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Panavia Tornado F.3***FINISHED***


PeterB

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With my Buccaneer finished and my F-111F coming along steadily, I thought I might start another build.

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I bought my first F.3 back in around 1987 from an excellent model shop at Monk Bar in York - it was the newly released Matchbox one. A couple of years later Hasegawa released theirs and this is one of a batch of half a dozen or so of their kits I bought in the early 1990's including the Aardvark I am currently building and the F-15C eagle in the Interceptors GB. Given the way the decs are beginning to deteriorate I thought it would be a good idea to get them built ASAP.

 

The ADV (Air Defence Version) was built in parallel with the IDS (Interdictor/Strike) version and the airframe is fairly similar though the ADV has a longer nose I believe. This was for the Foxhunter radar, but as that was running late the a dozen or so interim F.2 were produced with concrete and lead ballast in the nose, earning them the nickname "Blue Circle", supposedly a play on the "Rainbow Code" naming system then in use (Blue Steel, Red Top etc) and a popular brand of cement. They used the same engines as the GR.1 and could only carry one Sidewinder on the shoulder mounting on each inner wing pylon. The F.3 had the Foxhunter fitted and more powerful engines, and could carry 2 missiles, one on each "shoulder" of the pylons, though they often were seen only with one and Hasegawa have annoyingly gone with that option, so I will have to do a little work! The F3 entered service in 1986 and some were involved in the Gulf War, but supposedly due to outdated IFF and communications equipment they were used for defence of allied airspace and did not see too much action, as what was left of the Iraqi Air Force after the first few hours had removed itself to Iran.

 

Although not the IDS version it should make an interesting comparison with the F-111F as they both use variable sweep.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

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I have made a start and am a little puzzled by Hasegawa's engineering. I guess it is down to using parts from the GR1 and being a bit mean in terms of what they put on the "extra sprue".

 

The cockpit tub has the nose bay built in under the floor, and the first thing the instructions tell you to do is hack bits off the sidewalls of the well before gluing it to the panel that is part of the fuselage undersurface. This is because the unlike the GR1, the F3 has "troughs" for the Skyflash and later AAMRAM missiles built in and they interfere with the fit. Not hard to do although the troughs are staggered unlike those of say a Phantom, but there is only a small surface that actually makes contact and the pic in the instructions is none too clear in terms of alignment, but I managed it in the end.

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The other thing you will note is the flat, featureless side consoles. To get round the fact that the F3 consoles differ from those of the GR1, Hasegawa give you a choice. They provide 4 nice "3D" detailed panels you can glue in place and then paint according to a plan they give you - here are a couple,,

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or else you can just stick on the decs they provide. They also give you a couple of IP which you can either paint or put decs on, and a pair of control columns, the one for the rear seater apparently being different to the GR1 version. Given the state of my hands I think I will take the easy option and stick on the decs. How much more would it cost them to just provide a new tub?

 

One final grumble - as you can see they have moulded a nice thin pitot on to one side of the nose, which will not last more than a minute or two unless I put some sort of protective sheath on - I wish kit manufacturers would stop doing that! I will hopefully be fitting a Master replacement providing they come back into stock before the GB ends.

 

Other than that it seems OK so far, but time will no doubt tell.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

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In the end I decided the decals were too bland and ending up painting the panels.

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According to the comments on the F3 builds on the Interceptors GB, the IP's are wrong but I will live with that. It was a bit of a stuggle getting everything lined up, especially the lower fuselage part, but I managed in the end with some heavy duty clamping.

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I remembered to add the ballast - Hasegawa say 5g so I put in 6g.

 

Glad that bit is out of the way!

Edited by PeterB
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Thanks Jabba,

 

I have a couple of Master probes now, one for this and one for my GR1, so of course it will miraculously stay on I expect. I have been waiting for some paint to arrive before going any further but it is due on Wednesday.

 

Pete

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I have glued in the main undercarriage bays, the trunking for the intake that blanks it off, and the upper "ramp" - so far so good.

