31 Sqn Goldstars GR.4 1/32

[Alan P]

Hi All,

Back again for some more progress. Finished off the panel variations, very time-consuming (and tape-consuming!)

I used four different colours for shading and blending.

The light was so flat today it's hard to get a picture that isn't totally washed out.

While that's all drying (enamels of course!) I moved on to the Brimstones. I'll be making a triple launcher for the rear left pylon.

The basis for the missiles is the Flightpath Hellfire set for the 1/32 Apache. I used two missiles with a third used for the extended nose of the Brimstone. The dimensions of the Flightpath Hellfire are very accurate, so I just needed to cut the nose off where the diameter starts to reduce towards the seeker, and extend them by exactly 11mm. Luckily for conversion purposes the Brimstone has a constant diameter right up to the seeker head.

I'm going to make two versions, a first-generation microwave seeker version, and a new dual-mode version.

Hopefully the missiles will not take long, it's the launcher that will have me scratching my head!

So far just got three launcher rails from the Hellfire set detached and cleaned up. They don't need much modification, just new streamlined ends.

So far so good - hopefully be able to get some decals on tomorrow!

Al

[Alan P]

The decal idea is on hold - just realised I haven't done the cockpit yet!

Had a really productive day today. Got some good work done on the Brimstone triple launcher:

The frame is complete, but due to all the complex curves, I'll be filling it all up with Milliput and sanding to shape.

More masking and painting:

The black areas and the rest of the metalwork now complete.

Had to make this prominent vent a bit more visible - I forgot to do this before the paintwork, so I carefully drilled and sanded out, then painted it with Mr Metal Color Dark Iron and buffed to a shine. A few touchups and it'll be a lot better.

Don't know what these are, but there's one each side of the cockpit!

Wing seals completed except for finishing effects:

Looking more the part!

Metalwork on the BOZ pod complete:

This is now ready for decals

Speaking of decals, I knocked these together using Microsoft Paint and Publisher:

I already have the '031' codes from the Alley Cat 1/32 set for the Hawk.

After looking back at my reference pics, I decided to make the nose a darker shade:

I think this looks a lot better with the contrast.

I thought it would be decals after this, but I really need to do the cockpit so i don't end up damaging the decals!

Ironically this is about as far as i got with this kit combination for the last Tornado Group Build I console myself with the knowledge that that one lasted a whole month longer than this one!

Thanks for looking,

Al

[mirageiv]

Looking awesome Al! Really like the job you did on the wing seals, very convincing.

[Jabba]

Some very nice work Al, really like the contrast on the colour scheme greys, breaks up the plainess of the scheme. Like the Brimstone mounts too.

[AndyC]

Excellent detail work mate

[Alan P]

Thanks David, Mark and Andy, the encouragement keeps the whole thing ticking along!

Seemed to do a whole lot of work today, but not much worth photographing.

The Brimstone launcher is looking closer to completion. the next step will be shaping it with Milliput.

I managed to knock the tip off the fin, which was annoying.

The advantage of having a few extra kits meant I could transplant a new tip!

I've nearly finished the Aires ejector seats, the only other bit I managed in the cockpit was to redo the Talking Baggage's TARDIS display:

Here's the previous iteration and the real thing for comparison!

Getting closer - I should learn to have these reference photos in front of me when I'm working...

Hopefully more tomorrow! But not in time for the GB unfortunately.

Al

[Alan P]

Took a few days off this, but back in the cockpit today. Seem to be doing a lot of painting and bits and pieces for not much actual progress. But that's modelling I suppose!

First one of Merv's favourite reminders - the black anti-slip floor!

I used my favourite fix for this - black 800 grit sandpaper stuck with Aleene's white glue.

Now the back of the TV tabs:

Lots of colourful terminals, though all but three seem to be capped off in the new fit.

The HUD - there is a difference in the TARDIS fit, but I don't have enough references to really see what they are. The main one is the HUD control panel on the black box beneath, which I've fudged as a fascia.

Another favourite of mine - using Hasegawa polarised film to get a colour change as you move your viewpoint. Looks flashy!

Hopefully get all the cockpit sills and canopy frames fitted tomorrow.

Very well done to everyone who finished their GB builds - the Gallery is a fine collection of schemes and variants.

Al

[Alan P]

Trying to co-ordinate all the work in the cockpit is more difficult than it looks!

Tinting for the forward canopy - another of Merv's top tips from the old days!

Rear console and screens fitted successfully. It was a bit "ship in a bottle" to get the bottom panel to fit properly, but I managed it without too much damage!

