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I have decided that I'm going to be a good little Minion for a change and stick with my assigned country for my build and that country is Greece. I have quite a few kits that could be built in Greek markings for their time since joining NATO, but before the usual suspects chime in with usual mantra I will NOT be building them all! I have selected the Northrop F-5A as this was a very important type in Greek service and a very long lived type in service too. Due to it's longevity of service the F-5 wore a great variety of schemes in Greek service, from overall aluminium to air defence greys and most ones in between, helped by the fact that they received some aircraft second hand from sources such as Iran, Jordan and the Netherlands. I have not 100% settled on a scheme yet but at the moment an ex-Jordanian aircraft in a heavily weathered Asia Minor scheme (one of my favourite post war USAF schemes) is my first choice with an equally weathered SEA scheme second. My chosen kit is the Kinetic 1/48 one which has been around for a few years and looks to be quite nicely detailed and going by other builds I have followed goes together in a fairly trouble free way, helpfully it also comes with markings for several Greek aircraft although none of them are in the schemes I am interested in but that shouldn't be too much of a problem as they don't carry unit markings and I have plenty of decals to cobble together the correct tail numbers. So without further ado here are the usual pre-build pics starting with the box top; The as yet unopened contents still in their plastic bag; And the rather nice deal sheet with lots of wonderful options; In fact the only non-eligible options on the sheet are the South Vietnamese ones, I can see a lot more of these in my future if this goes well. I have some aftermarket on the way in the form of a resin seat as these had their original seats replaced by Martin Baker Mk.10's and there is also a Master set for the guns and pitot probe, these are currently at the mercy of Royal Mail somewhere. I have to finish a Belgian Spitfire first but hope to get started soon. Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received. Craig.

Hi all After the Miles Master, I decided to stay in the british wings This time, I choosed a airplane a little modern the well know Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the "Jumpjet" I have a little preference for the "long nose" version : the GR3 I bought severals month ago a box of the AV-8A version, the US version of the Harrier It was in "promotion" and because I wished use an after market decals, it was a very good deal for me If the kit has an update for the fuselage sprue from GR1/3 box, the GR3 nose is in this box. The decals sheet I didn't arrest my choice for the red or white tails option I have a little time to make my choice

This is my Kinetic NF-5A in 1/48 scale. In the eighties I spent quite some time along the fence at Twenhe airbase (NL). This colour scheme was always my favourite on the NF-5's. The kit is not perfect, but very good and especially the decals are great. I used mainly Vallejo acrylics and some oils and pencils for the weathering. Hope you like the result. Comments and critics are welcome. Regards, Gerben

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234956696-kinetic-f-16i-sufa-148/ Done!!!

Hi all I present my latest build Kinetic’s 1:48 T-Harrier (K48040) as with a lot of my models I wanted to do the kit in something other than the kit supplied markings so chose to do a Indian Navy Harrier. Well this has been a build of ups and downs a certainly nearly beaten me on more than one occasion but I was determined to get if done (well almost) I may revisit it at some point to finish some minor details but for now I’m done with it. anyway this was another kit picked out of the stash by my wife as this has been the theme this year. I purchased some aftermarket bits for it. Eduard Big ED set containing sets (48945)(49882)(EX576)&(FE883) Master brass pitot (AM-48-069) Model Alliance Decals BAe Sea Harrier pt.1 (MA-48153) Tmayia paints used throughout windsor and newton gloss and satin varnishes flory dark dirt wash and Abteilung Starship filth oil paint thanks for looking and happy modelling

Here is my 1:72 Lockheed Martin F-16D Block 52+ Jastrząb, no. 4084, Polish Air Force, 2014. Kinetic kit with Eduard PE set, Attack Squadron resin fuel tanks and exhaust, Hasegawa missiles, Master metal Pitot tube and static dischargers. Decals by Model Maker (main) and Techmod (stencils). Painted with Gunze Mr.Color C series. Thanks for watching!

Hi folks and friends, may I present to you my latest release: An F-104A (late) set for the Kinetic F-104A/C kit. The parts in the kit don't contain any A parts but with this resin set you can actually build and accurate late type A, after ejection seat upgrade to the C-2 seat. Included are are lower fuselage insert piece, a fuselage panel with staggered vent louvres (with cutting template mask), fuselage side doubler plates (printed extremely thin), control stick and throttle, "A" specific instrument panel and a couple of aft canopy braces. Many thanks!! Jeffrey

My (hopefully first) contribution to not feeling deserted by participating in this GB will be Kinetic's 1/72 F-16I Sufa. This is a rare 1/72 kit from Kinetic - I heard the CEO Kinetic interviewed on the Plastic Model Mojo podcast the other day say that the company had decided to specialise in 1/48 military jets. Maybe this kit, despite the stunning box art, didn't sell to expectations? Inside the (side-opening) box were eight individually wrapped sprues (one of which I realised after taking it is missing from the photo): As you can see the kit is generously supplied with external stores: LANTIRN and Litening pods, AXQ-14 datalink pod, 2 x Delilahs, 2 x AGM-142 Popeyes, 2 x Rafael Spice, 2 Python 4s and 2 AIM-120s (plus external tanks). I'll have to do some research on realistic fit-outs (and does anyone know why Kinetic included an AXQ-14 datalink pod but no GBU-15s?). Apparently it builds together quite nicely - I suspect building the airframe will be the easy part - painting and building the stores will be where the time goes. Surface detailing looks a little soft and deep though? But I'm sure it will look fine under paint/clear coats/weathering etc. Decals, by Cartography, look excellent. The instructions, while clear, look they were printed on the office laser printer, and on the paint guide it's hard to discern between the light green and tan camouflage colours. Plus there's no instructions for the external stores painting and decaling (nothing that a bit of Googling shouldn't fix though). Think I'll finish mine as a 119 'Bat' Squadron jet - TBC. Finally, for a bit of added detail I've bought a Kelik 3D decal set for the cockpit, and a Reskit resin exhaust is on its way. As I'm trying to stick to one substantive build at a time I won't really crack on with this for a while, until my Spanish F-4C for the Southern Europe GB is much more progressed. But I've been looking forward to this GB since it emerged from the bunfight - it's always fun to get down and dirty in the dust! Cheers, Gerard

Hi folks, been looking forward to this GB for a while! I have an ungodly amount of Israeli aircraft in the stash to pick from: A-4s, F-16s, Spits- even a Vautour. I'll definitely try to get a few builds done here. Starting off with a Kinetic Nesher however as October marks 50 years since the Yom Kippur War- with the Nesher scoring 115 kills during the war. I picked up the Isradecal book on the aircraft and found a great photograph of Nesher '33' of 144 Squadron after a sortie in which it downed 2 MiG-17s. This Nesher would also down a MiG-21 later in the war. I like this aircraft for 2 reasons: 1. It was prior to the identification triangles being applied and 2. It has the red/white rudder markings of 101 squadron who operated it before 144 squadron was formed. I also got the Reskit Shafrir 2 missiles as the kit only has AIM-9s as well as some Eduard remove before flight tags. The decals supplied are fantastic, printed by cartograph and designed by Isradecal. I'll just be using different numbers and the 101st striped rudder from my spares. The kit is essentially the same as the Kfir Kinetic offer which I build recently and enjoyed more than I thought I would. The plastic in this boxing is much softer than the Kfir which is a relief as at times it felt like I needed a hammer and chisel for that kit. Very much looking forward to this build, have a few builds on the go currently but if I give myself a kick I should be able to get them pretty much wrapped up by the time this starts. Thanks for looking in!

Here is the model I recently finished - 1:48 F-104S Starfighter, serial M.M.6869, no. 51-01, 51º Stormo, 22º Gruppo Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force) in occasional livery on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the unit in 1989. Kinetic kit (very nice to build) with PE set by Eduard, metal Pitot tube by Master, 3D-printed ladder by LP Models and decals by WandD (nice but very thick). Thanks for watching!

