I must admit that I am a big fan of the new generation European fighters though I still find North American and Russian birds pretty cool. The European ones have something to them that just make them seem a little bit cooler.

The kit comes in the standard combination of light grey plastic and clear parts, although I was somewhat surprised by the number of parts in the kit. The detail is very good with engraved panel lines and nice, crisp landing gear bays. The cockpit however is Italeri's featureless standard with decals for instruments. As a builder you have the choice of posing the canopy up or down, refueling probe and airbrakes in or out. Assembly is good but don’t forget to put noseweight in. I used half a nosecone of buckshot secured down with CA glue. There were some minor fit and filling problems with the air-intake area but nothing that can’t be taken care of with time and patience. The canopy piece should get the Future treatment as it is very prominent up or down.

Decals are supplied for several countries including Britain, Germany, Italy, and (I think) Spain (its been quite a while since I built it).

I finished this with the standard compliment of military greys (3-tone on this one), and also gave it some preshading with a sludge-mix of pastels to highlight the panel lines. The decals (I chose Germany) went on with no fuss at all, though I did use DecalSol to get them to lie down properly.

This is a fairly handsome looking bird when finished. I would recommend it to modelers of any age or skill level.