Tornado GR1 to GR4- 1/72 or 1/48 easiest?

[chrisrope]

Hi

As title suggests, is it easier to convert a 1/72 or a 1/48 GR1 to a GR4?

I have the 1/72 Revell and 1/48 Italeri Tornado's. One will be a wraparound GR1 and i'd like to do the other as a GR4.

If I am to go out buying AM resin and decals to upgrade one or the other, which is easiest to get hold of bits for or requires the least extras? I'm talking the visual airframe differences, weapons and suchlike I can worry about later

Any help appreciated

Cheers

Chris

[eng]

Personally, I'd go with the 1/72 jet as your GR.4 there's far more aftermarket available and stacks of decals. There are GR.4(A) conversion, TERMA pod, TIALD, RAPTOR pod, Brimstone, Flaps/slats (a full replacement wing with flaps/slats deployed). Xtradecal, Printscale and Model Alliance are your best bets for decals.

A couple of things to look out for on the Revell kit. In my opinion if you are modelling the aircraft on its wheels then it's worth shortening the nose leg as it sits slightly nose high, take about 1.5mm out of the oleo between the torque links and reinforce the joint with a small bit of wire. Another area to take care of is that if modelling the wings in the forward swept position you will need to make some new wing seals to close up the remaining gap aft of the wing trailing edge, there are various ways to do this, Tamiya tape, wine bottle top foil, filler and scribe, I'm sure there's more! I don't think the instrument panels reflect the GR.4 either but in 1/72 with the canopy closed it's not something I've bothered with so far. A few of my later examples have poor clarity in the main canopy but Pavla do a vacform replacement for the Italeri 1/72 kit but it will fit the Revell kit too.

Although the new Revell kit in 1/48 is not long out, and the Italeri kit has been about for a while this scale doesn't seem to have been as well served. Paragon used to provide some great stuff for 1/48 Italeri kit, fin correction, flaps/slats, burner cans, weighted wheels, seats but sadly these are no longer available, or if you can track some down expect to pay big bucks for them.

Hope this info is of some assistance in your decision making, these points are my personal opinion mind. So far I've built 3 and a half of the Revell 1/72 Tornado's, all as GR.4's, and I've another 8 in the stash, it's a beautiful kit.

Rgds,

Eng

[chrisrope]

That's excellent, thanks for taking the time to explain it all

1/72 GR.4 it is

Cheers

Chris

[eng]

If I can be of any more help just shout, the guys over on the Tornado SIG are a wealth of info as well, AirfixAndy is your man!

Rgds,

Eng

[eng]

My better Revell GR.4 effort -

Rgds,

Eng