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Hello everyone RF-5A, One of the historically significant aircraft in the inventory of the Imperial Iranian Air Force - IIAF. This aircraft was inducted into the reconnaissance squadron based at the First Tactical Fighter Base in Mehrabad, Tehran, during the 1960s. It effectively bridged the operational gap between the earlier RT-33A and the later RF-4E platforms. Following the induction of the RF-4E into service, the operational prominence of this aircraft in the tactical reconnaissance role began to decline. Nevertheless, it remained an active asset within the 11th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, contributing significantly by capturing high-value imagery of strategic installations prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Post-revolution, the platform continued to carry out reconnaissance missions during the early years of the Iran–Iraq War. Gradually, its role shifted from front-line reconnaissance to pilot training duties. For decades, no confirmed sightings of these aircraft in active service have been reported. A number of them were subsequently converted by the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA) into two-seat advanced trainers, a modified variant that was later designated as ''Simorgh F-5B'' Colors are Tamiya and Mr.Color painted free-hand. Decals are from Print scale. Cheers Barzin photo_2025-01-28_22-06-16 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr photo_2025-01-28_22-06-35 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3039 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr image-1-892 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr photo_2025-02-04_20-32-52 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr 2019_07_09_IMG_5796 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4008 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3989 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3971 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3988 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3991 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3990 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3985 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3983 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3977 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4017 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3970 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3984 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4001 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4005 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3975 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4009 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4003 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3996 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3993 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4002 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3998 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4031 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3973 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3967 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3989 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4010 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4014 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4016 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4024 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4007 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4020 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4021 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4027 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_402 9 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_3980 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4028 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4032 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_4046 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr An RF-5A over Iraqi territory, seen in a self-captured reconnaissance photo, having lost one of its horizontal stabilizers."

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.

Hello! I see that the GB has opened up so to commemorate that I'd like to start off with something to set the mood. Strangely enough Sabaton has yet to make a song about the Erdnagel, but Welle:Erdball has! What's better than to combine banging Chiptunes with german lyrics about the F-104G? Not much! Well, after this there is only one thing to do, and that is to present my little build, and for this GB I will bring out a Kinetic box: In order to satisfy my AMS addiction, but still keep it reasonably sane I "just" added this That should do it! I'll go for the boxart, just because Norm-83 looks nice 😍 I hope this kit goes together a bit more easily than that E-2 Hawkeye that I tried to build last year...

Having just finished reviewing this new kit from Kinetic, which was sent to us by Lucky Model in HK. You can read the review here, and I'm afraid that I caved in last night and began building it I started with the cockpit, expecting to get the seats done before I went in for tea, but I ended up building the cockpit, the sidewalls, and many of the other assemblies glued together so that it will be ready for sanding and painting as appropriate. The cockpit goes together well, with enough parts to make for a detailed rendition, although I would have liked to have seen some decals for the instrument panels, so I'll have to get some of my Airscale decals out to detail that area up with the help of some cockpit refs. Clean-up was made easier by the inclusion of a lot of the sprue gates on the mating surface, so you can just nip them off and give them a light sanding to tidy up. I suspect the instructions show the wrong part numbers on the instrument panels, as the front one appears too wide. Check that before you glue, and there are also a few parts where the numbering has gone awry, but they're easy to guess, and I managed to guess correctly. The seatbelts were a bit of a faff, but that's PE for you I tried to add a little variation between the two seats, which seems to have worked. Looks good, doesn't it? The wings fit together neatly too, and the join under the wings is pretty impressive, which probably won't need any filler. The nacelle fronts go together nicely, hiding the joins along piano-hinges that allow the real cowlings to open for maintenance. I also put together all the other flying surfaces, which were also flawless in construction, with very little clean-up required when the glue is fully cured. I've taped things together for the first photos of the airframe, but it won't be long before I can close up the fuselage, as the cockpit and nose gear bay are the only things withing the space. Neato! The wheels, tanks and pylons just fitted together nicely with no sign of dramas, but I decided to leave off the aft engine nacelle panels so that I could paint the exhausts properly before inserting them. Fit is very good there, and the rear edges of the insert are nice and thin, doing a good job of representing a single sheet of metal. The same goes for the exhaust plugs. They're pretty short, but have false perspective inside, which gives the impression of depth. I might put some Black 3.0 in the very bottom, fading it out to a rusty metallic sheen toward the lip. The next job is to uncover the spray booth, which has become a bit of a dumping ground over the last few weeks

