[Kit Review] RetroWings - 1/144 Air intakes for Revell Harrier GR7

Had this little conversion kit in my stash for over a year waiting to be used on a build. This is one of RetroWings first conversion kit which over the last year has rapidly expanded.

Fits like a glove, very easy with no problem at all.

Cockpit is very bland on this at the moment, after seeing this close-up i will defiantly start from scratch to build up a more detailed one as it my tribute the the British Harrier.



Nice little conversion so that you can have the air intakes open just to add a little detail.
Ian

Revell 1/144 - Dassault / Dornier Alpha Jet - WiP 4 - Built, masked and ready to paint

This is the first bit of real modelling ive done since the thumb incident which is almost all good now. Luckily all this involved was masking off the canopy, which is just time consuming since most off this model was basically complete a month ago.

Next will be to prime this up and then find the correct paint colours to paint in the Luftwaffe livery and to find some RAF decals which will have to be burrowed from some other kits.

Ian

Revell 1/144 - Dassault / Dornier Alpha Jet - WiP 2 - Assembled

Basically all the meat is now done, got to fit and mask off the canopy and at the very last i will glue the canards on the new resin tail, otherwise i will only accidentally knock them off.

New resin tail fitted from Retrowings to correct the warped end of the fuselage which gave the kit the strange "banana effect". With the Retrowings kit you can choose to replace the entire tail canard as well but i choose to keep the original plastic one which has the same shape as the British style alpha jets.

Was quite easy to fit, simply cut off the end off the tail along a panel line and then this new part fitted inside the hole left and just had to be glued and putty added to fix as discrepancies, very easy and convinced me to start buying new releases from Retrowings.



Think this is one of revells first attempts at a good 1/144 kit before the F-14 came along and imagine that when this was released over ten years ago and was quite the quality 1/144 kit. All went together nicely and has all the panel lines and parts structure which ive come to expect from the modern 1/144 revell kit.

Ian

Revell 1/144 - Dassault / Dornier Alpha Jet - WiP 1 - Retrowings cockpit painted

The Retrowings office all painted and ready to be glued in. Tried to paint all the tiny dials and instruments to give a feel that there all there and the second control panel at the rear has the same amount of detail as the front one which will be glued it near the very end of the build. This has not been glued in yet but you can see it fit perfectly.

Next to to change the tail.
Ian

[Kit Review] - RetroWings 1/144 - Cockpit Detail Set for Revell 1/144 Luftwaffe Alpha Jet -

One of 3 cockpit details sets from RetroWings for the Revell 1/144 Alpha Jet, this being the Luftwaffe set and the other 2 French and Belgian Air forces, main difference is the ejection seats.

Great little set this  just like the one for the Hellcat and a real great update for the rather plain one supplied with the kit. Comes with 2 sets of ejection seats so that you can model both version in the Luftwaffe the early and later ones. Also got a sweet new front dashboard which really easily fits into place right on top on the existing model after removing a small bump, it simple but super effective at suddenly adding alot more detail.

Dry fitted the cockpit and tried to bring out the excellent detail with some brown wash, as im posting this ive already fitted it into the cockpit and it fits a charm.



Next is to  give it a clean and then painting begins, for such small parts with alot of tiny details its amazing that or the enitre set there on only one bubble! Easily fixed.
Ian

[Kit Review] - RetroWings 1/144 - Tail correction kit for Revell 1/144 Alpha Jet

Second RetroWings resin set for the Revell Alpha Jet, this one to correct the "banana effect" present on all Revell Alpha Jets.

Smart design for this, all that's need to to assemble the fuselage then cut along a horizontal panel line and fit this new tail. All panel line present and correct, brown wash really brought out the detail on this one.

Will probable keep the original tail canard and only replace the banana fuselage, the Alpha i will be modelling has a flat top to the tail while this has a curved top.

Ian

Platz 1/144 - F6F Hellcat - WiP 1 - RetroWings cockpit detail set painted

The retrowings cockpit set all painted up and ready for the 2 pieces of the fuselage to be glued together and then of course most of the detail hidden .

I brush painted it and reckon the next time i paint a similar sort of resin set i will use airbrush so eliminate all of the brush strokes (but does give it a sort of "used" look).

I dried fitted the pieces first, then gave them a wash to remove any residue on the resin, painted, given a dark wash and then used a little tamiya weathering master. Really nice little instrument panel, every gauge had been painted.

Wanting to have a open canopy now.
Ian

[Kit Review] - RetroWings 1/144 - Cockpit detail set for Platz F6F Hellcat -

Bought a bunch of detail sets from RetroWings last week and this is the first one to be used. From what i see so far, this a fantastic set, the like ive never bought before even though ive seen various other the sets ive bought from RetroWing seem to be highly detailed and very reasonable priced.

This great little set includes a the entirely new cockpit to replace the very simple one supplied with the Platz kit, including the seat, instrument panel, control stick, 2 real nice side panel which are my favourite pieces so far and the largest piece the back and floor with tiny little pedals. There is a another Hellcat set from RetroWings which includes night radar and new cannons.

Added a little wash to bring out the detail, real nice little belt straps which you can even see the buckles. Behind the seat so really nice detail is lost forever and the side panel are really nice but have to wait until painted to see what their like.



Have given this a coat of cockpit green as i post this and will hopefully detail up soon.
Ian