Tornado GR1

1/72 Revell Tornado GR1 by Tony Adams

I won this model at the Farnbourgh model show lottery at the same time as the spectacular IJN Nagoto. At the time I didn’t appreciate what a good kit my “second” prize was. When I started looking around for a subject that I could build reasonably quickly for the forthcoming Revell competition, this kit stood out.

The kit consisted of five well moulded gray sprues with a very comprehensive weapon set, plus two clear sprues. Decals were provided for two aircraft , one from No 9 Squadron in green and grey camouflage (as on the box lid) and an aircraft from no 17 squadron in grey two tone. I did have a decal set for a GR4 from 617 squadron which I did consider but at the end of the day the challenge of the green / grey scheme won the day.

The build conventionally started with the cockpit , which was assembled and painted relatively quickly using a light grey base with detail being picked out through dry brushing with dark grey. Instrument detail was provided by decals which settled down nicely with a little help from Microsol. [1,2]

[1]	[2]

With the cockpit tub complete the front fuselage section was together. A considerable amount of lead shot was placed in the nose cone to prevent tail sitting. Joints needed a small amount of Mr Surfacer 500 to fill the seams before being cleaned up [3].

[3]	[4]

The wings (which can swing back and forth) and rear fuselage was the constructed. The weapons pylons are designed to swivel as the wings are swept back and consequently are not glued as they are passed through the wing. Suffice to say, all but one of the got broken as the build progressed, resulting in them having to be glued in a fixed position, which means that the final model has to be displayed in the fully swept forward mode, which is a real shame. The tailplanes also are intended to be moveable however they are attached by a very thin coupling , that too didn’t last too long!

[5]

The rest of the fuselage was assembled and cleaned up [4], the various orifices were plugged with wet kitchen paper before a coat of primer was applied. For this I decanted Tamiya’s fine surface primer into a jar [5] and after waiting for it to settle, sprayed it on with my airbrush. This gave me a much better result than my previous experiences with using a rattle cans which have always resulted in the primer going on too thick.

[6]	[7]

[8]	[9]

Once dry I preshaded [6] the panel lines with black (this proved to be a pointless exercise as the dark top coats totally obliterated the preshade – oh hum ) . I drew the camouflage pattern lightly onto the model with a hard pencil.  Tamiya have recently introduced two new grey (XF-82) / green (XF-80) colours for the 1/32 Spitfire and these where chosen for the top coat. Using a low pressure I first sprayed the grey and then the green freehand, the result was not too shoddy! [7]

Next up was the spraying of the nose code semi gloss black and the area exposed by the swing action of the wings light grey. The model had picked up a number of scratches with handling so once they were resprayed I covered the model with Klear to toughen up the surface. The engine nozzles were painted with a variety of Alclad  lacquers , along with the rear potion of the fuselage. Tamiya clear red and blue where added to represent heat staining which resulted in an effective effect [10].

The canopy was dipped in Klear and masked before painting. The wheel hubs were sprayed white, then I used Mr Masking Sol [8] (for the first time) before spraying the tyres very dark grey. When dry I tried to remove the masking solution but it was stuck solid! By the time I had scraped it away the wheels were in a sorry state [9].

I patched the wheels up as best as I could before assembling them with the undercarriage legs. The airbrakes were added in the open position after a little pro modeller wash was used on their under surfaces to make them look a little grubby [10].

[10]	[11]

[12]	[13]

There then followed three days of decaling , boy there were loads! If I ever see another No Step stencil it will too soon. When finally done I sealed them with Klear before using Pro Modellers Black [11], when this was wiped off the surface detail was brought out nicely. After the tail planes had fallen off for the nth time I inserted two cut off metal tacks into them to reinforce the join, after drilling appropriate holes in the fuselage the joint was at last secure. [12]. Once the various antennas and other small details were applied I got on with the underwing stores. There are lots of possible options in the box but I finally settled on settled on using the 2250 Ltr Hindenburger  tanks (x2), the 1000 Lb (x2) laser guided bombs (x2) , sparrows (x2), the sky shadow pod and the BOZ 101. These were constructed, painted and yet more bloody decals added [13].

After bringing it all together there was one outstanding detail to add. The plastic pitot tube was replaced by a metal one purchased online for £4 which was considerably more than the 10p I paid for the lottery ticket that won the kit!

This was the first modern jet I have done since I have been back in the hobby and I enjoyed the build, perhaps I will riffle through my stash and pull out some more in the near future.