September 2025

Eurofighter Typhoon

1435 Flt, RAF Mount Pleasant, Falkland Islands

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Eurofighter Typhoon FGR.4

1435 Flight, RAF Mount Pleasant, British Forces Falkland Islands, 2016

Airfix 1/72 with Mark 1 Decals

Operating four Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4, 1435 Flight is based at RAF Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands, providing air defence for the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

The Falkland Islands Typhoon mission began in 2009 and was the first frontline overseas commitment for the RAF's Typhoon Force. Its urgency was driven partly as a counter to Dassault's loud marketing proclamation of the first Rafale combat deployments to Afghanistan.

Eurofighter Typhoon The Typhoon forms the mainstay of the RAF Fast Jet combat fleet, working alongside the newer F-35B. Having entered operational service in 2006, it is primarily an air to air design, leading to many early criticisms of its relevance in the post-Cold War era. Significant efforts have been applied to enhance its ground attack capabilities, such that the current tranche of aircraft is now one of the most capable multi role fighters in the world, able to carry ASRAAM and Meteor Air to Air missiles (or the less capable AMRAAM), plus Brimstone and Storm Shadow air to ground missiles as, well as laser/GPS guided smart bombs.

1435 Flt During WW2, 1435 Flight was a night fighter (NF) unit based in Malta, subsequently becoming the only RAF squadron to be given a four-digit number as 1435 Sqn. Formed in late July 1941 at RAF Takali with twelve Hawker Hurricane Mk.II fighters it was re-established in July 1942 at RAF Luqa as a day fighter unit equipped with the Spitfire.

It converted to fighter-bomber activities in January 1943, operating over Sicily and in Italy then over Albania and Yugoslavia as part of the Allied Balkan Air Force.

Following the Falklands War in 1982, the Flight was reestablished to provide air defence, initially from Port Stanley airfield with Harrier GR.3 aircraft. In 1988, 1435 Flight was reformed with 4 Phantom FGR.2s, based at the newly built “Death Star” of RAF Mount pleasant, a large purpose built military air base. The Phantoms were replaced in 1992 by 4 Tornado F3s, then in 2009, 1435 Flight converted to the Eurofighter Typhoon, continuing its Falkland Islands defence mission in the face of ongoing threats from Argentina. Like its predecessor Sea Gladiator aircraft in Malta during WW2, 1435 Flight have named their aircraft “Faith”, “Hope” and “Charity”, plus “Desperation” for the 4th Aircraft, with the aircraft bearing F,H,C and D tail codes appropriately!

1435’s Typhoons are the last Tranche 1 aircraft remaining in RAF service . Although converted to FGR4 and given a limited ground attack capability, they are not fitted to operate the Meteor air to air missile or the Brimstone ground attack missile used by later tranches. Nevertheless they do carry the latest AIM120D AMRAAM BVR missile and the highly manoeuvrable ASRAAM short range dogfighting missile. Although fitted with the standard Mauser cannon, it is not clear whether these are able to be used.

Building the Airfix 2025 Eurofighter Typhoon kit

This is another of the latest generation of Airfix "Starter Kits", and I think that it may be the best one yet.

Over the last 10 years, some far eastern manufacturers, most notably Hobby Boss have bucked the trend toward ever more complex kits, by producing simplified but good looking and well engineered models that are ideal for the beginner or casual modeller. In contrast, for decades, "old" Airfix pawned off their older and sometimes most dreadful moulds on this starter audience, that must have seen many budding modellers give up in desperation.

However, with this new generation of starter kits, they are spot on the mark, with reduced parts counts, easier construction steps and notably little obvious compromise in detail. Best of all, Airfix seem to do good primary research before moulding a kit, unlike some Chinese examples that seem to have been designed based on a blurry photograph (I exaggerate, but there are some real corkers out there, some of which are quite expensive).

The construction sequence is unusual, with the wings being assembled and then joined to their fuselage sides, before the fuselage is joined together. It works well, helped of course by the precise parts fit and well illustrated instructions that even show precisely where the glue should be applied!

Of course, the mould isn't perfect; that long wing to fuselage seam leaves a gap on one side (I'm not the only modeller to find this - I resorted to using the time honoured method of flooding the gap with some glue - but probably don't try this at home kids, I have a lot of experience in fudging things like this) and the underside fuselage centre join was a bit "ragged". However, the plastic used is quite soft, so easy to tidy up. The upper fuselage join is nicely hidden by the separate spine, a feature seen on other Typhoon kits. A good Airfix pilot figure is provided (of course) to sit in the reasonable ejector seat and fill the otherwise nicely detailed cockpit. I did find that the fitting points for the main undercarriage were vague and the distinctive support link/strut is missing, so I added one from plastic rod to give the whole thing a little more rigidity.

My main criticisms of the kit are its lack of pylons/tanks/weaponry other than a single outer wing pylon on each side (I've used some spare Revell parts here), its rather bland decals (I sourced alternatives) and the fact that it is only available as a starter kit, meaning that I have paid a premium yet again for a tube of thick messy glue, plus some acrylic paint pots and synthetic brushes that I am unlikely to use. Other quibbles are the blanked air intakes and short blanked exhausts, although the external shape of the latter is basic but acceptable (that was my main criticism of the starter F-35 kit). The nose cone isn't sharp enough, but fairly easy to fix and the prominent head up display is missing in its entirety. The small airfield arrestor hook under the tail is also missing.

I also had some difficulty with the canopy, which is intended to "clip on" for the less experienced modeller. Fair enough and the two spigots that enable this seem to work well, but I then found that the upper fuselage spine part wasn't sitting low enough over the cockpit, leaving a small step on its edge. Overcoming this wasn't the easiest task and when I think back, the only other built example of this kit that I have seen so far also had a badly fitting canopy, so perhaps there is a design issue here.

Painting, as always, posed a few issues. I hand brush with enamels, normally Humbrol or Revell and although Airfix recommend H165 (Medium Sea Grey) for the main fuselage, sadly, this is one of the Humbrol colours that has been withdrawn from their enamel range. Although I have quite a lot "stashed", I'm not convinced it is correct, so will keep my stash for aircraft that definitely need it. The Revell kit suggests R76 (USAF Light Grey) for Luftwaffe aircraft, but quite honestly this looks too blue. For their RAF options they suggest 60% R76 plus 30% R75 (stone grey) on their older kit, and simply 76 on the newer. As a compromise, trying to match with the many Typhoon photos I have in my collection (where the RAF aircraft definitely look to be a lighter grey than those of the Luftwaffe) , I have gone for Humbrol H127 (US Ghost Grey), which seems to have the slight blue tint I was expecting, but also to be light enough.

To sum up, I enjoyed this as a "quick build" and was impressed by its detail and commendably sharp surfaces, even if it has a few "pooh traps" for the unwary. Indeed, if it had arrived labelled as a product of a new manufacturer, I would be looking enthusiastically to see what else they produced. It's not perfect and there were a few frustrations, so I guess that the "serious" Typhoon modeller should probably stick with Revell and Hasegawa, but this is a good alternative that will satisfy the vast majority of modellers and not cause too many issues for the inexperienced. It is definitely a quantum leap over the previous Airfix Eurofighter kit and another example of how "new" Airfix are driving their kit standards forward and upward !

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This was an impulse buy last month on a wet Sunday in Plymouth, but I guess it does sort-of continue the Battle of Britain theme, plus has a good link to my Malta Air War theme.

As I walked back to the station to catch a train home, I realised that Plymouth Antics was open on Sundays, so I popped in for a browse. And of course, it would have been rude not to buy something……