Search the Community

Completed yesterday & a tail sitter despite adding lots of Liquid Gravity in the nose. Not a great kit with a mix of sturdy & well moulded parts combined with a flexible fuselage around the wheel bays. Weapons are from the box & are chunky. Decals also from the kit, with many not mentioned in the instructions so I resorted to online searches and following other builds on here. Overall a frustrating build of what could, or should, be a simple kit. Edge

For the 2001 Airshow at Leeuwarden AFB, F-16A (MLU) of the Dutch Air Force was painted with a special tail scheme depicting 323 Squadron's badge of Diane (the hunter). In latter years it has carried several other tail designs (most of which are available from Daco Products). The only photos I could find of this airframe from 2001 had rather boring loadouts but I did find an undated one where it has live GBU24s and AIM120s (though with a plain tail - so I've wielded my Modeller's Licence to produce this combination) It was built from the Eduard "Nato Falcons" limited edition boxing of the Kinetic plastic, which included resin seats, exhaust, wheels and photo etch for the cockpit and some airframe details. It is one of my earlier efforts which never got fully finished - I'm not too happy with the fit around the nose BUT Kinetic's use of multiple choice panels to enable various Block versions to be built can lead to fit issues. Painted with Gunze acrylics, decals are mostly from the kit though those on the armament were mainly from the FighterTown F-14 "extras" sheet. Mike

Hi everyone, here is my recent completion for the Interceptors group build. It’s a Danish CF-104D made from kinetic’s 1/48 release and is OOB except for some (rubbish) decals that all silvered badly. Starboard side is going through a process of fixing that issue but Port side is shown here, with lesser but still present silvering and all. here’s the build thread: and it’s based on this airframe... And here with her older sister-

Sooooooooo Not heard much from Quack for a bit Wonder what he's been up to Oh Lordy! It looks like he's been mashing a perfectly good Kinetic 1/48 Alpha Jet........poor thing...... Hope he's got a VERY good explanation for this...... Errrr, well, it's like this, y'see .......... I'd finished the 74 Sqn Phantom FGR.2 which I was quite pleased with - then looked around for summat else t'build. I've got a Revell 1/48 Tornado GR.4 which I want to finish as a Granby GR.1, but frankly it scares me a bit and it's likely to be a bit of a long slog (the way I do things!) I'd looked around for another (quicker) 1/48 Brit jet of the cold war era but nothing really took my fancy - unable to find an Airfix 1/48 Lightning F.6 or Canberra PR.9, which were on my "ooooh-I-do-fancy-one-of-those" list - couldn't even track down a Kinetic Sea Harrier. Eventually I decided to have a go at the Kinetic 1/48 Alpha Jet - and stick RAF roundels on it - just for a giggle. Chose this boxing as it even comes with QinetiQ markings.......... boxtop by Niall Robertson, on Flickr And look! It shows an under-fuselage gun pod thingy that fires little jet or rocket propelled bullets!!!! boxtop (2) by Niall Robertson, on Flickr I even thought I might have a bit of fun with a WIP thread.......... Started on the cockpit - IPs are quite well detailed but rather softly moulded, and I totally @rsed the painting. Not to worry thinks Quack, I'll drill out the instruments and fill the nice circular voids with paint, how neat! After burning out my dremel-oid drill (it was just tired, old and useless - like Quack) I tried the old pin vice. Unfortunately the panel ended up with some rather odd perforations - reasonably IP-like, but nothing remotely resembling an Alpha Jet IP! OK - bash on, but NO WIP, and Cockpit closed for once. Fabric cover on the cockpit coaming was done with a layer of tissue stuck down and wrinkled with PVA, then painted tan. So far so Good-ish. Fit was basically ok, but wait.....why are those huge deep panels lines so prominent? The ground crew could drop a sandwich in there, and lose it forever, unless they salvage a toastie at the end of the sortie. Losing some interest now - worse when realising that the Destructions are rather vague.........sometimes........often............a bit.........maybe........yeah, er.............better look at more pictures of the real thing.......again.......and again........ Losing even more interest now - just wanting to get on with it and switch to something I'm really captivated by - maybe I should've started the Tornado after all??? Oh look - there are predrilled holes under the wings that need filled since the SpaghettiQ aircraft were always too shy to allow themselves to be seen with underwing tanks or ordnance - no biggie - just wedge a bit of stretched sprue in there then shave it off and sand it down. Painting next! Yummy! Black! My Favourite! Actually - after a past disaster with an RAF Black Hawk ( I mean a Hawk ............ that's black!) I was reasonably happy with the finish with MRP paint on this. Decals went on nicely - Cartograph beauties kindly provided in the Kinetic box. A few overcoats with W&N Galeria Gloss to seal in the decals. Clever Quack ( ................. ) then decides to represent the anti glare panel on the nose with a neat patch of matt varnish-over-black. Masked and hand painted with thinned Vallejo matt) - truly horrible lines when the masking came off - really dreadful raised ridges that needed completely re-sanded, repainted, and re-glossed - then masked off again and sprayed with a little Alclad II Matt - Finally! a good finish! Except when the masking tape came off this time so did a chunk of the QinetiQ Q!!!!!! Dammit....they....were....sealed.....! Resisting the urge to dig a very deep hole in the garden - I (sort of) managed a decal repair using part of a Belgian roundel ........ not great, but ok from 6 foot viewing distance, without my glasses. Ever had one of those draining builds which seem ok initially but then you realise you're not as interested as you thought, and you just plod on making more and more silly errors as your interest wanes ever further?????? Anyway. It got finished! And it looks like this................ 20210404_095444 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr 20210404_095355 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr 20210404_095336 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr 20210404_095326 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr 20210404_095153 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr 20210404_095116 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr 20210404_095054 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr 20210404_095039 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr 20210404_095021 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr Now, anybody got any suggestions for the next build - at the moment it looks like the Tornado with Granby relish. Stay safe y'all. Keep calm and mangle plastic! Q

Howdy, Something a little different from me. I'm not a huge fan of modern aircraft, but I'm a big fan of Australian Aboriginal art. This aircraft was painted to commemorate WO Leonard Victor Waters, a member of the Worimi people, and Australia's first indigenous aviator. WO Waters flew 95 combat missions with the RAAF in the southwest Pacific. On account of intense discrimination against Aboriginal peoples in post-war Australia, WO Waters was unable to find support for his efforts to launch an airline, and was not even allowed to practice as an automotive mechanic (even though he was a mechanic in the RAAF prior to becoming a pilot). He became a sheep shearer and died in 1993. The commemorative hornet is a long overdue albeit small gesture acknowledging Mr. Waters and the other Aboriginal men who fought during WWII and were then long forgotten. . . . . On to the build. The kit for this project is Kintetic's FA-18A+B/CF-188. I bought it in 2019 and started gluing some of the fuselage together, but abandoned the project frustrated by mediocre fit. The kit is only about 5% built, so I assume its eligible for this GB. The decals are by Model Maker, a firm I'm not familiar with, but they look nice. One of my modeling goals for this year is to finish up long abandoned builds, and this will be a fun way to do this one. Here is where I currently stand. Step one will be to add more filler to some of those joints and clean them up a little better.

