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1/48 Gulf Tornado - Revell


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Thanks everybody for your kind supportive comments. Thanks specially to @Biggles87 @72modeler @DonH and @James G for all the suggestions for cockpit hose making ........ one of the wonderful things about BM is the willingness of people to encourage and help, and to share  their experience and tips.

Thanks all  :clap:👍

 

:dunce:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Chapter 4

In which Quack demonstrates Overwhelming Stupidity on the Plastic Battlefield

And earns an Award

 

Hi again chaps.

Time for another update, albeit a small one.

 

Well, the Nephews have departed - showing every appearance of being pleased at their parents' arrival, and mumbling fond farewells to their beloved Uncle - along the lines of "Old Git" and "Rubbish WiFi"

How I'll miss their cheery scowls. :emo:

 

Anyway.

An Update

Not much to see this time, I'm afraid.  I've been priming stuff and discovering my truly horrendous seam-work all needs more attention - and I haven't even got the wings on yet!

Dull stuff indeed. :undecided:

 

Strange how mundane seam- sanding and repetitive scraping can dull the senses and allow the attention to wander......

........which is why it took me ages to work out that something wasn't quite right with the wheels.

 

Just not right.

 

Main wheels.

 

Looks ok on this side.....:hmmm:

51341323999_78d045a311_b.jpg34 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

 

....and it looks ok on THIS side.....:hmmm:

51341323999_78d045a311_b.jpg34 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

 

something not right .....oh wait.........oh bugger....................:facepalm:

This wheel is made up of two outer halves, and the other wheel is made up of two rear halves!

 

Michael Caine once famously said, "I may be Stupid .......but I'm not Bloody Stupid!"

I used to think that applied to me, but no - I have been promoted to Bloody Stupid!

 

Oh well - just as well I have a set of Brassin wheels to use - just need to sand off the prominent Good Year markings.

 

But wait - this gives me an Idea! :shocked:

Everybody has heard of the Darwin Awards - issued to people who have managed to perform acts of colossal yet hilarious stupidity with dangerous or even fatal results.

Well I propose a new award to be promoted here on BM - an annual award for the person who manages to perform the most outrageously stupid action, and preferably provide a Point-And-Laugh-Everybody experience for the other members.

 

  • RULES
  • The Award will be known as the Quack Award
  • The Award will be annual.
  • A Forum Topic will be announced at the end of each year and submissions may be posted by any Member of Good Standing
  • Entries must describe genuine unforced errors made on the Plastic Battlefield, and will be judged for their idiocy, and their giggle-worthiness.
  • The entries will be judged by Quack
  • Quack will (invariably) win. :wicked:
  •  

That about wraps it up for now - I'll post up some real progress stuff when I have some real progress stuff to post.

 

Meantime stay safe y'all.

 

Keep Calm and Mangle Plastic

:dunce:

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6 hours ago, Dr. Quack said:

Entries must describe genuine unforced errors made on the Plastic Battlefield, and will be judged for their idiocy, and their giggle-worthiness.

Would my genius action "mistaking the jar of Tamiya Extra Thin for the nearby jar of Mr. Mark Setter while applying a honking huge tiger decal to the tail of a Luftwaffe Tornado" qualify?

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

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22 hours ago, Hook said:

Would my genius action "mistaking the jar of Tamiya Extra Thin for the nearby jar of Mr. Mark Setter while applying a honking huge tiger decal to the tail of a Luftwaffe Tornado" qualify?

 

Hmmmmm............ that may well bear scrutiny :hmmm:

 

in fact - I may have to share the award!

 

 

Quack

who feels your anguish.

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Chapter 5

 

In which Quack demonstrates that he can occasionally make Progress.

 

Grateful thanks to @Biggles87, @AliGauld, @Alan P and @Hook for their eagerness to compete in the Olympic Plastic Balls-Up event - perhaps Medals will be awarded at the end of the build - assuming it doesn't fly off into the Great Bin of Modelling Angst and Disappointment.

 

"Progress?" you say.

Well perhaps a little - allow me to show you......

