1/48 Revell Tornado GR4 XV Sqn Anniversary

[Muzz]

My new boxing of Revells GR4 'Farewell' scheme arrived today so I'm going to get cracking on as I've already lost 4 weeks or so of this GB! 

 

Plan is to build it as the anniversary scheme for XV Squadron from 2015 at Lossiemouth. I've got the Xtradecals for it and will add Eduard Brassin seats and possibly the wheels, not sure about ordnance yet............

 

 

 

 

[Col.]

Lovely scheme choice 

[exdraken]

Oh, that us a nice scheme I do not think I saw before! I only think to remember the recent one with large red XV letters on the fin....

 

It reminds me of the F3 schemes with spine and fin in full colors! Rarely seen on a GR, no?!

 

[Muzz]

So made a start a few days a go........

 

Painted the cockpit so whilst waiting on it drying I cracked on with the main fuselage.....

Intakes and wheel bays painted Hobby Color H338 Light Grey.

 

I joined the upper fuselage and spine/intake part before out of sequence with instruction as you get a better join with it laying flat.

 

[Muzz]

Cockpit painted and decals on. I had to sand away some of the detail on the panels as the plastic didn't correspond with the decals, such as the large MFD on the right side of the Navs panel. The decals are closer to a GR4 layout than the plastic.

 

I also added a small square of plastic and to the pilots centre mfd which has a strange step in it.

 

Front fuselage together.....

I remembered to drill the holes for the IFR probe this time unlike my last build.

[Muzz]

On 04/10/2020 at 15:28, exdraken said:

Oh, that us a nice scheme I do not think I saw before! I only think to remember the recent one with large red XV letters on the fin....

 

It reminds me of the F3 schemes with spine and fin in full colors! Rarely seen on a GR, no?!

 

Its certainly one of the more colourful ones, this and the 14 Sqn blue tail from around 2005 are my favourites. There were lots of schemes with GR's spines and fins painted but more often than not black was the colour of choice.

[Muzz]

Adding the main wings, adapted slightly to allow for the accurate forward sweep angle. It involves cutting away plastic lips from the top of the cogs so that the t bar fits in place over the top. I've also had to add a bit of wing surface to the trailing edge as the kit wing would stop short of the fuselage.

 

[Colin W]

Glad to have you along Muzz.

Interesting build sequence and great too see your progress

[Pappy]

On 10/8/2020 at 5:05 AM, Muzz said:

Adding the main wings, adapted slightly to allow for the accurate forward sweep angle. It involves cutting away plastic lips from the top of the cogs so that the t bar fits in place over the top. I've also had to add a bit of wing surface to the trailing edge as the kit wing would stop short of the fuselage.

 

 

G'day Muzz,

 

This one is going together well. I noticed that you have added a plastic spacer at the back end. Is this temporary or will stay there?

If permanent, does it not interfere with the fit of the exhaust assembly?

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

[Muzz]

1 hour ago, Pappy said:

G'day Muzz,

 

This one is going together well. I noticed that you have added a plastic spacer at the back end. Is this temporary or will stay there?

If permanent, does it not interfere with the fit of the exhaust assembly?

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

Well spotted Pappy, yes the side walls were bending in at the top so I cut a length of sprue to force them apart, it's just held in place by the pressure of the side walls. I did consider fixing it in place but it actually would have got in the way of the parts that fix in place for the tailerons. It wouldnt have been an issue for the exhaust assembly as there is another extension of the reat fuselage to be added.

 

Once the top section of fuselage was in place and all dried/cured I was able to remove it and add the rear section of the fuselage.

 

Coming together now, as usual with this kit, fit issues have been nullified with changing the build sequence but still some filling and sanding to do now.

[exdraken]

wow!

 

you are a quick builder!

 

great progress!

[Col.]

Tidy progress there Muzz

[Muzz]

Got the wing gloves fitted, the 'fin' on and radome (with weight). Radome join has been filled and blended in and I've also been working on a few other troublesome joins around the intakes etc.

 

[RJ-WobblyHands]

Looking good - your airbrakes look a much better shape and fit than the ones in my IDS kit ! 

[Muzz]

1 hour ago, RJ-WobblyHands said:

Looking good - your airbrakes look a much better shape and fit than the ones in my IDS kit ! 

Thanks, I joined them to the top part of the fuselage before joining the fuselage parts together, it seemed to work out well, first time I've done it that way.

[Jabba]

That has gone together very quick and well. It seems that everyone building one of these kits has their own way of getting the build done (or is it past experience?).

[Col.]

14 hours ago, Jabba said:

That has gone together very quick and well. It seems that everyone building one of these kits has their own way of getting the build done (or is it past experience?).

It appears that any other way than the one Revell suggests will yield better results.

[Muzz]

It's my 4th build, done two GR1's and a failed GR4 build, so it's not my first rodeo!😂 Still doesnt make it straight forward.

 

Front canopy on and seams cleaned up.

 

[Colin W]

Yes very quick building but not compromising on quality. She's looking great.

 

Colin

[Muzz]

Eduard mask applied and ready for a primer coat, I knew there would be some remedial work still to do afterwards......

 

Used Alclads Grey primer/micro filler as usual but they seem to have changed the formula, it's now a lot lighter in colour than the previous grey. I do like the new colour but not sure if the formula is as good, it might just be the lighter colour isn't giving you as much coverage.

 

[Muzz]

Does anyone have a decent colour match for the GR4 radome grey? Preferably in Gunze, Tamyia or Hataka. Everything I've looked at is either going to be too light or too dark compared to the main camo colour of MSG.

[RJ-WobblyHands]

2 hours ago, Muzz said:

Does anyone have a decent colour match for the GR4 radome grey? Preferably in Gunze, Tamyia or Hataka. Everything I've looked at is either going to be too light or too dark compared to the main camo colour of MSG.

 

The radome should be Dark Sea Gray I will be using Tamiya XF-54 DSG  , my main body colour will Tamiya XF-83 Medium Sea  Gray with Vallejo MSG  and lightend Tamiya MSG on selected panels

[Muzz]

2 hours ago, RJ-WobblyHands said:

 

The radome should be Dark Sea Gray I will be using Tamiya XF-54 DSG  , my main body colour will Tamiya XF-83 Medium Sea  Gray with Vallejo MSG  and lightend Tamiya MSG on selected panels

Thanks, I noticed that the Tornado SIG state it’s DSG but I think that looks way too dark, I ended up using a mix Tamyia Sky Grey and DSG. I’ll see how it looks once the MSG is on.

[Colin W]

On 10/19/2020 at 11:42 PM, Muzz said:

Thanks, I noticed that the Tornado SIG state it’s DSG but I think that looks way too dark, I ended up using a mix Tamyia Sky Grey and DSG. I’ll see how it looks once the MSG is on.

I agree here.  A lot of the DSG and EDSG colours are too dark. Lightening it up a bit will help.

 

Colin

[Muzz]

Got the radome painted then the main camo colour, Hataka's Medium Sea Grey.

 

I then had to decide how best to spray the tail colours, went for the red first and relevant area masked off.

 

Then on to spraying Hatakas Signal Red. The colour call out in the Xtradecal sheet calls for Cherry Red, Hataka do both colours and there’s a subtle difference between the shades, Signal Red looked the closer match so I went with that. Once on it looked slightly too dark so I lightened it with a touch of Tamyia Flat Red. Looks good and I’m happy how it went on, hopefully get the blue surround on tomorrow.