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Tornado Warning! 1/32 Tornado EF3 Conversion *FINISHED!*


Alan P

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3 minutes ago, Back in the Saddle said:

You clearly build quicker than I do! I’ll pop over to RFI and take a look...👍

😂 I've not seen you build many props but I fully recommend the Revell Spit if you're interested in a 1/32 version - it's a quick and simple build 👍

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On 4/17/2021 at 11:25 PM, bigbadbadge said:

Great job on the details Alan.  I like what you've done with the wing gloves by adding the tape, that's a cracking idea .

Chris

Thanks very much again Chris 👍 It's going to be all about details for the next bit...

tn_Tornado F3 (112)

Added these anchor points for the chaff launchers - won't be adding the launchers themselves until much later. Also, the eagle-eyed will notice I knocked the arrestor hook off - luckily I found it before the carpet monster did!

tn_Tornado F3 (113)

Trying to do the rear end justice - PE parts from the old F2 Flightpath set. The reverser bucket mechanism is from the kit, but I've deliberately reversed (pun not intended) the parts so they fit back to back rather than how Revell would have you do them.

tn_Tornado F3 (109)

First glimpse of the ALARM missiles from the title - Flightpath product with some replacement fins due to losses in storage. Five new fins in total.

tn_Tornado F3 (111)

The one in the foreground is the intact version with all-PE fins. These are nice pieces but unfortunately will need cannibalised decals as there are none in any of my spares drawer.

tn_Tornado F3 (114)

This one's for reference - hopefully @WV908 will get some use from this - just showing some of the details specific to the F3. From right to left: 

  • Refuelling probe cover scribed just below the front canopy
  • Emergency rescue canopy release drilled out in prep for proper detailing
  • Just forward of the rescue hole, the GR style rectangular AOA probe mount has been filled in and the F3 circular probe mounting scribed just fwd and below
  • The nose extension forward of the end of the kit fuselage has been added from a zombie spare kit, angled to provide the correct nose attitude for the Heritage conversion nose cone.

Regarding the nose - the seam line is NOT the actual radome line - it is about 4mm further forward on the resin part itself. I suspect this is why many of the builds referenced earlier look a bit off. Also, the scrappy-looking seam lines are actually filled with CA glue so it's a smooth and continuous joint!

 

Hope this helps,

 

Alan P

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1 hour ago, Josep said:

Very great work Alan,👏👏

And I also admire your ability to do several jobs at the same time!!

Thanks Josep, don't tell anyone but I secretly started a Beaufighter yesterday 😉

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Nice work on the extra details Alan,  as Pablito said is is a pleasure to watch.   Those misses look good and the replacement fins look great , you have done a cracking job. Glad the carpet monster didn't get hold of the end of the arrester hook.

Chris

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This really is looking rather splendid. The thing I love about builds like this is how all the little details you make/add come together under a coat of primer - which can't be far off now, surely?

 

Tom

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Thanks for the very nice comments 👍

On 4/19/2021 at 12:05 AM, Pablito said:

It's a great pleasure to watch what are You doing with this kit! Looking forward for further updates!

Thank you Pablito, I have some leave coming up so the updates should be regular with any luck 👍

13 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Nice work on the extra details Alan,  as Pablito said is is a pleasure to watch.   Those misses look good and the replacement fins look great , you have done a cracking job. Glad the carpet monster didn't get hold of the end of the arrester hook.

Chris

Thanks again Chris 👍 appreciate all your kind comments so far!

11 hours ago, tomprobert said:

This really is looking rather splendid. The thing I love about builds like this is how all the little details you make/add come together under a coat of primer - which can't be far off now, surely?

 

Tom

Thanks very much Tom, very well judged as I've just washed it all down ready for primer! Already done the pylons, missiles and other stores except for ASRAAMs, which I forgot about 🤔

 

More soon I hope 👍

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On 16/03/2021 at 22:25, Alan P said:

Still on target for a decent build - I've ordered some carbon fibre rod as the acrylic rods are quite thick and will need some big holes drilling in the side of the aeroplane, which I'm not keen to do. The carbon fibre rods are only 5mm thick and should be the equivalent of a 14mm acrylic rod, meaning I might get away with just one if strategically placed!

Hi Alan,

 

Apologies if I've missed this somewhere in the thread - I may have got distracted by the pictures 🤤 - but where have you got the rods for the in-flight display from?  

 

I'm playing with an idea for an in-flight display and trying to figure out how to do that is something I'm solving - 5mm sounds a world better than 14mm :happy:

 

Ta

 

David

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7 hours ago, DeepSea said:

Where have you got the rods for the in-flight display from?  

Hi David, thanks very much for your comment 👍 I got them from an eBay seller in China, took about three weeks for delivery. 5mm carbon fibre rod, pack of 4 cost about £15 😮. It was advertised as 'RC model aircraft accessory'. It's not perfect for the job as it does bend a bit, but as you say it's much finer than the equivalent acrylic and easier to work than metal.

