Revell 1:72nd GR.1 RAFG late 80s -- FINISHED --

[alhenderson]

59 minutes ago, Jabba said:

Although it may not seem it this is progressing. Hope that you have got the intakes sorted.

Thanks for the kind words! The sanding sticks have really helped me tidy up the join between the front and rear fuselage. It's never going to be perfect but certainly looking a lot better. Half term here this week and I have some time off, so once I've tackled the list of domestic jobs hope to get some time on this 👍

 

Al

[Hockeyboy76]

She’s looking good dude. Keep going. 

[alhenderson]

So much for extra modelling time over half term - decorating the study came out of nowhere as the job for the week!  Have managed to grab half an hour here and there.  Fed up of still trying to get the fuselage join looking right, I put the fin and refuelling probe on last night.  The fin didn't fit particularly well, it wanted to sit tilted to one side - probably related to the warped fuselage.  And I had to remove two of the locating pins for the IFR probe as I couldn't get it to fit otherwise.  Still, its on and looking OK.

 

 

Probably not actually too far off getting some paint on.  Depends how long I can bear trying to get the fuselage joins sorted out.  They look OK at the moment, just conscious that paint will show them up a bit more..

 

Al.

 

[At Sea]

Looks good from here!

 

All to often the 'competition standard builds' get all the attention when just as much thought and effort goes into wrestling a kit like this into a viable model.

 

Keep it up, looking forward to seeing it finished.

[Jabba]

Coming together well, even if it is a bit of a struggle. Keep it up.

[alhenderson]

Suddenly realised I need to get cracking with this.  Fed up with filling and sanding I'm going to get some primer on her and see what she looks like.  Except there are a lot of fiddly little aerials that need putting on, most of which keep pinging off round the room.  Have spent more time searching for tiny bits of plastic than doing anything else 😡 Currently one of the side aerials below the cockpit has gone AWOL, hoping it turns up later..

 

 

And, probably inevitably, one of the pylons has come off, looks like the little cuff that keeps it attached to the wing on the inside has come unstuck. 

 

 

Have started painting the main stores, need to look up the colours for the ALARMs and sidewinders and get them sorted as well.

 

Al.

 

[alhenderson]

Rogue aerial has been located - was on the carpet! Dear knows how I found that...  Onwards and upwards.. 🙂

 

Al.

[Andwil]

I knocked one of those aerials off my F3 while applying the decals and have put it in a safe place to be reattached at the end of the build, which is probably what I should have done in the first place.  Final assembly is a bit tricky - do you assemble the undercarriage and doors and knock them off when attaching the missiles etc, or do the missiles first and knock them off when assembling the undercarriage.

 

AW

[alhenderson]

8 hours ago, Andwil said:

I knocked one of those aerials off my F3 while applying the decals and have put it in a safe place to be reattached at the end of the build, which is probably what I should have done in the first place.  Final assembly is a bit tricky - do you assemble the undercarriage and doors and knock them off when attaching the missiles etc, or do the missiles first and knock them off when assembling the undercarriage.

 

AW

That's a good question. I was thinking wheels last, bit they are more fiddly than the tanks, missiles etc so actually maybe I'll do the ALARMS then the wheels and then the wing stores.  All the while knocking off the various aerials.. 🙄

[Anatol Pigwa]

On 25/09/2020 at 17:01, Planebuilder62 said:

Hi Al
 

Don’t forget to shorten the nose wheel oleo. For some reason Revell Tornado’s always have a wrong stance with the nose pointing upwards. There are a few builds on BM that show the change needed and its effect.

 

regards Toby

Technically the nose wheel does not need to be shortened if you build the plane in a clean configuration in parking position (with wings swept back).

 

Since IMO half if the fun is filling the stores though, I would still look into shortening the wheel.

Edited November 6, 2020 by Anatol Pigwa

[alhenderson]

1 hour ago, Anatol Pigwa said:

Technically the nose wheel dies not need to be shortened if you build tge plane in a clean configuration in parking position (with wings swept back).

 

Since IMO half if the fun is filling the stores though, I would still look into shortening the wheel.

Yeah, a fully loaded Tornado is what its all about!  So I have shortened the nosewheel 🙂

 

Al.

[alhenderson]

Painting time!  Couple of coats of grey on, started to put the green on the tanks.  Must say, the seams on the fuselage have actually come out reasonably well - which is a relief!

 

 

This is where is starts to come together and all the previous hard work pays off 🙂

 

Al.

[alhenderson]

Finished the grey, then remembered i still needed to tackle the nose. I test fitted the SBS nose a while back and it wasn't a great fit, so I was prepared for a fight. Actually, it went on really well when I held it firmly for a few minutes.

 

Even remembered to put some nose weight in, although with the SBS nose being solid it had to go just in front of the nosewheel bay.

 

 

Spent some time pencilling in the camo lines earlier. The paint scheme on the instructions isn't great so was an excuse to get some of the tornado books out 👍

 

Getting there...

