Zotz Decals

1/48 'Black Panther' Tornado decal sheet

Product # ZTZ48010 for US$13.00

Product Article by Steve Bamford on July 8 2004

 

 

 

Eli Raphael at Zotz Decals has been busy with his colourful schemes and this Tornado is no exception to Eli’s previous trend of colourful releases.  This particular Black Panther IDS Panavia Tornado is an Italian jet from 50 Stormo, 155 Gruppo E.T.S. (Electronic Warfare Tactical Suppression) based in San Damiano, Piacenza.  This plane was specially painted for the 60th anniversary of the 155 Gruppo and appeared in this scheme at the NATO Tiger Meet 2002 in Beja, Portugal.

The paint scheme is rather colourful and includes light blue on the forward third of the airframe, purple of the middle third of the airframe and wings and pink for the rear third of the airframe.  If you have a daughter…..she will love to build this jet with you.  For markings you have a big angry black panther with ferocious claws extended on both side of the tail doing a downward pounce.  On both sides of the fuselage below the canopy there is artwork of a sunburned foot soldier or big game hunter carrying a rifle in a desert uniform that appears to be of  WW2 vintage with palm trees in the background.  There is also a full set of stencils and national markings included on the 3 small decal sheets.  Eli has included 3 views of this jet (top, right and left side) as well as good detail about such things as the droptank colours, pods and pylons used and colours for wing leading edges etc.  I can’t think of any question I might have that isn’t covered in the instructions.  The paints must be custom mixed, but Eli at Zotz Decals has provided % mixtures using existing colours, so just use your eye droppers and count the drops as you match Eli’s paint % mixtures for airbrushing the airframe.  The decals are beautifully printed with sharp detail and perfect registration.     

I recommend this decal sheet for anyone interested in Tiger Meet colour birds of any modeler interested in building a jet with colours that will impress a daughter, wife or girlfriend.

Steve

Click on images below to see larger images of the instruction sheets

I would like to thank Zotz Decals for providing me with this review sample.

Photos and text © by Steve Bamford