Kinetic's 1/48 scale
Alpha Jet

by Remi Schackmann

Alpha Jet

Italeri's 1/72 scale C-47 Skytrain is available online from Squadron.com for only $25.99!

 
In 2013, Kinetic released this little machine in 1/48 scale. The first release came with 3 schemes - the classic French training squadron and two for private planes.

In 2017, a second boxing was released, with this time the "Patrouille de France", the French aerobatic team scheme

When I bought my Alphajet, the "PAF" box wasn't yet available. My first thing, is to build the a school machine, with reflection I chose to make a PAF one.

The good news was that Caracal Model offered a beautiful decals sheet with "PAF" theme. The bad news, all the schemes are beautiful! Finally, I chose the 60eme anniversary.

The build starts as usual with the cockpit. The detail in the cockpit is very fine.

I made an error with the HUD. I assembled it but the aerobatic plane didn't have it.

I replaced the ejection seat with a Wolfpack MB Mk10 seat. But for modeller, be careful. The Mk10 seat appeared on the "PAF" Alphajet only in 2011.  They are for the Mirage 2000 and the base must be dig to enter in the cockpit with the right angle. But the look of the seat are far better than the kit one.

The second step is the fuselage. No problem to install the cockpit into it. But for a unknown reason, my cockpit isn't in the good place. One gap appeared at the rear and I have to fill this gap.

After that, I attacked two of the difficult aspects of this kit: the exhaust and the air intake. You must spend plenty of time to adjust these two parts.

Another tricky area is the wheels bays. The Alphajet construction requires that you install the gear leg in first and not at the end of the build. It was a problem to mask it when you paint your model.

After the fuselage, you can attach the wing. My first thing was to glue the wing after the painting. Why ? 
Because the intake profil and implatation wing make that is is difficult to paint the upper side of air intake.

But due to the need to adjust the wing and the use of putty to this place, finally I glued it first.

Now I can start the paint scheme.

Because I haven't the PAF box, I haven't any color reference. For the red and the white this is simple. The Gunze H11 white and H3 red is perfect for this role. For the blue it is different.

It is difficult to choose one. Some pics show a dark blue and some pics show a light blue.
I choose a middle solution with a "middle blue" and start to find a mix for obtening the correct blue.

I used 50% H15 and 50% H25 Gunze paint.

The French PAF plane has also a smoke tanker. One gun pod replace it.

Another specificity on PAF jet is a light in the nose. The kit didn't have it (even the PAF box).  I replace it with a spot of aluminium paint.

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Thumbnail panels:

After the paint, the time come to applic the decals.  The Caracal decals set very well on my model.

And finally ?

This kit is pleasant to built. It has some point that requiere some attention and sure it is not a Tamygawa kit. But you can made a fine model that look like a Alphajet.

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2018 by Remi Schackmann
Page Created 2 March, 2018
Last Updated 2 March, 2018

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