For this STGB I'm going to build the Kinetic 1/48th F-104G. This Starfighter will be painted up as one of the aircraft of Marinefliegergeschwader 2 (MFG.2) armed with two Kormoran anti-shipping missiles. I took this photo of one at an airshow at RAF Alconbury in the mid 1980s. This is the aircraft that I will build. This is the Kinetic kit that I will be using, it contains the option of both fuselages but I will be using the single seat one. I have some AM to help with this build, Reskit exhaust, CMK ejection seat, Eduard resin wheels and Kormoran missiles, Master brass pitot probe, New Ware masking set and Quinta 3D decals for the cockpit and there set for the seat straps and cushions. I'll be using the Daco decals, they contain all the German Units that flew the F-104. The booklet contains camouflage schemes, marking and stencil placement guides. This will be the first of several Starfighter builds using these decals. Any questions or comments are always welcome.

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 Sea Harrier FRS.1 (http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234990951-sea-harrier-frs1-148/) and FA.2 (http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234968544-sea-harrier-fa2-148/) Kinetic is to release a 1/48th BAe Harrier T.2/T.4/T.8 kit - ref. K48040 Source: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/K48040 V.P.

Hi everyone, Here’s my 1/48 Kinetic Gold F-16A FAV/AMB "Caza 16 Dragones." One of the many jet fighters in Latin America, with a striking paint scheme. It was a fun build with some challenges along the way. Greetings from Ecuador!

Over the years, or should I say decades, I have collected a few F-16 kits and decal sheets but they never seemed to get into the build pile. With the start of this STGB this has changed, and one of the Kinetic Gold kits that I bought on a whim has been selected to be built. I did consider a Tamiya kit to build a Wild Weasel Viper, but perhaps next. When I read a review on this kit it praised the detail and accuracy, it said the only thing required was some seat belts for the Aces ejection seat. On asking some questions on the chat stream and reading some F-16 sites on t'internet I realised, depending on which Block of airframe that you build that there was an important detail required, certain Blocks had reinforcement plates attached along the fuselage. There are some after market sets available if you want to build your model with the correct reinforcement plates if you know which Block number the aircraft that you are building is from. FabScale and Tamiya have made their sets of reinforcement plates from p/e metal, Daco use a vinyl sheet of pre-cut shapes and Quinta make theirs in their 3D printed acrylic decal form in individual sets for specific aircraft Blocks and different kit manufacturers. I have decided to go with the Quinta items and have ordered a set for the cockpit and a set of reinforcement plates for this kit to build the Block 25 version and use the kit decals for the Texas Air National Guard. Thanks for looking. Any questions or comments are always welcome.

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

In February 1985 there was an airshow at my home town of Ballarat, Victoria (a bit over an hour up the road from Melbourne). The undoubted star of the show to a 10-year-old me was the RAAF Aircraft Research Development Unit (ARDU) Mirage IIIO, which had flown across from RAAF Base Edinburgh near Adelaide to put on a handling display. That jet, serial A3-2, was by then wearing its iconic 'Fanta can' orange and white paint scheme, and the display was fast and loud. This is not that display unfortunately, but It looks pretty familiar. I have been in love with the Mirage ever since! And so naturally I have long been keen to take part in this GB. Up front though I will apologise that I will have to be a very late starter - I'm over the hallway currently hosting the F-35 STGB, and will be focusing on my builds there until it wraps up. And so I'm sure I will make a start here but may well not be a finisher. But I'm keen to participate and so let's see how I go. I'll be using the Kinetic kit: Which I have read has its build challenges, but there are a number of threads here on Britmodeller with tips on how to best address those. There's a lot of plastic in the box, but a number of the sprues are for stores, so there is probably a relatively modest part count for the airframe itself. My planned subject won't be that ARDU aircraft I saw in 1985, although that is a bucket list build for me. Instead I'll be building a 1980s low-vis grey scheme, likely 75SQN's A3-25 from the Caracal Mirage III over Australia Part 2 decal sheet (pictured top). Although the kit decals sheet includes a nice grey RAAF 2OCU scheme as well... For now other aftermarket is limited to some masks, but I'm sure some resin goodies will find their way in my postbox at some points over the next few weeks. Finally, I also have some bedtime reading in Jack Gee's 'Mirage - Warplane for the World' book from 1971, so far a fascinating look at the Mirage program, and how Dassault made it such an export success. This, plus watching everyone else's builds here, will give my Mirage fix until I can start building my own. I'm looking forward to belatedly taking part! The Mirage is such a beautiful aeroplane, and I'm keen to seeing everyone else's beautiful builds too. Gerard (NB - the Mirage was affectionately known as the 'French lady' by those in the RAAF who flew and worked on it.)