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The construction of this kit contains a number of features I do not normally like, first of which is a fuselage split into sections,. Unless the engineering is good it can result in a nasty joint, but a dry fit shows this is not too bad. Likewise I have mixed feelings about horizontal joints as in the rear fuselage section, but again it is quite good and most of it is hidden by the slot for the wing and the tailplanes. Speaking of the wing, it is the "moving type" which often leaves a nasty gap when the wing is forwards, but Hasegawa have moulded a sealing strip on the the trailing edge which does work when the wings are at minimum sweep, as they will be in this build. One final niggle is that the F3 had Radar Warning aerials behind black panels on the inside of the intake - Hasegawa have provided decs which may or may not work, but they have to be put on now, so will have to be masked when I get round to spraying primer on. Better than trying to paint them when it is assembled I guess, though I may end up doing that anyway.

 

Earlier I mentioned that the kit comes with the large drop tanks but only the inboard shoulder mount for a Sidewinder so I am instead going to use the pylons and rails from my Tamiya rebox of the Italeri kit which I picked up cheaply for spares. The Gulf War website shows some F3 with the smaller tanks as in the Tamiya boxing, but mainly with the large tanks, and always with all 4 Sidewinders. As the replacement pylons have different mounting points I had to mark and drill a hole in a slightly different position to the one provided in the kit wings. I may have to modify the tank mounting as well depending on which type I end up using.

 

Getting there slowly.

 

Pete

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Not perfect but the fit is not too bad - the only poor joint is that at the rear side, though the outer side of the intakes could be better. The vertical tail could be fun!

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I never cease to be amazed just how small the Tornado is, particularly the GR version with the shorter nose that this. And yes, as expected I have finally managed to break off the probe, but I was going to replace it anyway!

 

Cheers

 

Pete

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The kit itself is coming along nicely. Rather than prime it with a rattle can from Halfords I deceided to give it a coat of Mr Hobby/Colour Light Aircraft Grey which showed up a couple of problems which I fixed. I then put on a coat of Xtracrylic Barley Grey.

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The colour is lighter in real life than the pic taken under artificial light! Now I have been using Xtracolour enamels for many years and of late I am in the process of switching to their Xtracrylic paints, and I have normally found that their take on a colour was about the same as mine - rightly of wrongly, but this paint, which is admittedly very sensitive to lighting, looked a bit light to me. In fact it seems to be virtually the same colour as my Mr Colour Light Aircraft Grey. but which of them is wrong I cannot say for certain. AFAIK the only other kits I have used Barley Grey on were my ancient Matchbox Tornado F3 and perhaps my Fujimi RAF Phantom. The problem is finding the paint I used!

 

This is where my long history of modelling plus my somewhat untidy habits comes home to roost. Over 60+ years I have accumulated an awful lot of paints - I have not counted them but even excluding paint for tanks, warships and railway engines and rolling stock I suspect I have over 300 tins and bottles. including Precision, Colourcoats. Compucolour, Humbrol Authentic. normal Humbrol and Xtracolour enamels, and Humbrol, Xtracrylic. Tamiya and Mr Hobby/Colour acrylics! Initially they were pretty tidy in 3 sets of storage drawers but over the last decade they have outgrown them and are also in various boxes and loose on shelves in my workroom/study. so I guess it is time I got them back into some sort of order - guess what I will be spending several hours doing in the morning! The Light Aircraft Grey looks about right to me, and I have already found a "new" old tin of Humbrol Hu167 Barley Grey which looks good, but I am pretty sure I have a tin of either Precision. Compucolour or Xtracolour that I used previously on the Matchbox kit, and I would like to find that to see what it looks like - I may dig the kit out of storage as well.

 

One thing I would like to check if anybody knows the answer. The colour called Barley Grey is I believe now known as Light Camo Grey, but is it the same colour that was perhaps known as "Mixed Grey for Phantoms" as I am pretty sure I have seen a tin with that lable - I know "Mixed Grey" previously referred to the wartime colour that became Ocean Grey. Any thoughts?