 

Al

 

[Jabba]

Looking good with some paint on.

[alhenderson]

First coat of the green on - that was proper hard work, I'm knackered!  The paint scheme in the instructions looks like its been photocopied on a 1980s photocopier, really hard to work out the details.  So I dug out the excellent 'Warlord' by Ian Black which has some lovely pictures of camo Tornados in it.  But of course, I don't want to get paint anywhere near that so much time to-ing and fro-ing between the bench and the book.  Think I've made a decent stab at it, not perfect but then I reckon there was almost certainly individual variations in the scheme anyway.  Need to find a better brush for the rest of it, though, my small flat brush has seen better days and it shows.

 

 

 

 

 

Working from home's great - I can do a cheeky spot of modelling rather than commuting 🙂

 

Al.

[CliffB]

It's really coming together now Al, with the camo taking shape 

[Andwil]

Yeas those Revell instructions are pretty bad.  With my 1/72 F.3 I had no end of trouble working out where some of the stencils were supposed to go as the diagram was so small and covered in arrows and numbers!  Photographs of the real thing helped, but I’m sure I got some in the wrong places.

 

AW

[alhenderson]

These damned pylons are going to do my head in.  Realised yesterday that with all the paint I've put on they're now stuck in place - at all sorts of weird and wonderful angles.  Going to have to get in there with a scalpel and see if I can free them off without breaking them.  Grrr..  Also annoyed about the ALARMS - they seem to be the least colourful missile ever.  From the pictures I've seen, there's no different colour on the nose, and only one blue stripe on the body.  And I don't have any blue paint!  Supposed I could go for LGBs instead...

 

Al.

[128fiddler]

The blue alarms were training rounds. The live rounds have at least a yellow stripe around it, probably brown as well. The stencilling on the revell sheet is rather colourfull for these rockets iirc

[alhenderson]

2 hours ago, 128fiddler said:

The blue alarms were training rounds. The live rounds have at least a yellow stripe around it, probably brown as well. The stencilling on the revell sheet is rather colourfull for these rockets iirc

Hadn't even occurred to me to look at the decal sheet!  Decals for missiles? that'd be madness surely?  But no, there they are in all their glory.  Thanks for that.

 

I've googled 'ALARM missile colours' a number of times, but only seem to be able to find pictures of the training rounds with the blue stripes.  Weird..  Maybe my google skills are just not up to it any more 🙂 

 

Al.

[alhenderson]

Finished the camo yesterday, and have spent a good few hours today tackling some of the many fiddly paint jobs - gun ports, nose, anti glare shield, various metallic bits etc. Spent more time washing brushes than anything else!

 

 

Think I'm gearing up for decals next then undercarriage and weapons. Getting there!

 

Al

[Jabba]

Looking good despite the problems that you are encountering.

[alhenderson]

Have made some progress getting decals on my hindenberger tanks.  Although when I went to put the decals on the fins last night it quickly became apparent that I had put the fins on the wrong way round!  So out with the scalpel to try and free them off so I could put the back on the right way round.  Back on now, just got to touch up the green..

 

Also in the above shot is the subject of my latest problem.  The LRMTS.  The clear plastic triangular bit is supposed to go on the front of this, but I can't see how on earth it fits.  Like all the transparencies in this kit it is truly awful, more flash than you can shake a stick at, making it almost impossible to identify the part.  I was hoping to find an after market replacement, but a quick search on google and hannants has not shown anything up - don't suppose anyone knows of anything?  I'm going to struggle to get that to look anything like the real thing 😞

 

Al.

 

[alhenderson]

Come back on here for a whinge.  Whoever's responsible for transparencies at Revell should be shot frankly.  Exhibit A - the front of the LRMTS:

 

 

and test fitted:

 

Took me a bloody long time to even work out which way round the transparent bit went.  I think its right - this way seems to be the least bad of all of them.  Huge gap between the fuselage and the transparency.  Dear knows what I'm going to do there.  Going to have to be filled, I guess.  Which obvs won't be transparent, so might have to use silver instead..  Going to be very fiddly 😞

 

In the interests of doing something productive I thought I would fit the canopy.  The Revell transparency man had other ideas:

 

 

 

The front windscreen profile is way off that of the main canopy.  And the canopy itself is a crap fit as well - the tabs that reach backwards are way smaller than the indent in the fuselage.  

 

So in summary   😡😡😡😡😡😡

 

And I'm already fed up of putting stencils on drop tanks 😞

 

Al.

 

 

 

 

[Andwil]

Far too often otherwise good kits are let down by poor transparencies. The moulding issues may be the result of the different plastic used but there can be no excuse for the incorrect dimensions of many canopies.

 

Stencils.  After my F.3 I decided I needed a break from stencils so I am building a Fokker DVII.  It has seperate rib tape decals.  50 of them and they are very narrow and have to wrap around the wings!  Madness!

 

AW