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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

Since today (May 6th, 2012) the Lucky Model website proposes the Kinetic 1/48th Northrop F-5A/CF-5A/NF-5A Freedom Fighter kit (ref. K48020) as pre-ordable. Kinetic being closely related to Lucky Model, such advertisement indicates usually a soon release from the kit. Source: http://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48020 Price P&P incl. : +/- £ 19.00! See also the two seats F-5B/CF-5B/NF-5B boxing thread: http://britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234944218-148-northrop-f-5bcf-5bnf-5b-freedom-fighter-by-kinetic-released-new-f-5ab-boxing-in-2018/ See also the Wolfpack Design F-5A Skoshi Tiger rebox thread: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234979803-148-northrop-f-5a-skoshi-tiger-kinetic-rebox-by-wolfpack-design-released/ V.P.

UPDATE: 1/48th - ref. K48100 - General Dynamics F-16AM Fighting Falcon - MLU NATO Viper - *** COMPLETELY NEW TOOL*** https://fb.watch/e5ohbB540U/ The long announced Mirage F-1, the Fiat G-91 or something completely new ? Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/KineticBuildersGuild/posts/1634727710215508/ V.P.

Hi gents, Well... I've started to be bored with my current projects and as an Israeli GB has been opened in my "brazilian modeling forum"... I couldn't resist and opened another box... The kit Some help: The progress so far:

Mirage 2000C No. 85 / 103 - LK Armée de l‘Air de France Special livery for the last flight ceremony of BA103 Cambrai-Epinoy, 2012 - ESTA 2E.012 Hello Dassault builders, my jet for this GB will be the Mirage 2000C, in a special livery. As for ordnance, I will go with a centerline bag, 2 Magic II‘s, and maybe 2 Super-530D‘s (if I can find some). the box: decalsheet by syhart: and a pilot and exhaust: Let‘s do this!

Hi, This is my second F-104 for the Salty Sea Dog GB. This time a Kinetic kit, built as a MFG 2 aircraft with Kormoran missiles. There are Kormoran launch rails in the Kinetic Italian F-104G/S kit. I might use those depending on how detailed they are compared to the Daco parts and how easily the Daco parts can be adapted to the Kinetic wing. Cheers, Stefan.

Hello all, Here is my recently completed 1/48 Kinetic Sea Harrier FRS.1, marked as XZ451 of 801 Naval Air Squadron (formally of 899 NAS), which was credited with downing an Argentine Dagger and Hercules during the Falklands conflict in 1982. The build thread is below. Extras used included Eduard etch, Eduard mask, Neomega ejection seat, Aires exhaust nozzles, Flightpath FOD inserts, Flightpath 1000lb bomb and Master pitot tube. The paint is mainly Tamiya acrylic (XF-77 for the Extra Dark Sea Grey) with the weathering done using a mixture of Flory wash, Abteilung oils and Tamiya sets. I added some details to the cannon pods along with adding the rudder strakes and correcting a few issues with the kit. As this was an 899 NAS machine up until 4th April 1982, it felt only right to display it with both squadron patches: There are better finished models out there, but I'm happy to finally have a SHAR in my collection. Thanks for looking and stay safe Dave

All bets are off ! It is rumoured to be a - money maker - unpreviously announced kit. Source: https://www.facebook.com/Kineticmodel/posts/1244366542397121 V.P.

After the single seat variants (thread here: link) next Kinetic Mirage family will be the MIII two seats variants. First announced boxing: 1/48th Dassault Mirage IIID/DS - ref.48054 Other variants should follow like IIIB/BE, 5BD etc. Source: https://www.facebook.com/Kineticmodel/posts/530695333764249 3D renders V.P.

