BRITISH WARPLANES SINCE 1945

Produced by a small Californian manufacturer called Fisher Model and Patterns, I bought this kit directly from Mr Fisher in 2006 and built it the following year.  It is a resin kit with some PE parts and a lot of detail is hidden within the one piece fuselage.  The brass undercarriage certainly was needed here.

It portrays the famous plane in which Lt Peter Carmichael shot down a MIG 15 jet over Korea in 1952.

Originally a Matchbox kit from the 1970s, this model portrays a Sea Venom deployed on HMS Albion during the Suez Crisis.  It contains a lot of detail in the engine and cockpit areas although lacks any detail in the wing fold sections.  Still an unusual kit of a first generation jet.

This Trumpeter kit was released in 2009 and I built it in 2016 using Alclad metallic paints and replacement metal landing gear from Scale Aircraft Conversions which is an essential modification as otherwise the landing gear would quickly bend under its own weight.

I built this Revell kit FGA9 in 2005 straight out of the box and it remains one of the easiest and best-engineered 1/32 kits I have ever built.  The wings almost clip together without glue and the undercarriage is nice and secure – even in plastic.  I used the kit decals to depict a late service Hunter from 45 Squadron based at Wittering in the summer of 1976. 

Trumpeter produced about 4 variants of the Harrier in 1/32 all containing white metal undercarriage parts and photo-etch details for the cockpit.  Clearly the dimensions of the plane were well-known to Chinese kit manufacturers…

You are spoiled for choice about what weapons load to depict.  The canopy is removeable and I chose to show the aircraft as it might be “parked” without extended fuel probe but with lowered airbrake at Wittering in 2008 with 4 Squadron.

The Typhoon is one of the best-looking jets in the world – with the F18 and the Fulcrum MiG 29.   

In my 2019 build, I augmented the kit with an aftermarket set of decals to depict the 2014 RAF solo display aircraft based with 29 Squadron at RAF Coningsby.

This Trumpeter kit has a white metal undercarriage and a good level of surface detail.  I used Alclad to achieve a nice “burnt” look to the jet cans and tried to  weather the aircraft to achieve that “slightly-used” look.  The black tail and canards look smart, along with the gold-tinted canopy.