Large cable bundles fitted to the rear boxes:

...and then the smaller individual cables:

Glad to get that job out of the way, but still needs paint touching up where I had to wrestle them a bit.

Moving forward:

The additional glareshield instruments and switches added - this time I remembered the voltmeter on the right hand side that Merv told me about last time!

Struggling for light as the days are getting shorter, so the focus began to slip....

HUD projector lens - a Little Cars 4mm lens with clear green around the edge.

And now with the HUD attached:

(the scratches on the forward glareshield are from where I had to file down the refuelling probe housing to get the canopy to fit properly - will be fixed at the paintwork repair stage soon!)

The finished rear seater's cockpit:

The TVs are looking a bit drunk, but that probably suits the nav, who will be asleep anyway. I'll fix them next.

And the finished front seat with canopy in situ (not fixed on yet)

A satisfying afternoon's work!

Al

Edited May 24, 2019 by Alan P

[Arniec]

That is a great looking cockpit. Keep up the good work.

Cheers,

[exdraken]

impressive work!

[Alan P]

That is a great looking cockpit. Keep up the good work.

Cheers,

impressive work!

Thanks a lot Arnie and exdraken (sorry don't know your real name!)

Today I tidied up the cables at the back - rewired some of them, and painted all the detail:

Still needs paintwork tidying up, and other effects.

Also fitted the canopy sills:

I don't have any refs for the aircraft I'm modelling, but a lot of the recent shots from Afghan/Libya show mostly black sills rather than grey, so I went with black for something new (for me!) Front canopy is also fitted now.

Unfortunately there is a fit problem at the front:

I see no alternative but to mask the whole area off and build it up with plastic card and putty. Another day before decals can go on...

I detailed the emergency rescue by adding the D-ring in the recess:

You can't go too far in 1/32!

Meanwhile, the Brimstone launcher is coming on very well!

From L-R in the photo: rear and front slipper pylons, launcher rails, pylon body, single-mode missile body, and dual-mode missile body. The detached nose dome is to enable vacforming the clear nose of the dual-mode version.

I've also got quite far with the main canopy, but no pics yet, sorry!

Thanks for the encouragement so far,

Alan

Edited September 4, 2015 by Brokenedge

[Jabba]

That really is a great deal of work in the cockpit Al and it is worth the effort. Pity about the front of the windscreen, nut as they say that is modelling. I am sure that it will all be put right in a thrice.

[nimrod54]

Great work, I really like the wiring harness.

[Cookenbacher]

That's some incredible detail Alan!

[Alan P]

Thanks so much guys, glad you can still find the thread!

Pity about the front of the windscreen, but as they say that is modelling. I am sure that it will all be put right in a thrice.

Looks a bit rough but it'll do. The bad thing is the liquid glue that seeped under the masking tape up the left hand windshield panel. I'll have to do some repair work on that.

On the plus side, i finally got some decals on!

I don't think there are any decals in this scale for a modern Tornado. It defies belief, but there you go. The 31 Sqn insignia and serials were homemade. Everything else is a mixture of Revell, Euro Decals, Xtradecals and various spares knocking around in my decal scraps drawer.

The No Step markings are not exactly correct but close enough. They're from the Kinetic Hawk T.2 decal set.

Weapons, stores and pylons also got decalled, awaiting varnish and flat coat.

The Revell decals silvered as usual. All the others went on very nicely. The Litening and Paveway decals were leftovers from the Academy F-16I Sufa.

Canopy is now just about finished, just a few touch ups to hide the brass bits. On the other hand, I might leave them as I like the metallic effect. What do you think?

I tried to include as much visible detail as I realistically could fit!

As well as the excellent Flightpath framing, I've managed to include placards, air conditioning pipes and the Nav's chaff/flare controls (the joystick-looking things on the sides)

Really pleased with this part. It's one of those things that really lifts the look of the whole model.

As of now, the landing gear is on, I'm just finishing off the bang seats, and should be ready to start on the flaps and slats (deep breath) very soon. Wish me luck!

Thanks for looking,

Al

[Tomjw]

I'm loving this. Especially the detail inside the canopy. Great stuff.

Cheers,

Tom.

[Alan P]

Thanks Tom. Just been admiring the Hawk in your signature strip. Very nice!

[Alan P]

Been a long time away, been getting back into gaming laptops!

Finished the intakes, lined the inside with 1200-grit sandpaper to simulate the rubberised anti-ice lining. The metallic edges are done with Mr Metal Color Dark Iron, buffed to shine.

Done the first bit of weathering by using a home-made sludge wash on the panel lines. I'm not big on doing panel lines for the sake of it, but Tornados seem to show them up quite clearly.

