Revell Eurofighter Typhoon

The Eurofighter, now dubbed the Typhoon, is a joint venture of manufacturers from Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Spain. It will gradually replace Jaguars, Tornados, and Phantoms in many European air forces.Both single-seat, and twin-seat Typhoons are just arriving in squadron service.

Revell Germany's 1/72 scale two-seat Typhoon is well-molded in flash-free gray and clear styrene. Included are a pair of underwing fuel tanks, two sidewinders, and four AMRAAM missiles. The cockpit, landing-gear wells, and engine assemblies are all well-detailed. Options include a raised or lowered canopy, open or closed speed brakes, and the air-refueling probe extended or retracted. The gear doors can be closed. You can use instrument decal or paint the raised detail on the panels. The canard surface can be moved, and both opened and restricted exhaust nozzles are provided. An infrared seeker can be added to the left side of the nose.

Assembly was straightforward, but make sure you install the afterburner duct before closing the top and bottom fuselage halves. I found installing the intake assembly difficult as it fits tightly. The movable canards have small pins that fit into tiny retainer inside the nose. The pins are easily broken, so I glued the canards on after the model was finished.

The best part of the kit is the detailed cockpit with its well-molded seat and wide-angle heads-up display. A mold-parting line through the top of the canopy needs to be sanded and polished away. The rest of the kit went together without problems.

Color codes throughout are little lettered flag that correspond to a table in the instructions for Revell's paints that are available in Europe. I substituted Xtracolor RAF barley gray overall, with Testor Model Master flint gray for the radome and fin cap. The thin decals provide markings for one Spanish, one British, and two German machines, and loads of stenciling. They were well-printed and reacted well to Solvaset.

The model took me 25 hours to assemble and appears to have the correct dimensions for a Typhoon. I like how the model sits next to my other 21 st century fighter aircraft, and I recommend it to modelers with some experience.