Model Set Series including: Glue, paints and brush
Review by: Geoff Coughlin (December 2011)
Price: Less than £4
Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For details visit Carrera Revell UK
A little bit of inspiration here…
The Revell Kit
Revell are certainly on a roll these days with plenty of new-tool kits being released in recent months. But it’s not just these larger scales that are attracting interest, clearly the very small scale 1:144 is too.
So we now have the Alpha Jet advanced trainer in Patrouille de France aerobatic team colours. And if you like small projects, then you should take a good look at the Revell range – it’s growing and impressive.
Box and Contents
The box artwork is usually very good and it’s decent enough here with one of the Team’s Alpha Jets climbing with the rest of the formation in the distance.
The light blue-grey sprues are packaged well as part of this starter set and no damage is apparent.
Taking the main components first, they are quite well tooled, feeling quite hard and brittle-like. No distortion was apparent and a dry fit of the fuselage promises a decent fit and overall shape looks pretty good. Moving to the wings, they are reasonable in outline shape.
Detail Sprues
The components feature recessed panel lines and this will please most of you, although they are a bit over scale and not as fine as, say, the Tornado mentioned above from this manufacturer.
The trick in this scale I think is to not go overboard on the weathering and start accentuating the panel line detail too much as it may look unconvincing, especially in such a small scale and given the subject – a French Air Force display aircraft!
The cockpit is spartan when compared to references and the seats only bear a passing resemblance to the original. Undercarriage detail is adequate, reflecting the original units quite well, although they are simplified.
Two under wing drop tanks are supplied but no other stores.
This kit sits in the pocket-money bracket, so it’s fair to say that the kit is surely aimed at the junior and novice market.
Clear Parts
The clear parts look clear enough with the whole canopy moulded as one piece.
Unless you are prepared to do a lot of work on the interior you may be better closing the canopy and just creating a decent overall impression of an Alpha Jet cockpit through careful painting of the kit parts and adding some scratched seat belts and a harness.
Instructions
The Revell instructions follow their usual exploded stages format. Location of parts is clear but colour paint coding is for Revell paints only.
However, the colour names are provided and this will help you to match your own choice of paints. This is a basic model and so should present little difficulty in working out where all the parts are located, even for inexperienced modellers.
Decals
The decals seem good. Certainly colour saturation and register is good and all markings are accurate and sharp in their detail.
This is probably the best part of the package; good quality decals will make a world of difference to your completed model.
Any one of the nine display aircraft can be made from the decal sheet – who knows you may be tempted to go for the whole team and display them in flight!
Conclusion
Basically, if you are into small-scale modelling, then this kit is worth a look, especially as given the low price you could build the entire Patrouille de France. If you’re prepared to spend a lot of time you can get better results – check out the Subscriber Gallery and some of the work in there!
Recommended for all inexperienced and small-scale modellers.
FEATURE STAR RATING (out of five)
Quality of moulding ***
Accuracy ***
Instructions ***
Decals ****
Subject choice ****
Overall ***
Geoff C.