I've recently purchased the following jets from Revell: F-15 E strike eagle and EF-2000 typhoon. the following question goes out to anyone that built either kit: are these kits tail heavy? Do I need to fix weights on the front of the plane?

Also are there any references for paint guides for the interior and exterior? Thanks in advance!!

Hermann

Yes, like most if not all modern jets they are tail heavy and will require some weight inside the nose radome.

As for colour I guess you're confused by those lovely Revell instructions and their delightful paint mixes? For RAF, its overall Camoflage (Barley) Grey. I used Medium Sea Grey for the radome and dielectric panels, but that colour tends to weather and I've seen various shades, so its hard to be "wrong"

yep, you most likely need to put in some weigt in the radome.

The trouble is that most weights do not fit very wellwhich makes it difficult to glue them in place

-> with little glue they become loose after some time and rattle in the airplane (or drop to the back of it) when you move it

-> too much glue and the radome melts which is also not very nice (don't laugh, i am not the only who got this

I have now another trick:

- put the weight in the radome
- glue a few small pieces of sprue on the inside of the radome, enough to block the weight
- keep the radome cool in water (outside) and use a burning candle to drop some wax into the inside. This wax gets solid around the weight and the sprue and you have a perfect safe connection. at laest, this never went wrong for me

Hermann, if there is any doubt about a kit being a tail sitter or not you can always tape the fuselage halves together, tape on the wings, and then sit the bird on its landing gear. If she's gonna be tail heavy she'll do it then.

As for tips about nose weight, Drabslabs idea sounded pretty cool.
Personally, my favorite method ( and this won't be cool with everyone) is to use a small caliber bullet in the nose. Not a complete cartridge, just the lead....or FMJ bullet. I do my own handgun reloads and have found the .38 caliber and 9mm works best. Just one is enough to handle any 1/48 scale jet. A couple of drops of CA glue will hold it there for ever. However, I'm interrested to try the wax method also.

As for the paint, here is a website I use ALL the time. It's easier to let other people do the hard work and then learn from their mistakes.
http://modelingmadness.com/kitindex/kitindexmain.htm

Hermon

The REVELL EF 2000 is in quality very close to the REVELL Rafale model. The molding is very good but they seem to have forgotten a few pieces

Consequently, for the Rafale, if you do not take measures then you can see the main wheels by looking into the air intake, not something which appears very realistic.

Some plastic card (i used plastic from an ice cream box) solves this completely but you have to do it before putting the fuselage together;

You will have fun buildign this. The Eurofighter is a beautiful plane.

By the way; in case that you would also like to buy the rafale in future, the Revell kit comes with an arsenal of missiles, bombs... several of which are in reality also fitted to the Rafale.

Makign a good choice permits to dress two planes up

Me Personally,I use Glaziers putty (the stuff used to put windows in).as an added bonus it`s quite weighty in it`s own right,but beware DO`NT put it anywhere near a seam as the linseed oil can have a tendancy to flow from the putty and appear as a stain on the outside of the model.
Hope this helps.

My favorite nose weight parallels Hermon's idea...
Go to a store that has firearm reloading supplies and pick up a bag of birdshot (for reloading shotgun shells). I'd suggest #6 or #8. A lifetime supply (~10lb bag) will cost less than a cheap kit, anout $10-15US.
Just put what you need in the nosecone and seal it in with 5 min. epoxy or some CA.