HASEGAWA RELEASES LIMITED EDITION 1:72 SCALE LOCKHEED STARFIGHTER CCV

SMN report:

The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was originally labelled ‘the missile with a man in it’, for its performance and for the tiny wings, seemingly too small to keep it in the air. The aircraft was widely produced, and one of the most interesting variations of the Lockheed jet was the one-off experimental CCV, now featured as a limited-edition 1:72 scale release from Hasegawa.

What’s in the box?

The kit appears to be a scaled-down version of the 1:48 scale Hasegawa CCV kit , but it’s none the worse for that, and it’s good to see a 1:72 scale kit of this unusual aircraft available from a mainstream manufacturer. The kit has 85 components, and can be made in three variations of the experimental CCV aircraft, flown in the early 1980s. 

CCV components

Added to the basic Starfighter kit are a number of parts that change it into the CCV version. These include fuselage fairings, tail strakes, and the canard mini-wing to mount behind the cockpit. Also included are metal parts for nose probe and sensors, plus decal sheet with special markings. When assembled, the F-104G CCV has a wingspan of some 92 mm (3.6 in) plus the long fuel tanks on each wingtip. 

Digital flight controls

So what was the F-104G CCV? The CCV acronym stands for Control Configured Vehicle, a mouthful indicating that the aircraft was a testbed for fly-by-wire technology, in which computer controls took over from traditional rods and cables. Important too, was that by going digital, the aircraft could be deliberately destabilized, a seemingly contradictory approach to flight management that actually results in an aircraft that is hugely manoeuvrable. 

Forerunner of the Typhoon

First flight of the F-104G CCV was on November 20, 1980, from a test facility at Manching, southern Germany, the aircraft being flown in tests to prove that CCV actually worked - thus laying groundwork for the Eurofighter Typhoon of today, a front-line aircraft flown by several air arms, including those of Austria, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Spain and the UK.

Starfighter today

There’s an ex-Luftwaffe F-104G on gate-guardian duty by the entrance to Manching (above) and do note the tiny wing, which was a special design using air bled from the engine to generate enough lift for takeoff and landing. The CCV vehicle itself survives today, and is on display (below) at Koblenz, Germany. Pic shown here courtesy Frank Van de Waardenburg and the Airfighters website.

Summation

A neatly produced kit with custom parts in resin and metal of a very interesting aircraft, with space-oddity looks added to the already high-performance F-104G Starfighter. Should be available this month.

Hasegawa F-104 here.

Starfighter stuff by the gazillion here.

All sorts of Hasegawa good stuff here.

Visit Airfighters here.

INCOMING - MORE NEW-TOOL DIECAST AIRCRAFT FROM CORGI

SMN report:

We noted the big new 1:72 scale Short Stirling heavy bomber earlier this week, and now here’s a pair of smaller aircraft to the same scale, a Hawker Hart inter-war period biplane, and a Hawker Hurricane from World War II. Both releases look interesting enough, the Hart looking especially attractive, with fine interplane rigging a highly appealing feature.

What’s the Corgi Hart like?

The Hawker Hart light day bomber was designed by Sir Sydney Camm, who later designed the Hurricane and Hunter jet. Camm’s design is captured nicely in this Corgi Hawker Hart, from the pointed propeller spinner to the tail skid. Details extend to the strut-mounted pitot tube for indicating airspeed. The long fuselage groove you can see under the engine exhausts is not a cooling intake, but the exit slot for bullets from the single Vickers machine gun, fired by the pilot. The observer had a Lewis gun, mounted on a Scarf ring. You won’t see it on this model, reasonably enough, but for bombing purposes, the observer had to burrow under the pilot’s seat to lie flat in bombardier mode, to aim the 240 kg (520 lb) of bombs the Hart could tote under its lower wings.

Goggles and markings

As usual with diecast models, the crew are perhaps its weakest feature, although the Corgi team has been trying hard - paintwork to these two even includes the metal frames to their flying goggles. The cockpit surround looks rather clunky in the pictures here - in the real model, it manages to look much neater. Markings on this Hawker Hart are for a 1935 machine, K2986 of No 600 Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force. They look good to our eyes, the red-and-white triangles lending a splash of jaunty brightness to this classic silver machine. To 1:72 scale, the Corgi Hawker Hart has a wingspan of 155 mm (6.1 in).