FMA IA 58 Pucará (K48078) 1:48 Kinetic Model via LuckyModel Originally named the Delfin in prototype stage, the Pucará is a indigenous ground-attack and COunter-INsurgency (COIN) aircraft developed by the Fábrica Militar de Aviones, Argentina’s main aircraft manufacturers. It was designed to operate from rough fields if necessary, and was powered by two turboprop engines in nacelles in the wings. That, coupled with the long landing gear legs gave it adequate ground clearance when armed, even on the aforementioned rough fields. If first flew at the end of the 60s and was developed through the early 70s with various engines and other changes, until the first production airframe came off the line in 1974. The next year they were in service and engaged in COIN duties as their first combat sorties, but it wasn’t too long before the Falklands invasion led to the war that followed, by which time there were around 60 aircraft in service. Argentina’s decision to base the Pucarás at Port Stanley airfield led to a substantial number of aircraft being destroyed on the ground by various means, while ground fire took down another quantity, and the Harriers either scared the life out of them in the air or shot them down, famously the one downed by Sharkey Ward, which is one of the decal subjects of the kit (before he filled it with holes). After the war the British found themselves in possession of 11 airframes, six of which were taken back to the UK, and some are now to be found in museums. Several attempts were made to improve the aircraft, but suffered from funding issues and were usually cancelled before they got too far. With the few remaining airframes and subsequent new-builds hopelessly outdated, a programme was instigated to create the Pucará Delta, with more modern avionics, more powerful engines and other improvements. With their withdrawal from service in their original role, a few have been converted to Pucará Fenix (Phoenix) standards for maritime patrol, with a few more scheduled to join them, funds permitting. The Kit The Pucará has been very poorly served in 1:48, with mostly resin kits, some of them horrible - you probably know which one I mean. Now we have Kinetic bringing their new injection moulded kit to the market, and a lot of people that have been dreaming of owning a kit in this scale will get their wish without spending a small fortune and having to wrangle resin with its possible pitfalls. This is a brand-new tooling, and on the box there is a note that new engraving technology has been used in creation of the tooling, using lasers for crisp, fine detail. Having looked over the sprues under magnification, I can believe that because the myriad of tiny louvers around the airframe are excellent, as are the crisp panel lines and fine rivet lines. Very smart! The cockpit, and gear bays are also very nicely appointed and should look great under paint, especially with the Photo-Etch (PE) seatbelts. The kit arrives in one of Kinetic’s Gold boxes with black and gold accents, and inside are five sprues in grey styrene, a clear sprue, a small sheet of PE, decal sheet and of course the instruction booklet with the greyscale profiles in the rear. A lot of people have complained at the poor quality of these drawings in the past, and I’m sure they’ll do it again now, as the darker of the two is very difficult to see properly. Fortunately, our resident Rumourmongerer found some colour profiles online, so I’ve reproduced parts of them here. I’ll link to the original post by @Homebee in the Markings section. Construction begins with the two ejection seats, which are a variant of the Mk.6 from Martin-Baker. As there have been more than a few variants, check your references before you replace them with resin seats if you choos that route. Personally, I think they look pretty good, and are of the correct shape for the type. Each seat is made from eight styrene parts and has five PE belt parts, so have plenty of detail for most of us. The cockpit tub is well-detailed with side consoles to which the two instrument panels, rudder pedals and control columns are added, then the coaming is placed over the rear console with a PE edge fitted, before the two seats are dropped into their positions. There are copious colour call-outs in AMMO codes, which will help you get it painted the correct colours without having to pore over your references. Attention then shifts to the lower wings and fuselage halves, preparing them for use later by opening a number of holes for alternative antenna fits and the centreline tank. This brief interlude splits the completion of the cockpit in half, following up by adding the well-detailed nose gear bay to the bottom of the forward cockpit along with a few detail parts, then fitting sidewall details inside the fuselage to complement the work on the tub. With that done, we flit back to the wings, which have the similarly nicely done bays inserted into the bottom of the nacelles before the top wing surface is glued in place, then adding the aft cowling and exhaust, followed by the front cowling halves and a front panel where the prop later fits. A pylon with landing light is made up and inserted under the outer wing joint, and the same job is carried out in mirror image on the opposite wing. The lower wing panel incorporates a section of the lower fuselage, and these are mated together with an incitement to insert an undisclosed nose-weight before you do. The front of the fuselage spine is added behind the cockpit, and the big T-tail is fitted either side of the moulded-in fin, plus two loop antennae underneath them. At the front, the coaming is glued into the recess and finished with a PE rollbar added to the lip. The ailerons, elevators and rudder are all moulded into their respective flying surfaces, however the flaps that straddle the engine nacelles are separate, fitted on a number of actuators that are glued to the training edge of the lower wing. The two flap-sections per side are made up of two parts each and attached to the brackets, but for some reason this process has been split by the installation of the landing gear. The main gear have a simple straight leg with separate oleo-scissors and twin wheels at the bottom end, which have a sag on the tyres that is correct for the type, as they were inflated to lower pressures to cope with rough fields. There is a perforated retraction arm and various door control mechanism parts, with the nose gear somewhat similar, but with only one wheel. Scrap diagrams assist you with construction at this stage, then it’s a matter of adding the slab-like doors to each of the three bays. Like any reasonably modern airframe, there is a forest of antennae over the fuselage top, bottom and sides, plus shell-chutes and a crew step near the front, which are best left off until later. The canopy is nicely clear, although my sample had a small chaffing mark on the very top, which I’ll polish out before I build it. There are PE internal side frames for the canopy, plus a pair of rear-view mirrors, and a styrene knob for the opening and closing. Another scrap diagram shows the correct location of the side frames, and a pair of jacks are supplied in case you want to mount the canopy open. The windscreen part has a HUD within it, and a wiper blade on the outside, then the two props are made up from a single blade set, front and back spinner, with a three-part extension that gives them that weird look. Part C42 is often painted a bright sky blue, which accentuates the odd-look of the prop. The final parts of the airframe itself are a number of static-discharge wicks at the tips of the wings, elevators and rudder. Nice attention to detail. The average Pucará was often laden with weapons, and an important part is the 500gal midline tank that it carries under its fuselage. Smaller tanks can be fitted to the wing pylons, and a pair of BRU-42/A TER racks are included in the box, with lots of parts making a nice focal point under the wings. You’ll need to find your own bombs or rockets if you want to model one loaded for bear however. Markings There are two markings options in the box on a modest sized sheet that has been designed for Kinetic by Two Bobs Decals. One Argentinian and one Uruguayan. From the box you can build one of the following: FMA IA-58A/D Pucará Argentinian Air Force, Maj. Carlos Tomba, Falkland Isles, 1982 FMA IA-58A/D Pucará Uruguayan Air Force Full colour profiles can be found here. 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. Conclusion This is a kit I’ve been personally longing for for several years now, and I’m sure I’m not alone. It is well-detailed throughout, with sensible construction and although it only has two decal options, they are high quality in design and execution, although I can’t help wondering if there should be more stencils. This kit is now on my workbench, so if you'd like to see how it goes together, you can find it here. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hello friends Some of you may have been following my build report. Now it's time to hire it here at the RFI. It was different and was a lot of fun. So I am satisfied. I am open to constructive criticism.

