Scale Plastic & Rail

1:144 Revell Eurofighter Typhoon

Manufacturer: Revell

Scale: 1:144

Manufacturer Reference No: 04282

Description: Eurofighter Typhoon

RRP: £4.99

It's a while since I built anything in 1/144, I think the last thing was a Revell Tu-95D Bear in the early 1990's, so I was pleasantly surprised to get a chance to review this new kit of the Eurofighter Typhoon. Within the kit you get 4 sprues moulded in light grey plastic with 1 sprue of clear containing the two piece canopy. All the moulding is crisp and clear, I'm slightly concerned by the width and depth of the panel lines though they look too severe for me, but then again I'm not used to working at this scale, maybe after painting they'll appear correct. There is obviously a two seater variant to come as there is a sprue marked up as 'single' containing the aircraft 'spine' and the opening canopy 'floor', so plenty of scope for the two seater variant. You get a 10 page A4 sized booklet taking you through the 27 steps for the construction, painting and arming of the Typhoon, there are 20 colours identified, although not all used by the same aircraft, 8 of which need to be mixed (these are marked up using Revell colour codes).

As mentioned the moulded lines do seem a little on the heavy side, but in all fairness it could be that I'm not used to the scale

You get plenty of the smallest decals for marking up the aircraft, there are two main choices to make either the Luftwaffe, Jagdgeschwader 74 "Molders" based at Neuburg 2009 or a Typhoon F.2 of No. 11 Sqn, RAF based at RAF Coningsby. Whats not really clear from the off is which parts are to be used for which aircraft (RAF or Luftwaffe) and there is no clear indication, bar the final page (painting and decal location for ordnance and fuel tanks) of what will go where to which model you wish to make. Now the more seasoned modeller will just do some research, but this could easily be made clearer.

I like this kit, it's nice and simple, putting on those decals (a decal setting solution is recommended by Revell) will be a bit tricky for those like me not used to the scale. It's good to see Revell bringing out more kits in this scale, they, in my opinion have the share in this scale and they're not resting on their laurels.

Overall 8/10 - clearer guidance needed regarding choice of options

Revell kits are available from most Highstreet Hobbyshops and Online retailers, many thanks to Revell of Germany for providing the sample used for this review