 

Cheers

 

Pete

 

 

Edited by PeterB
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Well, that was fun. I have gone through my paints and cannot find the tin of Xtracolour X17 Barley Grey I was almost sure I had - maybe it got thrown. I did find a well used old Precision Paints tin labelled "Mixed Grey (Phantoms)" which I believe was supposed to be an attempt to match Barley Grey so it looks like I used that on my Tornado ADV and probably my UK Phantom FGR2 as well, rightly or wrongly as I have seen suggestions it was only used on the imported F-4J as a substitute for Flint Gray. Whatever, I did find a tin of Humbrol Hu167 and have used that. I have also repainted the undersides in Xtracolour Light Aircraft Grey which is a bit lighter than the Mr Hobby/Colour version.

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Bit of touching up to do and the colour in the pics is not quite true but I think it looks a lot closer to the real thing now.

 

Quite a simple colour scheme, and I gather that at some point, probably after the Gulf War, they dispensed with the Light Aircraft Grey altogether so it was Barley Grey overall. Looking at the instructions, a 1988 copy of an Aeroguide book and the pics on the Desert Storm website it is apparent that changes were made, including far more dark grey/black areas such as on the wing and vertical tail leading edges, There are a couple of things I am not entirely clear about at the moment. The kit instructions say that the areas around the wing root and the tail pivot are Medium Sea Grey, whilst the Aeroguide book says "Dark Grey anti-abrasion paint", and whilst the book says the nose cone is Medium Sea Grey the instructions say 7 parts Barley Grey to 3 parts Hemp! I have looked at a number of threads and there is quite a range of answers regarding paint on this plane. Some say the Humbrol Barley Grey is right. at least one other that the Xtracolour one is, so maybe my Xtracrylic paint is from a bad batch. Likewise some say MSG on the nose and other not. Any thoughts?

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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Looking good with paint on. As for the nose I know that on Phantoms the paint was applied over the brown coloured fibre glass radome which gave it a brownish hew, so I think that it was the same for the Tornado F3. From earlier in the build you mentioned the (inner) wing pylon, this is also in the GR version of the Hasegawa kit so the same parts are used. At the time when the kit was first produce the fighter Tornados also only had one Sidewinder per pylon. It was just that little bit later that they carried 2 Sidewinders per pylon. Good catch in getting another kit to provide this. Also the big fuel tanks were given to the GR aircraft during this conflict as it was felt by those in a higher position that they required them more than the fighters.

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Thanks Jabba,

 

The pics on the desert storm site show some F3 with big tanks and some with the smaller ones - as does his load-out list. I actually bought the "Tamiya" boxing with a What If TSR-2 in mind! My wife bought me a print a few years back by aviation artist Ronald Wong which speculated on a Tornado style load out with tanks, Sidewinders, Sky Shadow. BOZ, TIALD etc. I have just checked and the Hasegawa GR1 has the smaller tanks like my spare F3. I will have to think about that, but it might be easier to just use the small ones that actually go with the transplanted pylons on this build and save the big ones for either the GR1 or TSR-2. The painting shows the big tanks -  I am hoping to do the TSR-2 in the High Wing GB later this year, and in the same way Ronald used a lot of "artistic license" I will be doing the same albeit of the modelling variety!

 

The only problem is that the pics show the small tanks with only the 2 rear mounted fins and not the two further forward.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

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Thanks Jabba.

 

I note from pics that the F3 seems to have aquired 2 of what I assume are chaff and flare dispensers under the rear fuselage so I have made something vaguely resembling them. One question you may be able to answer is about the wing and tail leading edges. The kit instuctions and the book I mentioned show the topside camo colour wrapping round the wing leading edges, and just a couple of patches of black over radio aerials on the fin, but pics in theatre show what looks like a dark grey, almost black leading edge to both, although what I think are later pics show it (faded?) to a colour only just darker than the Barley Grey camo, The instructions also show prominent black patches on the horizontal tail leading edge before the war but  pics show none during it. Any ideas?

