1/32 Revell Typhoon Work In Progress - Finished

Hi all,
This is a WIP for my Typhoon, copied from the Flory Models website. Apologies if you've already sat through it!

I've had this, and a small fortune in extras, on my shelf for years. I realised a while ago that is was going to be too big to display, and often contemplated selling it all on, but couldn't bring myself to part with it.

After a chance conversation with a colleague we have come to an arrangement whereby he pays me for the bits, and I build it. I get the fun of the build and some cash to invest in some more appropriately sized kits. Plus I stipulated a bottle of good single malt of his choice as an extra!

I'm not much of a WIP poster, so don't expect too much, but I'll do my best to show the build with a few pictures from my phone.

Here's the kit and parts. I had to put it all outside the shed to get enough distance to get it all in shot!



There's Two Mike's pylons and FOD guard, Aires cockpit (beautifully modelled and cast), wheel bays and engines, plus SAC metal gear, and some Mastercasters wheels. I've also got some Paveways to put under it, depending on what choices of marking my friend makes.

This is such a big build (A 1/48 F-111 is unwieldy on the bench I've got) that I am going to build it as a series of sub-assemblies, and only move on when each is complete. This will help me avoid my usual trap of having the whole box unpacked and in progress on a bench that looks like one of my spares boxes!

First off is the cockpit. Here is the incredible Aires resin under primer.



The head box has the sensor for the helmet tracking system. This could stand some extra definition, so I drilled the sensors out, and filled with aluminium and then clear red...



...before making some tiny frames for the lenses. (Lots of swearing!)




Tiny!




Worth the effort I think, and should look better when everything is 'flattened' out.



More soon, thanks for looking,
Gareth

I'm slowly building up the detail in the cockpit. The quality and accuracy of this set from Aires is just superb. There's details you'll never see without a magnifier. The control stick is exact in every detail, right down to the allen bolt that holds the front face on on the real thing.

Still trying to get the cockpit complete before I go any further to cut down on desk clutter because of the size of the thing. Couldn't resist starting to work out how the tub fits though. No glue here yet, and doesn't seem to need any thinning of the walls to get a good fit. I wish it was a bit more 'positive' though to make test fitting less of a fiddle.



I've started putting in the belts on the seat. Twenty two parts to fold and place for four belts. Should look nice and complex under a bit of paint.



More soon, thanks for looking,
Gareth

Seat and cockpit are done.

I've deliberately left the highlights on the cushions and straps a little 'over the top' as they will give a better impression of detail from a normal viewing distance. I might revisit the ejection handle (It's a tad scruffy I think) in the future but will wait to see how much of it is visible in situ.



The finished tub. I highly recommend the Aires cockpit set. It was just a joy to paint and decal.






The whole lot together, with the seat dry fitted. I'll leave the HUD until I'm ready to fit the windshield to protect it.








While idly checking how the tub would fit it unexpectedly clicked together in my hand, after refusing the do so in many other such 'wonderings' last week. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth I spent a few minutes with the model in my left hand whilst rifling awkwardly through the instructions with my right. (Would it kill you to put a couple of staples in the instructions Revell?!) Nothing else needs fitting, so I decided to glue the front section of the fuselage.

There's no glue holding the tub in here, but it doesn't move much. There's good access from underneath so I'll get it aligned exactly and put some epoxy or Gator's Grip fillets in from behind to secure it.



Undercarriage bays next I think. I'd like to spend a few hours on stores and weapons instead, but we haven't decided whether it's a special show scheme or an Operation Ellamy machine yet, so there's no point.

That is a big plane.

Great work on the cockpit so far!

Knowing the subject first hand... AWESOME! :O
I'm not just impressed but blown away.

Can't wait to see it finished! Subscribed to the thread.

You are crazy...! That's the best looking seat I ever saw, even accounting for 1/32 giving you some space to work with.

Watching this makes me regret that I have no space in my apartment to work on the beautiful 1/32 kits I have around from another life plan a few years earlier...

Man.....

Will watch this with interest. It's already shaping up as your best I've seen yet, and that's saying a lot.

Keep us Posted!!! It looks Awesome! Good work.

Thanks for the comments. I'm still working away on this. I've got the gear bays painted now, and installed. Not easy to photograph with a phone!



Having the spoiler closed is more hassle than it should be, but with care you can get a join that only needs the briefest tickle with a sanding stick. The hinge point is a little more problematic, needing a bit of Mr. Surfacer. Here I am blending the replacement cockpit decking and outer fairing in to the kit plastic.

Great work!