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Ready for primer:

tn_Tornado F3 (115)

Done the canopy framing already in black, as with the reverser buckets and metallic parts at the rear. Masked off the nav lights as well. We'll see what it looks like after a coat of Mr Surfacer 1200.

 

Well, I went through all my decals to see if I've got enough to make ZE763/DG. I have the correct roundels, fuselage flashes, tail flashes, pink stencils (they were very hard to source!) and 11(F) eagles volant. It's so close but unfortunately, no DG tail codes and no white serial numbers to do ZE763! :frantic:This may end up being a work of fiction after all. I'm annoyed but can accept it as it's destined to adorn one of the flight program offices at work, so nobody will ever know - the F3 was either before or after the time of most of the guys there :evil_laugh: I do have the Xtradecal set for ZE161/DX which was briefly with 11(F) until it went off to perform with distinction in the Gulf and ended up with 43 Sqn (by way of several other inferior outfits :devil:), so that's acceptable despite not being a SEAD convert 😠

 

If that's the case I might just go for the full black spine and tail for the hell of it. We'll see!

 

Alan

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@Alan P eBay is your friend here (sadly) 

 

Mastercasters still have a few of X32-013 for Lightnings in stock - I picked up a set on the off-chance the letters and numbers were the correct size for Tornados and Phantoms and well...

 

PXL_20210421_200745110.NIGHT

 

Just the ticket. Too small for GR.1 tail letters, but big enough for F3's. The small white codes are the right size for the serial letters / numbers too but you'll need to do a bit of butchery for that Z. 

 

If you want shut of the sheet afterwards I can happily provide a home for it haha ;)

 

For anyone else thinking along the same lines as me, the larger white letters at the bottom of the photo are slightly too big to butcher into Tornado GR.4 tail numbers, well they are if the Italeri decals are right anyway.

 

 

Cheers,

 WV908

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Ah, thanks for the heads up on that. I have the top sheet in your picture, but the one with the lettering could work as long as the yellow characters are slightly bigger than the black ones?

 

Cheers in any case,

Alan

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18 minutes ago, Alan P said:

Ah, thanks for the heads up on that. I have the top sheet in your picture, but the one with the lettering could work as long as the yellow characters are slightly bigger than the black ones?

 

Cheers in any case,

Alan

 

Yellow are the same size as the black sadly :(

 

Cheers,

WV908

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1 hour ago, WV908 said:

@Alan P eBay is your friend here

 

Mastercasters still have a few of X32-013 for Lightnings in stock

 

Sod it, I got them anyway and picked up a Master pitot set while I was there 😁

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First coat of primer and the news looks good...

tn_Tornado F3 (119) tn_Tornado F3 (120) tn_Tornado F3 (121)

Glad to see the panel lines have come up nicely, and the seams are mostly invisible. Looks ready to proceed with paint :yahoo:

 

One thing I forgot about Tornados is the zillions of different shaded panels, metallic parts, sensor covers and so on. I need to invest in a bunch more masking tape...

 

Alan

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Also finished priming all the stores and pylons - there are plenty of them...!

tn_Tornado F3 (118)

This will look very nice all tooled up - one of the mods for the EF3 was the reactivation of the outer pylons, so it'll hopefully look very interesting when finished.

 

One bad thing to report - it was all going so well, and then of course the aircraft slid off its drying shelf due to the very nose-heavy construction. I just saw it going out of the corner of my eye and managed to stop it reaching the floor...unfortunately in doing so, I mashed it into the set of drawers against the wall and knocked off the canopy, the pilot's head, and also unseated the body and knocked loose the pilot's seat. It's not possible to remove the seat for refitting, so I had to pipette CA glue into the cockpit and blast it with accelerator. The result is I might have to rethink my display option now to a less dynamic pose otherwise the seat will probably break off under its own weight.

 

Annoying, but that's the hobby :crying:

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Oh mate, sorry to hear that, could you place some very thin CA between the seat and floor.  I have some flexible very thin tube applicators for this and would happily send you one so you can  carry on with your original plan as it looked fantastic with the primer on .

Chris

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Great attention to detail in this one, Alan, it’s looking really good.  Too bad about the unplanned flight but it seems you caught it before anything catastrophic happened.  Looking forward to to seeing it get its paint job.

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Oh man... how frustrating. It looks really good under primer - all the mods have come together beautifully. 
 

I feel your pain regarding the unscheduled flight - I’ve recently finished the interior of my 1/32 Sunderland build and was in the process of adding final tabs etc. to help joining the fuselage halves when I caught the tail end on my jumper and the whole thing went clattering to the hard kitchen floor. Everything came out and in multiple pieces too. I was tempted to bin the whole thing there and then, but common sense prevailed and it all went into a bin liner and into the attic whilst I gather the courage (and mojo) to reinstall it all. 
 

As you say - part of the hobby...

 

Tom

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