128fiddler Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 Hi, I've always been impressed by the low level combat ops with Tornados. However only a decade old by the time the Gulf war aka Desert Storm broke lose, It was the first conflict which I (as probably my parents let me to) followed with great interest. Shortly after through some literature I got to see these great looking Desert Pink sprayed Tornados and I was sold :) Now only a few years short of the 40, I'm going to participate and hopefully I could do some honour to the planes and crews who flew these heroic missions so low above hostile territory. So ZD740 'AD' Dhahran Annie (thank you Dstorm.eu) it is going to be. I got a Model Alliance sheet way back already so hopefully it stood against the time. I have to build a Saudi Tornado out of it as well (One at a time shall we :) ), so fingers crossed! Pictures to follow after the start sign has been given. Meanwhile good luck to y'all and hopefully it's a fun time! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin W Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 Sounds great, I think we shall see the Model Alliance sheet used for a few builds. Good luck and hope to see the Saudi bird as well. Colin W 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 Great to see a Dhahran based aircraft for a change. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128fiddler Posted September 5, 2020 Author Share Posted September 5, 2020 Only 5 minutes! Errr, that was the time before I gave up linking a Flickr picture up here... what an impossible task on a cellphone... I know very informative, but here's the box, probably an edition allmost unobtainable 🤪 Let's rumble! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128fiddler Posted September 7, 2020 Author Share Posted September 7, 2020 So, among some glueing, I started to address the shape of the nosecone. To my eyes it's too sleek and missing indeed the right curvature like it's commonly known. I must admit, it's a nosecone which I did some experimenting on. I puttied it with Squadron's green putty, sanded it to a good eyeballed shape, to coat it afterwards with Mr. Surfacer, then again to see it got an asymetric blob. Again I sanded it down but too far so the shape was off... Because of that, I put it asside. Now I had it back on the bench and got it covered again in Surfacer to sand it to a better shape. Moments after taking the picture though, I found out my prototype tool was experiencing plastic fatigue and snapped off right after the blob of green putty... Bummer! Now I was thinking of replacing the plastic rod with a carpenter nail of about the same width, but that means the cone has to be dissassembled from it and drilled out by hand, which is know as 'the most accurate method' to get everything perfectly lined up.... aaaaargh! To be continued! 😉 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted September 7, 2020 Share Posted September 7, 2020 Precision nose cone work! A few years ago I met the guys from SBS at and they had a little product for sale Yes, that's a new nosecone and turned pitot tube. I bought one, even though I didn't know about the slight shape issues of the plastic part but just for the rather nice pitot tube (and the set was cheap too!) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128fiddler Posted September 7, 2020 Author Share Posted September 7, 2020 Yes I noticed the resin nosecone too. However I sometimes like to fuel my neurotic behavior to do it myself, which probably takes up more money and triple the time needed to order and work the AM parts into place... 😉 If it works out, I only am going to source a brass pitot tube. Which will be quite the improvement over the kit's one. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128fiddler Posted September 8, 2020 Author Share Posted September 8, 2020 (edited) I got my 'lathe tool' online again, however not as perfect as it was since it has a slight vibration to it, which resulted in the inevitable testflight of the nosecone. So I only got the time to work the frontal cone shape. I sanded it, followed by a short polishing, as it flew off, I was able to do a small test fitting session which looked like this: Anyhow, it's visible that the aft cone shape is still rather off regarding to the bend shapewise between fusrlage and radome... maybe the bend in the radome should a bit more forward, but we'll see that after sanding session 3 😉 Edited September 8, 2020 by 128fiddler 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128fiddler Posted September 13, 2020 Author Share Posted September 13, 2020 Progress is slow, I know but family life (aka 3 years old daughter and wife) puts a great limitation on the bench time 😉 Anyhow, it looks like I'm getting to the correct cone shape, here just the cone on a stick. And here, still on the stick compared with the front fuselage tapper, which looks rather ok to my eyes. Ahum any comments/suggestions if not are very welcome! Hopefully I get the cockpit adressed soon. Is it me, or are the seats darker then the cockpit interiors. And in some pictures, it looks like there's a difference in instrument side panels and cockpit sidewalls too, or was it uniformly painted? It's an F.3 I