A little history on this kit. When AMK first issued this kit, Kfir aficionados noticed that the coke bottle shape of the fuselage was not quite looking right. IPMS/USA reviewed the kit last year.

You can see the shape is flat. SO, AMK fixed it and with this new release, the subtle shape is there. Fantastic!

Inside the box, you get 11 sprues of well done grey parts, a clear sprue and 20 weapons all molded as one price and stacked. More on that later. You get a superb decal sheet with marking for six planes:

• Kfir C2, SMF5201, 10th Fighter Squadron, Sri Lanka AF, Katunayake AB, 2011
• Kfir C7, #543, “Zohar”, The Arava Guardians Squadron, Israeli AF, 1990
• Kfir C2, NA401AX, ATAC, USA
• Kfir C2, FAE 905, 2113 Squadron, Ecuadorian AF, 1998
• Kfir C7, FAC 3043, 111 Squadron, Columbian AF

Note that some of these are C2 versions (Sri Lanka, ATAC and Ecuadorian) while the remaining two are C7 versions. There are a lot of differences so choose up front and make notes as needed on the excellent decal sheet. I chose a Columbian C7 from the 111th Squadron.

A note about the weapons, there are a lot:

• Mk. 82 Bombs x 6
• GBU-12 Paveway x 4
• Griffon LGB x 4
• Python-3 AAM x 4
• An/ALQ-167 Bullwinkle x 1
• SAIP Pod x 1

There is also a sprue of bombs plus three fuel tanks. Great choices and lots of leftovers.

Construction starts with the nicely molded cockpit. Note there are two instrument panels, one of a C2 and one for a C7. The nose landing gear is also added to the bottom of this part. Before gluing the wings together, make sure you check and check again, then open up the needed holes for the version you are building. Same for the fuselage- there are extra winglets added to the tail on the C7 and they need opening. Main wheel bays are added to the wings and then the bottom wing, fuselage and top wings are glued together. The splitter plates are added to the fuselage. There are no engine faces but that is not particularly noticeable sine the openings are small.

A little note, take your time with the wings., They have a wonderful molded in curve to the outer edge but it can slip loose and leave a gap needing filling. I know, I did it and hindsight, more precaution and less filling can be done.

Next, I added the nose. Again, lots of differences between the two versions as far as different parts, and openings so read and reread the instructions. I added all the intakes (there are lots of them) and the Quickboost antennae parts. The fit of the kit is excellent. Lastly, I added the windscreen after masking it. The landing gear was added to support the kit during paint. We were ready for paint.

The Columbian markings are three-toned and wrapped around the wing leading edges. I started with highlighting the panel lines in black, then started with the bottom color, masked and did the first color, followed by free handing the green camouflage last. This was then set aside and I worked on the weapons.

The Colombian plane uses two wing fuel tanks, two Python missiles and two Griffin LGB. This was the first time I had a change to use the weapons from AMK which are molded complete – they are wonderful. Building and painting them was not difficult and they look great.

The plane was gloss coated and it was time for decals. Lots of decals. The decal sheet comes with a complete set of markings and stencils. This was the finest set of kit decals I have used in a long time. They settled very well and I had no application issues. It took about three total sessions to get them complete.

I added an oil wash to the panels lines and flat-coated when dry. All that remained was the pylons, weapons, all the gear doors, along with the canopy and lights last.

This is an excellent kit, looks wonderful when finished, and is easily buildable by modelers of any experience as long as you read the instructions for the two versions. I cannot wait for AMK’s F-14D to come out. Highly recommended.

My thanks to AMK for the review sample and IPMS/USA for the chance to build it.