alhenderson Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 Evening all, Struggling with the usual questions of "what do tutorial want for Christmas". Quite fancied a Corgi die cast Tornado, but they're expensive. So, I thought, maybe a plastic kit would be a cheaper option, whilst also being more rewarding. Just wondering what folks views are on the decent 1/72nd kits on the market? I think it's want a GR.4, although proper camo GR.1s are attractive. Cheers, Al Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhantomBigStu Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 (edited) If you want to do a gr4 the Revell kit with the freightdog gr4 conversion is the way to go (with a sbs resin nose if you can’t live with the slightly inaccurate profile of the Revell kit, I personally can even as a lover of the tonka). Very easy to get hold of the Revell kit. If you want the long gone fighter the hard to find Hasegawa and the now not that easy to find italeri(reboxed by Tamiya and Revell) are the options to go for. Edited December 6, 2018 by PhantomBigStu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alhenderson Posted December 7, 2018 Author Share Posted December 7, 2018 @PhantomBigStu thanks for the reply. I'm struggling to find the Revell GR.4 online. Is it an option in one of the German boxings? Can find plenty of GR.1s. Thanks, Al Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Bunker Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 There is no Revell GR.4. Take a Revell GR.1, add a Freightdog GR.4 conversion set, source decals of your choice and voila! A 1/72 Tornado GR.4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alhenderson Posted December 7, 2018 Author Share Posted December 7, 2018 30 minutes ago, Nigel Bunker said: There is no Revell GR.4. Take a Revell GR.1, add a Freightdog GR.4 conversion set, source decals of your choice and voila! A 1/72 Tornado GR.4. Of course! Should have read the original reply! I must admit I had thought there were more external differences between the GR.1 and the GR,4 than just the FLIR. Thought there was a difference in the RWR aerials on the fin, but having looked at some pictures, I must have dreamt it! Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigelshipp Posted December 8, 2018 Share Posted December 8, 2018 (edited) You are correct there is a difference, but its not the tail its the spine. The Tornados flying now have an anti collision system called TCAS, the twin aerial machines kept the two blades until TCAS was installed. TCAS started coming in around 2014/5, the last machine being changed around the end of 2016. The spine aerials and the under nose aerial were removed as each machine was modernised, these aerials hadnt been used since gps was introduced as part of the GR4 conversion so you'll also need to add a small gps disc to the spine. Use card for the TCAS devices As for kits, use the Revell gr1 kit, the kit nose is a bit pointy but there are some lovely replement resin noses made by Braz models. The kits got loads of weaponry, the large hindenburger tanks anda cracking decal sheet with camo and the two grey scheme stencil Edited December 9, 2018 by nigelshipp 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 On 12/7/2018 at 8:36 AM, alhenderson said: Of course! Should have read the original reply! I must admit I had thought there were more external differences between the GR.1 and the GR,4 than just the FLIR. Thought there was a difference in the RWR aerials on the fin, but having looked at some pictures, I must have dreamt it! Al. Don't forget that the GR4 only had one gun. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alhenderson Posted December 9, 2018 Author Share Posted December 9, 2018 (edited) 22 hours ago, nigelshipp said: You are correct there is a difference, but its not the tail its the spine. The Tornados flying now have an anti collision system called TCAS, the twin aerial machines kept the two blades until TCAS was installed. TCAS started coming in around 2014/5, the last machine being changed around the end of 2016. The spine aerials and the under nose aerial were removed as each machine was modernised, these aerials hadnt been used since gps was introduced as part of the GR4 conversion so you'll also need to add a small gps disc to the spine. Use card for the TCAS devices As for kits, use the Revell gr1 kit, the kit nose is a bit pointy but there are some lovely replement resin noses made by Braz models. The kits got loads of weaponry, the large hindenburger tanks anda cracking decal sheet with camo and the two grey scheme stencil So, the aerials seen in this picture (2 behind the cockpit and one under the nose just behind the radome) are the ones we are talking about? ZD895_1 by Alistair Henderson, on Flickr And I think you are saying these aerials became redundant with the GR.4 upgrade, but were only removed with the TCAS update in 2014-16? Interestingly, found this shot of a GR.1 of the SAOEU in 1996 which does not have those aerials at all. ZG706 by Alistair Henderson, on Flickr Were these aerials introduced during the GR.1s life span? I was going to say that the above being a test jet may have had something to do with, but I have pictures of operational machines also lacking those aerials in the 90s. I do love them with hindenberg tanks, though, so that might well drive my choice of markings. Al. PS - not succeeding with inserting images. Tried to insert media via the menu, but it didn't like the URLs I got from Flickr.. PPS - fixed 🙂 Edited December 9, 2018 by alhenderson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigelshipp Posted December 10, 2018 Share Posted December 10, 2018 Yes the twin aerials did become redundant on 4's but were kept If its just a nice GR1 you want then you can save yourself a bit of effort and build the Revell kit straight out of the box. Tornado squadrons started using the hindenburgers in the gulf in 91 and kept using them afterwards, this is good as it gives you a choice of the schemes The Tornado sig website forum has quite a few different schemes. Heres my latest 4 https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/tornado_sig/1-72-revell-gr4a-12-sqn-t584.html All the best Nigel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Callahan Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 Just out of curiosity, is there a Eurofighter SIG (equivalent to the Tornado SIG that Nigel mentions? TIA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 There appears not to be one. None listed in the IPMS site Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eng Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 If you choose to build your kit with gear down and on the ground, don’t forget that the wings need to be displayed in the forward unswept position! Eng Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eng Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Only other thing I’d recommend with the Revell kit is to shorten the nose oleo/shock absorber slightly otherwise the jet sits slightly too nose high. Eng Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alhenderson Posted December 18, 2018 Author Share Posted December 18, 2018 18 hours ago, eng said: Only other thing I’d recommend with the Revell kit is to shorten the nose oleo/shock absorber slightly otherwise the jet sits slightly too nose high. Eng Thanks, I'll bear that in mind. Hopefully I won't end up with it looking like its kneeling down 🙂 Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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