The Ghost Tiger Typhoon a little bigger (tackling the 1/48 Revell Eurofighter Typhoon as training for 1/32) - FINISHED

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After I have properly straightened and smoothed all the sanding edges, the result so far is quite acceptable, I think:

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If we take a closer look at the original, we notice that the clamp between the nozzles and the heat zone is not smooth, but is slightly raised on one side. This can easily be imitated with a thin stripe of tape:

 

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After painting, the end result looks like this:

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The resin turbine tunnels are also too long and too wide in diameter, but here a little shortening and sanding work is enough for a sufficient remedy:

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I hope the Ghost Tiger won't be my last 1/48 Eurofighter. Since the resin parts are pretty much no longer available and let's be honest, I don't want to have them on the table either, I have to come up with something for future projects. I repeated the whole procedure on a few kit parts from another kit and then tried to do it all again with the help of small sheet metal stripes that I had cut and some plastic snippets from the spareparts box. Admittedly, not as super-duper great as something made of resin, but I think it would still suffice. It's at least better than the unprocessed Revell pieces anyways, isn't it???

 

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Revell's turbine tunnels are as smooth as a baby's bottom. The "trenches" through which the additional fuel for the afterburner is injected are missing. It would be overkill for me if I tried to grind in these trenches, but maybe I can imitate the optical effect ?! After I had cut off the turbine blades, I used a graphic tool and, based on photos of the original, only very rudimentarily drew the inside of the turbine channels and printed them on ülain normal office paper film. I measured the size of the fields beforehand and then carefully applied them to the inside of the Revell tubes, weathered them a bit and ..... done:

 

 

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Revell's turbine blades themselves are ... well ... not wrong. But everything looks a bit flat and two-dimensional and the flame holder ring could have used a different shape. With a little sanding work, a lot is done already very quickly:

 

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I made two matching clamps out of suitable scrap plastic pieces from the spares box and redid the blades of the flame holder ring with metal strips. Glue on, paint, done. I'm already prepared for the next Tiffy. Who needs resin pffff .... hihihi:

 

 

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Next time we'll take care of the IRIS-T, converting a sidewinder into an ACMI pod and some other small things and then we can finally paint. Until then ....

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Sooooo .... one more time then. Not much happening today though.
Two little things: The formation flight light under the canopy should actually be raised. Revell only offers a Decal for this. The little hoods on each side of the fin are a bit too narrow and unfortunately have no opening. Plus, the small reinforcement on which they should be resting is missing.

For the formation flight light, I stuck a little thicker Tamiya tape on my worktop, painted it with the TPS gray, cut strips of the appropriate dimension and then put the actual formation flight lights on these again.
I made the hoods out of small pieces of metal, glued them to a trimmed Tamiyatape and treated them with primer.

The whole bundle won't be put on the jet until after painting.

 

 

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The Ghost Tiger didn't really carry anything significant in terms of payload during its time; only the one or other IRIS-T and occasionally an ACMI pod. It shouldn't really get any more for me on the model.

 

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What does Revell offer us: I understandably have to make the ACMI-Pod myself, but the enclosed AIM-9L fits perfectly; it has about the correct length and the securing clips are also correct. So that's a good basis.

The IRIS-T is actually really nice, but again a little rough in the execution. There is a little mistake, but it shouldn't be a big deal. The wave guide antenna should actually be exactly opposite the guide / fuse with which the missile is fixed in the launcher rail. On the kit, it is only one compartment to the left. The antenna has thus to be lowered and readjusted in the right place. The butt is a little poorly detailed, but with a small drill and careful sanding a lot is possible. At the very front there are two reinforcements on either side of the warhead; I guess that's either an antenna or a GPS element?! Eventually, I will probably sand the Finns a little thinner.

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All of this is pretty straightforward: fins are sharpened more narrowly, the antennas and reinforcements are readjusted with a bit of tape, that should do and I also sanded the seeker head. I want an IRIS-T with an optical seeker. After the coloring and coating, there is a little metal paper on top to imitate the lense and some hardened clear is used to reproduce the glass look. The ACMI pod was no big deal either: just removed the fins, filled the gaps with plastic strips, sanded the seeker head a little, adjusted some elements on the rear, and I made the decals myself.

 

 

 

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And with that the really interesting part for me begins. Before painting, some adhesive film is laid over the fuselage and the contours with all the details and marking points that are relevant to me are traced. I then use that to make a rough template by which I can adapt the original markings to the model kit.

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After the foil is off again, I can apply the primer. It all looks already a bit like an Eurofighter:

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The 2-tone TPS of the Luftwaffe Eurofighter is not that easy to replicate. Revell's color specifications are far too dark for the 1/48 model. They do match the original to some extent, but the scale effect comes across very strong in this case I think. Each modeller has his own recipe, but in the end I settled with Revell 57, 76 and 56 in the ratio 70/15/15 and then lightened this mix in the ratio 70/30 with white. For the nose and the leading edges I lightened 75 in a ratio of 70/30 with white. In the end, it more or less about matches the original at least to me.

 

 

 

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Only one more for today, so that we do not forget that: The tip of the nose remains unpainted on the original !!!

 

[exdraken]

Comors look great , tha ks for your recipy!

Still looks a bit dark in these photos though to me...

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Yeah, that#s the poor light and I just took my cell phone to take the in progress shots. I tried to adjust it to the shots I took of the original and my memory of the situation. As said, if you apply the color just as it is on the original it will be way too dark due to the scale effect. The flyout shots of the model in broad daylight with my DSLR later on should give a better impression (well ... I hope). I just don't want to give away too much too early.

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After the TPS had been applied, the birdy gets a nice panel wash treatment. I always add oil paints with a little soap in the water. For the Tiffy I mixed gravite particles in a little dark gray.

 

 

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I didn't make much of a fuss to imitate the missile clips; I cut a few pieces of metal again, bent them into the shape of the Missile Wells and glued them in.

 

 

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A small Ghost Tiger-specific detail: It seems 31+00 used to have four instead of two "No Step" stencils per slat. In any case, there are a few color repairs on every slat. You hardly see them, but due to the different surface properties of the color, you can make them out depending on the angle of light, and these spots alternate between appearing a little lighter or darker. I simply taped the spots and went over the TPS with Future a few times. That should roughly imitate the effect. I think/hope you can see that quite well later on the finished model?!

The inside of the slats was also painted and a subtle wash should do the trick.

 

 

 

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After the slats were glued, I installed the small rails and struts. Done:

 

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A little late but in addition another little detail of what I got fixed before I applied the color: The antennas under the bow are also on small reinforcements. That was imitated with tape, so it's not a big deal:

 

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And with that we can at least apply the basic stencils. Actually, I wanted to use as much of Revell's decal sheet as possible, but after checking the original, I found that I could use them only very limited because they are either out of date or these decals are just not enough. You can hardly see it from a distance, but almost every panel has its own number. Well ... what do you want to do?! Graphics tool, patience, printer and again the DIY modeller is called upon hihihi.
Fortunately, the tiger stripes on the top have left out a lot of the regular stencils. That makes it a little easier for me. But the bottom is some proper work. Looooooooots and lots of numbers!