Tornado IDS, Revell 1/144

Marco1965 · October 13, 2020

Starting this tiny Tornado IDS, Revell 1/144. As other recent Revell kits in this scale, this one is beautiful, with enough parts to assemble a very decent cockpit, wheel wells and landing gear, fine negative scribing, moving elevators, swinging wings (although choosing that option, means not using any underwing ordnance...). Two marking options, I don´t really like the Tigermeet scheme, but I´ll assemble that same Tornado (43+46) in the Norm 87D scheme used when transferred from the Marinenflieger to the Luftwaffe (no Tiger stripes this time).

I started with the cockpit, folllowing instructions. I used Light Gull Gray for interior color (real ones were Dark Gull gray, but compensating for scale effect). Decals for the instrument panels and consoles are really nice, some retouches here and there, corrected the ejection seats headrest, seat belts added, and the cockpit nice,

This time, lot of the cockpit will be seen after the canopy gets installed.

I thought necessary adding some detail to the jet exhausts. Notice that as provided in the kit (right exhaust), they are shallow and devoid of detail. I bored them open (left exhaust)

And added some detail to make them more intersting.

And started masking wings and elevators, will paint these before starting assembling, easier.

Marco

Marco1965 · October 20, 2020

I started painting the Norm 87D scheme, as it was when transferred from the Marinenflieger to the Luftwaffe. I was not familiarized with it and the colors were totally unexpected to me. I got the colors from Hataka (Lacquer) and Vallejo Model Air (Acrlylic).

Masking rendered good results on wings and stabilizers, which I needed to paint before attaching them to the fuselage. The wings will be glued in fixed position, semi-retracted as normally seen in operations. Some details need still attention.

Can´t state enought how much I like Revell´s decals, such an easy and high quality process. They respond perfectly to Decal Sol. The position of the crosses is interesting, they are "square" to the longidutinal / transversal axis when the wing is fully extended, i.e. they will look little bit rotated most of the time during flight. All the weathering, paneling and final dullcoat will be applied before attaching wings and stabilizers to the fuselage.

And started "playing" with the external ordnance, quite nice assortment of stuff: AIM-9L Sidewinders, two External Fuel Tanks, a Chaff dispenser, an ECM pod, and racks under the fuselage, only thing is they are empty... I will not put anything hanging from those, enough with the rest.

Marco

Edited October 20, 2020 by Marco1965

TheFlogger · October 20, 2020

Great job. Looks like a delicious candy

RCI · October 20, 2020

awesome! keep on

Christer A · October 23, 2020

Fantastic work in this tiny scale!

Too bad you won't be hanging anything under the belly, otherwise this would've been a perfect match

https://aerocraftmodels.bigcartel.com/product/mehrzweckwaffe-1-mw-1-for-luftwaffe-tornado

😉

Marco1965 · October 24, 2020

From the first images I remember of the Tornado, back in the 80s, the "Mehrzweckwaffe" (something like "Multi-purpose weapon") was an eyecatcher! I will keep in in my mind but for an older scheme, maybe the angular one used by the Luftwaffe in the 80s. Thank you for the hint, Christer.

Marco

James G · October 24, 2020

Great work on the tiny Tonka!

Marco1965 · November 9, 2020

Wings and horizontal satabilizers were painted, weathered, sealed before being attached to the fuselage body, as it would be difficult doing that afterwards. I marked the panel lines with Tamiya Panel line Accentuator, and then applied oil artists, to give the impression of wear (mix of soft yellow/white). 43+46 was quite weathered when it was transferred to the Luftwaffe, the period I want to represent.

The final result, like the artist oil "curtains" from our fellow tank modelers.

Painted interior of air intakes, and landing gear. I issued couple wall extensions to the intakes, to avoid an area where too much of the interior could be seen through the intake.

Wings and horizontal stabilizers in place, they all move (regarding the wings, it doesn't really matter, as they will carry armament, which does not rotate with the wings)

Had to deal with a gap both sides of the vertical stabilizer, nothing severe but didn't like it. Used MrSurfacer 1200 applied with a fine standard brush.

The refueling probe fits nicely to the fuselage side, but somehow, it is missing the nozzle, there is just an empty recess there (The kit provides both retracted and extended refueling probes)

So I cut the tip of the extended refueling probe part, sliced by half, and glued in place,much better!

Marco

Marco1965 · November 15, 2020

Well few steps before painting. First I needed to mask the wings and horizontal stabilizers. The camo scheme pattern follows folded wing position, but it is necessary to paint it with the wings extended. By the way, nice firm mechanism provided by Revell to extend/fold the wings. It is a pity that they will end up not moving (because of the underwing ordnance).

And completely mummified, the three camo colors clearly identified with letters, just need to start detaching the letters, painting, re-attaching, and doing the same with the next color until it is done.

Marco

Marco1965 · November 27, 2020

Camo done, this was not easy, but I think it was worth the time! It represents 43+46 as it was back in 2000, still wearing the Marine Norm 87D camo scheme, but already operating for the Luftwaffe (I have lots of "White Tiger" stripes remaining if anybody wants them). Decals went on like a breeze, very good quality! Same steps accentuating panel lines and artist oil layers were followed for the fuselage and tail as with wings and vertical stabilizer before. Camo pattern coincides as intended only when the wings are folded. I removed all the masking from wheel wells, air intakes, engine exhausts, nosecone and finally cockpit.

Currently wings do swing freely, but that will last until I attach the underwing ordnance. Notice that metalizer colors on the engine exhaust area remained masked with aluminum foil throughout the camo painting process.

I attached the pylons under the fuselage. It is a pity that the kit does not offer any ordnance to hang from them, they offer nice "ejection" triangles, though!

Because I did not follow the "white tiger" scheme from the kit, I ended up missing the Reconnaissance Wing 51 badge that was painted on each side of the vertical stabilizer. I used some spare decals to simulate it, hand-painted (tried...) the head of the panther and a reddish blur that is supposed to be number 51... well, at 2mm diameter, it plays the part.