WV908 Posted September 7, 2018 Share Posted September 7, 2018 (edited) Evening all. Just as the topic title states, there are practically no decals available for current Tornado GR.4 schemes and this quite frankly is puzzling given the Tornado’s current popularity and rapidly approaching out of service date. Yes, there are xtradecal sets with numerous special tails from 2006-2015.... but; of all the aircraft depicted in those schemes only two are actually still about and neither are in service. This leaves the only option for a current, in service Tornado GR.4 down to one sheet and one aircraft - ZA601. Even so, that’s with 617sqn markings to boot and just happens to have the tail code numbers. The tail numbers are the main issue here and although you can buy sheets with numbers, there is absolutely nothing on the market to portray the three current special tails or indeed anything that is even remotely useful without buying multiple different decal sets to mix and match numbers and finding you run out of ‘O’ ‘Z’ ‘G’ and ‘A’ decals all too quick. Honestly it would not be difficult for one the major decal manufactures to do a sheet which is literally Tornado serials + tail codes and at least the very simple tail art and 41sqn markings for ZA607. So why has no-one done it? It’s very frustrating for modelling RAF Tornados unless you want to do a GR.1 from 1980-something or a Gulf war crate... Cheers, WV908 Edited September 7, 2018 by WV908 Typo 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Witness Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Hear, hear! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sky dancer Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 With only 20-odd aircraft still active, maybe there is a lack of interest.... However - over on the FighterControl forum a gentleman (TonyO), who seems to have his finger on the pulse, posted the comment on a thread concerning the retirement of Tornado stating - "Expect at least two special schemed jets, I am told". I really hope that this pans out. Maybe it might entice some decal producers to produce a few "Farewell to The Fin" sheets..... Please? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iainpeden Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Answer could be because the current scheme is so darn boring - couple of roundals and a white 3 digit set on the tail. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WV908 Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 7 hours ago, iainpeden said: Answer could be because the current scheme is so darn boring - couple of roundals and a white 3 digit set on the tail. Equally that’s what also makes it so easy to do. Split the three special tails across two sheets with plenty of ‘regular’ serials chucked in and I reckon they would have a good place in the market, no? Cheers, WV908 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Fleming Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Presumably there isn’t the market. We seem to have swung back to WW2 and the Cold War. And I remember one manufacturer telling me “WW2 is dead as a modelling subject”. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WV908 Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 (edited) 2 hours ago, Dave Fleming said: I remember one manufacturer telling me “WW2 is dead as a modelling subject”. Where did they do their market research? Yemen? Cheers, WV908 Edited September 8, 2018 by WV908 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Fleming Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 3 hours ago, WV908 said: Where did they do their market research? Yemen? Cheers, WV908 This was in the 80s 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britman Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 On Saturday, September 08, 2018 at 9:37 AM, Sky dancer said: With only 20-odd aircraft still active, maybe there is a lack of interest.... However - over on the FighterControl forum a gentleman (TonyO), who seems to have his finger on the pulse, posted the comment on a thread concerning the retirement of Tornado stating - "Expect at least two special schemed jets, I am told". I really hope that this pans out. Maybe it might entice some decal producers to produce a few "Farewell to The Fin" sheets..... Please? I hope their as exciting as this years 100 year celebrity schemes! Keith. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silverkite Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 gonna wait nore-releasesevergawa to rebox their GR1 with GR4 decals or just fetch a GR4 conversion from Freightdog and give up on those Brimstone rail adapters Luigi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 It’s a question that’s been relevant for nearly half the Tornados service life, very few current standard schemes released for the GR4 when they were displaying them, a few sheets being released years later. Only the special schemes seem to get attention. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigelshipp Posted September 11, 2018 Share Posted September 11, 2018 Can I ask what scale your talking about ?, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantome Posted September 11, 2018 Share Posted September 11, 2018 If you're referring to 1/72 scale, that's perhaps because there is no decent and widely available GR.4 kit. Revell has not bothered with an update to their otherwise excellent GR.1 kit, much like they don't bother with new variants for most of their kits even when they would only need a handful of new pieces. Hasegawa had a one-off boxing that was ridiculously expensive. Airfix kit is a dinosaur. The aftermarket industry thinks it's more important to have 4 types of wheels for [insert obscure short-run kit]. But who am I to criticize their genius marketing people... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigelshipp Posted September 11, 2018 Share Posted September 11, 2018 (edited) There is plenty of the correct stencil about and then all you need are letters and numbers, modeldecal does them in white for post war RAF types in loads of sizes If the beef is about the last Tornados flying then I'm not surprised, how is a manufacturer supposed to forecast the last airframes flying Personally I'd like to see TTTE markings in 48 for the different countries Edited September 11, 2018 by nigelshipp typo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WV908 Posted September 15, 2018 Author Share Posted September 15, 2018 On 9/11/2018 at 10:59 AM, nigelshipp said: Can I ask what scale your talking about ?, Both for 1/72 and 1/48. In other scales there is pretty much nothing Cheers, WV908 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sky dancer Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 On 9/9/2018 at 10:14 AM, Britman said: I hope their as exciting as this years 100 year celebrity schemes! Keith. I see your RAF 100 scheme, and raise you - https://theaviationist.com/2018/09/16/the-royal-saudi-air-force-has-prepared-a-series-of-special-color-ahead-of-the-kingdoms-88th-national-day-celebrations/ If only..... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britman Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 Wow! See it can be done. Keith. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sky dancer Posted November 6, 2018 Share Posted November 6, 2018 Sorry for resurrecting an oldish thread, but I thought you might want to see this:- https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/615113-ix-b-sqn-tornado-1982-2019-tail-colour-scheme.html Looks a bit like a previous "special", but after RAF100 anything is an improvement.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WV908 Posted November 7, 2018 Author Share Posted November 7, 2018 I hope Xtradecal or Kitsworld take note of this. Afaik, there are going to be three retirement schemes, but apart from this new batjet, I have no idea what they will be. Cheers, WV908 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowlevelraf Posted November 7, 2018 Share Posted November 7, 2018 There will be one for 31 Sqn and another unknown jet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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