Under Construction: Revell Tornado GR1

[Guest]

So, not to be perturbed by my own drunken antics, chin up and start with the next one. This time I'll do better even found a way to upload smaller pics!

Next up, the Revell Tornado GR1:

I chose this because all the comments on here are about how good the fit is and other than tigermeet varieties, you don't see many Tornado's up on here. Well, except one attempt that ended up melted, I will try to avoid melting mine! I ordered this from a small shop in Reading that actually specialises in stamps and arm medals and the like. He pulled out a box and after a few browsing a million postcards, came across this:

Turns out the decals in the set are also for 9 Squadron so that's something, the chap was good enough to throw this in for free so I'm sure the finished model (I will finish this one!) will end up on this. Or maybe one day if I keep this up long enough might try to use this in some sort of box construction.

Anywho, I mentioned decals, and oh my god there are a lot:

It appears most of these are for ordnance, I'm not sure if I'll kit the plane out or just have it with the fuel tanks and no missiles, but that's a decision for later. The kit is far, far, FAR more detailed than my last attempt so this should look good. I only have Humbrol paints so after converting the numbers from Revell's I find I have absolutely none for the super detailed cockpit, so I left that until I could get to the shop and get me some more. Anywho, this was a bit more fiddly than I was expecting with bits I am supposed to glue and bits I'm not, but the rear has come together well:

The, err, things you connect missiles to, work fine when the wings are in low speed configuration:

I've followed the instructions but I'm not quite sure what's going on with the rear stabilisers as these can be rotated 360 degrees and aren't really attached to the fuselage at all:

But it does fit together well, it works well, looks like it's going to be an absolute bitch to paint, but I've been practicing camo using maskol and an airbrush and those results have come out well. Let's see what I can get out of this one!

[Guest]

That is one heck of a decal sheet for a 1/72 aircraft!

It's coming along nicely Mike, and mucho gracias for the smaller piccys!

I think the horizontal tailplanes go like that, they rotate around a single pivot, just like on the diecast one I had as a kid.

[tr1ckey66]

Hi Michael

That's a good start to the Tonka. The stabilisers on the Tornado do move like that but I usually glue them in one position (I usually strengthen the bar that holds them too).

I have 2 1/48 and a 1/32 Tornado waiting to be built so I'll be interested to see how yours turns out.

Keep up the cracking work

Paul

[flyjoe180]

Nice subject Michael.

[rickoshea52]

These controls surfaces are actually called tailerons - an obvious hybrid of tail and aileron. They are all moving and provide pitch and roll control in flight with the wings swept or forward. I never worked on Tonkas so part from the above the only other thing I know about them is the taileron actuator is very complicated and a pain in the arse to replace.

[Guest]

So, I've figured out why I've never seen a model built whereby the things the missiles attach to still moves, it'll leave gaps when painting as you cannot move it until the paint is dry and cured, and, more importantly, once it's painted it'll eventually scratch and leave a circle where it's gone against the paint work...

Hmmm...

[papa 695]

I like the Tonka Michael so will watch this one

[Guest]

Oooh looky what just arrived in the post :-)

OK, so an RAF Tornado from 1982 isn't a WWII British Aircraft, but this 16 colour set had so many colours that'll come in use on other models including numerous greys, greens - and of course Dark Earth which will come in use on any allied WWII project, I simply had to.

Everyone seems to rave about Vallejo Model Air, this seemed a great way to find out rather than just buy 1 pot of the stuff

I suppose I should really get back to the build now!

[flyjoe180]

You'll find the dark green and ocean grey you need in there, nice set. Now back to the build Mr!

[Guest]

Crikey this modelling lark takes a long time when you ban yourself from working on a model when drunk! My experiments with Vallejo Model Air are not good...

I've knocked the psi way down to 20. It was 35 with humbrol acryllics. I've also got a new gravity feed air brush, it's a cheap one, but it's far better than the syphon ones I had and as I can't put the paint back in the bottle I need gravity! I can't get up close any more with Vallejo as the air just pushes it away, it's *really* thin, so I thought I'd practice on an Airfix Tornado, rather than ruin this really nice looking Revell one. I've also picked up some liquid Poly so thought this was a good crap kit to practice on to see if it makes a difference before splashing out on Tamiya's magic extra thin. I am aware of this Airfix kit, it has a shockingly bad reputation. Now I've built one, I know why!

As I ran out of white primer, this model requires a black tail fin and I don't have a Vallejo black, I even masked the canopy, which I rarely ever bother doing. This needs a subtle grey, so this might cause an issue but will cross that bridge when I get there. The most annoying thing is the bits that fell off trying to mask the top sections. The liquid poly did quite a good job on this if I'm honest, the fuselage is a 2 piece construction so there's a lot of contact pieces to get right, this was made a lot easier with a liquid product rather than the quick drying cement that comes in this starter kit.

So, poly cemented pieces are now drying and the bits that need to stay black are masked:

That took me about an hour and now I've run out of time as I'm off to see the Poppies at the Tower of London and the NFL at Wembley so I've no idea when I'll get back to testing Vallejo on this, or when I'll finish this and get back to the Revell one! This was supposed to be a quick build so I can test out my new bits

Speaking of new bits, one of the other things I got was new model putty that was recommended by Laurie (I forget which one), that was used on the tailerons. It looked awful as the weight of the part was pulling the glue apart with that stretched blob look I'm sure you've seen before, the putty sorted that out good and proper and looks like it was actually part of the plastic, so well happy with that!

I guess I'll get back to this tomorrow!!

[Guest]

looking great mate, i just finished the 1:32revell kit and had exactly the same problems. broke the wing pylons off, also snapped the rear wing off after repeated moving.

[colin m]

I built this and finished it off as a Gulf war machine. I found it to be a really good kit, lots of detail for the price.

[Guest]

Well I'm hoping to get back to the Airfix project this evening to see what I can get out of Vallejo Model Air on a plastic kit. My test sprays have not been good and I do not want to ruin what is so far an awesome Revell kit without a bit of practice first!!

[Guest]

Michael that Tornado is looking really awesome. One of the best RAF planes ever besides the EE Lighting . Keep up the awesome work

Cheers Brian

[Guest]

Yeah looking really good, strange thing about these acrylics my Italeri set was useless and I had similar probs. as you with my Ammo Russian set, anyway looking forward to seeing this.