Phantome

FYI the latest Revell reboxing of the Italeri kit has Desert Storm markings. Also unlike many other releases the Hellfire missile decals are actually yellow

The Fujimi is also full of rivets... a bit strange and off putting for a stealth plane. If the Hasegawa B is as good as the A then it's a great kit. The inclusion of RAM decals is a must unless you want to waste your adult life masking them. My only gripe was that the fins are a two-piece that leave a seam in a place that has no seam on the real one. The Academy does not have that problem and looks like a better kit overall... so I'll be waiting for their B.

This is great news, although unlikely it would be cool if they reissued the A or F versions in a white box, to keep it in the market for longer. The A version is the only non-Aussie one I am missing (got one of each FB, E and F)

Sorry, it came across as I was objecting to your statement which was evidently ironic. I was just trying to add to it!

Literally every time I criticize Revell's marketing decisions (mainly over all their missed opportunities to make different variants of kits) I get a flood of indignant replies from people here basically saying that companies like Revell must know something we don't. These, I should add, are the same people that go ballistic over a missing rivet. So basically, modelling companies have genius marketing teams, and idiot engineers :P

Yes, Vallejo is acrylic, water-based. Their Metal Color range is very good though, sprays right off the bottle and has a similarly fine texture as AS-12. I am not a huge fan of their Aluminum color, however, as it tends to streak quite easily when spraying over larger areas; decanted AS-12 is much more forgiving. However, for panel shading, they are excellent and like I said, you can use Duraluminum and Dark Aluminum for progressively darker shades, or White Aluminum for a lighter one. Old Citadel Chainmail was also a great color for darkening NMF panels, shame the old formula paints are gone forever...

Great job on the NMF! I myself am a recent convert to decanted AS-12 and it is a life-changer. Sprays beautifully, very forgiving, dries quickly, and dries like rock. No primer needed either (it's basically a primer). If I am allowed a suggestion, if you don't want the hassle of mixing darker shades of AS-12, Vallejo's Metal Color range is really good and goes over AS-12 quite nicely. Duraluminum gives you a slightly darker shade and Dark Aluminum goes a bit darker still.

Awesome, awesome work! Your color toning is absolutely ace. And just enough weathering to look battered but not too much.

Surface and interior detail is nowhere near as good at their old Tornado. In fact, it's pretty terrible: deep panel lines, blocky cockpit interior, no rivets, etc. I found it to be quite a disappointment and yet for some reason few of the reviews seemed to be critical of it (I guess that's what happens when reviewers get free samples...) It's only claim to being the best is that the Italeri is even more appalling. But we really need a nice new modern Gripen from a company that has more consistency in its quality control than Revell which seems equally capable of producing a winner and a stinker back to back. http://www.themodellingnews.com/2015/06/grappling-with-gripen-building-revells.html

Great kit, built it last year myself. Having said that, I would recommend people get the Revell boxing. The Zvezda original lacks missile stencils which is quite a shocking omission. And the SM carries LOTS of missiles.

My jaw dropped at the winter camo. Fantastic! How did you do it? The detail on the Zvezda kit also is much better than Airfix's which still seems a bit toy-like in comparison despite the otherwise excellent build and paint scheme.

Barely anyone has replied... this is the greatest thing in 1/72 scale in ages. Literally 30 years later the Hasegawa kit has been replaced Hopefully the MSIP II will have all the bits and bobs to make an early C and also have some of the straight antennas so we can make Gulf War birds.

Academy. It's one of those cases where there's absolutely no contest. It is not entirely shake-and-bake though. The nose is a four-piece affair which can be tricky and there are some alignment issues as well. Depending on the variant you may also have to do some removing of bumps and filling of panel lines.

I just tested with a night intruder Hurricane I'm building and a light source. Putting it an angle in which the light source creates the exact same shadow from the stabilizer, a slight upward tilt of the port wing does lead to the light hitting the radiator, which would make it look brighter... but not as dramatic as on the pic. So maybe it is the case that Z's slightly different angle is the cause of the different radiator color. Who knows? Granted, this is 1:72 scale and using a lightbulb half a meter away, which clearly is not the same as a real aircraft being hit by sunlight millions of miles away

That's not a shadow. The aircraft are all angled identically. The shadow cast on the horizontal stabilizer is identical in all 4 aircraft which means the shadow on the radiator should follow a similar pattern. It is literally impossible for the sun shining on that radiator for Z (which would suggest the sun being more in the direction of the camera) while casting that shadow on the stabilizer (the sun being behind the aircraft)