Here is my last finished kit in 2022 - 1:48 McDD F/A-18A+ Hornet no. C.15-85, Spanish Air Force, ALA 46, Gando Air Base, Gran Canaria. Kinetic kit, this time almost completely out of the box (except Quickboost ejection seat and Eduard AIM-9JULIs). Maybe the standard Spanish AF Hornet`s livery is not very interesting, but this kit is my tribute to all Hornets from Gando AB, whose service is slowly coming to an end. Their presence (and noise) has always made all my stays in the Canary Islands more pleasant. Thanks for watching!

The Wikipedia summary: The Canadair CF-104 Starfighter (CF-111, CL-90) is a modified version of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter supersonic fighter aircraft built in Canada by Canadair under licence. It was primarily used as a ground attack aircraft, despite being designed as an interceptor. It served with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and later the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) until it was replaced by the McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet. I've wanted to build a Canadian Starfighter for a while now, but hadn't gotten around to it yet... so this GB is the perfect excuse to get into one! The polished aluminium with white wings and red tail will look absolutely stellar on my shelf if I can pull off a good finish. Until now I've been a strictly 1/72nd guy, mostly due to space constraints, but also because of my glacial building speed, and I don't really think my skills are up to par for larger models. However, I've written a loophole into my own rules: Canadian subjects can be 1/48th. (I've set a long-term goal to eventually build at least one of each major aircraft type that Canada flew in 48th. At the rate I build we may be retiring our F-35 fleet before I'm ever done.) Ubiquitous box shot: Of course I got some canopy masks from Eduard... but I also picked up their Löök set for the CF-104, which includes a 3D printed instrument panel and some nice PE parts for the cockpit. I'm eager to see how that goes together. It looks like it'll be a nice upgrade though. What the heck, I need to get another display cabinet from IKEA anyways...

Kinetic is to announce a brand new tool 1/48th modern jet a/c kit in ten days at the Shizuoka hobby Show 2015. Bets are off. To be followed V.P.

It was a strong rumour, now confirmed by R. Chung, the Kinetic boss himself, in ARC forums. After the Sea Harrier FRS.1 (link) & FA.2 (link), the two seat Harrier T.2/T.4/T.8 (link), Kinetic is quite logically to produce 1/48th Hawker Siddeley/BAe Harrier GR.1/GR.3 kits. So time to open a dedicated thread, I think. Source: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=287539&view=findpost&p=2798826 V.P.

Another (I mean after the AvantGarde Model Kits Kfir - see here http://www.britmodeller.net/forums/index.php?/topic/234925006-148th-iai-kfir-c2c7-by-avantgarde-model-kits-expected-late-march-2013-sprues-pics/ ) 1/48th IAI Kfir C.2/.7 from Kinetic (with decals design from Isracast) - ref.480476 Source: SAMI V.P.

Hi all, its been a while since I’ve posted any build related things, so thought it would be good to show you all my latest build of the somewhat lovely Kinetic Harrier GR.1. Standard box pic with some added goodies: I utilised the build notes and resources from the Harrier Sig, kindly sent over to me by @Ozzy . Thanks Mate! The kit itself was a strange juxtaposition of nice detail with some poor fit and soft detail. Some of the fuselage panel lines for example were very soft and didn’t line up. Somewhat reminiscent of some more recent Revell kits. However for the most part this kit was a very enjoyable build. One annoyance was the SNEB pods which are modelled with the rockets protruding, the instructions advise you to sand these off but it looks very naff, so had to fill and sand and make masks for the rocket covers on the nose of the launcher. PITA! Unfortunately I had to make life hard for myself by attempting to fit an Aries cockpit, which caused me endless hours of fun/pain . Eventually got it to sort of fit by removing as much plastic as I dared but in doing so it caused the from fuselage to bow out a bit which caused problems later down the line with the windscreen. Ended up screwing up the first part and had to order a replacement from Kinetic which turned up as reasonably quickly as one can expect from Hong Kong ( in standard British fashion it took as long to make it the 50 miles from Heathrow to central Bedfordshire as it did from Hong Kong to the UK). Other aftermarket was a dream to use, namely the Reskit wheels which were fantastic, especially as the hub and tyre are moulded seperately, very thoughtful when it comes to painting! Enough waffle from me anyway, kit is an early GR.1 of 1(F) Sqn in the early gloss scheme of Dark Green / Dark Sea Grey over Light Aircraft Grey, all paints were MRP, except the varnish which is Alclad Klear Kote 50/50 with MLT (somehow this is still a tiny bit tacky a week after spraying ). Decals provided are by Cartograph and were perhaps the nicest I’ve ever used. Anyway, some photos! Cheers! Ash

