After
posting some pictures in the ARC forum critique corner, I’m now here with the
requested article about the construction of this Tornado ECR. By the way, thank
you for the good feedbacks in this forum. I will expose this Tornado end
November in our IPMS local concurs. Theme: special painting… Wish me luck!
Opening
the Box, you find an Italeri Tornado like all the other ones, except that
Italeri made a (clearly visible) modification in the mould, removing the guns
which are not seen on ECR Tornados. Some sanding will smooth that modification,
so you get an accurate panel line there. At first view, the rest of the kit is
nicely moulded. The panel lines are a bit too deep engraved, but that’s no
real problem. The huge decal sheet (1x A4 and more) include the whole Tigermeet
Tornado and a “normal” German ECR version. They are nicely printed.
Starting
the construction:
The
first thing to build is as usual the cockpit. And this was the first thing I
needed to replace immediately, as Italeri still provides a rather low detail
cockpit in their Tornado kits. I got the NeOmega IDS cockpit, which truly
improves this area. The fit of the new cockpit is fair, comparable to the fit of
any BlackBox pit. If you follow the instructions you get a well detailed
cockpit, but you still have to add cables and rods you can find on reference
pictures. NeOmega has the particular connections moulded, but no instruction
what to connect where. Some minor changes would be needed to convert it from IDS
to ECR, but they are IMO so small that I skipped this work. I can highly
recommend this cockpit for your Tornado.
This
was the only aftermarket item I used on this kit.
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The
next step was the assembly of the wings, which could be build movable. As the
way Italeri planned the swept wing function and the stations to move is not
matching my high expectations of accuracy, I decided to build the wing and the
stores fix open.
The
first real headache was the assembly of the cockpit containing fuselage to the
rear section. The rear section is separated in to two halves, top and bottom.
Around the connection with the cockpit you have only three plastic stripes,
insuring the right separation (height) to connect to the cockpit part.
Absolutely no other guidance or help is provided there to get this done. I
decided to first glue the cockpit to the lower halve, and then closing the rear
top. I think that’s the only way to avoid a lot of putty and sanding.
The
second headache was the assembly “engine intake and wing root fitting”. But
first I have to speak a compliment to Italeri. My intakes had only very light
panel lines, so I tried to rescribe them. And I destroyed them. So I had to
order new ones, which I got within 4 days! And not only the intakes, but the
whole sprue! I have half a Tornado in my spare box now .
The
wing root fitting (black area on the photos) is horrible. No trick makes it, you
need putty and sanding. But not too much! There must be a tiny slot behind the
engine intake. Check your references!
The
rest of the assembly was no problem. I added details here and there, i.e. I
scratch built the reverser and tail hook mechanism (taking the Eduard PE
instructions as a reference), added braking lines, and corrected the fins on the
drop tanks, added antennas and so on.
Painting:
Checking
my reference photos I could see, that the painting instruction for the Tigermeet
version was incorrect, not to say useless. But for the regular Tornado it’s
ok. So I tried to get the correct colours used for the pattern direct from the
Lechfeld Tigers. But the only one replying my e-mails was stating that the
colours used on the 1996 version were like all the other Tornados too. I was
unsure about that, and found a fair answer in the 1/72 Tornado from Revell.
Unfortunately Revell is working with its own brand of colour, and so I mixed a
lot of colours, like 60% 91 + 40% 87.
The
final result was acceptable, regarding my references.
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The
decals to go… The first thing I noticed was the enormous size of the
individual pattern parts. I.e. one side of the tailfin is one decal (everything
printed on, the Tiger head, the German flag…). First I tried to get the decal
on like in the instruction, but decided then to cut them to smaller parts.
They
had a thick film, and it was only possible due to extensive use of Microsol and
Microset to get a nice finish. (You can see that on my photos above)
The
more the aircraft was striped, the more one could see that Italeri obviously
never tried if they fit. Some were too small, not covering all the area they
were supposed to, others were just inexistent, like the one joining the left and
right side in front of the cockpit windshield. I could only finish my Tornado
thanks to creativity, the ARC forum and the help of Ed, who sent me his Tiger
decal sheet. Thank you Ed!
Next
time I will paint the stripes. And this is a wise advice for all trying the
decals in the box!
The
final weathering and coat was done using the well explained techniques here on
ARC.
Hope
you enjoy this Tornado. For me it was much more work than I expected, but it
turned out to be something very special in my collection now .
I think the Italeri Tornado is still the most accurate replication of a Tornado
in 1/48. Hope the other companies have heard that call!!
Cheers
Leander
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