 

Are you sittings comfortably? Anybody need a wee before we start? :penguin:

Then we'll begin.

 

You may recall from the last episode that the Plastic-Mangling Pixies sneaked into my workshop and glued the wheels together wrongly - but that Clever Quack      ( :rofl2: - I still can't say that with a straight face )     managed to outwit them by having a set of Brassin resin wheels on standby, for just such an eventuality.

Well the wheels have been prepared, the side wall markings sanded off, then primed and a first coat of paint applied - and they look the part - I suppose - I mean they look a bit like wheels.

51360101540_8b1c417cc2_b.jpg35 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

Undercarriage legs have been part-assembled and painted, and brake lines added from fuse-wire - they're still to get a squirt of varnish and a wash.

51359870629_a1b365519d_b.jpg35A by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

Ejection seats have been painted and dry-brushed and I've started adding seat-belts - a mix of Eduard belts (included in their Look cockpit set), and some of the belts that came with the CMK seats - the fret states "Eduard."

I know the seat belts should really be shown stretched back over the headbox for storage, but I really couldn't wangle it so there they are - somebody will be getting a Hats-On-jolly good telling off for it so it may as well be me!

51360101530_9ed126d470_b.jpg36 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

I've made a start on the underwing stores as well - firstly the Brassin AIM9Ms - painted and still to have transfers added. Noddy caps are patiently waiting at the rear.

51358343187_7293b2f631_b.jpg37 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

Basic painting of self defence pods has started - doesn't look very pink / sand in the photo - better in real life, or should that be real plastic?

51359822144_3229ebbc51_b.jpg38 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

And the Brassin Alarm missiles have been assembled and made suitably grey.

51358343092_5c3b04b937_b.jpg39 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

As an aside - I've primed the ladder which is a printed item from LP Models - lovely finish to this without any layering signs.

51358343022_e4e101e427_b.jpg40 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

Last - the fuselage is part primed to show how rubbish the current seam work is - I've been experimenting with Sprue Goo for the first time - it is certainly easier to sand than anything else and will hopefully improve my reputation for crap seams!

The fuselage sides which will be masked by the intakes have been given a squirt of desert pink because I expect it'll be near impossible to spray in there after assembly.

51359092846_e80531c31b_b.jpg41 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

As you can all see, the fuselage has not really advanced much - the forward seams near the intakes are unglued - hopefully allowing plenty wiggle room when fitting the intakes. I'm rather anxious about that phase of the build - I've seen so many different methods for assembly - anybody got an easy - Idiot/Quack-proof method that doesn't involve shed-loads of sanding??

I'd really appreciate input on that bit (even if there are several conflicting suggestions!)

 

Laster .....

I have an idea for making a representation of the fabric intake covers which are always seen on desert Tornados - it involves a paper template which will be covered with PVA soaked tissue - the crinkly kind, not bog-roll! Has anybody successfully made them, and if so could I please steal their idea ruthlessly? I've never found any reference to commercially available aftermarket items.

 

 

Lastest ....

Thanks for looking in again.

I'm open to suggestions advice and criticism as always.

 

Keep calm and mangle plastic.

Quack :dunce:

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10 hours ago, Dr. Quack said:

I have an idea for making a representation of the fabric intake covers which are always seen on desert Tornados - it involves a paper template which will be covered with PVA soaked tissue - the crinkly kind, not bog-roll! Has anybody successfully made them, and if so could I please steal their idea ruthlessly? I've never found any reference to commercially available aftermarket items.

I used tissues soaked in CA glue, dries faster than PVA and gives a nice canvassy look:

DSCN2448

I used one large rectangular piece to cover up the 'ole, then added shaped strips to do round the edges.

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10 hours ago, Hook said:

Nice progress, keep 'em coming!

Thanks. And thanks for the link - looks interesting. I'll check it out.

 

10 hours ago, Alan P said:

I used tissues soaked in CA glue, dries faster than PVA and gives a nice canvassy look:

Thanks Alan - your covers are very convincing, and certainly enhance your excellent Tornado. What an eye-catching scheme!.

