.

I next applied a pre-highlight to the upward facing surfaces of the airframe. As you all by no doubt know, I like to experiment with ways of capturing how the light and shade brings out the shape of the model to make it look more like the real thing. My latest thinking is to cover the model with the pre-shade first (Alclad primer in this instance) and then to apply a lighter tone by directing the paint spray from above, for which I used Humbrol Grey 196 for this [16].

Pre-shade was applied by hand brushing a mix of Ivory black, Paynes Grey and Flake white oil paint with Linseed oil as a medium [17]. I normally either use Liquin or Linseed oil as a medium with oil paint to make it flow. Liquin tends to make the paint mix a bit stiff after 45 minutes or so in the warm outside conditions that I was working in at the time, so I used Linseed oil instead. As I was applying the paint thinly, it would dry after a couple of days. However, in cooler conditions it can take an age so is best avoided at such times.

The Humbrol HI-5 paint used for the main coat was mixed with around the same amount again of Liquin and then thinned to airbrush consistency with Humbrol thiiners. If, like me, you do your mixing in the airbrush, apply a splash of thinners first of all. Then add the paint and liquin, stirring with a clean paint brush. Add thinners until you get the right consistency. Before spraying, put your finger over the airbrush nozzle to let some air bubble back: this pushes back the thinners you first put in and mixes it with the paint. If you don’t put thinners in first, chances are thick paint will get into the nozzle when you start to spray and cause blockages or spluttering.

I applied the paint uniformly over the model until I obtained the contrast I wanted. Actually what happened was that it looked okay outside, but when I brought the model indoors I found I had overdone the paint coat and obliterated all of my efforts at pre-toning. Consequently, once dried, I had to redo the effect once again (although there was no need to redo the primer). Revell charcoal grey paint mixed with liquin and thinners was used to add some weathering. Streaks of dark paint were lightly applied in the direction of air flow and these emanated from corners of leading edge slats, etc, and loose masks (pieces of card) were positioned to stop the paint going where it wasn’t wanted. At last the basic colour job was done [18,19]. I took another long look at the job and decided the tone was still not right, so gave it a light coat over with Humbrol 146 gloss aircraft grey mixed with liquin. I’m a bit happier with it now.

The nose, fin, rudder, tail pipes, etc were masked up using Tamiya tape around the detail and then larger pieces of ordinary masking tape to keep overspray away from the rest of the airframe. All of this was sealed under a layer of Winsor & Newton liquid mask (not ideal stuff for modelling, but it has its uses) to stop overspray getting under the edges of the tape [20-23].

The radome and leading edges were airbrushed with Revell matt 75 grey which seemed a good match to photos of the aircraft. Bare metal parts of the tail were painted in various Alclad paints. Aluminium was used for highlights, then mixes of dark aluminium, jet exhaust and Humbrol metalcoat polished steel used to obtain progressively darker shades. Areas between the ligaments of the tail pipes were painted with Ivory black oil paint mixed with liquin. I had a lot of problems when removing the masking. First of all the ordinary masking tape lifted some of the main colour coat and this had to be touched in again (not easy). So lesson learnt here is don’t use cheap masking tape. The second thing is that some of the Alclad metal finish on the tail peeled off with the tape. Second lesson learnt is to lightly run a sharp blade along the paint line before removing the tape.

The undercarriage was airbrushed White Ensign Models (WEM) RN03 White and shaded using an oil paint mix of Paynes Grey, Rowney yellow ochre + liquin. I sprayed the main wheels with Alclad dull aluminium before adding masking to do the tyres and hub centres. This was a big mistake, as none of the paint would adhere to the Alclad. Next time I’ll mask the other colours and apply the Alclad last of all.

I drilled holes into the underside of the transparent navigation lights and filled the hole with silver paint. The Tamiya transparent red and green were applied as appropriate to the underside and this was then topped with more silver. The lights were glued in place using Humbrol Clearfix.

The kit comes with an inordinate amount of ordinance. Optical bits on the nose of the missiles were picked out in dark grey and then a small highlight was added using titanium white oil paint before dipping the nose into Humbrol Clear  I assembled most of it and decided to fit whatever looked best (I’m not a complete slave to what the references say!). There are loads of decals for these as the there is for the aircraft as a whole, and it took days to apply them. They are of very good quality and go on well. I applied a couple of thin coats of Johnson’s Klear to get a gloss surface to apply the decals and then applied another over the decals to seal them in. Finally the model was given an airbrushed coat of Testors Dullcoat before the masking was removed from the cockpit canopy. The completed model is shown in [24-28].

In summary, this is a terrific kit that has an enormous number of parts and decals. It is by no means as easy to build as Revell’s Rafale and there are fit problems with the air intake and wing halves. Constructing all the “bling” (weaponry) added greatly to the build time, but does look good on the kit. Your biggest decision is deciding what to leave off!