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Monday, July 17, 2017

Italeri Eurofighter what-if: Red Arrows

Time to display another finished product of the 72 Land small aircraft production line.

No one would accuse me of taking anything seriously, much less a hobby, and I have no problem at all with doing what-if models on occasion. I’ve done navalized P-47s, a USAF Corsair, and even a WW2 era B-36. This one is on the more restrained end of the what-if spectrum: a Eurofighter done up in Red Arrows markings.

I don’t know who it was that set me on this path, but I do remember seeing a photo somewhere on the net, and knew that one of them was in my future. Since I had recently finished 3 Bae Hawks in different-era RA markings, now seemed like the time. Plus, I had an Italeri two-seater in the stash, which didn’t seem like it was going to be built unless I thought of something creative.

The biggest challenge was to mask the White stripe swooping down both sides of the fuselage. I used the new(ish) Tamiya white tape for curves and it worked well enough. The big White arrow on the lower surfaces was less of a success, given that the masking straddled lots of raised detail, vents, flap fairings, deep curves, and two of the three wheel wells. I think this pretty much used up the last of my Xtracolour Red Arrows Red paint, so unless the Royal Post rethinks its policy on air-shipping enamel paints, that is probably my last Red Arrows type for the time being.

Decals were cobbled together from various Airfix Hawk Red Arrow sheets, with a serial number picked more or less at random. The “Royal Air Force” titles came from an Xtradecal lettering sheet. It will always be a conversation piece, although the RAF would be unlikely to use such an expensive aircraft for their display team.

This is completed aircraft #478 (11 aircraft, 2 ordnance, 11 vehicles for the year 2017), finished in July of 2017.





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