Underside panel lines also finished. Lots of weathering yet to do. I also picked out the metallic parts on the underside near the back end.

Armament coming on well - BOL rails sent to me courtesy of another Britmodeller (Shaun - thanks!). All I had to do was remodel the front ends so the bulb was offset from the axis of the rail.

Used a smoke filter from the Lifecolor Tensocrom range. Very nice to work with. The ribbed detail was done using a comb as a mask.

And finally... got the wheels on. Pleased except for the front wheels, which are the Flightpath metal ones, and unfortunately too big. Going to switch them for the kit ones.

More soon I hope, if the weather stays mild.

Al

Edited September 24, 2015 by Brokenedge

[mirageiv]

Looks lovely! I recently got a 1/32 kit from a fellow member and the thing is massive! Sure will have a lot of presence when you finish it

David.

[nimrod54]

Still tuning in Al. I must say that this is looking fantastic and the weathering, whilst it is nice and subtle, really sets it off. Great job.

[Cookenbacher]

The surface finish is incredibly realistic, great work all around.

[Alan P]

Thank you guys, very much

Still tuning in Al. I must say that this is looking fantastic and the weathering, whilst it is nice and subtle, really sets it off. Great job.

The surface finish is incredibly realistic, great work all around.

Cheers nimrod and Cookie, I'm trying hard to replicate what i see on the real thing rather than the stylistic "weathering" that I see on many models these days. No offence to anyone else, but it's just not my thing.

Finished the flap units ready for paint.

Looks a bit rubbish close up, but the annealed finish on the nickel silver parts really looks interesting. Very necessary to anneal the parts to get the aerofoil shape towards the front end.

Second round of weathering begun, and the new nosewheels look better to scale.

More weathering effects:

Trying to get the "used" look around the panels that are accessed frequently. It's important to delineate where the oily hands would and wouldn't mark the surface.

Footprints are important as well! (Not very clear in this pic, but we don't want to overdo it!)

And if the above pics represent the triumphs, it's only fair that I share the disasters as well:

When fitting the tailerons, I thought I'd be clever and drop some extra thin CA glue down the inside edge of the fuselage so that it would collect around the hinge point and wick down the joint from the inside. Very clever, except it worked too well, and the excess ran straight off the end of the taileron and splurged all over the side of the fuselage. I managed to chip it off and sand the surface down with some collateral damage to the decals, which I'll need to repaint and reapply. More time lost!

Well, here she is under flash photography bleaching out all that subtle detail, but hopefully you get some idea of what I've been trying to replicate. Once the flaps and slats are on, it'll be time for a flat coat, and then the really subtle weathering can be applied with pastels and powders. And shortly after that, all the bits and bobs can be stuck on, and she'll finally be finished!

Al

[Alan P]

At this late stage in the build I've decided to make a TERMA pod. Might as well as I have so many BOZ pods from my three and a half kits.

This won't be the highly accurate effort I did for the Brimstone launcher, this is just a bit of fun to try out some techniques. If it comes out ok, I'll still use it for my build.

Chaff launcher cutouts done with razor saw, Dremel and file. The front pair seem to be angled aft.

The rear end and front top sensor mounts will be built up from Milliput, but the shapes have been rendered in plastic card. I did the upper structure with plastic rod for convenience - it'll be squared off to match the real thing when it's dry.

 

Bang seats finished except washes and effects:

 

 

These are from Aires with Flightpath adapted headboxes.

Cockpit looks very crowded now!

Still waaay better than the vanilla Revell pit would have looked.

This was meant to be finished in about September, I'll be lucky if it's ready by the Nationals.

Al

EDIT: Ok, having a massive problem sharing image links from Google now they've changed their photo website. Infuriating.

EDIT #2: Had to go back to Photobucket. Very frustrating.

Edit#3: Flickr saves the day!

[Cookenbacher]

Wow, that is just incredible detail work, and I really like your weathering philosophy. Hard to argue with the results.

[Alan P]

Wow, that is just incredible detail work, and I really like your weathering philosophy. Hard to argue with the results.

Thank you VERY much Cookenbacher. High praise indeed.

Google images has reverted back to normal (luckily) so on with the pics...

TERMA pod ready for painting:

I'm really pleased how this has turned out, so I will be using it for the build David (mirageiv) if you're watching, please check your PMs!

Flaps and slats are being painted, but I've gone ahead and fitted the slat actuators:

This is starting to look like I might actually finish it. I still have to finish my HMS Bellerophon for the What-If Group Build, so I'm looking forward to sticking a fork in this one.

Thanks very much for the encouraging replies so far!

Al