Perhaps I’m posting in the wrong spot - please move me along if this stuff belongs in the armour section, but I’ve always been very fond of these little support vehicles, and the collection’s filling up nicely. The NC-8A was built for a Miramar A-4 Mongoose diorama, the lovely little Tamiya Moto tug will go with a Late Corsair one day. The aftermarket companies are making some cracking accessories these days, the ALBAR is from Brengun and the chocks are Wheeliant iirc, amazing detail, the chocks actually slide along the bar and the ALBAR is articulated too. The Velinden vehicles are pretty hard to find these days, but they’re great little kits (save the diabolical dry transfers! Peddinghaus has been making proper water decals for the kits, although I haven’t tried them) I thought I’d long lost the two MD-3As I’d made and painted in the early 90’s (and was keeping an eye on eBay) until clearing out my son’s room (too old for Lego now, apparently) - Lo and behold a tiny camo box! I stripped them back using IPA, a few repairs and embellishments were added- tyres were built back up, new handbrakes and tie down loops made, etc. So here’s where I’m at right now, all a bit garish but it will all tone down with an oil filter all being well. The Huffer hose was shrink tubing and Tamiya wire, the Anti-Skid texture was a SprayMount undercoat, can held miles away for some nice big globs. It looks the nuts, but it’s not very durable, perhaps someone here has a better alternative? Never one to finish a project, I’ve been ‘catching up’ this offering from Kinetic - successor to the MD-3A, an AS3.....a White One. It’s ok as a starting point but needed a bit of scribing and a few other mods (new widened seat cushions, tie down loops, fuel filler etc) to get it up to the standard of the Verlinden tractors. That’s it for now. Part of me wanted to keep the 30-year old hairy stick finish I suppose, it wasn’t that shoddy really (considering what I was doing in the 90’s). The other part of me has an iwata and a Fightertown decal sheet. No contest 😁

XV778 was delivered to the RAF in April 1970 as a GR1. It was converted to GR3 standard in the early 70s when it received the updated Mk103 Pegasus engine, before receiving the laser nose and tail RWR by 1977. This Harrier served in Belize and later took part in exercises in Norway during its time with 1 Sqn at Wittering. The Kinetic kit is absolutely fantastic, fitting together well and with great detail and superb decals. I’ve depicted the Harrier as an early GR3 pre laser nose. Huge thanks to @NG899 for the brilliant and very helpful extra info on the kit and the Harrier in general. All comments welcome!

Harrier GR.1/GR.3 2-in-1 (K48060) 1:48 Kinetic via Lucky Model 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 difficult 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 has to control the throttle, direction of the airflow, and also make minor adjustments to its attitude and altitude with the use of puffer jets, even before having to do anything like fight 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 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 peculiar looking laser tracker in an extended nose fairing, as well as many sensor, avionics upgrades and Electronic Counter Measures (ECM). When the GR.3 was transported to the Falklands in 1982 to back up the new 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 SHAR losses if they were to occur, 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 corners of eyes twitch for those wot know. The Kit For many years modellers of the Harrier were crying out for a good quality new tooling in this scale, and Kinetic have 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 in the past year or two. 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 new kit is a thoroughly modern tooling, benefitting from a lot of extra detail that just wasn't possible back when the older toolings were made. It arrives in the Kinetic Gold box with a rather nice painting of a GR.3 on the front with seven sprues inside in a mid-grey styrene, plus one in clear, a fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, and a large 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 copies from LuckyModel’s website. Some of the sprues date back to the Sea Harrier FRS.1, with others coming from the trainer Harriers, plus a couple of new sprues including a new fuselage with optional LRMTS (Laser Rangefinder and Marked Target Spotter) nose parts, and of course the early single-seat fuselage. Construction begins with the cockpit, and there is plenty of detail packed into this small space. The tub has moulded in side consoles with plenty of raised details, instrument panel, side consoles, rudder pedals and control column also present, along with a two-part HUD that is made completely from clear parts. The Martin-Baker ejection seat is well detailed too, and has two side parts with raised rivets, two seat cushions, a head-box topper, and pull-handle between the pilot's knees for emergency exits, plus the tube housing the rocket motor in the rear. The pilot sits right in front of the engine, and the rear bulkhead with moulded-in detail attaches to the combined intake trunking/nose gear bay. The intake narrows to a circular profile via a short lip, into which the engine front face is inserted, which has the prototypical ring toward the outer edge of the blades. The single main gear bay is built up from two sides to maximise the moulded-in detail, and the rear air-brake bay is a combination of four parts with the thick ribbing moulded in to allow the brake to be posed open or closed, with the aid of a separate jack. These are placed inside the fuselage, which can be closed up after the stubs for the four vectoring nozzles are built up, along a linkage that ensures all nozzles move in unison. You'll need to be frugal with the glue here if you want to be able to VIFF your Harrier after building, or simply glue it at the desired angle. The exhaust nozzles are very nicely done, with lots of moulded in detail thanks to some slide moulding, 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 that captures the curve nicely - there are two in the box, so ensure that you choose the right one. 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 completely 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, with 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, or the extended LRMTS with clear lights, 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. 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 end 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 also 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 just in case. In addition are the following weapons for you to choose from: 6 x AIM-9 Sidewinder A2A missiles 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. 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 gleatly 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. Extremely highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

After the 1/24th P-47D Thunderbolt "Bubbletop" (http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234957632-124-republic-p-47d-thunderbolt-by-kinetic-ex-vintage-fighter-series-released/) Kinetic is to release another variant from this big fighter, the 1/24th Republic P-47D Thunderbolt "Razorback" - ref.K3208. Source: https://www.facebook.com/Kineticmodel/posts/409563222544128 V.P.