 

8 hours ago, mick said:

great work

Thanks Mick - appreciate it.

 

Q

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  • 2 weeks later...

Chapter 6

 

In which Quack relives his (Mistakes of) Childhood

 

Mrs. Q peers suspiciously at her beloved.

"You mean you're posting on BM - again?? So soon? It's not even been a month!"

 

Quack nods.

"Yup - time to give them all another giggle, and show off my latest b@lls-up!  Pedal faster Dear, computer's running slow again."

 

Damn she still looks good in Lycra!

 

 

Yes indeed - another update - two within the same month!

Another update - It's only a little one .....(don't roll you eyes Dear, and keep pedalling!) so here we go.

 

Wings are on - milestone or what?! and the spine has been prepared - circular GPS (?) bump has been sanded off as it wasn't present during the Gulf conflict, and holes drilled to mark the position of the paired comms (VHF?) antennae.

51378429439_816eef9cc7_b.jpg42 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

Thinking about the notoriously awkward intake seams, and trying out various dry-fit options, I decided to fix the intake inner halves to the spine before attaching the spine to the fuselage. The idea is to prioritise a neat accurate seam on the highly visible top intake surfaces, probably to the detriment of the lower seams, where sanding and fettling will be less obvious. I'd like to preserve the fine detail on the top intake surfaces and avoid having to fill and sand it all away.

51377924678_3c436620fc_b.jpg43 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

Unfortunately, it's quite awkward to hold the parts in a good position, and the Tamiya Extra Thin managed to extend it's famous capillary action to include my finger - on the top of the intake I'd been trying to preserve! Just the sort of Numpty** error that I used to make when I was 7, and left gluey fingerprints all over my builds, especially the canopies.

51377924593_a8644ed010_b.jpg44 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

 

Thankfully, on this occasion, it was fairly easy to sand out the damage, without losing too much detail. Still....... Talk about making life difficult for yourself!

Older and wiser Eh?

:hmmm:

 

................................................Nah!:fraidnot:

 

 

 

Next step will be to attach the spine - hopefully the various unglued sections (remember them from previous Posts?) will allow me to position the fuselage and intake parts together in small sections with a minimum of filling and sanding.

Think it'll work? :shutup:

 

 

Nah, me neither :sad:

 

 

That's your lot for today.

Keep calm and mangle plastic.

And try to remember ............. hobbies are supposed to be fun! :huh:

 

Q:dunce:

 

 

** Numpty - deliciously descriptive old Scots word meaning ............er ..............a Numpty!

 

ie Twit.

eg "What did you do that for you great numpty?!"

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1 hour ago, Hook said:

Is a numpty a bit like a Gumby..? 

 

Nice update!

 

1 hour ago, AliGauld said:

Nice work there Sir.

I would say that a Gumby had a tad more intelligence than a Numpty though. You have to have a brain for it to hurt.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

Gumby may be similar, though Alistair has nailed it! 

The term bears connotations of affectionate but clear disapproval, and lack of intelligence. Favourite word of my Grandmother when referring to me.

Barely more respectful than the T- shirt my kids gave me one Fathers Day showing a cartoon figure with Y fronts as headgear, captioned "pants-on-head retarded."

Kids huh?! 

The only reason I no longer wear it is because it has shrunk and no longer fits!

Q

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On 8/15/2021 at 2:23 AM, Dr. Quack said:

Wings are on

Depending on how you want to display your model, you may need to do some fettling to ensure they sweep forward the correct amount. I followed General Melchett's build tips on my GR.4A build and had to add a small amount to the inboard trailing edges as a result. It does look wrong otherwise...

 

I'm sure you can find my traumas and those of many others in this build forum!

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3 hours ago, Bell209 said:

Depending on how you want to display your model, you may need to do some fettling to ensure they sweep forward the correct amount. I followed General Melchett's build tips on my GR.4A build and had to add a small amount to the inboard trailing edges as a result. It does look wrong otherwise...