Hi all, Here's my latest 3D printed kit update, this time for the Kinetic 1/48 Sea Harrier FRS1 and FA2 (they may also fit the Harrier Gr1/3 and T-Harriers). The update consists of two parts, including the prominent fan and then a representation of the compressor. As can be seen, there is an enormous improvement with these parts, when compared with the original kit part! Kinetic intake fan, selling for £6 plus £2.50 postage. See also, upgrade for the Hasegawa kit (will also fit kits that use the Hasegawa plastic - Revell & Hobby 2000). 3D printed upgrade featuring a two-piece fan. Hasegawa intake fan, now selling for £8 plus £2.50 postage. Cheers! Ben

Hi all, built this Kinetic Kfir as part of the Dassault GB. I'd had the kit for a while but it sat in the stash as I'd heard some stories about Kinetic kits but I'm glad I had a go at it as it turned out to be quite a nice kit. The WIP can be found here: Overall this was an enjoyable build, had a few fit issues most notably the intakes and the fuselage join at the tail but nothing too bad. My biggest criticism would be how vague the instructions are at times, the undercarriage was especially vague and as this kit can be built as a C.2 or C.7 some diagrams were quite cluttered with a plethora of options and different variant specific parts. Nevertheless though this was a fun build and I can definitely see myself building more in the future. Kinetic's decision to have Isradecal design the decals was a great move and the kit options are all fantastic, though I used some spare decals to build this as a Smashing Parrot Kfir. Painted with Vallejo acrylics and a Vallejo panel line wash, stencils are from the kit with the squadron insignia and numbers being Isradecal. Here are the photos: And it's also just turned a year since I built my first kit, a Kfir as it turns out! Thanks for looking in!

Here is my 1:48 Alpha Jet E of French Air Force aerobatic team "Patrouille de France" as I saw her on Radom Air Show in 2011. Kinetic kit "out of the box" + some scratch. Nothing special, because the kit itself isn`t very good. Painted with Mr. Hobby C, polished. Thanks for watching!

Hi here is my F-104 STARFIGHTER by Kinetic I stared this back in February and only just finished it due to my mojo waining and a few issues with the build along the way so wasn’t enjoyable as I’d of hoped. I brought this kit sometime last year and what seems to be a theme this year so far my wife picked this out of the stash to build next! I purchased a few aftermarket items for this build. Qunita Studio Interior 3D decals (QD48201) and very impressed with them MasterCasterS resin Martin-Baker Mk.Q7[A] Ejection Seat (MST48065) Master brass pitot tube (AM-48-044) Eduard TFace Canopy Masks (EX830) I decided to try Ammo-Mig paints with is build and this where I had the problems with paint peeling off with masking tape Tamiya and Vallejo paints also used thank for looking and enjoy

I bought this when it first came out so thought I should get around to building it. Although it looks great int he box, there are some issues to watch out for. The mold slip means every part needs to be cleaned up, especially mating surfaces. The nose cone is too wide for the fuselage. I fixed this by sanding down the mating surfaces of the nose cone parts, the fit you see in the kit has not been touched at all with sand paper. Thinning down the mating surfaces of the wing just behind the trailing edge gives a much better fit. Test fitting the air intake covers will reduce the amount of filling and sanding you will need to do. It's also worth cutting off the locating pins on the drop tanks for a better fit and making all attachment holes of the bombs and drop tanks larger, otherwise they won't fit the locating pins. Decals are very nice, I did apply over 100 stencils, but they gave no trouble at all. Everything is OOB, but I decided to try and use the RBF tags I bought. They are nice, but fiddly; there is a very small photo etch pin in the top of each, you can barely see it....I can barely see it but I know they are there!

Hi all, I did intend on building a few Mirages for this GB but ended up not building anything for a while- recently finished a skyhawk and built a mustang for the blitzbuild so I'm back in the swing of things. Was planning on building this for my Israeli Adventure project but its just sat in the stash for a while now, I'm wanting to build it so thought why not try and get something done for this GB. I'll be building this in the air superiority grey scheme (should be faster than the desert scheme), the kit decals were created with input from Isradecal so look fantastic. I do have a fair few spare decals and numbers so I'm leaning toward building this as a Smashing Parrot Squadron Kfir. Made a start today, painted the cockpit and assembled the wings and intakes- some minor difficulties with fit, definitely going to be some filler needed with this kit but nothing too bad...yet. Thanks for looking in!

1/72 MQ-9 Predator Completed in current Reconnaissance and Scouting GB Kinetic kit and decals; no aftermarket. Main paint Humbrol enamels, some Tamiya acrylics for tyres and stores. W&N matt varnish. Finished as current-ish Texas ANG 147 ATKW fully loaded with LGBs and Hellfires as seen in photos of live fire exercise. Shown with a F-16B from Oregon ANGB in 1991 for comparison. WIP at link: Chris

Completed the Kinetic S-2. It was actually boxed as a Mirage 2000 so imagine my surprise when I arrived home.... An ok kit built OOB with the exception of seatbelts, spotlight and external wing braces. The decals were very thin and I gave up trying to use them so painted my own markings for VS-30 and used decals from the spares box. Enjoy.