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kinetic is buzzing... Something really new (I think so as a little birdie tells me...) or something out of the pipeline (MIIID/B, Harrier GR.1/.3/.4, A-4 Skyhawk, C-17, F-18C etc.)? Wait and see. Source: https://www.facebook.com/Kineticmodel/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE&fref=nf Source: https://www.facebook.com/KineticModel-France-284153468459310/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE&fref=nf Source: https://www.facebook.com/kineticmodeljp/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE&fref=nf V.P.

Kinetic is to release from 2019 a family of 1/48th AMD-BA Dassault Mirage F-1 kits. Source: https://www.facebook.com/284153468459310/videos/946333875574596/ V.P.

I'm pleased to present my most recent build, Kinetic's 1/48 F-104G, their initial tool from 2019, representing aircraft 26+60 from Marinefliegergeschwader 2 towards the end of its service life, in the two-tone Norm 76 camouflage scheme. The Starfighter is displayed on a pre-made Zoukei-Mura base and features Eduard's resin Kormoran 1s. Like many of you, I imagine, when I sit down at the workbench, I just want to melt some plastic together, push some paint through an airbrush, and use some Japanese chemicals whose workings I don't entirely understand. But sometimes, my thoughts turn to that one kit in the stash. You know the one: filled with aftermarket goodies, with a full weathering approach and paint scheme already lovingly planned out, just waiting for the right moment, when you think your skills and confidence level can handle it. This is that kit for me. I wanted to just go for it. The build was mostly painless, though not without its quirks and hitches, most of which are my fault. Kinetic's engineering has really improved since my last kit of theirs, the 2013 tool Alpha Jet, which fought me severely a few years back. My main issue was with the wiggle room I had with the wing dihedral. I would have preferred a tighter fit with the wing tab inserts to avoid any uncertainty. I think I got the dihedral close to correct and, more importantly, set the same angle for both wings! I still find that if something can be posed open on a Kinetic kit, it's going to be work to show it closed. That said, I opted for closed airbrakes on this build, and it wasn't too bad; the interior brake detail just needed to be sanded down a bit, and I needed to build shelves from sheet styrene to keep them from falling into the openings. I kind of wish I had sealed up the electronics bay behind the cockpit, though. There's not enough detail on the included parts to really justify having it open without adding significant detail work. Too, the fuselage behind that bay is open to the hollow center of the model; I believe it's open on the real aircraft, leading to yet another bay, but I blanked it out with sheet styrene. I used a fair bit of aftermarket on this build: Eduard T-Face canopy masks; Eduard LooK instrument panel; Quinta 3D cockpit decals (for the close-enough F-104J, sourced before the invasion); Master Model metal pitot; Wolfpack resin Martin Baker Mk 7 ejection seat; and the aforementioned Eduard Kormoran 1s with launch pylons. The cockpit accessories were pretty much superfluous, since there's almost no visibility into the front office. The Eduard panel is fine; the Quinta 3D decals are a bit lackluster. I am, however, rather pleased with the Wolfpack ejection seat. My detail painting suffers from the harsh truth of the macro lens, but from RVD (respectful viewing distance) it looks the part. I used very thin strips of Tamiya tape, cut on an Infini cutting mat, to "paint" the yellow ejection handle stripes. I have a love-hate relationship with the Kormorans, I must confess. I hadn't worked with resin at all before this build, and though with the right tools (and proper safety precautions) I was able to wrestle them into shape, they're not actually both the same shape at this point. One is ever so slightly longer than the other, as they were rear-mounted on their casting blocks and I learned my resin sawing techniques on the fly. They look properly intimidating on the aircraft, but there's a catch. The Eduard Kormorans are, I believe, designed for the Hasegawa F-104; in fitting them to the Kinetic wing, I modified the existing hard point wing holes, with the result that the missiles