Eurofigher Typhoon F.2, RAF, Revell 1/72

This is a build that I had hoped to have completed in time for the Roscoe Turner contest, but due to some serious fit issues, it's probably not going to happen. The kit has some pretty poor fit and I get the sense that Revell cheaped out on this to get it out the door. Hopefully the 1/32 one I have fits better.

Anyway the Typhoon is my favorite European fighter at the moment. There's something about those gigantic delta wings and its stance that makes it look so cool. Not to mention the fact that it's armed to the gills with the most high-tech weaponry on earth.

Rather than following the instructions, I quickly identified potential problem areas, such as the 3-piece air intake assembly. Revell did partial intake trunking, as far as the eye goes, which is about 1" into the fuselage. Unfortunately the splitter plate fits in with a giant gap that required a few applications of putty and sanding to blend in.

I used Tamiya White Putty for this as it dries quickly and is very pliable, so I was able to use a putty spatula to really cram the putty into the gaps. This really needs to be a smooth transition so I used a damp q-tip with acetone to wipe the dried putty on the trunking, but to get the front area flat I had to sand the spot flat.

The cockpit came next, and this is where poor planning and not paying attention to the details can really mess you up. I planned on using the decals over the cockpit to save time on painting, but I realized too late that the decals do not match up with the parts! Apparently Revell's CAD and decal department didn't bother to meet up. It was too late to sand it off as I had already painted the tub and laid up some Future to prep it for decals. I ended having to cut the main panel decals up to fit over the screens and practically drowned them in Solvaset to get them to form over the shapes. Fortunately the mistake won't be as obvious once it's all closed up, but I know it's there and it bothers me to no end. The raised panel detail doesn't extend the entire side panels either, like in the real plane so it's just about a lose-lose situation. Ordinarily I'd avoid aftermarket photoetch but this may be the exception. There is also a throttle assembly and flight stick that goes in the tub. After a second coat of Future to seal in the decals, I brushed some Citadel Nuln Oil shading medium (more of an ink, really) and then sealed it in with some Citadel flat medium.

After closing up the cockpit tub in the fuselage, it was time to assemble the burner cans. Revell engineered this so you have to have the exhaust nozzles assembled at this point, which was ridiculous since there'd be no way to paint it properly after it's put together. I ended up temporarily attaching the exhaust nozzle to the back of the fuselage, then gluing the chambers to the inside of the fuselage (it's designed to attach primarily to the rims of the burner cans). I did not enjoy putting this together.

 

The lower fuselage/lower wing assembly and upper wings came on next and unfortunately, those did not go on well either. This is due to the complex lines the wings mount on. You'll notice the dogtooth on the wingroot, and part of the lower intake is also on the lower wing. I think Revell meant to do the join lines along panel lines, but in doing so they might have made it way too complex. A more elegant way to do it would be to completely exclude the lower intake from this in the first place. As I used liquid cement to put it together, time was of the essence so I didn't take any pictures. The wing root left a pretty huge gap and I ended up putting some liquid cement on the root, the running tape across to hold it up to the roots. I debated on whether I should have done that or just fill the gaps, as the Typhoon has a fair amount of anhedral in the wings, but once the tension was released the gaps looked better and there was still anhedral. I ended up putting some Mr Surfacer 1000 on the seam to even out the gaps.

I painted the cockpit coaming and deck with Testor's Aircraft Interior Black (which is really a very, very, dark gray), drybrushed it with some gray paint and sealed it with flat medium again. The canopy will come on once I get that seam polished out. The ejection seat is being put together at the moment (I missed some spots when I was spray-painting it) and I'll need to add some depth to the seat cushions and seatbelts so more on that later. Once that's added in the HUD will go on and the canopy will go on.

The airbrake does not fit for nuts. Initial fit shows that the panel stands proud. I mistakenly took off some material at the hinge, which I'm paying for now. For future reference, if you're modeling it with the brake closed, sand down the spine area, as well as a little bit of the interior of the airbrake, clean up the deck on which the brake goes on (it's badly molded and has a lot of soft detail - what the fudge, Revell?!), and thin out the "wings" of the airbrake. It's been a couple of days now and I'm starting to dislike this kit. To fix the hinge. I'll fill the gap with Mr Surface, smooth it out, then scribe in a newer, narrower panel line. Now that I think of it, I probably need to do the same for the rear of the airbrake.

As you can see on the bottom pics, it does not fit that wonderfully either. I'm still unsure why those rectangular holes are there on the wing, but they were supposed to be flush with the panel it goes on, but it must have shifted while the glue was curing. I suppose I could say this is due to bad modeling skill, but honestly, the engineering on this makes for a lousy fitting kit. I'm hoping I just got a bad kit and that the next Typhoon I build fits better. I ended up filling the gap with Tamiya Putty and sanding it smooth. I'm still debating if I want to rescribe that area.

At the end of the day, the wing seam has been smoothed out (the wing fit not sit flush with the fuselage despite my best efforts, probably due to the seams settling during the glue curing process), some panel lines rescribed with UMM's Scriber Tool No.2 (more on that later) and once the canopy is masked and attached, it'll be ready for paint. I am not enjoying this build but I refuse to set this aside as I've already gone too far to give up.


Flipping over, I realized I had forgotten to fill the lower-wing-to-upper-wing gap. The wings left a significant gap that was supposed to go along a panel line, but this was way too thick so I had no choice but to fill them. It didn't help that port and starboard navigation lights were right next to the gaps, so I couldn't simply sand the excess off. To start off, I put tape on the edges of gap. Note that one tape is blue, and the other yellow. The blue tape is regular old 3M painter's tape, cheap but effective. The yellow stuff is Tamiya's kabuki tape. It's more expensive, but holds a finer edge and a bit more flexible allowing for some masking along awkward raised surfaces (like our nav lights here).

Once the tape was on,the seams were filled with Mr Surfacer. You'll note that the tape allows a bit of edge, instead of covering the edge entirely. This would be to allow for some "overlap" so that when the filler is removed, it will sit flush with the wing's surfaced. Once the seam is filled, I will rescribe any lines lost to sanding and filling.


Well, that's it for now. I'll update again later as I work on it.