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1/32 Tornado ECR - Tiger Meet 2011 - the last one


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First off I should start with a BIIIIIG sorry! O.k. please guys, beware! This one is really picture heavy, to be precise, it will be almost 140 pics heavy, so if you want to get out, better do it now!

I thought some time about splitting this up between the WIP and the RFI sections but since the lady is already finished I thought it even more unpleasant to make the watcher switch between the sections.

Hence I now decided to turn this into some sort of crude mix of WIP and Rollout. I hope this is not far too much and that I am not breaking any rules and that you bear with me.

I just finished this baby and had a one year long WIP thread in a German forum. Some folks asked me to give at least a rundown of what I did in english before letting the Tiger roll out so here we are. Some time ago I already did this Tiger in 1/48 along with the Monster-sister of the JABOG-32-wing's second squadron:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234917593-148-luftwaffe-tornado-ecr-4633-lechfeld-tiger-2011/?hl=lechfeld

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234939481-148-tornado-ecr-4629-a-monster-for-the-tiger/

This time I went and tried the lady in big, i.e. 1/32.


Before I start just a little digression but wich should hopefully make sense in the end:
I was one of three finalists of Fighter Bomber Wing-32's design competition which led to the design for this - as it should prove only a short time later - sadly final Bavarian Tiger Tonka due to the wing's dispandmend only a few months later. In 2011 and 2012 I had several opportunities to have some pics taken of me together with the lady as many of us like to do given the occassion. For me this Tigerlady is something very special and it is just a shame that she got shredded in early 2013. If the original can't be saved I want at least a nice keepsake as big as possible, hence in 1/32 and it needs to be something special.
Some time ago another German modeller had the idea to portrait himself infront of a model, i.e. something like a 3D photo. I just found this idea so grand and original, I just had to copycat that for me. On one occassion the Tiger was covered with FODs, canopy and refuel probe open / extended but without any load and another time the Tiger was packed, with closed canopy and refuel probe and without any covers. Hmmmmm hard choice .... hence before I force myself to decide I'll construct everything as flexible as possible so I can change to whatever mood I am in and in the end it turned out as a changing amalgam of these two shots:
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O.k. before the rollout here is at least a "short" rundown of all the changes to the kit. Base is the well known Revell kit. Decals are made by myself and laid out as some sort of full body suit. Since the base for the decals had been direct shots of the original I found that some of the dimensions of the tailfin are slightly off to the original. As a discrepancy is on the rear as well as on the front side of the tailfin I can exclude a perspective effect as a cause. The big advantage of using photographs as basis is that you take all the nice little details on the original along with you on the decal and eventually the model. Big disadvantage is that you can't simply adjust the decals to the kit but rather have to adjust the kit to the decals. Well .... here we go:

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The engines are not the resin pieces. I rather stuck with the kit parts. These received further detailing with scratchparts, particularly around the turbine and the reverse thrust mechanism below the tail root.
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As nice as the Revell kit may be, Revell forgot to further detail the lower half of the kit so that had to be done as well:

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The intakes received scratch channels down to the fan blades and I scratchbuild some proper intake ramps which hopefully resemble the original a little more:

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As I wanted to keep the wings movable but still wanted to avoid those ugly holes in the wing seal bags I rebuilt the seal bags with styro foam and old rubber from a bicycle hose similarly to the 1/48 approaches:
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The instruments and cockpit tube was enhanced with some PE parts. The WSO's displays had been reworked with a dremel in a way that some sort of threedimensional effect similar to the original is created, i.e. one can see either the black monitors or the greenish tint of the glass depending of the angle of the light.
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After all the rework on the kit itself I eventually went ahead and started the decalling orgy starting withe BOZ. After some fitting problems were solved I was actually quite happy with the first result. Even the less obvious panels and lines are exactly where they were on the original.

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Same applies to the drop tanks:
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After that several layers of clear coat and future were applied and I additonally polished the whole thing several times. The original was shining like a fatty bacon rind and I really wanted to have that effect on the model as well.

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After the polishing several details were added to the fuselage. Antennae had been placed and painted, panellines and screws highlighted, position lights received some life with silver paper, the APU opening was drilled up, the wing sweep zone was repainted and withered, the air stream diverters around the vortex were added with this metal parts and eventually painted according to the Tiger markings and the tail hook and its root for the field arrested landing was scratchbuilt and further detailled:

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Regarding the aging and weathering such high gloss high viz special markings always represent a challenge for me. The original flew only a short time in that Tiger suit and was hence only little weathered. On the other hand unweathered modells in high viz colors quickly look like large toys. Thus it is at least for me always quite a challenge to find that golden middle between a weathering that is on the one hand enough to make it look real enough to not look like a toy and on the other hand is not too extreme in comparison to the original. I really hope I achieved that here by using rather dry particles instead of a washing.

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Eventually all the parts of the puzzles were done and it was time for the final assembly:
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Well with all that being done the Tiger was almost ready for the roll out. There are some little extras later on though!

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So here we go:
Here you can see the moving wings:
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As described above I formed the wing seal bags from old foam and bicycle hose. This way the wings stay flexible and i still don't need to bear thos ugly holes. In 1/32 that goes way easier than in 1/48. Maybe you can also make out the little differences between the left and right side of the tail fin.
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Here you might be able to make out another advantage of the full body decalling - next to no visible decal borders that screw up the overal impression. I inserted the stencils directly into the design of the Tiger stribes rather than adding these afterwards. You really have to wathc out to place them exactly where they were on the original and that also in regards to the slight discrepancies of the kit regarding panellines and the like but once that is about done the final result really seems wortrhwhile the extra effort.

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If you look closely you can maybe make out the electric connection between the canopy and the cockpit frame rightside behind the WSOs seat. This is achieved by using a movable rubber insulation from a thin wire. I also kept the little hinge joints behind the WSO that connect the canopy to the fuselage movable. Little holes with a tiny stopper keep the canopy able to be closed easily or stay open, even without the hold open bar.
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Here you might be able to make out the effect of the multicolored displays of the WSO. It would have been stupid to use a resin cockpit since I would have to do the rework to the ECR standard anyways.
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Making the Tiger stribes fit between the external load and the pylons is a challenge but feasable. All panels and lines quite harmonize with the Tiger stribes just as with the original. I do like displaying little details such as the mod plates on the BOZ containers.
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