Early Tornado GR1 wing walkways?

[David Womby]

I am modelling ZA856 of 9 Squadron in early 83.    I am cobbling together decals from multiple sources.   I used Modeldecal sheet 73 for most of it as it has markings for a 27 Squadron machine c1983-4.   It has these white lines on the wingtops .  I normally trust Dick Ward's research without question but should they be there?

 

Pics of the wingtops are proving hard to find.

 

David

[speedy]

Mmm not sure on those. I’m pretty sure they’re not wing walkways as they look wrong even in that scale. Could they be a representation of the uncamouflaged area of the slats n spoilers of the period.

[Des]

From Aeroguide 4 on the Panavia Tornado GR.1  -  https://boxartden.com/reference/gallery/index.php/Modeling-References/Aeroguide/Aeroguide-04-Panavia-Tornado/Aeroguide-4-Panavia-Tornado_Page_32-960

[Dave Fleming]

11 minutes ago, speedy said:

Mmm not sure on those. I’m pretty sure they’re not wing walkways as they look wrong even in that scale. Could they be a representation of the uncamouflaged area of the slats n spoilers of the period.

 

I think that's what they are - looking at colour photos of flying Tornados of that period, there are similar lines as well as on the rudder. This is what it looked like with the slat dropped

https://boxartden.com/reference/gallery/var/resizes/Modeling-References/Aeroguide/Aeroguide-04-Panavia-Tornado/Aeroguide 4 Panavia Tornado_Page_12-960.jpg?m=1522041849

[David Womby]

Thanks.  I agree these decals must represent the unpainted areas under the slats and spoilers especially given their position.    I still think they are too obvious and I may remove them yet.  I think later repaints or deliveries must have had paint extend over those areas as they really don't seem present on later camo machines but the dearth of wingtop photos is unfortunate.

 

David

[Dave Fleming]

I have a few in early Tornado books, the light markings are visible on early RAF aircraft but by late 80s they appeared to have disappeared, with black no walk lines at the rear. the original German Navy ones did have yellow lines in those locations

[David Womby]

5 minutes ago, Dave Fleming said:

I have a few in early Tornado books, the light markings are visible on early RAF aircraft but by late 80s they appeared to have disappeared, with black no walk lines at the rear. the original German Navy ones did have yellow lines in those locations

So, Dave, that confirms Dick Ward's drawings then. I am doing ZA856 in early '83.  So I will leave the white lines on although they look a bit stark on there. 

 

Thanks to you and everyone else.  You have proved, once again, what a great site this is.

 

David

[canberra kid]

A bit late to the party, but it looks like they are anti wear strips for the leading edge slats and spoiler. 

John

 

 

[David Womby]

Thanks, John.

 

Hmmm.    The white stripes really don't look right on my model and I am going to try removing them.  They may well should be there but they are too prominent.   Anyway, while still searching I found this early 80s RAF promotional film of IX Squadron Tonkas.  They do have IFR probes but they are early birds as they have the 4 finned tanks, no sidewinder rails and carry two Sky Shadows each.  Some also have no LRMTS.

 

If you can tolerate the Vangelis type music and a few commercials, you may enjoy this as much as  I did.  Watch for the then hi-tech load of the attack plan into the Tonka's computer using a data cassette!

 

IX Squadron Tornados

David

[JayBee]

Aren´t that black dottet lines for the walkways?

[speedy]

Agreed. In your scale I’d remove them or trim them down leaving a trace of a line, as they’re way to big.

[Kitbag]

From memory (I was at MRM doing the acceptance inspections on the ZA600 series in 82/83) the walkways were marked in black rhomboids, about 20mm thick. The lines were broken, about 30mm long with a 20mm gap.