know, but maybe someone knows what colours they are? Here you can see the pictures I've found: https://www.silverstoneauctions.com/images/_aliases/large/3/0/3/9/1709303-1-eng-GB/8.jpg And here: https://www.silverstoneauctions.com/images/_aliases/large/6/0/3/9/1709306-1-eng-GB/9.jpg It looks like the seat and sidewall are darker then the instrument panels. Thanks for your input so far 😉 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128fiddler Posted September 14, 2020 Author Share Posted September 14, 2020 (edited) So I just jumped into the wild and eyeballed the cockpit colours. Revell 76 for the light grey and blended with a touch of humbrol 109 for the darker blue grey for the seats and cockpit sidewalls. Here's the progress so far: The daily chores took up nearly all daylight time so I hope it still looks good in the light of tomorrow. The seats will get some extra colour, mostly to the bottom as they tend to have yellow cushions with a green-grey cover? I'm not making this up, it's suggested by these reference pictures at the Tornado SIG site. Also I'm still figuring out how I'm going to address the complicated looking seatbelts... Edited September 15, 2020 by 128fiddler 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128fiddler Posted September 15, 2020 Author Share Posted September 15, 2020 So a start to the cockpit details. I must say I'm not totaly over the moon with my efforts so far. But here and there I have some touch ups and drybrushing of the background colour will do the trick... I hope! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128fiddler Posted October 24, 2020 Author Share Posted October 24, 2020 So, long time no updates, I know, not much happened meanwhile. Work, family etc... however I glued the wings to the lower fuselage, had copious amounts of sanding to get rid of the seams on these hindenburgers, and my motivation got a bit sideways when I had to do the intakes. Which are very sparse on the insides compared to all the general detail... Anyhow, on with some pictures. Firstly glued the wheelbays, followed by the underlaying strip on which the wings rotate. Then I attached the wings which in the end are maybe slightly to much forward. I'm not sure though. I had some trouble with the Hindenburger's seams, but not the only one as I've read so far. The fin joints are not yet addressed... Now I am filling up the inside of the inner parts, with the first one a bit different approach then the second. I mounted the ramp onto the inner piece with the first, which made the sanding of the putty harder. The second one, I glued the ramp to the outer intake piece and sanded the ramp flush with the rest of the intake part. The inner part was just puttied flush. Still some primer and finishing sanding session ahead... So, the intakes also need a diverter cone on the inner top corner of the intakes, together with the aux air intake actuator covers. I need to figure out to make a realistic look further down the intakes, without looking onto the wing structure. Greetings! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 Progressing well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128fiddler Posted November 2, 2020 Author Share Posted November 2, 2020 So again an update on a redicilously small progress... Anyhow, just to show yous what the idea is. I'm still working on the intakes. I glued one together, only to see afterwards I forgot to fill a hole for a tab I sanded away... still thinking what to do about that... the other side was filled before I glued it... I noticed the intakes won't sit flush with the top fuselage with the standard positioning holes, so I enlarged them. To see there was a small gap inbetween it and the wedge shape of the botom fuselage. So with some plasticard I filled it up and used some surfacer afterwards to blend it in. Then, when you look into the intake, you can see the actuator bubbles for the aux intakes. Not planning to have a view deep inside, I only applied the front one. Then to conclude this post, I'm toying with the idea to papercraft the intakes further down to blend the intakes to a black hole without seeing reflections of the wing structure inside. Only an illustrative picture offcourse as it's nowhere near the endproduct in my mind... 😉 I'm still curious how far I'll make it before the deadline... Greetings and thanks for viewing/commenting! 😉 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alhenderson Posted November 3, 2020 Share Posted November 3, 2020 Looking good. I had a lot of sanding to get my hindenbergers looking respectable, although I was unable to sand the seams where there were ridges running around the tank so these bits now stand out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of it 😡 Your intakes are way better than mine, I found the instructions very vague about where that ramp was supposed to end up so I went with the flow and have a gap between the top of the intake and the top of the ramp. Grrr.. Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128fiddler Posted November 4, 2020 Author Share Posted November 4, 2020 11 hours ago, alhenderson said: Looking good. I had a lot of sanding to get my hindenbergers looking respectable, although I was unable to sand the seams where there were ridges running around the tank so these bits now stand out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of it 😡 Your intakes are way better than mine, I found the instructions very vague about where that ramp was supposed to end up so I went with the flow and have a gap between the top of the intake and the top of the ramp. Grrr.. Al. Yes those droptanks are a nasty chore to do indeed. I tried to sand them as much as I could to save the rised detail, however with mixed results. But as these were sometimes weary as wel with a couple of dents etc I didn't mind to have them perfectly... maybe a worn off tip with some metal, green or grey coming out underneath the pink. Yes those intakes are parts to fiddle with... they are not realy acurate in they way they fit together, and seemingly with the molds aging well, they get worse with all the massive flash on it... And the fact that they missed the cone shape on the diverter plates, oh well... I'm now adding the airbrakes and still have to replicate the wing gloves... something that holds me back a bit, but i must persevere 😉 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128fiddler Posted November 4, 2020 Author Share Posted November 4, 2020 So, again a small update. I addressed the airbrakes. However still the aft seam to fix. Here a picture in the middle of the progress: Then I started to replicate this: Which is a nice picture, borrowed from the Tornado reference topic here on BM. Ok, it doesn't look anything alike now, but a start is a start, and I forgot to take pictures of it in a latter stage. I promiss it'll look better next time. So, more on this, hopefully tomorrow! Anyhow, just an unneeded picture of some sprue getting reshaped to a quarter circle, and I mean realy unneeded ☺ See you soon! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128fiddler Posted November 5, 2020 Author Share Posted November 5, 2020 (edited) Even smaller then yesterday, I had hopes to get both intakes ready by now, however I had to apply an extra layer of surfacer to erase some leftover pits and excessive sanding... Tomorrow hopefully I'll be posting both intakes in place and some work on the wing gloves. The cones for on the diverter plates are the parts left to install to the intakes... here they are waiting for the surfacer to dry: Maybe @alhenderson can shed some light on that mysterious part which keeps us Revell 72nd Tonka builders busy these days 😉 Edited November 5, 2020 by 128fiddler 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted November 6, 2020 Share Posted November 6, 2020 Love the work you're doing in the intake area and well done for getting the airbrakes to behave and sit nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alhenderson Posted November 6, 2020 Share Posted November 6, 2020 11 hours ago, 128fiddler said: Even smaller then yesterday, I had hopes to get both intakes ready by now, however I had to apply an extra layer of surfacer to erase some leftover pits and excessive sanding... Tomorrow hopefully I'll be posting both intakes in place and some work on the wing gloves. The cones for on the diverter plates are the parts left to install to the intakes... here they are waiting for the surfacer to dry: Maybe @alhenderson can shed some light on that mysterious part which keeps us Revell 72nd Tonka builders busy these days 😉 I'm going to have to go back and check mine now, I don't recognise those bits! May have missed something somewhere, which may not be good news as my intakes have been in position for a long time 😞 Nice airbrakes! Think mine are going to be open, hoping that's the line of least resistance... Al. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128fiddler Posted November 6, 2020 Author Share Posted November 6, 2020 (edited) A quick pair of pictures for the final intake work done. That's all folks... For now 😉 Edited November 6, 2020 by 128fiddler 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128fiddler Posted November 12, 2020 Author Share Posted November 12, 2020 Again a small update, life got in the way again a few days... After a few failures I think I got my gloves where I want them. I made them from a craft paper, which litteraly translated from Dutch is called parchment paper. You can emboss it a bit, however not too much, else it rips. The look of it so far: Still to finish it off but didn't want to glue it to my fingers with the CA... 😉 Greetings! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted November 13, 2020 Share Posted November 13, 2020 Very good work getting the intakes to look like they do. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128fiddler Posted November 19, 2020 Author Share Posted November 19, 2020 You'd probably guessed, but had a small hour painting time, so some more detail painting on the cockpit parts. Then again time was soon up again and it looked like nearly nothing happened... Anyhow, some parts which got additional colours: Hopefully these can be soon constructed to the tub, which needs some small adjustments too... Good evening/night y'all! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted November 20, 2020 Share Posted November 20, 2020 Lots of nice improvements 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now