1:72 Eurofighter Typhoon pilot 1

Equipment that has changed beyond recognition in half a century

Stand this figure next to an airman of the 1950s and you will see the difference at once. A Eurofighter pilot wears a g-suit with air bladders on the thighs and the abdomen, a life vest with a harness integrated into the seat, and a helmet that is more angular than the shell of the earlier period and carries mounts for a display system on the side. The silhouette is more robust overall and the head looks larger — that is not a flaw in the casting but a faithful rendering of the real thing.

The figure is usable for the Royal Air Force, the Luftwaffe, the Spanish Air Force, the Italian Air Force, the Royal Saudi Air Force and the Austrian Air Force. One figure therefore covers practically every operator of the type and it suits a collection in which several machines stand side by side in different national insignia.

The casting is of cast resin and comes unpainted. Painting modern equipment has a different center of gravity than historical figures: a uniform darker tone of the suit dominates, and against it the lighter straps, buckles and connectors stand out. What is decisive is a clean transition between the suit and the helmet, because that is where the eye looks first.

Before you glue the figure in, try it dry. Modern tubs tend to be narrow at this reduction and a bulky suit needs more room than older figures, so it is sometimes necessary to take a little material off the hips or the back.

One interesting consequence of modern equipment is that the figure of a present-day airman is harder to read on a model: a dark suit, a dark seat and a dark cockpit merge together. Deliberately lightening the edges with a dry brush helps, as does a lighter tone on the shoulders, where daylight would fall through an open canopy.