Walkaround vol.28: Renault FT17

Subject: Renault FT17

Location: Musée des Blindés, Saumur, France, 2015; Musée de l'Armée, Paris, France, 2015.

Comments: The Renault FT, frequently referred to in post-World War I literature as the FT17 was a French light tank that was among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history. The FT was the first production tank to have its armament within a fully rotating turret. The Renault FT's configuration – crew compartment at the front, engine compartment at the back, and main armament in a revolving turret – became and remains the standard tank layout. As such, some historians of armoured warfare have called the Renault FT the world's first modern tank. Over 3,000 Renault FT tanks were manufactured by French industry, most of them during 1918. Another 950 of an almost identical licensed copy of the FT (the M1917) were made in the United States, but not in time to enter combat.

Military aircraft vol.59: Eurofighter Typhoon

Subject:	Eurofighter EF2000 Typhoon
Scale:	1/32
Manufacturer:	Revell
Price (June 2013):	US$150,00
Construction:	Out-of-the box, enhanced with resin details. Painted as RAF Typhoon in primer colors.
Extras:	Aires late exhausts nozzles; Two Mikes resin intake covers; Eduard Remove Before Flight tags
Paints:	Finally i finished this project. The last time i updated the progress on this model was October 2013! Now it is done. I decided to display every nice detail Revell put on this kit. The engine is particularly nice, with 72 parts! Revell could easily put it on the market as a kit because it looks terrific when completed. I know Roden did it with their nice World War I fighter engines. I finished the kit and placed it on a base with the engine on it's stand and also the missiles available for the kit. I scratch built the bases for the armament using evergreen plastic rods. I am pleased with the end result. Actually, i decided to build a series of 1/32 aircraft following the same presentation as this one!

Work in progress vol.23: Eurofighter EF2000 Typhoon (UPDATE 3)

Eurofighter in primer colors 

Subject:	Eurofighter EF2000 Typhoon
Scale:	1/32
Manufacturer:	Revell
Price (June 2013):	US$150,00
Construction:	Out-of-the box, enhanced with resin details. Painted as RAF Typhoon in primer colors.
Extras:	Aires late exhausts nozzles; Two Mikes resin intake covers; Eduard Remove Before Flight tags
Paints:	1) Engine: Alclad aluminium, steel, jet exhaust and burnt iron; Tamiya flat aluminium. 2) Cockpit: Overall internal color XF53 neutral grey, highlighted with intermediate blue from Vallejo acrylics. Control panel painted flat Black XF-1 and drybrushed with modelmaster metalyzer steel. Details painted with various colors from Vallejo acrylics. Seat painted with Tamiya XF-1 flat black highlighted with modelmaster aluminium metalizer. 3) Fuselage painted with primer color XF-59 desert yellow, with some areas in XF-4 yellow green and XF-19Sky grey.

1)The sprues:

2) Extras:

2.1) Aires exhaust nozzles:

2.2) Two Mikes resin intake covers:

3) Construction:

Update 1:

a) Fantastic details on the Aires engine exhaust resin set:

b) Control surfaces painted in primer colors and panel lines highlighted:

c) Wings stations also painted in primer colors and panel lines highlighted:

d) Now the long work of painting and masking the fuselage:

Update 2: The fuselage is now painted in primer colors and most parts are ready to install.

Update 3:

- Gloss coat with future for applying the stencils. 

- After applying the decals, i used a flat coat of Humbrol varnish to seal the paint job.

- Then i started to build all the possible details that Revell made for this kit:

- I painted the engine parts with several different colors from the Alclad range of metallic paints. I also used Tamiya flat aluminium around the body of the engine.

- With so many details, i decided to display my model on a base. I used a large polystyrene sheet, ascribed the concrete details and painted with some artwork acrylics i found on a store close to home so i would not waste my expensive model paints on the base.

   

 Next you will see the finished work. Stay tuned!