At Sea

The AAR probe is essentially a bit of bent pipe. A Tornado AAR probe white metal end (easily available from Master) will work on the end and the original kit part to fill the hole works as the cover.

It's a shame that all the work that AMK put into their Tomcat didn't go on a Tornado because I guess their market share of 1/48 Tomcat's at £70 has been seriously pinched!

All steel ships are made of mild steel. The curve of the ductility graph, the tensile strength graph, the weight graph and the cost graph all intersect at fairly common or garden mild steel. In high wear places on many ships they may use Hardox or stainless but never for structure. As an aside there is a pattern for lifting gear ashore to be supplied as Grade 10/100 or Grade 12 Master links; which may be marketed as having superior qualities to the established Grade 8/80 material in common use. Whilst is it true that for a given size of item, Grade 10/100 or harder material does have a higher tensile strength and correlating steel hardness, it also has lower ductility and is more prone to brittle fracture and failure under shock load than Grade 8/80 material. Grade 10/100 or harder material is also more susceptible to the phenomenon of ‘Hydrogen embrittlement’ whereby over time, hydrogen is absorbed into the steel from the environment in which the material is used, causing the material to become more brittle and susceptible to failure. This condition can be exacerbated when Grade 10/100 or harder material is used in cold climatic conditions or where the material is subject to corrosion such as in the marine environment. Opinion from a range of informed sources believes that whilst Grade 10/100 or harder material is satisfactory for use in controlled industrial environments, correctly produced, handled and maintained Grade 8/80 material provides a superior combination of ductility, tensile strength, and resistance to brittle fracture, more suited to maritime applications, than the higher grade materials now emerging from Lifting Gear manufacturers. So in short mild steel rusts but is good for all the other things ship's hulls have to do.

IMHO the Tornado suffers from the fact that it is a swing wing aircraft with lots of moveable surfaces. Comparatively the Phantom has just as complex a fuselage cross section, but the wing can be kitted as a 3 part unit that includes most of the underside. The Tornado requires the wings to be posable, plus the attachment points are in the way of the intake trunking. It has an aerodynamically complex wing, a all moving tail and a big glass house. Even Hasegawa couldn't make the F-14 an easy kit to build well. It took Tamiya and a lot of modern tooling to do that. If the Tornado had been used by more world airforces, or stationed in Japan then Tamiya may have a go. But in 1/48 it has been left to Airfix, Revell, Italeri and Hobby Boss, with the result that there are compromises. I have lots of the Revell 1/48 kit and it builds up well if you are very careful and patient. I have looked at the Hobby Boss kit but wasn't impressed. The Airfix kit was bad 25 years ago. Not tried the Italeri one in 1/48. Also don't forget it took until THIS YEAR to get a really good Spitfire in 1/48 (I prefer Eduard's offering to Tamiya but we are blessed with the choice) and only really with the SWS ZM Phantom series are we getting accurate F-4 models which improve on the 1980's Hasegawa offering. Personally I'd have preferred it if Revell had concentrated on fit and finish rather than wings slats etc... But it is still a good kit for an averagely talented modeller.

Hi there, Very late to this party but I have quite a few 1/48 Revell Tornado kits and this it the prompt I need to build one or 2! Let me have a look at my stash and I'll revert soonest.

Yes but look at old tool 1/48 Sptifire Vb prices... The 'Queen Salote of Tonga' markings. Admittedly it's a great kit, but still very firm.

B,C,D,J,S & E... ...Not too far from K & M now!

I like how it's been carefully built but obviously no filler or tricks so you can see how well the moulding works. I also note that not even Airfix's own test build team can get their decals to lay down in a panel line!

^^ Regarding the Mk1 bowser wing. I meant using the wing tops only, fill the ejection holes and remove the cannon stub on the lower wing. Writing is harder then thinking sometimes! 🙂

I built my 1/48 VII using and Eduard VIII kit & a scratch built compressor intake made from the un used clipped wing tip cover. I see no reason why this couldn't make a X with the wing from an Eduard Spitfire I as a basis for a D wing. The resulting C wing and MkI fuselage would be a good jumping off point for a Vc if you were so inclined.

