Soviet Air Force MiG-25 "Foxbat" 'Red 31'/Lt. Viktor Belenko, Hakodate Airport, Japan 1976 1/144 Revell

Right after Soviet Air Force Lt. Belenko defected to Japan in 1976 there were MiG-25 scale model kits available too, and I recall I built one in 1/72nd scale at the end of 1970's. Later I thought it might be fun to have a Revell Foxbat model again, so picked up this in 1/144 scale this time. The kit is quite simple but captures the brutal style of MiG-25 very well. The motion-blur runway background is an A3-sized color print I made after real Hakodate runway dimensions and it should be at least roughly in 1/144 scale too.

Real Asahi Shimbun pictures of Belenko's MiG-25 at Hakodate

U.S. Marines AV-8B Harrier 1/144 Revell

EAD Eurofighter Typhoon (prototype?) 1/144 Revell

This Revell 1/144 Eurofighter "mini-kit" was issued in 1989, I think it represents the prototype plane and perhaps not  too accurately even at that. Therefore the colour hues are chosen in a loose "mock-up" fashion too.

The kit is good quality, but slightly less detailled than the same scale Tornado. Nice one build, though!

Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-52 1/144 Eduard

Excellent small scale kit of the famous Junkers tri-motor by Eduard, with photo-etch details, canopy/window masks, optional skis and stuff. A pleasure to build, originally this was intended to be a civil conversion model but I decided to try it as test build out-of-the-box first.

This is about how the original plane looked like when it was stationed in Finland, particularily at Kemi in January 1942.

From Künnapuu, Ants: 100 Ōhusōidukit. Illusteerinud V.Tōnisson (Valgus, Tallinn, 1975)

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!