This was started in the NATO 75th Anniversary GB (original build thread) but didn't get too far, so with approval from @Col. I'm hoping to get it over the line in this GB. Some progress since then has got to this stage: Mike

Hi all, I will be building the 1/48 Mirage IIIE kit from Kinetic, just like a few others here. Mine will be a French one, with EC 2/2 based at Dijon-Longvic in 1983, using a Berna decal sheet. In the end it should look something like this: https://www.escadrilles.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Mirage3E-1984_2LA-.jpg Other aftermarket will be a seat, wheels and exhausts from Sparkit, a small 3D resin company in France. As you will see they produce some very nice stuff. A Master pitot tube will also be used. I did start working on the cockpit a few weeks ago, but put it on hold for this Group Build. The French opted for a cozy black finish, so I used some Mr. Color WW2 Japanese cowling colour for it, just for a little off-black finish. Details are pretty nice OOB, in my opinion. Four different instrument panels are provided, and the one you're told to use is a decent match for a IIIE. The seat is a bit basic though: So it will be replaced with the Sparkit seat. I just hope it fits inside the tub. Equally nice are their wheels and exhausts: This should be a fun build, even with the little issues the kit is known to have.

Happy new year all. I finished this one today. Build started november last year. It’s the Kinetic 1/48 Mirage 2000D. The kit is kind of ok. A few fit issues here and there, but over all i like the surface details. I added Quinta cockpit 3d decals and a Reskit exthsust nozzle. Late in the build i found out that the nose is kind of wrong, but it was too late in the process, so i will live with that. Painted with Hataka acryllics and weathered with Flory wash, oils and pastels, trying to give it a weathered/sandy look. Here is is. Thanks for stopping by 🙂

UPDATE & RECAP: https://fb.watch/e5ohbB540U/ - ref. K48100 - General Dynamics/SABCA/Fokkker F-16AM (MLU) Fighting Falcon - NATO - released https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48100 - ref. K48101 - GD/LM F-16V Viper - RoCAF single seater https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48101 - ref. K48102 - Lockheed-Martin F-16C block 25/42 Viper - USAF - released https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48102 - ref. K48105 - Lockheed-Martin F-16D block 30/40/50 Fighting Falcon - USAF - released https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48105 - ref. K48107 - Lockheed Martin F-16C Viper - USAF Viper Demo Team 2024 - released https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48107 - ref. K48133 - Lockheed Martin F-16C block 52 Fighting Falcon - Republic Singapore Air Force with markings for the Black Knights Display Team - released https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48133 - ref. K48146 - GD/LM F-16C block 30 Fighting Falcon - Texas ANG "The Lone Star Gunfighters" - released https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48146 - ref. K48148 - LM F-16D Viper "Thunderbirds" - Gold Series Parts and Decals by Fightertown Decals - released https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48148 - ref. K48153 - Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) KF-16U Viper - Republic of Korea Air Force (RoKAF) - released https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48153 - ref. K48154 - General Dynamics/SABCA F-16AM (MLU) Fighting Falcon - Belgian Air Force demo bird "Dream Viper" - released https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48154 - ref. K48156 - General Dynamics F-16C Block 50/52 Viper - Polish Air Force - released https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48156 - ref. K48157 - Lockheed F-16AM (MLU) Fighting Falcon - Ukrainian AF - released https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48157 - ref. K48159 - General Dynamics F-16B Fighting Falcon - Kongelige Danske Flyvevåbnet (RDAF), Test Vikings - released https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48159 - ref. K48160 - General Dynamics F-16A/B block 20 Fighting Falcon - RoCAF 70th Anniversary Flying Tigers - released https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48160 - ref. K48161 - General Dynamics F-16AM (MLU) Fighting Falcon - Royal Thai Air Force - Cobra BVR - released https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48161 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.