 

Pete

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RAM Material was applied to the leading edges of the Tornado F3s wings to absorb incoming radar. This was similar (not sure how similar) to the stuff that was applied to the F-117s. I think that the black that was applied to the tailplanes was done early in the aircrafts service and was found to be not needed and so removed (or not re/applied) later.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, it is now a year since the Lockdown started. At that time I was finishing off builds for a couple of GB, but a month later I went into what might be called "production line mode" and have finished another 30 or so. I enjoyed it and it kept me from being too bored or depressed, but over the last month or so I decided it was time to slow down a bit. I have been pottering around with the builds for this GB, and now the Tornado is getting close to the point when I can start getting decs on.

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Bit of touching up to do and the nose to paint, and a few aerials to add. Then it will just leave the u/c doors, landing lights and the underwing pylons and stores. The cockpit canopy is not the best of fits but I will leave it as it is. Must get back on to the F-111F as well. There may be a bit of delay on posts as my computer is starting to act up,

 

Cheers

 

Pete

 

 

Edited by PeterB
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I have made a start on the decs - walkways, roundels and fin flashes on.

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There are quite a few stencils etc on the sheet but looking at the pics on the Desert Storm website it looks like some may have been overpainted.and some don't seem to have had the fuselage roundel either. Another  thing I noticed is that the drop tank markings seem to be missing as do the black circular markings on the fins of the Skyflash missiles. Indeed, the missiles and tanks seem to have been painted in the Barley Grey in some cases instead ofthe Light Aircraft Grey shown on the instructions for the pre Gulf period.  Also, whilst the wheels, legs and bay/doors were originally white I know that they changed to light aircraft grey at some point and the ones in the Gulf seem to have been in the later colour. I was going to used some Modeldecals for the tail letters, but it seems that a few such as Q were not commonly used and therefore are not on the sheet. However the ones in the Gulf used Q and the one I an going for was indeed DQ so I will have to print some out myself. Oh well, I will get there in the end. Oh, FYI is have not as yet painted the radome as I want to leave that until the probe is fitted because I am probably going to have to mix the shade I need and would therefore prefer to paint the lot at the same time. As I don't trust myself not to knock the ruddy probe off it will be left to the very end.

 

More as and when.

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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Coming along nicely. The U/C legs on all Tornados were always light grey or so the people who worked on them have said. The black circles on the Skyflash were again to denote that they were either dummy or so that personnel could tell the difference between these and sparrows, as they were similar in size and shape. When the sparrows were withdrawn from service the circles were no longer required.

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  • 1 month later...

I have put on all the decs I am going to use - there are still quite a few small white stencils left on the sheet. I fitted the Master replacement nose probe, mixed up some grey as per Hasegawa's instructions - 7 parts Medium Sea Grey to 3 parts Hemp - and painted the nose. I then started adding the wheel doors and had a bit of of a problem with the main ones as there was not quite enough of a gap between the leg and the outside of the well. I don't know if that is a problem with the kit or the way I added the u/c legs but anyway I managed to get them on in the end and will know what to do when I build my GR1.

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I was going to leave it at that for the day but ended up sticking everything on so now it just needs a little touching up and a coat of varnish. I am going to have to be ruddy careful how I handle it from now on - tiny aerials all over the place and a really thin tip to the probe! I originally painted the tanks in Barley grey but pics seem to show most of them had the replacement smaller tanks in light aircraft grey so rightly or wrongly I went with that. The lengthened nose on the fighter version makes it rather more elegant than the shorter nosed mud moving version to my eye.

 

Nearly there!

 

Pete

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  • PeterB changed the title to Panavia Tornado F.3***FINISHED***

Well, varnish coat is on so I will get some pics for the gallery before too long, weather permitting.

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It has come out pretty well and except for the surgery required on the nose bay moulding and the slight fit problem with the main gear doors (which sounds like it may not be my fault), it has gone together pretty well.

 

Thanks for all the helpful info on colours etc. I have enjoyed this GB so thanks to Enzo for organising it - was he making anything himself? I seem to remember 3 entries back in January so no doubt it will be the usual case of springing onto the screen fully formed at the last possible moment😆

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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Hi Chris

 

Been overcast today and due to rain on Wednesday, but I will see what it is like later in the week - I would prefer to take at least some of the pics outdoors as it shows the colours better than under lights in my workroom!.

 

Pete

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