Luftwaffe Panavia Tornado IDS 1/144 Revell (#04030)

Revell's "new" 1/144 tiny fighter jets are quite amazing. They're cheap but very, very cheerful and every bit complicated to build as their 1/72 or 1/48 counterparts. One might think this model would have been quick to slap together, but I spent a solid busy two weeks with this kit (and enjoyed every bit of it).

Construction was relatively easy, considering the minimal fittings and areas for glue in this scale. Even cockpit decals were included, which tells about the commitment to accuracy with this kit.


All painting was done with enamels and paintbrush, colors used for the wraparound camouflage were Xtracolor Schwartzgrau, Humbrol 116 and Revell 68.

I really like these small scale models, if only the civil airliner kits were detailled as finely as these!

Color sample test

RAAF Medium Sea Grey

US Navy Intermediate Blue

US Navy Medium Grey

Finnish Air Force F-18 Hornet 1/72 Italeri

An OK kit by Italeri with lots of options: 1-seat or 2-seater, Swiss, Finnish and US Air Force decals. I was quite pleased when my kids brought me this kit as a present.





Used some walkaround picture references with this kit, IIRC there were some issues with Finnish version specific details with this kit. Didn't fix any of them though, I'm a civil airliner modeller after all!




Painted with Iwata HP-C and Humbrol enamels, US grays were supposed to be right straight from the bottle but I think they are a bit dark for this scale. Or is it just my imagination?





Some weathering could be applied, on the other hand the Finnish machines are extremely well-kept.

Finnish Air Force Brewster B-239 1/72 Revell

This kit is the infamous FAF decal boxing of a Revell oldie, the "Rivet Monster". Built straight out-of-the-box but with a twist, instead of the camouflage scheme this is how the planes looked right after the transfer flight from Sweden.






Didn't do any major surgery, just improved tiny things like the cabin interior and such. The wing is too narrow, fuselage too short, stabilisers are wrong shape etc. so too much work for a small scale model.






I doubt if this model would be any more accurate with British roundels and RAF Asian camouflage, but the kit was cheap and it's not totally awful for a Brewster.





I mean, it clearly isn't a Hurricane or a Messerschmitt, right?

Canadian Armed Forces F-101CB Voodoo 1/72 Revell

Another airbrushing practice target, this Canadian One-Oh-Wonder became a testbed for simulating matted aluminium. First layers of aluminium paint didn't work out too well, but mixed with flat white it looked convincingly dull by accident. Since the Canadian Voodoos were old surplus USAAF planes to begin with, I ditched the USAF decals and used the CAF instead.

Final topcoat is semi-matt acrylic varnish, which sealed the decals nicely. This model was built without any other references than the instruction sheet, so it is by no means an exactly accurate representation of the Canadian Voodoos.




I don't know if this kind of weathering is actually possible on a fuel tank, but it sure was fun to simulate!







Ditto for the airframe, note the crisp and thin Revell decals.






I liked this kit actually quite a lot, it isn't bad at all for the 1/72 scale.

Luftwaffe Focke-Wulf FW190D-9 1/72 Airfix

Another freehand airbrush practice target, this Langnasen-Dora was an inexpensive but good-looking Airfix 70's kit.






Decals from Hasegawa Me-262 kit, the camouflage at least plausible if not confirmed accurate.

Luftwaffe Fouga Magister C.M. 170R 1/72 Heller

Tiny French jet trainer in Luftwaffe colours from the 70's. Heller kit straight out-of-the-box with kit decals. Besides the small scale size and canopy fittings no other major problems.





Finnish Air Force used these planes too, but didn't want to apply Finnish aftermarket decals for this kit.







Canopy glue should be trimmed off some day, no other complaints really.