Hallo again This here is my third Kfir in 1/48. For cutting extra fine resin parts I use the US-cutter. So I can get out every resin part. For sawing I use japaneses saws, which reduce the volume of chips to 20% of the 100% to normal saws, you are used to have or we comonly buy. The first was an Italeri with a conversation set from Isracast several years ago. The second you may see on the forum, was from ANK. This third one is from Kinetic with resin parts from Wingman (cockpit) and Aires (exhaust, scoops and antennas and pitot). The plastic is very different to AMK. In every sense. I do not want to judge it. But I can tell, that the main fuselage is more accurate, as in the AMK. The lever mechanism for the two small wheelbay doors is also there. This was a missing part on AMK. The installation for the main gear strut is also better. We can see the finished a/c and then you may decide it. The resin cockpit including front wheelbay is accurate. The really sad point is, that the left side console aft the throttle is a worse molding! I painted all the cockpit tube by airbrush in C308 and C2. All details later on by brush. The air intake I did preassemble, spraying and total gap filling and grinding before any installation in the fuselage. The gap is too big. Cockpit installation is easy and fuselage completion too. But one point to remark: The Aires nozzle needs some surgery inside the support of the nozzle and tube! Now after grinding the assembled a/c I put on some surfacer on the gaps underwing, and on spots, which I filed already with CA. Now I sprayed the glasses and do final painting on the ejection seat. Here it is my intention, to show a nearly clean a/c, just with supersonic tanks on the wings. Maybe I add the launcher for the Python 3. The four airbrakes I will not close entirely just a little bit open. The flaps are in down position. Since I have photos from the a/c I want to build, I will have to pre-shade it according photos. If it works out, you may see both photos. In a few days, I will show you more. Happy modelling

AV-8A Harrier USMC (K48072) 1:48 Kinetic via Lucky Model 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 difficult 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 has to control the throttle, direction of the airflow, and also make minor adjustments to its attitude and altitude with the use of puffer jets, even before having to do anything like fight 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 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 peculiar looking laser tracker in an extended nose fairing, as well as many sensor, avionics upgrades and Electronic Counter Measures (ECM). When the GR.3 was transported to the Falklands in 1982 to back up the new 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 SHAR losses if they were to occur, 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. The US in the form of the US Marine Corps overcame some obstacles at home to purchase the Harrier as they saw its potential for close air support, and also later for close in air defence. The main noticeable difference from RAF machines being the large aerial on the spine. The early Harriers suffered a high loss rate for the USMC as the aircraft was unlike any other to operate. MC continue to operate their next generation Harriers even buying up the UK Harrier fleet to provide a source of spares in a controversial move once those aircraft were retired. The Kit For many years modellers of the Harrier were crying out for a good quality new tooling in this scale, and Kinetic have 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 in the past year or two. 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 new kit is a thoroughly modern tooling, benefitting from a lot of extra detail that just wasn't possible back when the older toolings were made. It arrives in the Kinetic Gold box with a rather nice painting of a GR.3 on the front with seven sprues inside in a mid-grey styrene, plus one in clear, a fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, and a large decal sheet. The instruction booklet is in portrait A4, and the painting and markings diagrams are at the rear in greyscale. Some of the sprues date back to the Sea Harrier FRS.1, with others coming from the trainer Harriers, plus a couple of new sprues including a new fuselage with optional LRMTS (Laser Rangefinder and Marked Target Spotter) nose parts, and of course the early single-seat fuselage Though the USMC Boxing all the parts for the RAF Harriers are in the box. Construction begins with the cockpit, and there is plenty of detail packed into this small space. The tub has moulded in side consoles with plenty of raised details, instrument panel, side consoles, rudder pedals and control column also present, along with a two-part HUD that is made completely from clear parts. The instructions have different seats for different decal options; The MB seat is well detailed, with two side parts with raised rivets, two seat cushions, a head-box topper, and pull-handle between the pilot's knees for emergency exits, plus the tube housing the rocket motor in the rear. The Stencel Seat has its top pull handle seat cushions and PE belts The pilot sits right in front of the engine, and the rear bulkhead with moulded-in detail attaches to the combined intake trunking/nose gear bay. The intake narrows to a circular profile via a short lip, into which the engine front face is inserted, which has the prototypical ring toward the outer edge of the blades. The single main gear bay is built up from two sides to maximise the moulded-in detail, and the rear air-brake bay is a combination of four parts with the thick ribbing moulded in to allow the brake to be posed open or closed, with the aid of a separate jack. These are placed inside the fuselage, which can be closed up after the stubs for the four vectoring nozzles are built up, along a linkage that ensures all nozzles move in unison. You'll need to be frugal with the glue here if you want to be able to VIFF your Harrier after building, or simply glue it at the desired angle. The exhaust nozzles are very nicely done, with lots of moulded in detail thanks to some slide moulding, 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 that captures the curve nicely - there are two in the box, so ensure that you choose the right one. 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 completely 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, with 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 the tapered cone nose with clear lights and pitot probe fitted. 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. Finally the large spine aerial prominent on the AV-8A needs adding. The end 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 also 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 just in case. As has been mentioned the rocket pods included with the kit (Not for the USMC options anyway) represent something of an airshow fit with the rockets protruding from the tubes, something not seen operationally. In addition are the following weapons for you to choose from: 6 x AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles (However these would seem to be later model ones) 2 x Drop Tanks (Large) 2 x Drop Tanks (Small) 4 x AIM120 AMRAAM Beyond Visual Range (BVR) A2A missiles 2 x Sea Eagle Anti-Ship Missile (ASM) Most of this it would seem for this boxing will end up in the spare bins, and the question to be asked is why no US Specific weapons were included? 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. Markings Kinetic have included a generous seven sets of markings in the kit, they show all the Harriers the same colour, however they were delivered in British Standard colours to the USMC. The first ones being gloss while the later ones were matt. When the USMC went to toned down markings the aircraft were re-painted in FS colors. From the box you can depict one of the following: Harrier 158975 - VMA-513 Det B 1982 Harrier 158976 - VMA-513 1974 Harrier 159259 - VMA-542 Det B 1977 Harrier 158710 - VMA-542 Det B 1977 Harrier 158962 - VMA-542 Det B 1981 Harrier 158955 - VMA-231 Det H 1980 Harrier 159240 - VMA 231 CV-42 USS Franklin D Roosevelt 1977 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. Unfortunately the profiles in the instructions are black & white with low contrast and not very clear. There are no colour profiles available as there were for the GR.1/GR.3 I would say Kinetic really need to improve in this area. Conclusion A thoroughly modern tooling of the first generation of this 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. It is a shame a bit more thought was not put into the USMC boxing, and the lack of colour profiles is a disappointment. Still highly recommended though.. Review sample courtesy of