sit too close to the main wheels, something I didn't anticipate while dry fitting everything. No way a crew chief lets my version of the Starfighter take off with the Kormorans' fins tearing into the tires. . . Paints were a mix of lacquers for overall coverage and acrylics for detail work. A black primer base of Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 Black went down first, and I used a black basing technique to attempt to create surface variation and the impression of wear. My source photos of 26+60 and its stablemates all show significant fading and scuffing of the paintwork, particularly the Basalt Grey (RAL 7012) top half. I used AK Real Colors Basalt Grey (RC212) for the upper color, and it thinned down very nicely for the mottle coat. I purposely tried to let more of the black primer show through in the blend coat to get that faded look from the source photos. The nose cone received a blend of Real Colors ADC Grey (RC211) mixed equally with Insignia White to represent heavy fading. The White Aluminum (RAL 9006) underside was painted with Hataka Orange Line White Aluminum (C190), and I used the same restrained mottle/blend approach as with the top color. One note about the Hataka version of RAL 9006, though -- I was under the impression that RAL 9006 was a color name rather than an actual metallic tone. The Hataka paint has metallic flakes, not so many as a "real" metallic lacquer but enough to be noticeable. The final dull coat with Winsor and Newton Galeria Matt knocked the shine down to a more or less acceptable level. For the high visibility RAL 2005 orange on the wing tip tanks, I used Real Colors Luminous Orange (RC207) with a hint of their Insignia White (RC222) for fading, laid down over my new favorite primer, Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 Pink. It's not just for anime figurines anymore! The pink primer covered the existing black primer quite readily, and the thin coat of orange I laid down on top of the pink really popped. I'm completely sold on using pink primer for yellows, reds, and oranges at this point. They'll be vivid, but I figure it's easier to tone down a too-bright red or orange than it is to pump up the visual volume of a dull and dark shade. I decided against an overall panel line wash for this build. I've certainly employed the technique before, but my source photos don't show significant panel line definition. I picked out a few significant panel lines using a thinned Paynes Grey oil wash. I used a slightly thinned Warm Grey oil paint to attempt additional fading and wear on the upper half of the aircraft. The effect turned out more like a filter than the Rinaldi "oil paint rendering" technique I was going for, but the end result is sufficiently run down for my purposes. The in-box decals come courtesy of Cartograf, and they behaved as one expects them to, given their provenance. Not too many stencils were provided, but there's still sufficient busy-ness about the aircraft to break up any surface monotony. I laid down an Alclad Aqua Gloss coat before placing the decals, and employed copious amounts of Micro Sol and Set, but I still got a bit of silvering on some of the smaller stencils, and I fully attribute that to my own error rather than the decals. The larger decals went down without much fuss, and artful photography and angles eliminate most of the unfortunate silvering issues for the smaller decals. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading and for taking a look! I'm pleased overall with the outcome. I feel like I stretched my skills a bit and I have to consider this one of my best efforts since I picked the hobby back up four years ago. Definitely room for improvement, but from an appropriate distance, it certainly looks the part of an imposing Baltic Sea enforcer, ready to complicate the day of a Warsaw Pact frigate, and it has nice shelf presence. To anyone associated with the Marineflieger, I apologize for the inaccuracies but hope you can see it as the earnest tribute I intend. Chris Baer

Kinetic is to reissue in March 2021 its 1/48th Dassault Mirage 2000D kit with dual GBU-12/22 bombs - ref. K48120 Sources: https://www.facebook.com/Kineticmodel/posts/1810632505770519 https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48120 Box art Markings: Mirage 2000B Mirage 2000D Mirage 2000N Mirage 2000BG Hellenic Air Force V.P.

