1/32 Revell Tornado Gr.1

by Malcolm Reid

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This is the 32nd scale Revell Tornado Gr.1. Nice delicate surface detail. Kit seat and cockpit detail look relatively good but I still decided to go with the Paragon Designs resin seats – these are really quite stunning. I added a bunch of detail to the basic kit cockpit as everything is so visible with the canopy open.

I also decided to present the aircraft in “everything down” mode – this meant purchasing the Paragon Designs flaps and slats set. And so the work began. Hacking away the kit flaps and slats took a fair bit of time. This was followed by thinning the trailing and leading edge surfaces and installing slivers of plastic card between the upper and lower wing halves to provide the correct spacing. The insert for the slats posed the most problems in that it was not too clear from the instructions as to how to install these. Many hours of sanding, shaving and trial and error later, these were in place. The full span double slotted flaps are quite flimsy and were attached just before completion of the model. All in all, the Paragon flaps and slats set adds a lot to the finished product. The Paragon set also provides decent replacement wing/fuselage seals – the kit parts look really anemic. Resin parts were primed with Tamiya gray primer prior to final painting.

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No intake trunking is provided in the kit, so I added this using thin plastic card. A bit of a waste of time because the compressor face can only be seen if one sticks a torch into the intake. The exhausts are well replicated in the kit and once assembled and painted a sooty black look the part.

The rest of the assembly went by without too many problems.

I decided on a GR.1 in the original RAF green/grey scheme. The painting posed it’s own set of problems – I could not match the grey – I think I must have applied at least 4 layers of various XtraColour and ModelMaster grey mixes before I found a 20 year old can of Humbrol 5 Gloss Grey – perfect match!  The green used was XtraColour X116 (Vietnam green). Both colours were toned down a bit with about 10% white. Lots of masking was required prior to painting the multitude of various natural metal areas, avionics panels and antennae.  

After two years of on and off building, I finally got to that most dreaded moment I’m sure all modelers experience – decals.  Especially when you know they’re those horrible Revell decals – nicely printed, but as flexible as cardboard.  I initially thought I’d scan the decals and print them on proper decal sheet. The problem is that the decals are printed on blue backing paper.  So, clever me, using photoshop I converted the blue background to white – problem solved!  Wrong!  The background when printing would be white (and not transparent) which would not be of much help especially on the various text stencils.  At this point I gave up and decided that I’d have to make do with the kit decals.  A test sampling on my trusty F-16 showed that copious amounts of MicroSol didn’t do a thing to the decals – silvering everywhere.  Time for more drastic measures – I’d “glue” the decals to the model using Future.  Once the decals had loosened from the backing paper, the decal area was wetted with Future and the entire decal dumped into a pool of Future, positioned on the model and left to dry.  Only warning – mop up the excess Future as this dries solid and creates a nasty yellow blemish.  Much to my surprise, the Future acted like a decal solvent drawing the decal down into the panel lines.  I found that for this to work, a very thin layer of Future must be provided between the model surface and the decal.  There were still areas where some silvering occurred but this was minimal and was hidden mostly through weathering with pastels.  Although the base paint was gloss, the areas on which Future was applied ended up with a totally different sheen, so the whole aircraft received a layer of airbrushed Future after which a semi gloss varnish was applied prior to weathering.  I’m not too concerned with long term yellowing of the Future as the paint scheme is generally dark.

The weathering itself took two days and destroyed one paint brush.  I applied a dark grey pastel onto all panel lines using a brush.  Excess dust is blown off and the remainder wiped in the direction of air flow to blend in with the surrounding paint.  Various panels were treated with dark grey or white patches using pastels – this to simulate random scuffing and wear and tear.  Lower rear area was treated to lots of black pastel staining to simulate the various leaks which adorn these aircraft.  Several panels treated to subdued chipping using sharp brush and Tamiya aluminium.

The famous black stains on the vertical stabilisers care of the thrust reversers was achieved by lightly spraying Tamiya X18 black.  Final finish was Humbrol Matt varnish.

Weapons fit is standard consisting of two 1,000 lb LGBs, two 1,500 liter wing tanks, and the outboard station BOZ dispenser and Sky Shadow EW pod.  I used the Concord Publications Tornado book as reference and noted several aircraft post Gulf War 1 using various combinations of desert pink tanks and pods.  I thought that would add a bit of interest to the subject so I painted the EW pod and one of the tanks desert pink.  Frustratingly, after much work on the Sidewinders, I found that the rear fins interfered with the dropped flaps and I could not install these. The flaps look like they’re in the correct position (using photos as guides) so there must be some dimensional error between wing, missile and pylon!

That’s it – another addition to the collection.

Malcolm

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Photos and text © by Malcolm Reid