In July 2020 Kinetic is to release new variants from its 1/48th Dassault Mirage III/5 kits: a "2 in 1" boxing from the IAI Nesher S & T (single or double seat) - ref. 48056. Source: https://www.facebook.com/Kineticmodel/posts/1567070526793386 Soon here: https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48056 https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/K48085 V.P.

F-104J/F-104DJ [2in1] Starfighter JASDF (K48092) 1:48 Kinetic Model via Lucky Model The Starfighter was another of Kelly Johnson’s advanced designs, although some might argue that at least initially it wasn’t one of his best. The initial design had problems with the ejection seat, which fired downward in early models, but its original remit was a high-altitude interceptor so that wouldn’t really have been an issue in all but the most extreme situations. When its role was widened this became a greater problem, as did its relatively high landing speed and comparative lack of manoeuvrability in a dogfight, amongst other things. It served in Vietnam, but was withdrawn pretty quickly from US service due to its general unsuitability, and while looking for suitable victims/buyers, Lockheed were embarrassed by and found guilty of passing huge bribes and “incentives” to companies and politicians to sell their “man in a missile” design to other counties. Those politicians suffered embarrassment and resignations, as did the head of Lockheed at the time who resigned, although no-one went to jail IIRC. The F-104G was a serious redesign of the aircraft, incorporating the larger tail of the two-seater, a new more powerful version of the GE J79 jet engine, new avionics and stronger landing gear, coupled with a larger drag chute helped reduce landing problems. The F-104J was a version of the F-104G for the Japanese. A handful were built by Mitsubishi from parts kits while they geared up for licensed production. The J was for the air superiority role and had no strike capability unlike the G The Kit This is a reboxing of the newly tooled F-104 Starfighter from Kinetic to include an additional new fuselage, cockpit etc. so that a single- or two-seat airframe can be made from the same box. The kit arrives in the standard top-opening box, with the Kinetic Gold badge over a painting of a two-seat Starfighter, and inside are five sprues in grey styrene, one in clear, a small sheet of Photo-Etch (PE), decals and instruction booklet in black and white, which could do with being a little better printed in truth. Happily, the parts on the sprues aren’t at all vague, and it is a well-tooled, nicely detailed kit of this type, with a good choice of decal options and the possibility of more on the sheet thanks to a large block of generic numbers. It should be note that while this is a two in one kit, both can not be built from the box. Construction begins with deciding whether you want to build a single seat or two seat aircraft, with the TF built on pages 4-13 and the F on 14-23 of the booklet. This is a nice easy way for the modeller to build the aircraft, as it takes all of the either/or decisions out of the mix apart from that first one. The sprues contain two complete fuselages, and around the rest of the sprues you will find the two cockpits, a new insert for under the nose and a slightly revised gear bay for the TF. The TF-104 wasn’t fitted with the Vulcan cannon, and a little less internal tankage, no centreline pylon, and of course had a redesigned forward fuselage to accommodate the additional crew member, although with no increase in overall length. The seats for the single and dual seater are identical C-2 ones (though the Mk.Q7(A) units are there as well), and are each built up from six styrene parts and a set of PE belts for each one, plus two more plastic parts that forms the launch rail. The cockpit tubs are prepped with instrument panels, throttle controls and sticks, with the single seat ‘pit being… well, shorter. Shocking, I know. A scrap diagram gives you painting call-outs for the panel, but there are no instrument decals so you might want to pick up some of Airscale’s excellent Early Jet dials if you’re interested in raising the level of detail. With the cockpit out of the way, the common radar and exhaust assemblies are made up, the former having 7 parts, while the latter has a rear engine face, afterburner ring and a two-part exhaust tube. The tube has a couple of ejector pin marks on the inside, which will require some clean up if you think they’ll be seen, which will be complicated by the ribbing that is moulded into these parts. It is best done before joining the halves, so break out the putty now, rather than later. There are two exhaust nozzles on the sprues (four if you count both sprues), and only one is appropriate for this variant, although both have very nice detail moulded-in and a thin lip that will look good under paint. The nose gear bays are subtly different, both with good detail after which (painting too) they’re inserted into the lower fuselage insert appropriate to their number of seats. A common main gear bay straddles the narrow fuselage, again with good detail within and a scrap diagram showing which way round it should be inserted into the fuselage, then the nose cone is assembled from two conical halves split top and bottom plus pitot probe and is then set aside for a while. The fuselages both require a little preparation, drilling holes for later use and detail painting the cockpit sidewalls that are moulded into the insides. With these completed, the internal subassemblies are installed into their positions, taking care to align the exhaust by using the scrap diagram provided. The cockpit is completed with one or two coamings with HUD on the front/only cockpit, then fitting the radar and radome in place, hiding that nicely detailed little assembly forever, which always saddens and confuses me a little bit. The appropriate underside insert is fitted in place, with two parts for the single-seater, and just one for the two-seater, both now wearing the correct gear bay on the interior, and the same air-brake a little further aft. The instructions have you putting the elevator on top of the enlarged fin, which is the same type with the G, then you make up the intakes on either side of the fuselage, which are again common and each made up from three parts each – shock-cone, internal trunk, and external fairings that blend with the fuselage. The nose cone is also common, but the gun trough is only fitted to the single-seater, with a choice of two styles of muzzle. The two-seater has an additional trailing jack on the oleo, but uses one of the two wheel options you have for the single seat option, with different bay doors for each option due to the change in fuselage shape. The main gear legs are identical between variants, using five parts each and with a choice of two-part wheels for both fuselage types, and identical bay doors with clear landing lights within, and closed front main bay doors that have a bulged profile. A scrap diagram shows the two positions that the open gear bay doors can be set to, with the forward bay doors drooping down slightly, presumably after loss of hydraulic pressure following shutdown. To the rear are fitted a strake, clear light and the arrestor hook for emergency landings, not for carrier work! The airbrakes and clear lights on the top/aft are able to be fitted open with the use of a retraction jack, or closed by cutting off the hinge-points from the door, with a little paint needed for the former, and careful fitting for the latter. The little stubby wings are common too, with two parts for the main wings with separate leading-edge slats, flaps and ailerons at the rear, using one of the two sets of tabs and cutting off the others to fit the flaps retracted or deployed. A few holes need opening up in the underside for weapons and tankage if you are using them, then they can be fitted into the slots in the fuselage, with PE insert for an airframe without wingtip missile rails or tip-tanks. Unsurprisingly, the canopy installation is different between the two options, even down to the windscreen parts. The twin seater has a small area behind the canopies that can be opened or closed to show off the electronics inside, with a combination fairing and glazed area fitted. A fixed hoop goes between the seats, and a couple of pieces of PE are used to decorate the sills if you’re leaving the canopies open. The movable canopy parts are prepared by adding demisting and other parts within the frames, some of which hook into the cockpit, so some careful masking will be needed, so you might want to get some of Eduard’s Tface masks if you airbrush or don’t have the steadiest of hands. An overhead scrap diagram shows the correct placement of the sill parts, which is useful. The single-seat cockpit has a large equipment bay at the rear of the cockpit that can also be shown closed or opened, again with a piece of glazing fitted to the top, and some detail painting needed if you are posing it open. There are similar tubing and parts fitted to the single canopy, then PE to the sills, with another scrap diagram showing the correct location from overhead. Angle-of-Attack (AoA) probes are attached to the sides of the fuselage, plus another group of sensors and lights beneath the nose, with a few additional parts added to the single-seater, checking out the scrap diagrams for correct orientation of the extra PE part behind the nose gear bay. The Starfighter was a thirsty bird in either seating configuration, so two tip-tanks with separate fins and filler caps are made up, and two more pylon mounted tanks are built for use on the wing pylons if you wish. If you don’t plan on using the wing tanks, there are alternative strakes provided, and under the centreline of the single-seater you can put a twin pylon arrangement that is made from a pair of curved parts and two pylon parts. What you fit to those is up to you. Markings This is a JASDF boxing, which includes one options each for the one- and two-seaters (a bit miserly given the 4 options in the Luftwaffe boxing), and those are shown in the back of the instructions in grey-scale, which is a bit poor given the printing is not great either. This could easily be fixed by including a colour sheet. You can also find the full 4-view profiles on Lucky Model’s website. F-104J 204th Tactical Fighter Sqn, Nyutabaru Air Base, 1982 Experimental Grey Camo. TH-104J 204th Tactical Fighter Sqn at Combat Competition 1983 with experimental 3 tone camp Decals are designed by Crossdelta and printed by 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 We’ve not had a modern tooling of the Starfighter for a while, and this is a very nicely detail range of kits from Kinetic with lots of modelling fun to be had. The poor quality profiles can be fixed by visiting Lucky Model. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hello Everyone, 8th October is celebrated as Indian Air Force Day. 2020 was the 88th Air Force Day for the IAF. I present the Mirage 2000 to commemorate this day. The Mirage 2000 was upgraded by the Indian Air Force and was re designated as Mirage 2000I. The kit is from Kinetic in 1/48 scale and is built Out Of the Box. The build is simple but Kinetic hasn't mentioned much in the instructions about which parts to use for the different variants which can be modeled from one kit. So you will need to refer your references for the particular version you will be building. The model is painted using locally available acrylic paints and the camo was hand air-brushed without the use of any masks. it was just simpler for me this way IMHO. I chose to give it a load of 4 MICA missiles and I am in process of scratch building the SPICE 2000 smart bomb which was used to strike terrorist camps deep inside the enemy's territory in BALAKOT. Overall the kit is a nice and simple build with beautiful detail OOB and I would recommend everyone to get this kit. I found this to be the best in 1/48 scale. Do enjoy the pics and the WIP video. Best Captain Adi's ModelArt