I like that a lot!

Lovely build and a great rendition of the HF models of the Spitfire. One minor snag (and I hope it's recoverable) but there is no rake on the main undercarriage legs. There should be. I hate to be 'that guy' but when everything else is spot on... http://www.spitfireperformance.com/Spitfire_VII.html

Is that the turbocharger and engine from a P-47? If so I have never seen it all out like that. Marvellous.

There is a Xtra Decal sheet of white code letters including the ROYAL NAVY in white. X48045. Don't forget the Xtradecal stencil sheet as well, the stencils in the Revell kit are for an RAFG machine. Other than that you are good to go. PS don't feel bad about this, I have 3 1/48 Hasegawa RN Phantom kits and they all have thick, yellowed and virtually unusable deals inside. When I build them it'll be the XtraDecal sheets I use.

Oohh Brilliant. Thanks!

For those interested in modelling these there is a cuckoo clock door filter in the box for the Eduard 1/48 Tempest that isn't used... Part Number F32. I plan to add one to my 1/48 Hasegawa Typhoon.

Does anyone make one of these in 1/48, or a conversion kit? Thinking of making a Spitfire IX and a Buchon in 1/48 for my cabinet as a tribute to the film aircraft. Thanks.

Love it! Very very well built and nice to see an unusual scheme. I also like to build homage's to the box top art of yore so very nicely done on that score as well!

IMHO and purely as an outsider having never served I do believe that our time as a 'power' passed long ago. We have consistently invested in the wrong directions and have an unbalanced armed forces because of it. The mission should be clear: Navy - Defence of home waters and dependencies. It's impossible to mount another Falklands so each overseas territory should be garrisoned and have an on station frigate. It was the draw down of assets that opened the door to Galtieri. Navy - Continued deployment of Nuclear Deterrent. Hunter killer submarines to protect the above and enforce our home waters security. Marines - Garrison of dependencies and amphibious ops. Army - UK home defence. RAF - Anti Submarine and UK Air defence. Air mobility to garrisons abroad. The entire concept of expeditionary forces and deployments overseas is not possible unilaterally. It should be dropped from our doctrine & policy. The above is pretty much where we are going, apart from the Carriers and the F35's.

EDSG I have to resort to airbrushing actual model paints. US Greys are covered by Tamiya's AS Range I think.

Gene I of course bow to your superior knowlege on this subject! I'm not that boned up on 'Real' Phantoms, only the British F-4K & F-4M. 👍

An update & my experiences with the paints I use regularly: Ford Polar Gray = RAF Camouflage/Barley Gray Fiat Broom Yellow = RAF Trainer Yellow Fiat Capri Blue = RAF Blue for Phantom tails and special schemes Appliance White = Should be re-named V-Bomber White Racking Grey Enamel = Light Aircraft Gray (paint last after all the acrylic colours) Nissan Spark Silver = Bare aluminium BMW Titan Silver = Painted silver (eg RAF HSS) Red Primer + Gloss laquer = Chassis orangey red for truck kits Red Primer = Gloss laquer = Antifoul red for ship kits WARNING! I used to swear by satin varnish as a matt cote for my kits but the latest batch is quite aggressive and causes XtraDecal decals to bubble. Non Halfords Aerosols I like: Games Workshop Corax white as a primer or a very light grey Games Worshop Chaos Black as a primer or a black paint.

CADET: Compass to True add East Take (West) True Virgins Make Dull Companions: True +/- Variation = Magnetic +/- Deviation = Compass VD Makes little wille droop: Variation +/- Deviation = Magnetic Error East Compass least, Error West Compass best. Don't get me started on mnemonics for RADAR set up!

Faultless!

Mosquito! 😉