Night Reaper

The other Corgi Sydney Camm design is a Hawker Hurricane Mk IIc, painted in an all-black night fighter finish. This particular aircraft was flown by a Czech pilot, Karel 'Kut' Kuttelwascher who flew with RAF No 1 Squadron. Kuttelwascher was the highest-scoring pilot in 1942 night-ops, at one point scoring 15 kills in 15 missions, while flying his Hurricane named Night Reaper.

Hurricane features captured

The Corgi Hurricane has features common to all of these fighters, such as the slightly hump-backed upper fuselage contours, and fabric covered rear fuselage. This latter is well captured by Corgi, particularly for a diecast model. The wing leading edges feature landing lights needed for night operations, while the characteristic underbelly intake is also included. Wing tanks were carried under the wings, allowing pilots extra time in the air while hunting German bombers on attack missions. All in all, a decent readybuilt model from Corgi, albeit not exactly colourful! To 1:72 scale, the Corgi Hawker Hurricane IIc has a wingspan of 167 mm (6.6 in).

Sydney Camm in his early 20s, when he was a member of the Windsor Model Aeroplane Club. Note his twin pusher-prop aircraft, almost a ringer for today's Piaggio Avanti! 

Summation

A nice pair of models here, which gave us a thought - what about Corgi (or Airfix) producing a grand megabox, full to the brim with every major Sydney Camm design flown? Camm's designs already feature in model form,  such as the Hart and Hurricane, with others that include the Hawker Fury, Typhoon, Hunter, and Harrier. But more remain untouched by a mainstream model manufacturer, including his first design, the Hawker Cygnet. Such a boxful would make a tremendous salute to one of aviation’s great designers.    

Visit Corgi here.

Plenty of Corgi aircraft here.

Hurricane kits here.

SWAP F-35 FOR RAFALE OR TYPHOON?

SMN report:

News last week of continuing delays on the Lockheed Martin F-35 aircaft meant that at least one defence planner was losing sleep. UK Admiral Sir Trevor Soar was reported - inaccurately, apparently - by The Times of London, as thinking about the French Dassault Rafale (Revell kit above) and US Boeing F-18 Hornet as backup aircraft in case of further delays.

Typhoon-N alternative

Other defence specialists reckon the Eurofighter Typhoon-N is worth looking at closely. And who are we to argue with that? SMN reported on Typhoon-N proposals some time ago, and we still reckon it makes a good alternative, not least because the twin-engine jet would need only a ski-jump for takeoff, not a full-house (and expensive) electromagnetic catapult system. The link to that piece is listed below.

Rafale in miniature

And what about models? The Rafale is a handsome looking machine that hasn’t has too many kits made of it, though the 1:48 scale Revell offering is pretty good. For a detailed look, we went to the website Model Kits Review (MKR), which says this of the Rafale B component breakdown: “...it is presented in seven sprues, six of them in light gray and one clear. Revell included a little piece of double-sided tape to protect the molded-in antenna from snapping off during shipping. The instruction manual has 72 steps on 16 pages and starting with the assembly of the ejection seats on step one and finishing with the marking options on step 72.”

Excellent details

There’s more, on the quality of production: “The details are exquisite.” That's kudos from Model Kits Review, and it ought to make Revell pleased. The kit comes with ordnance (above) that includes six GBU-12 bombs, six drop tanks in two sizes, one pair each of Magic and Mica missiles, plus two much larger Apache cruise missiles.

Decals a letdown

However highly the actual kit scores, the decals are not so great, and that’s also pointed out by MKR and Gary Wickham of the Aircraft Resource Center (ARC). So here’s a note to Revell - consider employing an specialist decal manufacturer such as Cartograf for the next production run.

Various Rafale kits here.

Scale Model News Typhoon-N article here.

Model Kits Review of Rafale here.

Aircraft Resource Center here.

Rafale model pix courtesy MKR, ARC, and ’Sisaphus’.