Harrier GR.3 Falklands 40th Anniversary (K48139) Includes Royal Navy Tow Tractor Mk.II 1:48 Kinetic via Luckymodel.com The Harrier is an iconic (in the truest sense) example of what was possible when British Aviation was at its prime. It was a revolutionary design back in the 60s, and has seen many improvements and even a complete re-design in the shape of the Harrier II, which saw McDonnell Douglas get more heavily involved, giving the US Marines their much beloved AV-8B, and the British the Gr.5/7/9, all of which had new carbon-composite wings, massively upgraded avionics and improved versions of the doughty Pegasus engine, which was always at the heart of this legendary design. The Harrier is a taxing aircraft to fly due to the high pilot workload, and requires the best pilots to do it justice in the hovering flight mode especially, where the pilot must control the throttle, direction of the airflow, and make minor adjustments to its attitude and altitude with the use of puffer jets, even before having to do anything ‘basic’ such as dogfight, navigate, or land. The original Harrier to reach service at the very end of the 1960s was the GR.1, which still bore a quite striking familial resemblance to the prototype and the earlier (and smaller) Kestrel, having a pointed nose and relatively confined canopy that hadn't yet been ‘blown’ to improve the pilot’s ability to move his head around to gain better situational awareness. The GR.3 had a more powerful engine, the laser tracker in a peculiar ‘anteater’ extended nose fairing, as well as many sensor, avionics upgrades, and Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) upgrades. When the GR.3 was transported to the Falklands in 1982 to back up the new and untested FRS.1 Sea Harriers, they were refitted with new pylons that could carry Sidewinder missiles with all the necessary cabling and avionics changes, so that it would be able to replace any possible SHAR losses, as until that point the Harrier was mainly used in the Ground Attack/Support role in the RAF. With the re-development of the aircraft into the Harrier II, the anteater nose was phased out and the new composite winged GR.5 with massively improved avionics, engine and other systems took over the mantle. For the most part, the general public don’t really see them as different machines, and the media’s constant reference to them as “jump jet” makes the eye-corners twitch for those that know. The Kit For many years modellers of the Harrier were crying out for a good quality new tooling in this scale, and Kinetic put a lot of effort and research into making our dreams a reality, firstly with the two Sea Harriers, then the two-seat trainer Harriers in ‘tin-wing’ and later composite winged versions, all of which we have reviewed here a few years back. Once the original metal wing had been tooled, the natural progression was to tool the early Harriers, which was always Kinetic’s stated intention, although we weren’t too sure on the order in which they would arrive. Kinetic's Harrier kits are all thoroughly modern toolings, benefiting from a lot of extra detail that just wasn't possible back when the older toolings were made by other companies. It arrives in a special anniversary Kinetic Gold box with a rather nice painting of a GR.3 on deck with a tractor on the front, and eight sprues inside in a mid-grey styrene, plus one in clear, a fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, and a large and busy decal sheet. The instruction booklet is in portrait A4, and the painting and markings diagrams are at the rear in greyscale. Don’t fret though, as you can pick up colour profiles below. Some of the sprues originated with the Sea Harrier FRS.1, with others coming from the trainer Harriers, plus a couple of other sprues including a new fuselage with optional LRMTS (Laser Rangefinder and Marked Target Spotter) nose parts, and of course the early single-seat fuselage. The extra sprue contains the parts for the tow tractor, which has been issued separately in the past. Despite the box stating that it is a GR.3, some of the decal options allow you to build a GR.1 if you wish, as the decal sheet is identical to the original GR.1/GR.3 boxing, just bereft of the tow tractor. Construction begins with the cockpit, which is nicely appointed with raised dials, knobs and so forth on the main panel and side consoles, a clear HUD, separate rudder pedals and control column. The Martin Baker seat is made up of a two-part frame, cushion, head-box topper, and rear ejection tube, plus the actuating loop between the pilot's knees, and some PE seatbelts that aren’t covered in the instructions. This fits into the tub with the addition of a rear bulkhead, which in turn mates to the nose gear bay, with built-in intake section that leads to the face of the engine fan in a bell-shaped intake housing. The rear gear bay and air brake bay are built up as one unit, with the brake shown being installed as a flex-fit part, which you'll perhaps want to see if you can fit later if you're planning on deploying it. Harking back to the old toy-like kits of the 70s, the nozzles are all joined internally by connecting axles between the sides, and linkages that replicates the movement of one pair of nozzles in the other. This is simply clipped together and the only glue needed is to secure the nozzle bases to the axles. With these built, you're now able to close the fuselage. The exhaust nozzles are very nicely done, with lots of moulded in detail thanks to some slide moulding, although a little flash has crept in, but is easily removed, leaving only a fine seam down the centreline to scrape away before they can be installed on the previously mentioned stubs, with the ribbed heat-resistant panel behind the aft "hot" nozzles. At this point the intake lips with their blow-in doors are built up from an inner and outer skin, and a choice of closed doors for flight, or "drooped" upper doors when the engine is inactive. There are some slight sink marks present in the door parts, so check yours and fill the depressions where necessary before you install them. The wing upper surface is full width, with the top surface of the fuselage moulded in, with the detail well done, capturing the curve nicely. After drilling out some holes for certain decal options, the lower wings are added before the assembly is placed on the fuselage, as are the flaps and ailerons with their actuator fairings, PE wing fences in the leading edge, and clear wingtip lights. The tail is separate, with single parts making up the elevators with separate swash-plates, and a two-part fin with separate rudder, all of which fit into the fuselage in the usual slot and tab manner, taking care to get the correct anhedral to the elevators. The bicycle landing gear has tyres made from two halves that enclose a single piece hub, with one wheel at the front, and a twin set at the rear (no pearls), adding a couple of clear landing lights on the nose leg. The bay doors are supplied with moulded in hinges, so should have a good solid attachment to the bay sides, and detail is again good. The two outriggers are each single parts, and have detailed painting instructions next to them, which seems to be the case throughout the instructions, happily. The nose has either the tapered cone nose with clear lights and pitot probe fitted for the GR.1, or the extended LRMTS with clear lights for the titular GR.3, moulded-in pitot, and a PE panel with blade antenna on the top for one specific decal option. There’s no clear option for an open “eye” for the tip of the nose, so if you’re going for that look, you’ll need to snip the tip and put some clear plastic in the hole and maybe some eyelids, although the eye was usually closed unless it was in use. At the rear the tail faring is fitted with an insert on the underside, and a choice or curved or contoured tip, depending on your decal option. There are a host of antennae and sensors around the airframe, some of which are optional depending on the decal variant, so take care when applying them. The result is a Harrier that fairly bristles with antennae! The canopy has been moulded without slide-moulding, as it doesn't have the characteristic blown-style of later marks, so there's no annoying seam on the centreline. It fits on a separate rail part that some people seem to loathe, but as long as you're careful of your choice as well as quantity of glue, it should go together just fine, and don’t forget to apply the decal for the det-cord canopy breaker early on. The windscreen is similarly well moulded with a raised windscreen wiper, and has some nice delicate rivets, plus the asymmetric fairing at the front that houses the wiper gear. On the lower boat-tail fairing, there is a part in PE that can be applied if you are going to use your own decals, but it isn’t used with the supplied airframes. Nice of Kinetic to think of us, and do check your references. No Harrier (or modern fast jet, for that matter) is complete without some additional tanks to extend its range, and/or some kind of war load, and Kinetic have been their usual generous selves as far as this kit is concerned. A full set of pylons are included, with additional detail in the shape of separate shackles that fit into the bottom of each one, plus the 30mm Aden cannon pods that are synonymous with the mighty Harrier slung under the belly, and a pair of strakes (D22) on the sprues that replace the gun pods when not fitted to keep the airflow tidy, just in case. In addition are the following weapons for you to choose from: 6 x AIM-9 Sidewinder A2A missiles 4 x Matra 155 Rocket Pods 2 x 2” Rocket Pods 2 x Drop Tanks (Large) 2 x Drop Tanks (Small) Plus these items that will end up in the spares: 4 x AIM120 AMRAAM Beyond Visual Range (BVR) A2A missiles 2 x Sea Eagle Anti-Ship Missile (ASM) A full complement of stencils is included for the supplied munitions, with their placement given on the markings section at the rear of the booklet. Deck Tractor The little deck tractor has power beyond its size, and is made compact due to the size limitations of even a huge warship such as an aircraft carrier. The chassis is a tangle of boxes, adding front and rear bulkheads to give us our first clue which way it travels, fitting sides and the top cowling that has a raised grippy surface moulded into it. The seat, steering column and foot pedals inserted into the centre solidifies the direction of travel, and a pair of headlights are fixed to the front, and a rolled-up hose on one wheel arch. Speaking of wheel arches, they’re filled by four two-part tyres wrapped around their hubs, and with a stub-axle inserted from behind, after which they are installed, one in each corner. A tow-bar with a pair of transport wheels on a V-shaped axle finish off the build phase, and over the page painting and decaling is covered on set of diagrams, with a choice of Golden Yellow or Olive Green depending on when your tractor was operating. The stencils were stable over the years, with just the unit markings and military number plate differentiating them. Markings Kinetic have included a generous seven sets of markings in the kit, and from the box you can depict one of the following: Harrier GR.1 XV788/M – 1(F) Sqn., RAF Wittering, 1970 Harrier GR.1A XV788/M – 1(F) Sqn., RAF Wittering, 1970 Harrier GR.3 XV795/05 “The Intruder” – 1(F) Sqn. Belize City Airport, Belize, 1975 (LMTRS not fitted) Harrier GR.3 XV787/02 “Hot to Trot” – 1(F) Sqn. Belize City Airport, Belize, 1975 (LMTRS not fitted) Harrier GR.3 XV760/F -233 OCU, RAF Wittering, 1977 Harrier GR.3 XZ997/31 -1(F) Sqn., Operation Corporate, HMS Hermes, 1982 Harrier GR.3 XZ997/V IV(AC) Sqn., RAF Gütersloh, West Germany, 1992 The decals have been designed by Crossdelta for Kinetic and printed by Cartograf, so quality isn't an issue. Register, sharpness and colour density are excellent, with all but the smallest weapons stencils legible with the aid of magnification. Conclusion A thoroughly modern tooling of the first generation of this superb and greatly missed aircraft. There are a couple of sink marks, some ejector pin marks to fill, and some seam lines to scrape, but we're modellers so we shouldn't be too shy of exercising our skills. Plus, Kinetic's designers have kept these to a pleasant minimum to keep us happy. As well as being available from Lucky Model in Hong Kong, you can now select UK, USA, Australia, and Malaysia with local shipping when purchasing your model, as Kinetic now have local warehouses in these locations to reduce the postage costs for us modellers. If you’d like to learn more about it, there’s a page here on Luckymodel’s site. Extremely highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

