1/72 Italeri Fulcrum and Eurofighter

by Bob Aikens

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Perhaps the sub- title of this article might be'Tiny-Town Revisited', because depending on your status as a'veteran' modeler you may be able to remember the time before the "The Age of 1/48"-which for the sake of argument began in the late 70's and although it is now showing signs of slowing, is still a major force shaping the aircraft modeling scene. It is true that even it the mid-50's to mid-60's there were "pockets' of 1/48 or near-1/48 kits; one thinks of Lindberg's stuff for the former and Monogram's WW II fighter series for the latter. Aurora, of course, had a really neat WW I series dating from the mid-50's.During the period under discussion both Airfix and Heller sold a lot of 1/72 scale models and there was quite a bit of selection-even in the early70's Matchbox was able to launch a highly successful 1/72 scale series!  So I suppose the crux of this memoir is that your correspondent built a lot of these models-especially Matchbox. In a word there was something 'naively neat' about them. All of this is to say that, for me, at least, even after being seduced into 1/48 World, the 1/72 scale impulse has stayed with me to some extent. And what type of  small kit do I find myself drawn to today? Why, Italeri-if you don't sweat the small stuff. Even as I speak the 2-seat Grippen is on it's way to me. More fun in Tiny Town!

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The Fulcrum you see pictured here was augmented with an Eduard  detail set and a Verlinden K-36 seat. It was painted with ModelMaster Light Ghost Grey and Dark Gull Grey. The decals for the Yugoslavian  AF in 1989 are from the kit.

The Eurofighter Typhoon was built straight from the box, using the kit decals. This is a kit of the Developmental Aircraft-I chose DA 4, the UK example. It was painted with MM Light Ghost Grey.

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So here's to all of the dedicated 1/72 scale modelers out there-and there are a lot of good ones, because I know some of them. As for the 'Good Old Days', there probably never were any. Today is the best time to be a modeler! But when I think of all the fun I had with that old Matchbox series I'm always reminded of the poetic apropos at the beginning of Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Treasure Island'...you know how it goes..

Bob

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Photos and text © by Bob Aikens