SWITZERLAND BUYS SAAB GRIPEN - MEANS MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR MODELMAKERS

David Jefferis reports:

Ace news for Swedish aerospace company Saab this week, as Switzerland has decided to go for the Saab Gripen NG (New Generation) as its front-line combat jet. The Gripen has been a challenger for the 22-aircraft order, in a long-running competition between state-of-the-art fighters such as the Dassault Rafale, EFA Typhoon, and Boeing F/A-18.

Export success

The single-engine Gripen (meaning: Griffin) is turning into something of a success story, as Saab quietly notches up its sixth export customer. For the Swiss, the Gripen represents a natural upgrade path that replaces the long-serving F-5 Tiger, and an affordable one too - buying the Gripen means no cuts to other branches of the Swiss military.

Latest version

The Swiss order is based on the latest Gripen NG, which has not yet been offered by an injection-kit manufacturer - so maybe the new Swiss Air Force order will inspire Italeri, Airfix or Revell, all of whom make Gripens, to come up with an upgrade PDQ.

Italeri box art for the two-seater Gripen kit.

Naval Gripen

It’s a handsome aircraft that would look good on the model shelf, so let’s have one soon please! Meantime, we ran a story on the Gripen not so long ago, with a slant on the navalized version Saab was trying to sell to India - and which we reckon ought to be flying off a carrier of someone’s navy - not least because it does not need a catapult, just a ski-ramp.

Click here for the SMN article, which should open in a new window.

Decal sheet

There are no NG Gripen kits available yet, worse luck, but aftermarket suppliers are filling in gaps on other fronts. Here’s a neat decal sheet that includes those ace canard ‘eyes’. It’s available direct from Czech publisher 4plus in their Mark I Guide range. Other suppliers include Karaya, an online supplier from Poland.

Just for show - Red Bull's Sea Vixen.

Visit 4plus

And also take a moment to have a look at the gallery. It has some unusual aircraft on show, including this power-drink Sea Vixen, photographed in Zeltweg, Austria, by Michal Ovcacik. Click here for 4plus.

Visit Karaya in Poland here.

Italeri Gripen here.

NOTE TO WORLD NAVIES - CANCEL F-35, BUY NAVAL TYPHOON. NOTE TO MODEL MAKERS - HERE’S A GREAT KIT-BASH OPPORTUNITY

SMN report

Eurofighter has released details of its proposed navalised Typhoon jet, and a glance at the details makes it seem the answer to a defence planner’s budget problems. The basic aircraft is already in service and proven, the development cost would be far less than a clean-sheet design, and best of all, there’s enough power from the two EJ200 engines to allow carrier takeoffs using a ski-jump - no catapult equipment needed.

Typhoon-N to replace the F-35?

For the UK’s Royal Navy, the Typhoon-N looks particularly interesting. The lift-fan F-35 has been cancelled already, to be replaced by the standard catapult-launched version. So here’s a way to cut out the F-35 completely, and keep the cost of new aircraft carriers down as well, for ski-jump installation and operations are far cheaper than using catapults. Commonality between Typhoon and Typhoon-N has another benefit too - maintenance ought to work out cheaper, from flight and technical training to the supply and cost of spares.

A Typhoon for kit-bashers

For model makers the Typhoon-N looks a very interesting project indeed, and a not too difficult job either. The main changes are longer undercarriage legs to soak up the shock of heavy deck landings, an arrester hook, and nozzle extensions to replicate the proposed thrust-vectoring EJ200 exhausts. Eurofighter’s pictures also show conformal fuel tanks either side of the upper fuselage, so they will add visual appeal to the model. 

Possible markings

On paint schemes, it’s your choice as the Typhoon-N is a paper plane at the moment. India is a target customer, and the top picture shows the aircraft in Indian Navy markings. Britain’s cash-strapped Royal Navy is a possible customer, for EFA’s proposal looks a no-brainer, at least for serious consideration. The Aeronavale (French Navy) flies the Dassault Rafale-M, but might be interested in the cost savings of a future ski-jump carrier. The Spanish Navy flies Harrier V/STOL aircraft from the Principe de Asturias, so could be a future Typhoon-N customer. The US Navy and Marine Corps are unlikely buyers, but a  Typhoon-N display model would look great dressed in the stars and stripes!