F/A-18C VFA-27 Royal Maces (K48114) 1:48 Kinetic via Luckymodel.com The F-18's inauspicious beginnings as the runner-up of the light fighter contest that gave the US Air Force the F-16 Fighting Falcon were soon left behind when it was decided that something a little more rugged was needed for the Navy and Marine Corps, who would need to fly from carriers and carry warloads at supersonic speeds. Single and two-seater variants were offered, with the A and C being the solo pilots, and the B and D the two-seaters, all of which were combat capable. The larger E/F Super Hornets were later created to extend the capabilities of the airframes, with a substantially larger airframe and load carrying capability, distinctive both by their size and their squared-off intakes. The US withdrew their Cs from service in the early years of the new millennium, but the type carries on in service with other operators and is likely to continue to do so for some considerable time. Strike Fighter Squadron 27 (VFA-27), known as the Royal Maces transitioned to F/A-18As in 1991, after flying A-7 Corsair IIs for some years. They moved to the more advanced C variant in 1994, which they operated until 2004 when they received the first of their more advanced F/A-18E Super Hornets, again one of the single seat variants. They flew the Cs extensively in the Middle East, operating over Iraq and Afghanistan, where they provided fighter cover and strike operations, being able to switch between roles at short notice, which made their usefulness manifold. The Kit This is a reboxing of Kinetic’s tooling from 2016, so is a relatively modern tooling that has plenty of detail moulded-in. It arrives in the modern gold themed box with a painting of a Royal Maces bird flying toward us over broken clouds, and inside the top-opening box are twelve sprues in grey styrene, three smaller clear sprues, a small Photo-Etch (PE) fret, three decal sheets and the instruction booklet printed in black and white, which also follows through into the profiles on the back pages. Detail is excellent throughout, extending to all the usual focal points, especially the cockpit and gear bays, with a profusion of weapons included in the box that would sometimes be extras with other manufacturers. Construction begins with the Martin Baker Mk.14 NACES ejection seat, building the chassis from two halves, and adding the seat cushions as a single part, plus the top of the headbox, the ejection rail in the rear, and the initiator handle between the pilot’s knees. A simplified PE seatbelt set is added after painting from two parts. The cockpit tub can be used for single and dual seat kits, populating just the front section for this boxing, with a detailed instrument panel, rudder pedals, control column, and instrument inserts on the diagonal sections of the side consoles. A scrap diagram shows the colours for the panels in detail, using AMMO paint codes as it does throughout. The rear bulkhead covers the unadorned rear of the tub, then the rear cockpit is hidden by a cover, and the sidewalls are inserted to the edges of the side consoles in the front cockpit. The bang seat is dropped in, and the sub-assembly is put to one side while the other necessary areas are made up to permit closure of the fuselage. The twin intakes are first, each one made from two halves with the front compressor fan closing the rear, then the exhausts are built as a pair from top and bottom halves, with lots of deep ribbing moulded-in and a couple of ejector-pin marks, the rear face of the engine up front and the exhaust petals at the rear, making a well-detailed sub-assembly. The main and nose gear bays are each single parts with some impressive detail moulded-in, and there’s another scrap diagram showing the colours to add extra realism to the bays. The exhausts, main gear bay and two small ancillary sections are inserted into the lower fuselage along with the insert for the crew ladder, then the intakes are dropped in over the curved roof of the main bays, followed by a break to create the nose from two halves, a bulkhead, lower insert and the refuelling probe in either deployed or closed positions. A few small lumps and angle-of-attack probes are added on the sides of the nose after drilling out the flashed over holes from inside. Turning the lower fuselage over, the oval intakes, splitter plates and triangular spacers are installed on each side, then the nose and cockpit are placed into the front of the open lower fuselage assembly. The upper fuselage is prepared by adding the lower wings, or skipping ahead to depict the model with folded wings for stowage under decks. The lower wings have four holes drilled out for stores, and a small PE part is fitted into the hinge-point on the upper wing, adding the coaming to the front of the cockpit cut-out. At this point you can close the halves of the fuselage, followed by the leading-edge slats and flying surfaces on the main wings, along with the actuator fairings to depict them for straight-and-level flight, or down for landings by using a different set of parts. Different parts are also used when applying the flying surfaces to the actuators, with a scrap diagram showing the correct location of the parts in position on the wings. To fold the wings, the tips are removed from the main wing parts before they are joined to the lower fuselage, fixing replacement outer panels to the separate wing-fold at an angle to the main planes, and gluing two small PE parts into the joint. The flying surfaces are fitted aligned with the wings when the wings are folded, with another scrap diagram showing the finished article. The cockpit has an additional section of the spine added over the back of the cockpit, adding single-part elevons into holes in the sides of the tail, and the rudders using the usual slot-and tab method at an angle to the vertical, with the air-brake between them in either the deployed position using the actuator jack, or down by omitting the jack. Moving forward, the canopy can be posed open or closed, and because of the modern ‘blown’ style of the glazing, there is a fine line running down the outside of the centreline, which you can choose to ignore, or sand back flush with the rest of the surface, and polish back to clarity with successively finer grit paper, finishing off with a dip in Klear or with polish. The canopy opener is glued to a lower frame and has a set of PE rear-view mirrors on the forward edge, fixing to the rear of the cockpit opening either closed with one jack, or open with a different jack part propping it up to the correct angle. Under the fixed windscreen the HUD frame is folded up from a PE part, and has three clear lenses inserted before it is dropped into its recess in the coaming and the windscreen is glued down over it. It’s time for the Hornet to stand on its own three legs, or four wheels depending on which way you prefer to look at it. The nose strut is sturdy, and has several additional parts plus a clear landing light fitted, with two three-part wheels glued to the axles, and a captive bay door on the retraction jack. Before it is glued into the bay, additional details are added to the walls by putting some PE ‘greeblies’ in place, and after the leg is in, the three bay doors are fixed to the sides of the bay. The main gear legs are handed, adding three smaller struts to the L-shaped main leg before installing the three-part wheels onto the axle at the end, then inserting them into the bays and surrounding them with three bay doors and their actuators, with three scrap diagrams holding your hand along the way. To finish off the basic airframe, a profusion of antennae, aerials and probes are dotted around the exterior, adding the chaff and flare pods near the main gear legs with PE ‘waffle’ inserts, then the arrestor hook nestles between the two engine nacelles at the rear. A crew ladder is provided on the sprues, made up from the two side rails and individual rungs, the finished item held in position by a pair of struts resting against the side of the fuselage. Weapons The Hornet is competent bomb-truck, and needs pylons to hang its weapons from. The instructions show them being made up, with no indication of how many of each to build. The centre pylon is an easy guess, and there is just one of those with two combined mounts/sway-braces inserted in the mating surface. There are four deep wing pylons that also have two sway-braces each, and two dual-rail adapters that permit a single rail to mount two weapons on two pairs of sway-braces. There are also three 330gal fuel tanks that are made from two halves for mounting on the inner wing pylons, with one spare of for the centreline pylon. In addition, there are the following weapons and pods: 2 x AIM-120B AMRAAM with adapter rail 2 x AIM-9M Sidewinders 1 x AAS-38 Targeting Pod 1 x Sniper XR Pod 1 x AGM-84D Harpoon or AGM-84E SLEM 1 x AGM-84H SLAM-ER next generation Harpoon 1 x AGM-154 Cruise Missile There are also the following on the sprues: 2 x AIM-120C AMRAAM 2 x AIM-9X Sidewinder 2 x GBU-12 Paveway II 2 x GBU-87 Cluster Munition Dispenser 2 x GBU-38 JDAM The weapons and pods are well-detailed with multiple parts used to achieve a good representation, plus additional fins and slide-moulded exhausts on the AIM-120s and AIM-9Ms thanks to their location at the edge of the sprues. There are also stencil decals and full painting guides included in the instructions for all weapons that show the locations on a table below the painting guide. Markings There are three options on the decal sheet, all of which are from the Royal Maces, as it’s their boxing after all, and all share the same black spine and tail, with the mace in the grip of a gauntlet on the outer tail fins. From the box you can build one of the following: Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. The smallest sheet is printed anonymously, but is more than adequate for the task at hand, which is to stencil some of the weapons. Conclusion A good-looking and well-detailed model of this mainstay of the modern US air power, depicted during interesting times in the colours of a well-known and respected squadron. What’s not to like? As well as being available from Lucky Model in Hong Kong, you can now select UK, USA, Australia, and Malaysia with local shipping when purchasing your model, as Kinetic now have local warehouses in these locations to reduce the postage costs for us modellers. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hi folks and friends, I'd like to show (off?) my latest release, a backdate set for Kinetic's new tool F-16A kit. With this set you can build early Block aircraft, from 1 to 10. Contained are small stabilators with static dischargers, early type main isntrument panel, the corresponding coaming with HUD camera, a replacement fuselage panel with the early type ECS exhaust and a couple of antennas. With the exception of the ECS panel, all other parts are drop fit replacements for kit parts, no surgery needed. There is also guidance in the instructions on how to modify some kit parts to further increase accuracy for the early Block airframes. The stabilators are cast in extra strong resin (from a 3D printed master), the other parts are direct 3D print parts. https://www.hypersonicmodels.com/product/f-16a-backdate-set Many thanks for your attention, I hope you'll like this set. New F-16A (early) decals are on the way from Bullseye Model Aviation and PK Productions, something to look out for as well. Jeffrey