TF-104G/F-104G Starfighter Luftwaffe Trainer (K48089) 1:48 Kinetic Model via Lucky Model The Starfighter was another of Kelly Johnson’s advanced designs, although some might argue that at least initially it wasn’t one of his best. The initial design had problems with the ejection seat, which fired downward in early models, but its original remit was a high-altitude interceptor so that wouldn’t really have been an issue in all but the most extreme situations. When its role was widened this became a greater problem, as did its relatively high landing speed and comparative lack of manoeuvrability in a dogfight, amongst other things. It served in Vietnam, but was withdrawn pretty quickly from US service due to its general unsuitability, and while looking for suitable victims/buyers, Lockheed were embarrassed by and found guilty of passing huge bribes and “incentives” to companies and politicians to sell their “man in a missile” design to other counties. Those politicians suffered embarrassment and resignations, as did the head of Lockheed at the time who resigned, although no-one went to jail IIRC. The F-104G was a serious redesign of the aircraft, incorporating the larger tail of the two-seater, a new more powerful version of the GE J79 jet engine, new avionics and stronger landing gear, coupled with a larger drag chute helped reduce landing problems. Over 1,000 of these airframes were made under license around Europe in total, with many of the engines license built in Germany by BMW, and scarily by Alfa Romeo in Italy (I hope that came with an AA subscription!). It was made in single- and two-seat flavours, the TF-104G being a combat capable trainer, while the F-104G was a straight forward fighter, but also tasked with ground-attack roles with the addition of the M61 Vulcan cannon and suitable weapons loadouts. Flying the aircraft at low levels increased the risk immensely, and with almost a 3rd of airframes lost to crashes that claimed over 100 lives, the aircraft quickly garnered the nickname “The Widowmaker” during the early years. The Germans weren’t happy with the factory fitted Lockheed C-2 ejection seat, so had Martin-Baker redesign their Mk.7 into the Mk.Q7(A) to fit the cockpit’s size constraints, packing the chute in two fibreglass “panniers” that wrapped around the seat rail to provide the extra space lost from elsewhere. This gave them the zero-zero capability that they desired, and probably saved a few lives in the process. The F-104 was eventually replaced by the Tornado in German service, although the Starfighter continued development with a few specialised variants of the G that took new designations. The Kit This is a reboxing of the newly tooled F-104G Starfighter from Kinetic to include an additional new fuselage, cockpit etc. so that a single- or two-seat airframe can be made from the same box. The kit arrives in the standard top-opening box, with the Kinetic Gold badge over a painting of a two-seat Starfighter, and inside are five sprues in grey styrene, one in clear, a small sheet of Photo-Etch (PE), decals and instruction booklet in black and white, which could do with being a little better printed in truth. Happily, the parts on the sprues aren’t at all vague, and it is a well-tooled, nicely detailed kit of this type, with a good choice of decal options and the possibility of more on the sheet thanks to a large block of generic numbers. Construction begins with deciding whether you want to build a single seat or two seat aircraft, with the TF built on pages 4-13 and the F on 14-23 of the booklet. This is a nice easy way for the modeller to build the aircraft, as it takes all of the either/or decisions out of the mix apart from that first one. The sprues contain two complete fuselages, and around the rest of the sprues you will find the two cockpits, a new insert for under the nose and a slightly revised gear bay for the TF. The TF-104 wasn’t fitted with the Vulcan cannon, and a little less internal tankage, no centreline pylon, and of course had a redesigned forward fuselage to accommodate the additional crew member, althought with no increase in overall length. The seats for the single and dual seater are identical Mk.Q7(A) units, and are each built up from six styrene parts and a set of PE belts for each one, plus two more plastic parts that forms the launch rail. The cockpit tubs are prepped with instrument panels, throttle controls and sticks, with the single seat ‘pit being… well, shorter. Shocking, I know. A scrap diagram gives you painting call-outs for the panel, but there are no instrument decals so you might want to pick up some of Airscale’s excellent Early Jet dials if you’re interested in raising the level of detail. With the cockpit out of the way, the common radar and exhaust assemblies are made up, the former having 7 parts, while the latter has a rear engine face, afterburner ring and a two-part exhaust tube. The tube has a couple of ejector pin marks on the inside, which will require some clean up if you think they’ll be seen, which will be complicated by the ribbing that is moulded into these parts. It is best done before joining the halves, so break out the putty now, rather than later. There are two exhaust nozzles on the sprues (four if you count both sprues), and only one is appropriate for this variant, although both have very nice detail moulded-in and a thin lip that will look good under paint. The nose gear bays are subtly different, both with good detail after which (painting too) they’re inserted into the lower fuselage insert appropriate to their number of seats. A common main gear bay straddles the narrow fuselage, again with good detail within and a scrap diagram showing which way round it should be inserted into the fuselage, then the nose cone is assembled from two conical halves split top and bottom plus pitot probe and is then set aside for a while. The fuselages both require a little preparation, drilling holes for later use and detail painting the cockpit sidewalls that are moulded into the insides. With these completed, the internal subassemblies are installed into their positions, taking care to align the exhaust by using the scrap diagram provided. The cockpit is completed with one or two coamings with HUD on the front/only cockpit, then fitting the radar and radome in place, hiding