There are plenty of kits out there - we showed the Revell 1:32 scale offering recently, and here it is again, though finished in non-naval Luftwaffe markings. The detail pic shows the existing main gear, which needs lengthening to allow for the extra extension necessary for high rate-of-descent carrier landings.  

More details and a hi-res pdf download of the cutaway at Eurofighter here.

SMN article on Revell Typhoons here.

Typhoon kits are available here. 

LITTLE AND LARGE TYPHOONS INCOMING - REVELL PROVIDES 1:32 AND 1:144 OPTIONS.

SMN report

The big, 349 mm (13.7 in) wingspan 1:32 scale Eurofighter Typhoon is an imposing beast when you open up the box. It’s got 391 parts, a fuselage length just short of 500 mm (19.7 in), and it’s a completely new mould, with decent surface details and recessed panel lines. The level of detail rivals Revell’s other big-scale kits, with an 11-piece ejector seat, moveable canards,  jet nozzles in two configurations, detailed air brake, landing gear and bay, plus separate ailerons, flaps and rudder. 

This Typhoon is ready for combat

ECM pods are provided, as are the in-flight refuelling probe optionally extended or retracted, and two drop tanks. Revell has really gone to town with the weapons fit, with a total of 14 missiles ready for bear - four Meteors, four AMRAAMs, two Sidewinders, two IRIS-Ts, and finally a brace of ASRAAMs for the RAF version. There's also a maintenance stand with supports and suspension points to display one of the two EJ200 engines. Decals for the German Luftwaffe and British RAF round out the kit.

Engine detail

Impressive as that lot is, the display engine could do with some extra work on the front fan - the blades are really not quite there. You can see a real EJ200 in the recent story about Bloodhound SSC speed record car, where you can get a better idea of the fineness needed to make that front end look convincing. A photo-etch front fan could do the biz, so it might be a good idea to look for an aftermarket supplier that can do justice to it. 

Small scale stablemate

Revell’s smallest Typhoon is to 1:144 scale, and it’s a tiny thing, with a wingspan of just 76 mm (2.99 in). Even so, it’s a neat little kit, that won’t disgrace a collection to this scale, or even as part of a Dynamic Duo big-n-small display pair. As you can see from the pix, it’s a neat production.

Birth of the Eurofighter Typhoon

The Typhoon's development dates back to the 1970s and 1980s, when it was conceived as a NATO defender of European airspace in the days of the Cold War. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall though, it’s been a troubled programme, with many experts and politicians questioning the need for it. Even so, on a technical level, the aircraft is a success, and by all acounts it’s a decent ‘pilot’s plane’, with good handling and a great all-round view from that big canopy. The latest helmet gives the pilot ‘fire and forget’ capability, which means that he (or she) can concentrate on flying the aircraft, rather than weapons tracking or guidance.

Fighter or bomb truck?

Meeting the politicians head-on with an answer to the ‘why do we need it?’ question, Typhoon's designers have taken the aircraft far beyond its original brief as a combat fighter. It now sports 13 hardpoints and can tote a pretty complete range of air-to-ground as well as air-to-air weapons. All it needs now is conformal fuel tanks and overwing missile launchers to take on a passing resemblance to a Christmas tree - and lose any pretention to stealth capability whatsoever!

See Revell Typhoon kits in various scales, including 1:32 and 1:144 here.

The pictures show:

1-4  Revell 1:32 scale Typhoon, including that not so convincing front fan.

5-7  The ‘Tiny Tim’ 1:144 scale version, and very neat it is too.

8-9  The real aircraft sports an impressive weapons fit. 

ST. VALENTINE’S DAY REMINDER TO ALL MODEL MAKERS - DON’T FORGET THE SIGNIFICANT OTHER IN YOUR LIFE!

SMN note

Model making (if you discount doll’s house miniatures and the like) is an overwhelmingly male activity. We’re not sure if there has ever been any serious research into the ‘why’ of this, but it’s true nevertheless. So, here’s a reminder for all Scale Model News readers that, much as we all like our favourite hobby, let’s not forget those significant others out there!

On the other hand, let’s not forget our scale models either, in the form of the really rather tasty Eurofighter Typhoon from Revell. Another large scale kit, this one looks good straight from the box, with potential to be a showstopper, so more pix next post.