Latin American Kfir C10 (K48048) 1:48 Kinetic Model via Luckymodel.com The Kfir is an Israeli development of the Dassault Mirage III, which was used by the Israelis successfully as a Mach 2 all-weather interceptor, but the they felt that it lacked the loiter time that would be needed if a ground-attack role that had been envisaged was added its list of tasks. As a result of an arms embargo, Israel first built the Nesher, an unlicensed copy of the Mirage 5, which was then improved further still, and was suitably different from the Nesher to justify renaming it as the Kfir, which means ‘Lion Cub’ in Hebrew. It entered service in 1975, and was almost immediately superseded in the air superiority role when the first F-15s arrived from America, even though it remained in service, equipping several squadrons of the Israeli Air Force in other roles. The C10 variant was an export specific type, based upon the C7 that had more hardpoints added under the air intakes, a new engine with more thrust, in-flight refuelling probe, plus many upgrades to the avionics that included HOTAS capabilities and MFD screens embedded in the instrument panel. It was sold to South American operators, and was also known as the Kfir CE in Ecuadorean service with 24 airframes based on upgraded earlier models, and Kfir COA in Colombian service, some new airframes and some upgraded from C2 standard by Israel. It continued in service with the Israelis into the late 90s, after which it was replaced by more modern aircraft, but many are still on strength, whilst being offered for sale to potential purchasers with an upgrade and generous guarantee of aircraft that have been essentially returned to zero-hours. Argentina originally intended to buy a batch of Kfirs, but after much negotiation, nothing has materialised after many years. The Kit This is a reboxing with additional parts of an original Kinetic tooling from 2013, depicting this fairly niche variant of the Kfir in Latin American operation. The kit arrives in a traditional blue themed Kinetic top-opening box with a painting of a pair of Kfirs on patrol over jungle and a smattering of patchy white clouds obscuring the ground. Inside the box are ten sprues in medium grey styrene, two clear sprues, a decal sheet and the instruction booklet, which is printed in greyscale and has greyscale profiles for the decal options in the rear. The instructions state that colour profiles are supposed to be online, but the kit doesn’t yet appear on Kinetic’s site, so patience will be a virtue if the ones below aren’t sufficient for your needs. Detail on the kit is good, and the weapons includes are generous in number, with decals printed by an industry leader with utmost quality. Construction begins with the cockpit, starting with the seat that is built from five parts, with a HUD made from three clear parts for later use on top of the instrument panel, although someone has accidentally forgotten to paste the image of the HUD into that later step, leaving the arrows hanging in mid-air. Four small intakes are made up from two halves for use later, with the part numbers reused at the time to ensure you remember them, just don’t lose them in the meantime. The three-part rear bulkhead of the cockpit is also made up for later use before the seat, control column, rudder pedals and a choice of two instrument panels is inserted into the cockpit tub, adding the HUD from the invisible diagram once everything is painted. Note that there is no decal included for either the CE or C10 panels, but the detail of the parts is excellent, so you should be able to pick them out to make a good rendition of it. Also note that they are shown as parts H21 and H22, when they are in fact J21 and J22 on the sprues. The three gear legs are also made up in advance, each one a single part with three-part wheel, and the nose gear having twin landing-lights and other detail parts added, with its bay made from three parts with lots of moulded-in detail visible. In order to close up the fuselage, the intake trunks are first made up from two halves that hide the seams well, the exhaust is built from trunk with afterburner details moulded into the forward wall and a crisp exhaust ring fixed to the rear, and the nose cone with sensor blisters and pitot installed once the two halves have been joined. With all these sub-assemblies built and painted, the fuselage closing procedure is started by drilling a pair of holes within an oval marking on the top of each half, then sliding the intake trunks in through the cut-out in the fuselage sides, adding the external fairings in the next step. The cockpit, rear bulkhead, nose gear bay and nose itself are all mated with the fuselage during closing, after which attention turns to the delta wings. The lower wing is full span, and several holes are drilled out before adding the upper wings and their air-brakes to it, followed by the clear wingtip lights, one on each wing. The various flap actuator fairings are glued to the underside on pins, with the flying surfaces also attached by pins, plus more air-brakes underneath. If you wish to depict the flying surfaces dropped, you use a set of angled fairings instead of the straight ones, giving your model a little extra visual interest in the process. Returning to an inverted fuselage, the exhaust is slotted into the aft fuselage, a circular fan part blanks off the intake trunking after it merges within the fuselage, and the canards are fitted to the engine nacelles using slots and tabs, with a narrow insert under the nacelles. A host of antennae, aerials and two of the intakes made earlier are dotted around the fuselage and tail, differing slightly between variants, and then the wings are added from below, bearing in mind that the C10 late version had a small cut-out in the leading edge of the fin. You also get an option of posing the canopy open by leaving the tab on the rear, which slots into the spine. It doesn’t state whether you need to cut that off to pose it closed, so check by test fitting it in position once you have glued the windscreen in place. The main gear legs are inserted into the well detailed bays, adding a zig-zag actuator leg plus two bay doors, and the nose gear differs only by the location of the doors, and the fact that is has a single straight strut fitted between the leg and gear bay roof. More antennae, exhaust outlets, the remaining two intakes made early in the build, and a choice of inserts under the cockpit are fitted to the undersides, and a choice of two sensor bundles under the tail are provided, although the arrow showing where they go has been omitted, but it is visible on the profiles centred under the exhaust butted up to a moulded-in fairing on the belly. Each decal option carries a long refuelling probe on top of the starboard engine nacelle, and although it is on one of the sprues, it isn’t mentioned on the instructions. The profiles or your references will guide you here, and it is a butt-fit so plenty of test-fitting to find the right location may be needed. The model itself is complete by this stage, leaving only the weapons and additional fuel tanks to be built. There are two styles of tank with different tail fins and pylons for under the wings, plus a single tank for under the belly, plus a pair of Rafael Derby and Python 5 air-to-air missiles for engaging the enemy. The missiles are each made from a single body with two sets of fins and steering vanes moulded-in, and the perpendicular fins separate parts that fit into slots in the body. There are also other weapons on the sprues for the Red Flag airframe, such as the GBU-49 and the AN/AAQ-28 