that nicely detailed little assembly forever, which always saddens and confuses me a little bit. The appropriate underside insert is fitted in place, with two parts for the single-seater, and just one for the two-seater, both now wearing the correct gear bay on the interior, and the same air-brake a little further aft. The instructions have you putting the elevator on top of the enlarged fin, which is the same type with the G, then you make up the intakes on either side of the fuselage, which are again common and each made up from three parts each – shock-cone, internal trunk, and external fairings that blend with the fuselage. The nose cone is also common, but the gun trough is only fitted to the single-seater, with a choice of two styles of muzzle. The two-seater has an additional trailing jack on the oleo, but uses one of the two wheel options you have for the single seat option, with different bay doors for each option due to the change in fuselage shape. The main gear legs are identical between variants, using five parts each and with a choice of two-part wheels for both fuselage types, and identical bay doors with clear landing lights within, and closed front main bay doors that have a bulged profile. A scrap diagram shows the two positions that the open gear bay doors can be set to, with the forward bay doors drooping down slightly, presumably after loss of hydraulic pressure following shutdown. To the rear are fitted a strake, clear light and the arrestor hook for emergency landings, not for carrier work! The airbrakes and clear lights on the top/aft are able to be fitted open with the use of a retraction jack, or closed by cutting off the hinge-points from the door, with a little paint needed for the former, and careful fitting for the latter. The little stubby wings are common too, with two parts for the main wings with separate leading-edge slats, flaps and ailerons at the rear, using one of the two sets of tabs and cutting off the others to fit the flaps retracted or deployed. A few holes need opening up in the underside for weapons and tankage if you are using them, then they can be fitted into the slots in the fuselage, with PE insert for an airframe without wingtip missile rails or tip-tanks. Unsurprisingly, the canopy installation is different between the two options, even down to the windscreen parts. The twin seater has a small area behind the canopies that can be opened or closed to show off the electronics inside, with a combination fairing and glazed area fitted. A fixed hoop goes between the seats, and a couple of pieces of PE are used to decorate the sills if you’re leaving the canopies open. The movable canopy parts are prepared by adding demisting and other parts within the frames, some of which hook into the cockpit, so some careful masking will be needed, so you might want to get some of Eduard’s Tface masks if you airbrush or don’t have the steadiest of hands. An overhead scrap diagram shows the correct placement of the sill parts, which is useful. The single-seat cockpit has a large equipment bay at the rear of the cockpit that can also be shown closed or opened, again with a piece of glazing fitted to the top, and some detail painting needed if you are posing it open. There are similar tubing and parts fitted to the single canopy, then PE to the sills, with another scrap diagram showing the correct location from overhead. Angle-of-Attack (AoA) probes are attached to the sides of the fuselage, plus another group of sensors and lights beneath the nose, with a few additional parts added to the single-seater, checking out the scrap diagrams for correct orientation of the extra PE part behind the nose gear bay. The Starfighter was a thirsty bird in either seating configuration, so two tip-tanks with separate fins and filler caps are made up, and two more pylon mounted tanks are built for use on the wing pylons if you wish. If you don’t plan on using the wing tanks, there are alternative strakes provided, and under the centreline of the single-seater you can put a twin pylon arrangement that is made from a pair of curved parts and two pylon parts. What you fit to those is up to you. Markings This is a Luftwaffe boxing, which includes two options each for one- and two-seaters, and those are shown in the back of the instructions in grey-scale, which makes envisaging the schemes a little difficult given that the printing isn’t the best. It’s a gripe that’s fairly easily remedied by including a colour sheet, or you could just look below. You can also find the full 4-view profiles on Lucky Model’s website. F-104G Fighter-Bomber Squadron 33 (Jagdbombergeschwader 33), Luftwaffe TF104G, JaboG 33, Luftwaffe, 1985 F-104G JaboG 31, 1983. Famous photo shows 6 aircraft in formation TF-104G JaboG 33, Luftwaffe, 1983. Kept old squadron badges 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. Conclusion We’ve not had a modern tooling of the Starfighter for a while, and this is a very nicely detail range of kits from Kinetic with lots of modelling fun to be had. The poor quality profiles can be fixed by visiting Lucky Model, and my only other minor issue is that with two more sprues and ancillaries, the kit could have been dual combo kit with less plastic left over, but then that's probably just me being greedy. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hi all, Here's my just finished Kinetic 1/48 Starfighter, which I have done as a Dutch RF-104G, using the boxing released for the Dutch market, and a Daco Orpheus pod. The markings come from a Dutch Decal sheet, and some from the kit. It's a very nice kit, and I thoroughly enjoyed building it. One small thing that needs to be fixed in the kit, is the missing centreline pylon, though. The kit comes only with the twin AIM-9 launchers for the belly, but all the options in the first release, and this boxing are for strike squadrons, which do need the centreline pylon for weapons. I got mine from a Hasegawa TF-104 kit, which doesn't need it anyway. The real D-8143 was built by Fokker, and served with 306 Squadron at Volkel, until it was sold to Turkey in the early 1980's, where it was eventually scrapped. Painted with MRP on top, and Humbrol on the underside. I may need to fix that pitot tube. I don't like the way it looks now. Thanks for looking, I hope you like it.