Still working away on this. All builds progress past the cool detail bit, and in to the less exciting aspects. The landing gear legs are all but done, but I'll wait to post those when they are complete. Plus, life genuinely gets in the way and slows you down.

I've got the HUD installed, and the transparencies masked and tacked in place to mask the cockpit detail.





I think next will be getting the lower part of the wing in place before putting the upper surface on.

that's coming along very nicely!

This is a friend of mine, he made my youngest an A-10 w/his name as the pilot. I really like how he puts them on poles. He makes these for all the demo teams through out the US. He's a damn production line if you follow him on Facebook.

http://kenmiddleton.net/scale_models/f-18_models.htm

This is one of the coolest threads ever! (maybe there are more, I just stumbled in here, will have to browse).

A HUD. Oh my goodness, that's insane!

Started bringing the fuselage together with the wing last night. There are some terrible joins to deal with, but dealing with each one as you go, trying to get the best fit on each one will mean less sanding and filling. Some kits you can't do anything but glue it and deal with it with remedial work. This one, at least so far, can be made to get pretty close with only a little tidying needed. (I hope!)

It's a big lump, only just fits the spray booth, might be tricky!

After the joins along the bottom had set I got the top parts of the wing in place. Revell have a clever little system of tabs and slots at the root, but they still need a bit of help with some tabs of plastic to follow the proper contours.





Here we are before getting going with the Mr. Surfacer. The best way to approach the wing joins is very slowly! I almost stitched this together an inch at a time. Some rather large gaps, but they are easy fill. It's steps that are much more effort to rectify and thankfully my cautious approach has eliminated all but a couple of minor ones.




This is the worst, but I simply sanded the root down to the same level, and reinstated the two panel lines.



The intakes are all but done, but there is about half a gallon of Mr. Surfacer drying under the wing leading edges. The slats are designed to be positioned open, which I've never seen on the real thing on the ground. It's a terrible join and I simply couldn't see how to make them fit, so decided to glue and rectify after.

Hopefully moving to primer this week, so I must look out my 0.4mm nozzle and needle. It'll take all week with the 0.2 fitted!

Looking good, fantastic seat detail. Do you have a pilot? I only ask as it looks like you have the ASP on the left side of the seat, this is normally attached to the pilots flight jacket as well. Any ideas on markings yet?

Sweet!

I always put the wing together and then put them on the fuselage, which made huge gaps or never seemed to go on right!

You way makes so much more sense and seems easier!

Thanks for the comments.

I wondered if anyone would spot that HarryR! The lower areas of the seat were painted and detailed using photos of seats not fitted to the cockpit. I assume they are demo / instructional units, and so not entirely representative of the seat in service. (This is a cardinal sin for a modeller!) When I spotted my error I decided to leave them for the extra 'character' rather than accurate detail.

Nothing concrete yet. My 'client' (and I) really wanted the 29 Squadron red and gold anniversary scheme but there are no decals. Looking like the D-Day stripes scheme at the moment. (I wanted an Op. Ellamy scheme as I have some great GBUs to put on it, but it's not my model!)

Spent all week going round and round in circles reinstating some panel lines that have disappeared under sanding. Every time I put one back in I slip with the scriber and add an erroneous one that needs filling! Pretty much done now though, and I've started adding the control surfaces. These are a terrible fit, so it is slow going.

Balancing it on my finger it appears that it won't tail sit. (Hardly surprising with that chunk of resin in the cockpit!) But I've added a small amount of lead to the radome. The nose gear is a metal replacement too, so will add a bit more weight.

There are what I believe are stiffeners around the radome which Revell have omitted. So it's out with the good old stretched sprue to add them.



Although the radome fits nicely with no gap, the surface it glues to is too deeply recessed, so there is a terrible step. Some scraps of plastic card make a neat shim to decrease the depth, giving a perfect fit. (I hope!)


With a bit of luck I'll have the airframe complete this week, and under primer. Looking forward to getting some paint on it I must say.

Brilliant!

This is watch maker level of precision, and I'm just in awe.

Dang Goon, did you escape from Skunkworks? Absolutely beautiful!

/subscribes

Fantastic stuff.

Nate

Is it just me or is that kit really poorly made? Looks like some really bad fitting of some parts.

Part of the fun I guess. From what I have seen of your previous work, it will turn out quite well.

It's like it was designed and molded by two different teams who did not communicate, one of which was far more skilled than the other! Some fit is great, some very poor. Some molding is great, some very poor. It will build up in to a nice model though, you just have to take time to get the fit right.

It's always great to see a craftsman ply his trade, very pleasurable, thank you for sharing.

