The Eurofighter program started in 1984 by 4 European nations – UK, Italy, Spain and Germany – started the long term study of the requirements for an advanced agile fighter to serve well into the 21^st century. The first technology demonstrator flew in 1986 proving the design of the aircraft. Heavily delayed by political rethinking of the program by early 1990`s caused serious delays in production with simplification of the aircraft to reduce cost; as a result the planned production was reduced from 765 to 630 aircraft for the initial 4 nations; 180 for Germany, 232 for the UK, 121 for Italy and 87 for Spain. First flight of the first development aircraft, DA1 was on March 27th 1994 followed later by DA2 in April 1994 the UK. DA3 in Italy was the first to fly with the intended engines, the first 2 flying with RB199 engines originally intended for the Tornado. The first dual seater was the DA4. Equipped with the latest generation of guided missiles, the Eurofighter has an outstanding arsenal of weapons. Integrated systems, an optimum man/machine interface and the latest production technologies.

Developed by Europe’s leading aerospace companies, Eurofighter Typhoon is now in service with the Air Forces of Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom and will fulfil Air Force requirements well into the 21st Century. Aircraft production is ongoing and with 638 aircraft under contract to the four Partner Nations and Austria, as the first export customer. For further information and reference pictures, please see www.eurofighter.com

The box is large, 24,5x11x35cm, much larger than I would have expected based on once upon a time building the similar Italieri Eurofighter. Did I say similar? Not by far, trust me! Inside was a big clear plastic bag, containing 6 light grey sprues and 1 with the clear parts (separately packed in plastic bag) What you get is flash free parts, although some parts do have mould lines running down the length of the part, but this is easily fixed. 

You have 1 sprue with the main parts for the fuselage, 1 sprue for the wings, 1 sprue containing parts for the cockpit, wheel wells, undercarriage and ECM pods, 1 sprue with the parts particular to the single seat version, and 2 sprues with weapons. And what weapons!

You get: -          2x IRIS-T

-          2x AIM-132 ASRAAM

-          2x AIM-9L/M

-          4x Meteor

-          4x AIM-120B AMRAAM

-          2x BGU-24B Paveway II LGB`s

-          2x Taurus

-          2x Storm Shadow

-          1x Reconnaissance Pod

-          3x 1000ltr external fuel tanks with attached pylons.

Along with enough pylons to carry all of these weapons in various configurations.

 What I do miss are the pylons that can be mounted between the wing tanks and the fuselage, but surely some aftermarket genius will fix this soon enoughJ The separate pylons allow you to carry ordinance on all stations except the centreline, where you only get the option of the 1000ltr fuel tank. You also get the choice of open or closed engine nozzles, open or closed refuelling arm, a detailed cockpit with a nice ejection seat with seatbelts and detailed wheel wells. Not to mention all the extra weapons you get for the spares box 

The instructions include an overview of all the part trees along with the assembly which is easy to follow and logically set up. It even has a separate page with the paint diagram for the weapons which at the same time tells you what the different weapons are.  

From the parts breakdown it appears that a dual seat kit will follow in time, but when is not known.  Finally, the decal sheet, which is large and with markings for;

-          RAF 3sq 2005/2006

-          RAF 17sq 2005/2006

-          RAF 29sq 2005/2006

-          Italian AF, 4 Stormo 9 Gruppo 2005

-          German AF, JG73 “Steinhoff” 2005

-          Austrian AF, Demonstration markings 2006

-          Spanish AF, 11 Grupo, 113 Escuadron 2006

 For references on the Eurofighter Typhoon your best choice is http://www.eurofighter.com/ but I'm sure there are other good sources as well.  I'm sure this will be a big seller, and with a reasonable price of GB£ 14,99 for EU residents and GB£ 12,76 for everyone else it’s a bargain.  The pictures I've included doesn't do the model justice, as this reviewer isn't the worlds best photographer.

July 2006