EuroDecals Panavia Tornado GR.4/4A Decals (ED-32117) 1:32

[Mike]

Panavia Tornado GR.4/4A Decals (ED-32117)

1:32 Euro Decals via Fantasy Printshop

 

 

The Tornado was Britain's main fighter-bomber from the 80s onward and still soldiers on in a reducing quantity at time of writing.  It's main skill was as a bomb or missile truck, and although it was touted as a fighter in its Air Defence Variant (ADV), it wasn't the most manoeuvrable of aircraft.  The F.3 has since been replaced by the Typhoon in British service, and the GR.4/4A is scheduled to be drawn down at the end of March 2019, thereby ending its career in British service.

 

 

This new double A5 sheet of decals from Fantasy Printshop's Euro Decals range depicts a number of GR.4 airframes from this decade, with some nice colourful schemes on that great big tail fin.  There are five schemes in all, and only one has a relatively drab tail, the backdrops will require painting, while the foreground is provided as a decal.  As usual with Fantasy Printshop, registration, sharpness and colour density are all good, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas, although a few areas could be removed in places.  There are a substantial number of colours used in the sheet, with the large fox head exhibiting some excellent detail for example, and a gold outline for the squadron crest, coincidentally for that same airframe.  Most of the roundels are the more modern red/blue printed as a single decal, but the roundels with a white ring have separate red centre dots as a "just in case" measure to enable the modeller to centre them using their eye, which is surprisingly easy and is absolutely a good idea for roundels in general.  The Dambusters option is evocative, with Lancs, Tornados and a broken dam in the background.

 

The instructions are printed in colour with four views of each option and decal numbers called out with red lines.  Colours for the airframe are also suggested with BS standard, FS standard, Humbrol, Xtracolour, Xtracrylix and Lifecolor codes supplied, which should give enough information to anyone without those brands to hunt down the correct shade without much trouble.

 

 

Using this sheet you can build one of the following, unless you get hold of some additional standard roundels, but who has room for five 1:32 Tornados in their cabinet?

 

1. Tornado GR.4 ZA461 crewed by Wing Commander Jon Nixon & Squadron Leader Conan Mullineaux of XV(R) Squadron, RAF Lossiemouth, 2015
2. Tornado GR.4A ZA405 crewed by Flt.Lt. S A Jenkins & Wg.Cdr. N A Thomas of 12 Squadron, RAF Lossiemouth, Nov 2015
3. Tornado GR.4 ZA542 "021" of 31 Squadron RAF during Operation Ellamy" based at Gioia del Colle, Italy, 2011
4. Tornado GR.4 ZA560 "BE-Q" of 41(R) TES Squadron RAF Coningsby, 2017
5. Tornado GR.4 ZA412 crewed by Wg.Cdr. D S Arthurton & Fg.Off. R D Hartley of 617 Squadron

 

 

Conclusion

There are a lot of 1:32 Revell Tornados out there with only a limited number of boxings, so it's nice to be able to go away from the kit decals and choose some interesting schemes, knowing that the decals won't let you down.

 

Very highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of