Maybe it's different production runs on different parts of the kit?

It's weird. There seems to be two different sets of sprues. One in a softer plastic, with softer detail and distinct sink marks, and one with harder plastic and finer detail. You can visually see the difference and feel it when you cut it too.

Anyway, I have started paying a little attention to Aires's engines. The detail, like the cockpit, is amazing. I had no idea all these holes were here until I sprayed some Alclad stainless steel over the black primer. It's hard to capture with a phone, and will be almost invisible when complete but wow!

Impressive.

Your painting skills are just amazing!

Wheels

I've got the radome on, and there is only a negligible step, requiring a minor blend in.


My friend has decided on a scheme, and we are going to reproduce the D-Day anniversary scheme shown here (not my photo):



I was hoping this would make life easy as a show scheme would not be armed, but my friend wants to show full armament too!

To that end I have started on the love Enhanced Paveway IIs from AMD Resin.

Three of them in various states of assembly.


They will be complemented by four AMRAAMs and two ASRAAMs from the kit, and a couple of wing tanks. Although not appropriate to the scheme it will show what Typhoon is capable of. (I'm not entirely sure 4 AMRAAMs is feasible in real life. I can only confirm two with the rest of this load during Op. Ellamy, but hey ho, it's not my model!)

I have an 11 day Christmas break coming up, so I'm looking forward to lots of time in the shed to push on with this.

A little bird told me six AMRAAMs is not unheard of.
But what do I know.

Well that's not happening because there's only four in the box! I'm not buying anything more for this kit. There's still decals to buy, I've had to order a Wolfpack Litening pod (can't bring myself to put Paveways on with no means to designate!) and I can't imagine a single tinlet of Xtracolour Barley Grey is going to cover this one, no matter how much I thin it!

Ha, no probs.

^Always these flight simulator pilots with their opinions

I had forgotten komemiute's background with the Eurofighter, was it sim maintenance?

Lots of things done over the last couple of weeks. I've finished the bombs, replacing the 'blind' seeker heads with Little Lenses from Small Cars.







This is a finished drop tank, showing the sort of dirt / weathering I'm looking to achieve.


The Aires jet pipes were an absolute bugger to fit. I think this is a combination of my incompetence and the fact that the starboard engine panels are designed to be open, so don't make a perfect circle when fitted closed. There was a large step which needed some plastic card fillets and Mr. Surfacer and Mr. Dissolved putty to rectify.









It's not perfect, but won't be noticeable under paint and matt coat. (I hope.)

We (client) had a change of mind about load so I had to remove two incorrect pylons with the Dremel. Slightly nerve wracking, but I think I've got away with it.






As you can see the ECM pods are installed and fitted with the Eduard brass additions.

There's a couple of more locations I've added brass to. It seems the formation lights are raised above the surface on the real thing, so these look good.




The masking tape disc is covering the emergency canopy jettison lever window I made from clear plastic and the decal provided. It adds a more 3D feel to it.

Aye Sir.

(Sorry for the delay- I don't really remember at my age, all the threads I'm involved in! :P)
It's getting more interesting now, but essentially I'm surrounded by Eurofighters, day and nights, and respective pilots.

It is quite interesting- I only wish the building had more windows.

komemiute, I do the same thing. I can imagine that's an exciting job, I bet you never tire of seeing them.

I've yet to see an F-117 in person, next year maybe we make a quick trip to Dayton, OH.

It's... interesting. There are obviously- as for any other job- plus and cons.
Surely it's a stable job. Plus there are planes all around.

Some other things are... not... so... brilliantly... awesome. To say the least- but whatever.

Got the airframe primed today. I lost count of how many times I reloaded the airbrush. Used about a third of a bottle of Alclad primer! It's a very dusty finish in places so will need a rub with some polishing cloths, then we are on to pre-shading and paint. It's getting too big to photograph now.

I'm reminded that one year, back when the F-117 was still new to the public they had an Airshow at Mac Dill and they had an area cordoned off with guards and a sign for the Stealth Fighter; there were just three wheels on chocks in the middle.

Primed for paint?

This is getting good...

The Wolfpack Litening pod turned up, and it was a quick job to clean up, paint and decal. I've got to modify a pylon for it to hang on from the centre line.







I've started a bit of the pre-shading, and had a small disaster with some spilled paint. Annoying as I'e just bought a paint cup lid to avoid just this, and for some reason didn't use it! It won't take ten minutes to correct, and I learned a lesson!

