Wendall's 1/48 Raspberry Ripple Tornado

[Wendall]

I've been wondering what to do with this kit for a while. I picked it up at the Yeovilton model show last year but I've never liked the kit decals. They're very nicely done, nicely printed, readable to the smallest detail and in perfect register. The scheme just doesn't do it for me.


Anyway, during a tidy up of the Man Cave yesterday I stumbled across a couple of decal sheets I'd forgot about and I formulated a cunning plan. I know I'm a bit late of the mark but I should get it finished by new years eve


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There's a lot of plastic in the box. It looks a lot more detailed than the Airfix Tonka I had a run in with once!


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Decal sheet. There's the markings for a Gulf War airframe as well! Maybe a dirty pink bird in the future???


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Image courtesy of these guys http://www.bahg.org.uk/tornado.htm


I have some spare drop tanks and 1000lb bombs so I'll load it out a bit like this.


Wish me luck


Jason

[Guest]

Interesting!!


You don't need....but good luck

[papa 695]

Very nice Jason I will watch this

[yak face]

Nice one jason, by all accounts its the best 1/48 tornado available. I had an airfix one too , it got sold -it was a proper dog of a kit!! Looking forward to this one ,cheers tony

[Guest]

Great idea, will be watching this one

[flyjoe180]

Great stuff Jason, looking forward to seeing this beauty build up. Welcome to the Ripples too

[Wendall]

First Tonka update.


It is an impressive looking kit in the box. Lots of fine panel detail and most of the parts required to turn it into a Brit Tornado. One of the things that put me off of starting this kit ages ago, was what I thought looked a complicated construction process. Especially the main Fuselage and wings. The basic fuselage shape alone consists of nine separate pieces. Its eleven bits of plastic of various sizes to build up the huge tail and the basic wing assembly not including flaps and slats looks fairly complex.


With all of those components required to achieve what would usually take 6-8 parts I was naturally concerned about fit issues add that to lots of seemingly unfinished build threads on tinterweb and I really thought that this Tornado although beautiful on the sprues could be a dog to build.


The truth of it is, as long as you dry fit, clean up the minimal flash properly, pay CAREFUL attention to the slightly confusing instructions and dry fit again. It should go together very well.


Here are some shots of my progress so far:


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Cockpit tub built using the kit decals. I have resisted the urge to buy any PE for this build. The kit seats are adequate but are slightly clunky looking to my eye. I had two Resin jobbies already painted which I had bought for the old Airfix Tornado which defeated me. So these were touched up and kit decals added to the head boxes.


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As I have said the fit overall is very good as long as you take it steady and check everything twice. The only weak area I have found so far are the intakes. Didn't matter what I tried, I couldn't get them to fit properly so a bit of sanding, filling and re-scribing was required In this area.


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Here is the load out. Three 1500 Gal wing tanks. The two kit tanks have had the detail removed as this didn't match up with images I have of the real thing. I also added two extra fins to each tank as per my references. The third tank is another salvage item from the Airfix kit. I am going to be adding some Archer rivets to all three before painting. The Sky Shadow and BOZ pod are both from the Revell kit and are nicely represented. The Boz pod needs the rear end cutting off and turning 90' and I have blanked of the end. The 1000lb bombs are from the spares box.


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The instructions say 40g in the nose to stop it tail sitting. I have been using this stuff which I got from John. Its a bit messy but you can stuff it in the smallest gaps and even put it in through a small inconspicuous hole in the nose wheel well if you haven't used enough to begin with


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And finally the kit decals provide very few stencils and the ones that they do are in German so I ordered up a set of these. Enough to do two airframes in here so another Tornado is looking very likely in the future.


Thanks for stopping by


Jason

[yak face]

Great looking cockpit jason , im glad you didnt use any pe , it looks just as good ( better actually as its not 2 dimensional) . The airframe is coming along nicely too , looks a good kit to me, cheers tony

[rickoshea52]

Great to have you along Jason and especially a Tonka. I have the italeri offering but it doesn't have the flaps & slats options that the revell version does, will you build her with them deployed?

[Guest]

Nice work! The cockpit looking great.


Ahhhh...and a detailed thread...I love it

[papa 695]

some great work there so far Jason

[flyjoe180]

Some really good work so far Jason, awesome stuff.

[Guest]

That's great work Jason & you've answered some of my questions that I had about building this kit - dunno why manufacturers seem obsessed with ' modular ' kits these days. One small mistake early on & things are scuppered further along the line.. anyway, enough of my ramblings!

[Wendall]

Nice to have you all along for the ride. Thanks for the kind comments.

I have the italeri offering but it doesn't have the flaps & slats options that the revell version does, will you build her with them deployed?

Oh yes Rick! Slats, flaps, air brakes and IFR probe if I can find one. This Tonka's gonna have it all hanging out

That's great work Jason & you've answered some of my questions that I had about building this kit - dunno why manufacturers seem obsessed with ' modular ' kits these days. One small mistake early on & things are scuppered further along the line.. anyway, enough of my ramblings!

Glad my ramblings have been useful Patrick. It's definitely a good kit(and very reasonably priced)I've pondered the modular approach and sort of concluded that it might make tooling different variants easier. Not sure how that would apply to the Tornado though??? But you're right, one small error early in construction and you're tearing your hair out several steps later. Keeps you on yer toes though!


Jason

[Wendall]

After some advice please fellas! I can't find any definitive reference pics, am I right in thinking that theses sway brace? Thingys on the pylons should be removed on an RAF Tornado?


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Jason.