Litening Pod, but these aren’t shown being built. The GBU-49s are shown on the instructions for the earlier C2/C7 variant however, which you can find here on Scalemates. The profiles include painting and stencil information to guide you for all the munitions and pods used in this boxing, making for a nicely detailed weapon load-out. Markings There are three decal options on the busy sheet, which is separated into sections pertinent to each variant, plus common stencils and weapons stenciling. From the box you can build one of the following: Kfir CE FAE 905, Escuadron de Combate 2113, Taura Air Force Base, Ecuador, 2006 Kfir C10(EW) FAC 3056, Escuadron de Combate 111, Palanqueros Air Force Base, Colombia, April 2011 Kfir C10 FAC 3060, Escuadron de Combate 111, Red Flag 2018 Participant Decals are designed by FCM Decals and printed by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion An attractive boxing of an attractive aircraft in South American service that should build up into a detailed replica. A few mistakes in the instructions could trip you up, but this review covers most if not all of them, so forewarned is forearmed. As well as being available from Lucky Model in Hong Kong, you can now select UK, USA, Australia, and Malaysia with local shipping when purchasing your model, as Kinetic now have local warehouses in these locations to reduce the postage costs for us modellers. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Sea Harrier FRS.1 Falklands 40th Anniversary (K48138) with Royal Navy Tow Tractor 1:48 Kinetic Model via Lucky Model With the Royal Navy officially getting out of the carrier business in the late 1970s due to some naïve assumptions that the RAF could provide cover anywhere in the world, the Royal Navy was left to operate three Light Aircraft Carriers, or “Through Deck Cruisers” as they were called at the time for a variety of reasons, including saving face. While these new vessels were primarily intended to operate Anti-Submarine Helicopters and act as Command & Control ships, it was recognised that they would be able to operate a Vertical Take Off and Landing aircraft. There would be a need for them to defend against long range Soviet Air Assets that wanted to destroy their watery airfield. As early as 1963 the then Hawker P.1127 had shown it could operate from HMS Ark Royal (R09), and then later the Kestrel underwent trials from HMS Bulwark. Hawker Siddeley as they were then beginning work on navalising the new Harrier GR1. This aircraft became The Sea Harrier in 1975 when the Royal Navy placed an order for 24, enough to stand-up two squadrons. The new aircraft would be designated FRS.1 (Fighter. Reconnaissance, Strike). The first Sea Harrier would enter service in 1979 with the “carriers” gaining Ski ramp structures in the bow to aid in launching the aircraft whilst heavily loaded for war, but in a near normal fight mode. Like the Harrier it was based upon, the new aircraft was designed around the Rolls Royce Pegasus engine, with a large frontal intake feeding four exhaust nozzles. The front pair were (relatively) cold, using just compressed air from the engine; while the rear two were hot like a conventional engine, exhausting burned fuel and rapidly expanding air. All four nozzles were able to rotate to give the jet its unique ability for vectored flight. The main visual difference from the RAF Harrier was that the SHAR was designed with an air intercept radar in the nose in the shape of the Ferranti Blue Fox. This would perform as both an air interception and air to surface search and strike unit, and was surprisingly good in the hands of an experienced user. The canopy of the Sea Harrier was also raised to give greater visibility, gaining that familiar bubble frontal profile. Primary air-to-air armament of the Sea Harrier was to be the AIM-9 Sidewinder, and two belly mounted 30mm ADEN cannons as fitted to the GR1 for close attack. Squadron operations began in 1980 with the formation of 800 Naval Air Squadron, closely followed by 801 Sqn the following year. This proved to be fortuitous, as the Sea Harrier was very soon to have its moment in the spotlight, where it would prove its worth time and again. Following the invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982 by an Argentinian force, the Royal Navy was to assemble a Task Force to retake the Islands, with the only air cover for this force operating unfeasibly far from home (and indeed any land other than South America) was to be the new Sea Harrier. Without attempting to explain the whole air war in the Falklands, the Sea Harrier would go on to provide a good account of itself, shooting down 20 enemy aircraft (28% of the total) as well as numerous bombing missions, harassing raids; and providing much needed support to the Army. No Sea Harriers were lost to enemy aircraft, however six were lost to ground fire and accidents, unfortunately with the loss of four Pilots. All surviving RN Sea Harrier FRS.1s would undergo re-manufacturing in the early 1990s to become Sea Harrier FA.2s, incorporating a new pulse Doppler radar in an enlarged radome, and the ability to operate The AMRAM missile in addition to the Sidewinders. The only other nation to use the FRS.1 was to be India, where they remained in service until 2016 when they were replaced by Flankers. The Kit We waited many years for new toolings of the two variants of the SHAR, having to make do with some fairly old toolings from a bygone era while we waited – patiently, of course. Kinetic listened, and over the course of a couple of years we were treated to their new kits, making Navalised Harrier builders in 1:48 extremely happy, particularly with the addition of a Royal Navy deck tractor to accompany the new kits. Now they’re both in the same box. The kits arrive in a familiarly styled top-opening box with a SHAR sitting on the deck with its canopy open, a tractor front and centre, and the miserable weather in the background. Inside you have nine sprues of mid-grey styrene, a sprue of clear parts and a fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass parts that aren't shown on the sprue diagrams, or mentioned in the instructions. There's a large decal sheet covering almost all the bottom of the tray along with another smaller one for the tractor, and the instruction booklet with a portrait cover, but landscape steps. At the back of this are the painting & markings pages in black and white, which can be annoying, but as the SHAR is painted very simply, it’s not an issue. Perusal of the sprues shows some very nice detail, such as the slide-moulded exhaust nozzles with their integral louvers and exterior texture, although a little flash has appeared in places, but should be easy to remove and is always preferable to short-shot nozzles. Panel lines are finely engraved with an accompaniment of similarly restrained rivets here and there, and there’s a lot to hang off the pylons. Construction begins with the cockpit, which is nicely appointed with raised dials, knobs and so forth on the main panel and side consoles, a clear HUD, separate rudder pedals and control column. The Martin Baker seat is made up of a two-part frame, cushion, head-box topper and rear ejection tube, plus the actuating loop between the pilot's knees, and some PE seatbelts that aren’t covered in the instructions. This fits into the tub with the addition of a rear bulkhead, which in turn mates to the nose gear bay, with built-in intake section that leads to the face of the engine fan in a bell-shaped intake housing. The rear gear bay and air brake bay are built up as one unit, with the brake shown being