The model is all but painted. There area a couple of touch ups needed, and I haven't put the red on the fin. (Luckily, Xtradecal are releasing the 29 Squadron 2015 special scheme that was my client's first choice, so I don't have to mask the D-Day stripes! Yay!).

This is all painted in Xtracolour enamels, which has a great translucency to easily get a good effect over pre-shading.







I'm pleased with the pre-shade effect. (It's not as stark as the overhead shot in real life.) I think it's subtle enough to break up the overall grey, and not so noticeable that it looks artificial.

The decals won't be on sale until March so plenty of time to do the touch ups and bits I've missed, plus get started on finishing the gear (especially the tricky problem of making the main wheel attachment much stronger and at the correct angle to the leg. Typhoon has a distinct inward angle to the main legs, which is often missed on models.)

Nnnnice!

Impressive!

Am out of superlatives.

Nice job.

I'm always impressed with folks dedication and skill. I have several models in various stages of work which apparently wasn't enough because I decided I needed to build a westland wyvren and went out and bought one.
Nice work going on here.

coming along nicely

I've got all the main colours done. There's a few touch ups needed, but it's looking good I think. I need to finish the gear next.





(I've had made guess at where the red crosses the spine, hopefully the gold pinstripe that goes there will cover it, otherwise it's yet another touch up!)

Red? It's supposed to be crimson. Fix it now or I'm uninstalling!

Oh, wait, this isn't a flight sim.

In that case it looks friggin' awesome, as has the whole of your project.

Really nice.


Wheels

Lots or progress. The decals arrived, and were great to work with. I am always very wary of large decals, things can go very wrong very quickly, so I took great care with tail art.




All wrinkly with the Micro-Sol softening them in to position. They settle down really well. (The designers didn't take in to account the bare metal 'rubbing strip' on the leading edge of the rudder, meaning I had to mask and repaint it. There are few things more likely to end in disaster than masking over decals, but I got away with it!)



These two bits on the very end of the spine don't meet properly. Luckily the Microscale logo is printed in the same gold, and there's just enough to patch it up.



Tail finished.



A small hiccup with the squadron insignia. I have no idea how this happened! It was the last decal I placed in this session, and I simply put the softener on, packed tools away and closed up the shed. It was damaged when I came in the next day. A mystery. I cut some pieces from spares on the sheet and patched it up.


Two shots of the Flory Models wash drying. This is my own colour I mixed for my 1/48 Typhoon a few years ago. I don't want it too dirty as it's a show scheme, but we're way in to the realms of 'What if?' anyway, with it being fully armed when finished.






I really need to finish this now, I've totally run out of steam and need a change. If it wasn't a build for someone else I'd box it and build a small subject then come back to it.

It looks absolutely fantastic! I get the feeling of wanting to move on though, but this one looks worth the effort.

Nice!

Looks great, goon. The tail decals look excellent.

The wash effect is new to me, something I need to learn about.

Gorgeous work!

Thanks everyone. The Flory Models washes are great Adlabs. Great effects, and totally reversible if it goes wrong.

those are some great decals, I lost my patience for building a long time ago...

Way too much time and skill for me... Very curious to see the final result, it must be great.

All the painting is finished, so time to unmask.

Removing the canopy, and the cockpit is still intact.




Looks good installed.



And a great big split in the canopy. No idea how this happened. The model has not been dropped, and nothing dropped on it. The 1/48 version is notorious for splitting (I had three goes at it for mine!) and I guess the shape must induce the flaw, as the 1/32 has split too. Let's hope Revell can supply a spare. Nackers!

Weird, just weird!

Hi gang,
Sorry about the lack of updates. I had to wait until Revell sent a new canopy (which they kindly did) and then I was just wanting to push on to the finish. Plus it got too big to photograph. It's off to its new home this afternoon, and as the house is in turmoil for building work I could only take some quick record shots this morning.

Absolutly insane.

Those were the same words I was thinking when looking at the pictures.

Congrats!

Gorgeous build, goon!

Wow, that's stunning. I especially love the subtle panel lines - noticeable but not overstated.

awesome work!

Thanks everyone!

How are you going to display it?

I'm not displaying it Dart, I built it for a friend.

That better be a friend who flys the real thing and hooks you up with a twoseater ride

A model with a quality like that should stand in the Squadron Barracks somewhere...

Really nice build.


Wheels

Absolutely a beautiful job.

Wow. Just... wow.

Looks like it could take off and fly right now, doesn't it, guys?

Excellent build and good looking plane!

Thanks for the further comments everyone.

oh man. Great effort on cockpit.

for the splits/scratches in the canopies, i used the headlight restore kit I had in the garage to fill it in and buff it out.. ..