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

This is the 1/72 Kinetic kit (originally Skunkworks) of the MQ-9A Reaper and was an impulse buy from Jadlam a few moths ago. It represents an early MQ-9A, without the additional sensor package on the forward fuselage and the strengthened main undercarriage/dampers that appeared later in its RAF career. Kinetic state that colour versions of the instructions and painting guide are available online, but this does not seem to be the case and you will need to refer to references to find out where every decal goes (or look at the instructions from the Italeri issue of this kit!) Provided you tidy up the sprue attachment points it is a quick and easy build. It is also a determined tail-sitter, so I filled the nose with lead shotgun pellets until it would sit happily on its own (and then they all fell out again!). Kinetic provide an impressive array of decals for most Reaper operators although sadly, all of the aircraft are a rather uninspiring overall grey ! I've fitted a full weapons load, although it doe sseem that RAF Repaers rarely carry the bombs, preferring Brimstone. The difference in size, compared to the earlier MQ-1 Predator is signifcant:

The Kinetic's future 1/48th AMD-BA/Dornier Alpha Jet E first CAD drawing is here: Source: http://s362974870.on...howtopic=255517 V.P.

Hi all, It's my first RFI post for a long time... Before I go any further, I have to say a massive thanks to @NG899 who has provided much advice and answered many questions throughout this build - people like Nick make Britmodeller excellent Continuing my Fleet Air Arm fast jet collection in 1/48, I tackled Kinetic's Sea Harrier FRS.1. I assumed this was a modern, advanced kit, but I soon found out that was not quite the case... There were many challenges and modifications along the way, I made a few mistakes, but I'm delighted with the result - I'm particularly happy to see the improvement in my airbrushing skills. To further add to the time it took to build, I was kept away from modelling by a few things; learning to fly the Chipmunk by completing a tailwheel conversion, a few weeks working out in Italy and, 6 weeks working every evening and weekend converting half my gagre into a new modelling room! To the kit, I added the following; 3D printed air intakes, intake fan and Gas Turbine Starter exhaust (designed by myself), resin ejection seat (I can't remember who from!), Black Dog Sea Harrier improvement set, Aires exhaust nozzles, Reskit wheels, Master pitot probe, Master AoA probe, Eduard Sidewinders with my own 3D printed ADU-299 adapters, AK Interactive lenses on the main landing gear, aluminium tube on the outrigger gear and brass tube to replace the fuel vent pipes - as well as numerous other minor modifications/corrections to the kit. Airbrushed with Gunze Extra Dark Sea Grey and varnished with GX100 before being weathered with oils and MIG panel line wash before a final satin varnish from Winsor and Newton. I utterly adore the Sea Harrier, it's probably my favourite fighter jet, my next build was planned to be Kinetic's Sea Harrier FA2, however, I've decided I need a break from Kinetic kits, so I'm currently working on two Hasegawa Skyhawks (Argentine). Thanks for looking! Ben