installed as a flex-fit part, which you'll perhaps want to see if you can fit later if you're planning on deploying it. Harking back to the old toy-like kits of the 70s, the nozzles are all joined internally by connecting axles between the sides, and linkages that replicate the movement of one pair of nozzles in the other. This is simply clipped together and the only glue needed is to secure the nozzle bases to the axles. With these built, you're now able to close the fuselage. The cockpit sidewalls in the fuselage halves are bereft of details, so if you fancy it, you can make free with the styrene strip and detail it up, or just paint it and any of the intake area that remains visible after assembly. At this point the fuselage is wide open where the wings should be, but it gives you the opportunity to flood the fuselage seams with a little extra glue to firm up the joint. Kinetic's engineers have put a lot of effort into the intakes, creating a three-part assembly that comprises an outer skin, a set of interchangeable blow-in doors (one set of open and closed doors are provided), and an inner skin that tidies up the intake area. Once built up you could paint the trunk white, and handle the intake lip colour change before attaching them to the fuselage sides. The hot and cold exhaust pairs are glued (carefully) into their bases, and a nicely detailed heat-deflecting plate is added behind the hot nozzles. The wings are hovering over the fuselage in the construction step, which are full-width on top and in two halves for the undersides. These drop into the large gap in the upper fuselage, and are joined by the deck behind the pilot. You should now have a model that looks like a Harrier with the addition of the nosecone part. The bicycle style landing gear parts are provided for wheels-down models, and for those of you wanting to put your SHAR in the sky, the same bay doors will fit in the closed position too, with the removal of the hinges. The nose gear leg is split vertically, and fits around the three-part wheel that Kinetic often use. The rear leg is one part, and has a three-part wheel added to the stub-axles on each side. Happily, these can be left off until main painting has completed, which is nice. There’s a three-page gap at this point to build up the pylons and weapons for your SHAR, but we’ll continue building the airframe here for now. There are a lot of antennae, sensors and blade aerials to add throughout the build, plus a very pointy pitot on the nose and refuelling probe on the port intake, which you might want to leave until later in the build. There are also four small (tiny) leading-edge fences in PE that are best added before painting with a dot of super-glue. Clear parts are provided for the wingtip lights and other formation lights, as well as the canopy, which has been moulded very thin and clear, with the prominent det-cords moulded into the inside, although there are a pair of det-cord decals printed inconspicuously at the very bottom of the decal sheet. These delicate clear parts have been protected on the sprue by large upstands around them, to prevent scratching or worse during transit and storage. The flying surfaces are all separate, and you have the option of showing the flaps extended or retracted by choosing one or other set of actuator fairing parts. The elevators have separate swash-plates and simply fit into sockets in the rear of the fuselage, so make sure you get your alignment just right. The rudder is separate too, and poseable to whatever sensible angle you choose to add some visual interest. A SHAR without gas-bags and storage would look a little naked, and in their usual generous style, Kinetic have provided plenty for you to play with. In the box you get the following: 2 x External Fuel tanks (large) 2 x External Fuel tanks (small) 2 x AIM-120 with a choice of adapter rail or pylon - never used on FRS-1 2 x Sea Eagle anti-shipping missile 4 x AIM-9 Sidewinder plus adapter rail - twin rails only ever fitted to display aircraft 2 x 30mm Aden cannon pack 4 x 18 round Matra rocket pods – Carried in early years, but unused after 1986 2 x 36 round rocket pods (unused) 1 x BL755 Cluster Bomb (unused by the RAF & RN since 2007/8, and not seen in inventory since 1986) There is an isometric diagram showing which munitions go where from a low angle, but take careful note of real-life weapons loads before you go ahead if you want to keep it realistic. Note also that the Sea Eagle missiles have been moulded as if in-flight, with the engine intake exposed, whereas it should have an aerodynamic cover fitted, which is jettisoned during the launch sequence so that the engine can breathe. A little extra research should give you brownie points with your peers. Deck Tractor The little deck tractor has power beyond its size, and is made compact due to the size limitations of even a huge warship such as an aircraft carrier. The chassis is a tangle of boxes, adding front and rear bulkheads to give us our first clue which way it travels, fitting sides and the top cowling that has a raised grippy surface moulded into it. The seat, steering column and foot pedals inserted into the centre solidifies the direction of travel, and a pair of headlights are fixed to the front, and a rolled-up hose on one wheel arch. Speaking of wheel arches, they’re filled by four two-part tyres wrapped around their hubs, and with a stub-axle inserted from behind, after which they are installed, one in each corner. A tow-bar with a pair of transport wheels on a V-shaped axle finish off the build phase, and over the page painting and decaling is covered on set of diagrams, with a choice of Golden Yellow or Olive Green depending on when your tractor was operating. The stencils were stable over the years, with just the unit markings and military number plate differentiating them. Markings The last twelve pages of the instructions give you a clue as to the sheer number of decal options, topping out at 14 numbered airframes, which is backed up by the large sheet of decals that is covered in hundreds of aircraft codes, and squadron markings. In addition, you get a folded A3 sheet in glossy colour printing that gives a brief history of the SHAR’s participation in the conflict, and a short sentence on each of the airframes that were present, as well as pertinent information that sets them apart from each other. From the box you can build one of the following, plus more besides: While that seems already rather generous, there are further decal options noted in diagrams and tables within those pages, which will give you many more airframes to choose from. The decals have been designed by CrossDelta, and printed by Cartograf, with good register, colour density and sharpness, with a thin glossy carrier film closely cropped around each decal. The decal designer has also helpfully added sizes in inches to each row of the serials, which will be helpful when you're choosing decals for one of the less detailed options. Conclusion The kit is now the definitive Harrier FRS.1 in this scale, and deservedly so. The detail is good, the decal sheet superb and colourful, and the addition of the tractor in the box makes for a compelling package. Luckymodel have been aware that some customers don’t feel comfortable ordering from overseas due to fears of lost packages and the possibility of customs charges on entry to their home country. This has now been addressed using regional warehouses, so you can now order from them with confidence. If you’d like to learn more about it, there’s a page here on Luckymodel’s site. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