After its single seat 1/48th Northrop (C/N) F-5A kit (http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234918577-148th-northrop-f-5acf-5anf-5a-freedom-fighter-by-kinetic-released-sprue-pics/?hl=freedom) Kinetic is to release a two seats (C/N)F-5B Freedom Fighter kit - ref.48021. Source: https://www.facebook.com/Kineticmodel V.P.

The decision to buy 64 Hornets in 1992 was an epoch-making change of direction in post-war Finland. It was the starting point of the gradual harmonising of the Finnish defence forces with NATO structures. During the next 20 years Finland became more and more NATO compatible and last December the decision was taken to order 64 Lockheed Martin F-35 A Lightning II fighters to replace the ageing Hornets. The application of NATO membership this May was the culmination of the long process to join NATO. A couple of years ago I built the 1/48 scale Kinetic F/A-18 Hornet in the Finnish Air Force colours. The kit was excellent with many photo etch details and the instructions very informative. I didn't have any problems building the model. The two-shade grey camo of the FAF Hornets is fairly monotonous, though with only a few insignia and stencil decals. Although, I’m pretty satisfied with the outcome of the model I must admit that the paints did not give impression of the two-tone result I had hoped for. The two gray shades are very similar to each other and it is actually very difficult to see their difference. I painted the fighter according to the instructions i.e. the upper side with Xtracolor X135 Dark Compass Grey (FS 16320) and the lower side with X136 Light Compass Grey (FS 16375). I probably should’ve used a slightly darker shade for the upper side. On the tail of the plane there is the name ”Kreivi von Rosen” or in English ”the Count von Rosen”. He was a Swedish count that on March 6, 1918 donated the first plane, a Thulin Typ D to the air force of the newly independent republic of Finland. Honouring his generosity his lucky charm, the upright standing blue swastika became the FAF insignia until 1945.

Evening all. I would like to add the second 1/48 Kinetic FRS.1 to this GB, this time XZ457. The only extras I will be adding (thus far) are the spare seatbelts from the Kits World 3D printed "Tornado" MB Mk10 seatbelt set.. And some reference material.... I can see the fun and games the @DaveJL is having with this build - sometimes it is better to go second... Thanks for looking, Icarus

Hi all. It's been a long time since I've posted anything on Britmodeller and so I really need to change that as I enjoy spending time on here. This is my Kinetic Hawk Mk.127 Lead In Fighter (LIF) of the Royal Australian Air Force. I spent several wonderful years working on this aircraft during my previous career working for BAE Systems. The kit was okay, although the plastic is very soft. Ironically you can't make a Mk.127 out of the box mainly due to deficiencies in the cockpit, so I managed to acquire the Kinetic (Eduard) colour printed PE set to correct this. I also added PE seat belts from a TMk.1 set, master probe, Reskit wheels and Brassin AIM-9L's Thanks for looking. All comments welcome... Cheers, Tom

Hello all, Here is my entry for this GB - Kinetic's 1/48 Sea Harrier FRS.1. A subject I've been wanting to do for a while, it'll be marked as XZ451 of 801 Naval Air Squadron (formally of 899 NAS), which was credited with downing an Argentine Dagger and Hercules. Kit: Extras: I'll be using Eduard's Big Ed set that has interior/exterior etch and masks, along with Neomega resin Martin Baker MK.12 ejection seat and Flightpath FOD inserts. The excellent decal sheet: Some references: Will be armed with a pair each of AIM-9Ls, fuel tanks and gun pods. I might go with a 1000lb bomb on centre pylon too but I'll need to re-read Commander Wards book in the run up to the build to refresh my memory on load outs. Still have a Mig-21 and F-14 to get built! Cheers and stay safe Dave