#15/2024 My dad continues with the Asian silverbirds. Kinetic kit (some fit problems with the 3-part air intakes and the avionics bay cover, rest was ok) with Iliad Design decals. Added some Eduard PE belts to the kit seat. MRP Super Silver for the main body, different MRP and AK RC paints like Steel, Dark Aluminium, Aluminium for the rear area, underwings painted with Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey for the ADC grey, nose with Gunze H311 FS36622. Build thread here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235140246-badmash148-lockheed-f-104a-starfighter-pakistan-airforce/ In 1961, the PAF received 12 Starfighters in total, 10 F-104A and two F-104B two-seaters, serving with No.9 Squadron "The Griffins". The Pakistani pilots nicknamed the F-104 "Badmash". They saw combat action in the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakistani Wars. During the years, combat and accident losses were compensated by donations from Taiwan and Jordan. The PAF phased out the F-104 in 1972. "56-803" was lost on September 3rd 1964 in a fatal crash, piloted by F/L Tariq Masood, who couldn´t pull up in time during a strafing run exercise. DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0002 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0003 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0004 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0005 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0006 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0007 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0008 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0011 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0012 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0013 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0014 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0016 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0018 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0020 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0021 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0022 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0023 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0024 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0025 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0026 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

Time for my dad to start the next silverbird. After two Indian ones, now also a Pakistani one. The PAF received 12 (or 14) Starfighters in the early 60ies and they saw combat in the 1965 and 1971 wars with India. The Pakistanis nicknamed the F-104 badmash. Seems the info on the Iliad design sheet is wrong and 56-803 didn´t participate in the 1971 war. Found info on two websites that 803 was lost in 1964 in a fatal strafing run training crash. DSC_0003 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0004 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0005 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

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 guys! This is my little participant: Although is says French Navy on the box, it also contains stickers for VAW-112 Golden Eagles so that sorts out that little issue. I bought this on a whim a little while ago since a Swedish hobby store dumped them with 93% off! That's about 3£ in your money...too good to pass up! I'm planning to go completely OOTB on this so I haven't bought a thing for it. Very unusual for me But what's in that box then? Sprues. Sprues to the walls! It just never ends 😱 The selected pain scheme is a little bland, but ok I guess FS 16440 all over is quite dull, and no fancy tail art either... But this will be fine! I could always weather the crap out of it! The Eyes of the Fleet does work hard, right? The stickers looks very nice though, so no complaints there! The destructions are a joke. A5 format with 18 steps? Airfix would've used 118 for sure! I actually cheated a bit and added some weights to the front. I wonder if that is enough for folded wings? Otherwise i need to add more. Time to put it back in the box again! But that is no longer possible since I opened it once!? Did I say that there are sprues all over the place now?

Despite a few issues, the 1/48 Kinetic Harrier kit is a delight to build. Huge thanks to @NG899 for the superb information on corrections, etc - I did try to incorporate some of these. Aftermarket was just in the cockpit, with Eduard instrument panels and seatbelts. The kit itself has a little sprue of photo-etch but the seatbelts in that are too small. I used the lettering from the Xtradecal set for the serials, otherwise the rest is out of the box. This is the photo I used as inspiration, it captures the look of the mid-80s Harrier perfectly; one can almost feel the warmth of a sunny afternoon and smell of jet fumes and cut grass at Middle Wallop airshow back in those halcyon days for RAF aviation. XV758 entered RAF service in 1969 and was operated by 233 OCU throughout the mid 1980s. The aircraft survives to this day, on display at Decimomannu airfield on Sardinia. WIP thread here: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235139885-raf-wittering-harrier-gr3/ I’m planning on an almost identical one but with 1 Sqn markings this time, plus a T.4 of 233 OCU. All comments, criticism and banter or general Harrier chat welcome as always!

One of my favourites from the 80s, the remarkable Harrier, perhaps after the Spitfire the greatest ever in the pantheons of British aviation history. Apparently the lads selected to fly the Harrier were the very best from the RAF’s already fiendishly difficult fast jet training courses, so possibly had a genuine claim to be the world’s ‘best of the best’. The Kinetic kit is superb, and includes an extensive decal sheet, metal etch parts and plenty of weapons/stores options along with different nose, tail and even wing styles. For this one I’ll be building a mid-80s jet from the Harrier training unit, 233 OCU based at Wittering. The familiar box, love this artwork! Some aftermarket stuff … This is the general theme I’ll be following for the build. I’m considering oob as XV760/F, although it may yet be one from XV744/D, XV758/J or XV808/L. All of these airframes are still extant (albeit 760 as just the nose), and I’m kind of tempted by 758/J because I love this photo taken at Middle Wallop in 1984 … I might try and get an Eduard cockpit as there are no instrument decals included.