F-16A MLU NATO Viper (K48100) 1:48 Lucky Model The F-16 was the winner of the Lightweight Fighter competition, and under its official name of Fighting Falcon has become one of the most successful combat aircraft of the last 40 years, although most pilots, aviation buffs and modellers tend to refer to it as the Viper, which may or may not have something to do with the name of Battlestar Galactica’s fighters. It has provided the US Air Force and other air forces around the world with a comparatively affordable, reliable, high-performance multi-role fighter aircraft. More than 4,500 examples have been manufactured, making it one of the most produced jet fighters in history, and it continues to accumulate export orders to this day, with no sign of the later variants being replaced any time soon. The F-16A (single seat) and B (two seat) were the original production variants of the F-16, and many examples are still in service with air forces around the world after the Mid Life Upgrade (MLU) programme brought them up to a similar standard as the later C/D airframes, and introduced compatibility with Night Vision Goggles (NVG) that are essential for 24/7 operation in the modern battlespace, offering a significant advantage over pilots relying on the Mk.1 Eyeball and their consumption of carrots (yes, I know, it was WWII propaganda to explain away the radar intercepts by the RAF). The radar was also improved in the MLU update with upgraded performance and faster, more reliable targeting. The US was originally intending to participate in the programme, but backed out eventually, leaving Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark, joined later by Portugal, Jordan and Pakistan taking advantage of the improvements on offer, which also included structural enhancements to allow the aircraft to continue in service with the heavier loads that hadn’t originally been anticipated during the initial design process. The Kit This is a brand-new tooling, and Kinetic have confirmed that it shares no heritage with their original tooling of the type, but is instead based on new data. It is also a more modern tooling, which is evident immediately on opening the box. Speaking of the box, it is a sturdy top-opener in the modern Kinetic Gold style and with an attractive painting of the subject matter on the top cover, although a couple of the corners on my example had come unglued during shipping, so I stapled them back down again. Inside are nine sprues in grey styrene, a single sprue of clear parts, two decal sheets and the instruction booklet, which is printed in black and white, as are the markings profiles on the rear pages. Detail is excellent, and a great improvement on the original tooling, with crisply engraved panel lines and rivets, raised and recessed detail, and less prominent ejector pin marks where they will be noticed the least whenever possible. The kit also includes a generous helping of weapons with a full painting guide and stencil decals to apply when the time comes. Construction begins with the cockpit, which is built around a well-detailed tub, into which rudder pedals, control column, instrument panel with additional insert, an operable lever and the rear bulkhead are installed and painted, using AMMO colour call-outs that are the theme throughout the instructions, and can be converted to Vallejo, Mr Color, Tamiya or Humbrol codes using the table on the page opposite the sprue diagram. The centre section of the intake is next, made from top and bottom halves with a rendition of the first compressor face of the GE F110 engine inserted into the rear. The main gear bay is built onto the underside of this assembly, pre-detailed with moulded-in ribbing and ducting, adding front and rear bulkheads plus additional ‘greeblies’ over the following four steps. The exhaust trunking is made from two halves with internal ribbing near the open end, plus the rear face of the engine and afterburner ring depicted by two separate parts. A tapered cylindrical ring fixes to the rear of the trunk, and is joined by the exhaust petals that are assembled from five segments to form the rearmost tip of the exhaust, with a good level of detail moulded-in. The forward portion of the intake is the longest section, and is built from top and bottom halves, with a splitter spearing through a hole in the top and into a socket in the lower surface, which also has the nose gear bay glued to a recess on the underside. This is a single part, but is well-detailed already thanks to some quality moulding. The intake is then surrounded by the two halves of the outer skin, securing on a pair of pegs moulded into the trunk, and finished off with a separate lip in a similar manner to the original tooling, on the basis that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Having built one of the older toolings, I can confirm that this method of making the intake works very well. A small hole is drilled into the port intake fairing, as advised by a nearby scrap diagram. The forward fuselage and upper wings are moulded as one, and have several small raised details removed and a few more filled to correctly depict this variant, with more minor alterations to the lower fuselage in the next step. The cockpit is inserted from below into the upper fuselage, and the intake is lowered into the lower fuselage from the outside, adding the main gear bay and rear trunking behind it from within. The forward fuselage and aft section are then mated to the lower fuselage, adding a pair of cups for the elevons to pivot, the surround to the M61A1 Vulcan cannon on the port side of the fuselage, plus the instrument coaming and HUD glazing to the front of the cockpit. Underneath, a small intake is fixed to the port side of the intake, the lower wing halves are glued to the uppers, and two inserts are fitted around the sides of the nose after drilling a hole in one to accept a clear part from within. The main gear bay has another transverse bulkhead fitted with a central divider and detail part installed along the line of flight, which is then covered by a tapering skin insert, and another over the rear of the engine after inserting the exhaust assembly made earlier. There are scrap diagrams offering advice on painting the new gear bay parts dotted around nearby to break up the overall white of the gear bays. Clear lights and an optional intake are fitted to the intake cowling, then we take a break to build up the landing gear and its doors. Unusually, the first act is to make up the nose gear bay door with clear landing light that fits onto a styrene backing part before it is set aside for a while. The nose gear strut has three detail parts including the scissor-link fitted, adding three more as it inserted in the bay, plus the wheel, which is made from two halves with three pegs and sockets lining things up. The bay door runs along the starboard side of the bay once complete. The MLG, or Main Landing Gear struts are each V-shaped parts, adding three supports and retraction jacks, then they too get a wheel each that is made from two parts. Several small intakes/outlets are dotted around the bay cut-outs, then the door opener mechanism is fixed to the front of the bays to support the large, well-detailed bay doors at the correct angle. There is an ejector-pin mark in the centre of the door that will need some filler, but it’s far enough away from the raised details to make a difference, and with some careful sanding, possibly with a fancy home-made sanding implement, it should disappear pretty quickly. A pair of strakes and arrestor hook are installed under the exhaust with a blade antenna, then the model is flipped onto its own wheels to finish off the cockpit, starting with the nicely detailed ejection seat that is made from six parts and inserted into the empty cockpit, gluing the fixed rear canopy into position, and adding a frame to the interior of the front section, cutting the tabs off the openers if you intend to pose it closed, or inserting them into the groove for the open option. A small detail part is glued into the rear of the cockpit before adding the seat, and a tiny blade antenna fits into an equally small hole in the spine behind the cockpit. The nose cone is split vertically into two halves, and has a probe slotted into the front, and can then be installed opened or closed over the radar sensor panel that fits against the bulkhead in the nose, which has a hinge on which to mount the opened radome. Although it looks like an F-16 by now, there’s lot missing in the rear, which is the next step. The fin is made up from two-sided panels, adding a cap to the top, and the wider base that contains sensors and other avionics, the business end of which are in the rear section under the rudder, which is also a separate part. The sensor gaggle is made from separate small parts that give it the correct look, some of which require holes drilled to locate properly in the rear. The completed assembly slots into two holes in the spine at the rear of the fuselage, taking care to add the correct small parts for your chosen decal option. The elevons are each one part, and they slot into the cups in the rear of the fuselage next to the air-brakes, the interiors of which are well-detailed but you are given no option to pose them open, unless that’s for a later boxing? Moving on, we have a choice of wingtip rails with an adapter, then the flaps can be added to the slots in the trailing edges of the wings by removing the appropriate pair of securing tabs, adding a second layer on the thicker inner edge. That finishes the airframe, leaving the weapons and their pylons, plus a lot of painting left to do. First up are the pylons, which are each made from two halves plus additional parts for sway-braces, Triple-Ejector Rack (TER) outriggers, attachment plates and rear edges. There are a host of weapons, as follows: AAQ-13 LANTIRN Navigation Pod AAQ-14 Targeting Pod AAQ-33 Sniper Advanced Targeting pod ALQ-184 ECM Pod AIM-9M Sidewinder AIM-9X Sidewinder GBU-31 JDAM Bomb AIM-120 AMRAAM Missile 370 Gallon Wing Tank 300 Gallon Centreline Tank GBU-12-49 Paveway II Bomb GBU-24 Paveway III Bomb Each weapon, bomb or pod is made from a number of parts, giving the modeller the opportunity to depict them as little models in their own right, after careful painting and decaling with stencils provided on the sheet. A page of the instructions is devoted to possible load-out diagrams, and another gives an illustration of where the pylons should fit, and an example of the munitions and fuel carried on them. The following page includes a comprehensive painting and stencilling guide for all of them for you to pick out the ones you intend to use. Markings There are five markings options on the decal sheet, each one having its own page, with another page at the rear showing the stencils that are common to all variants. From the box you can build one of the following: Air Policing Baltic States, Ämari Air Base, Estonia, 2016 Royal Netherlands Air Force, EEAW – EPAF Expeditionary Air Wing, Kabul Airport, Afghanistan, Circa 2006 Norwegian Air Force 338 Sky ‘Tiger’, Kabul Airport, Afghanistan, 2006 Royal Danish Air Force Esk 730, Aalborg Air Base, Denmark, 2016 Esquadra 201 ‘Falcões’, Monte Real Air Force Base (Ba.5), Portugal, 2017 The decals are printed on two sheets, separated into those for the aircraft and the weapons, and all have been printed by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion It’s nice to see some Kinetic plastic again, and they seem to have put a lot of work into this tooling, bringing their F-16 offering up to modern standards, with an improved crispness that’s good to see. Look out for more boxing as time goes by, and if you’re UK based, Lucky Model have a new UK based outlet that takes away the chances of being hit by customs charges on the way to your front door. Highly recommended LuckyModel Hong Kong LuckyModel UK LuckyModel US (Available soon) Review sample courtesy of

My entry, the most modern subject in my stash, a MQ-9 Predator. Going OOB with the Texas ANG example because as prints show there are a lot of web images of this one, including with live munitions. Hoping that with no pit I can finish this during this GB and a F-4 in Classic Japan GB at roughly the same time. Chris