SCALE MODEL NEWS

ACCORDING TO THE HASEGAWA promotions department of the Eurofighter Typhoon, “If only we had these in 1940…” SMN Report: Hasegawa's blurb writer goes on to say, “Either side would have loved to have the Eurofighter Typhoon in 1940. For the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, the Royal Air Force 29th squadron decorated their Typhoon with a Spitfire camouflage scheme. Hasegawa's writer adds, “The irony, of course, being that the Eurofighter Typhoon is cooperatively constructed by Britain and Germany as well as Spain and Italy. Painting the Typhoon in the Spitfire's Battle of Britain colors ( header, below ) is both an homage to history and a prime example of how far European cooperation has developed in the last 75 years. Kit features special markings.” And it’s those special markings that are the raison d’etre of this kit, flagged out as a Limited Edition that you can pre-order by September 3. The Typhoon (to our eyes) isn’t exactly a handsome beast (then again, neith...

“It's not eggs-actly copyright in-fridge-ment” says Hasegawa, introducing the latest in its long line of Egg Plane mini-kits, this one a Limited-Edition Shenyang J-15. Hasegawa eggspertly goes on, “The Chinese Navy broke a whole carton of international egg-reements when they plucked all the juiciest features of the Russian Sukhoi-33 and used them to feather their own bird. “If that's not eggs-asperating enough, the roost for these finagled fighters is an aircraft carrier lifted from the hen house under false pretenses. Other countries have squawked plenty, but they ended up with egg on their faces. “Apparently, you can do anything when you're the cock of the walk. Ruffle some feathers when you crow about your Grade-A construction!” Well, yes. However, stolen design or not, this Shenyang J-15 doesn’t get around the fact that Egg Planes are as delightful as ever, and if you’re even vaguely interested in the aerotoon genre, then this Chinese bird has to be on the must-build li...

SMN report Back in March Eurofighter released details of its proposed navalised Typhoon jet, and it looked really interesting, both as a concept and as an opportunity for a kit-bash. Now we’ve come across a similar proposal from Saab, with its single-engine Gripen multi-role fighter-attacker jet. Like the carrier-based Typhoon-N, Sea Gripen would not need a catapult for takeoff, instead being able to launch using a ski-jump - so it makes another, cheaper, competitor to the Lockheed Martin F-35, currently on order by the UK Royal Navy. The Gripen is designed to use rough strips - or at least, sections of Swedish highway - as wartime runways, so the lightweight aircraft seems to have the hard-working basics for seaborne ops already built in.  Easy conversion We show here Saab’s promo pix for the concept, and as is usually the case with sales material, the proposed differences are claimed to be minimal both technically and in cost - but that digital camouflage scheme is certainly a wi...