Kinetic has just re-released the Skunkwork 1/72nd General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper kit - ref. K72004 Sources: https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K72004 https://www.passion132.com/gb/avions/144925-kinetic-k72004-172-mq-9-reaper.html box art & decals V.P.

Hello, Here's my Kinetic 1/48 NF-5A in Royal Dutch Air Force markings. I started this kit in november last year, but it was put on hold for a while because I was waiting for some rocketpods that I wanted to put on the wings. Sadly, fate wouldn't let me have these, so I opted for some recycled Hasegawa Mk.82 Snakeyes instead, that I turned into inert ones. These kits came with a mold flaw in the clear parts, and the wingtip fueltanks are identical, not mirrored like the real ones. I emailed to Luckymodel, and they provided me with correct parts for a small fee. The instrument panel is not correct for a NF-5A, but who's going to notice. I did change the leading edge flap a bit, to make it more like the NF-5 ones. I used MR Paint on it, and Dutch Decal markings to make it like a 314 Squadron one, based at Eindhoven AB. The big E was applied for the 1978 Tactical Air Meet at Wildenrath. The real K-3047 later went to the Hellenic Air Force. Thanks for looking, I hope you like it.

Hi Guys, Here is my Kinetic NF-5A, a nice kit but it requires some tlc! And some extra work is required to make it more like a real NF-5A, since the NF differed a bit from the the standard F-5. The LEF's needed an extra "edge" at the widest part, the ECM knobs on the tail differed in height on each side(and are of a different shape), and the cockpit IP needed a so called "Roller map", a system attached to a Doppler radar which consisted of a paper map, and a couple of other small details were added. I chose to give it the so called "zebra" scheme which some of the NF-5's received in the middle eighties. Always liked this scheme so I needed a model of it! The tanks under the wings are in the initial camouflages colors and the centerline tank is in the definitive grey scheme. Decals are from Dutch Decal, seat is from Wolfpack and the wheels are from RESkit. Erik

Hello Britmodellers! Here's one of my lockdown builds, made for the In The Navy groupbuild. It's the Kinetic 1/32 kit (reboxed Academy) and one of the best jet models you can get. This one's mostly out of the box except the cockpit (Avionix), seats (Aires), chaff buckets (F4dable Models) and armament, which is a mix of Wolfpack (GBU-38) and Trumpeter (GBU-12). It's a really attractive two-sided scheme with the flag on the airbrake, excellent decals by Flying Leathernecks. I used Xtracrylix paint for the main scheme and Colourcoats for the wear and tear effects. This aircraft was painted in Kuwait at the end of the deployment in 2007 but my main references were some excellent photos of it at Las Vegas shortly afterwards, so the degree of dirtiness is reasonable for a special scheme! The wings were depicted folded even though that's not normal for land-based Marine examples, because I think it's nice to show off an aircraft's unique features on a model! The two-sided scheme is also very attractive, commemorating all the units making up MAG-2 at the time. The cockpit was a Black Box/Avionix set from way back, but built up really well. The kit canopy was less fun to build...it's the biggest clear part I've seen on any model, and the attachment points were very flimsy to hold such a large cantilevered piece. Epoxy glue was the only solution. Unusually for me, I even painted up the underside (out of sight out of mind is my usual policy 😂) If anyone's still reading this, the build thread is here: All the best, stay safe and thanks for looking, Alan

Hi folks My latest build is an F-5B in 1/48 scale from Kinetic. -The kit shape is good but to me it was a little challenging in some parts. -Colors are Hataka and Gunze painted free-hand. -Decals are from Print Scale. -Resin ejection seats are from Wolfpack Design This aircraft entered in service with the Imperial Iranian Air Force in mid 1960's and the IIAF became the first Air Force to receive Freedom Fighters. The two-seaters were in high demand in order to train new pilots locally. Hope you enjoy Barzin 2020_06_14_IMG_8080 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr 2020_06_14_IMG_8072 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr 2020_06_14_IMG_8073 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr 2020_06_14_IMG_8081 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr 2020_06_14_IMG_8090 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr 2020_06_14_IMG_8092 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr 2020_06_14_IMG_8095 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr 2020_06_14_IMG_8097 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr 2020_06_14_IMG_8083-1 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr Last Iranian two-seater Freedom Fighter produced, 01613, at Ramstein (Germany) on 12-06-71 still in USAF markings. photo_2019-08-20_19-42-00 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IIAFF-5B2-328_jpg by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_0214 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr

Hello all, Here is my recently completed 1/48 Kinetic Su-33 Flanker D of the 279th Fighter Aviation Regiment, Russian Naval Aviation, on board the Admiral Kuznetsov circa 2016. The kit itself is very nicely detailed, but be warned the instructions are dreadful! Extras used included a Quickboost seat, New Ware masks, J's Work camouflage mask and Master Pitot tube. Paints are from Mr Paint (MRP-199 Su-33 Light Blue, MRP-200 Su-33 Dark Blue and MRP-201 Su-33 Grey) and weathering was done with a mixture of oils and pigments. The build thread is here Beside my Ukrainian Su-27 I built last year: Thanks for looking. Dave

Kinetic is to re-release in May 2020 its parent company Skunkmodels (link)1/48th Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk kit - ref. 48084 Source: https://www.facebook.com/Kineticmodel/photos/a.150625411771245/1508702492630190 Box art Pre-order at LM - https://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48084 V.P.