Thanks Rob - yes I'd seen the Great Man's work on the pinned build - after much deliberation, I decided to leave the wings as they are. I suppose it's a matter of deciding which wrong bits you can put up with, and which you can't.

It'll be displayed with wings swept forward so once it's done I may well regret this decision!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers

Q

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  • 1 year later...

Chapter 8

 

Now where were we?

 

Now where were we.......?:hmmm:

 

..........and where the hell has Quack been all this time ??? :think:

 

Well. I'm glad you asked....  oh...you didn't....well I'll tell you anyway. 

 

Several months ago Quack Towers was besieged yet again by a throng of Villagers, carrying flaming torches and pitchforks, clamouring for the evil Doctor to stop his unnatural experiments and recant his heretical opinion that Jaffa Cakes are better than Jammie Dodgers. Well, what can one do in the face of such closed minds? There was obviously no reasoning with them, and they had already managed to swim the moat and scale the walls. I had no choice but to set the dogs on them. Primitive and backward they may be, but they have learned from their past incursions, and this time they brought rump steak and some of those doggie chews that promise fresher breath :dog:- after this and a tummy rub, the dogs were of little help in defending the castle, so I retreated to the cellars, barricaded the doors and waited things out. There was nothing for sustenance other than a cellarful of 1961 Chateau Latour and the castle's emergency store of Pot Noodle and Toilet Duck, but, never ones to grumble, Mrs Q and I settled in to wait for peace to return. 

Now, finally it is safe to return to the sunlight and make another entry in the BM archives.

 

 

Now.

 

You may remember, that we were nearly ready to cobble together the top deck of the fuselage...

52321941066_97b6324174_c.jpg45 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

......and gluing it together in sections..

52322363949_f061b15694_c.jpg46 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

......using the unglued wiggle-room to try for a neater fit around the intakes

 

52322256728_5800abed20_c.jpg47 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

52321940831_e4b431850e_c.jpg48 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

Well - it's not TOO bad but still needed a bit of filler and sanding - better than I feared though.

 

52322363744_af985176ac_c.jpg49 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

Next thing was to try to build the airbrakes in the closed position - which seems near-impossible if the airbrake wells are fixed in place.

Instead I used small plastic card tabs to support the airbrakes in place.

 

52321940616_0862130a12_c.jpg51 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

52321939951_9ee3df6607_c.jpg56 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

Not bad as long as you don't get too close.

 

You may notice that I've masked off the wing roots and painted the wing-sweep areas to represent the Teflon-like coating which helps the wing sweep system glide - hopefully this will be visible as slight contrast after the desert pink is sprayed on top. The pictures I've seen of this area suggest that this area was overpainted in ARTF pink but showed to some extent, especially towards the end of the conflict.

 

Nose on, but a rubbish seam so lots of filling & sanding required here. The Revell Nose part does not actually attach to the model at the actual radome  / fuselage join, which is actually one panel line nearer to the cockpit! So.......a good seam is needed here before the radome can be painted.

 52322363444_203a3515eb_c.jpg52 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

Meantime - ordnance has received some attention...

52321940221_202fe227a3_c.jpg54 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

....and some of the sub-assemblies made ready...

 

52321940096_174a582b91_c.jpg55 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

Actually - I've now repainted one of the Hindenburg fuel tanks grey, as these were originally supplied for the Tornado F3s but used on the GR.1 s to extend their range, and painted ARTF pink. I thought it would add a bit of interest.

And on further picture-shuffling, I've noticed that pretty well all pictures show that the tanks were either BOTH pink or BOTH grey - So I guess I'll be doing another grey one!

 

After a bit more work / Sprue-goo / Mr. Surfacer / PPP and elbow grease, the nose seam is making progress.....

 

52322362734_56514bee4d_c.jpg57 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

And wing gloves fitted.

 

52322255468_201ae5b2b7_c.jpg60 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

The front seam here still needs work as the Kreuger flaps here were fixed permanently closed and should be really flush with the wing glove.

Oh goody - more filling fun.

 

 

 

 

And Finally!

(hooray)

I picked up some Gauzy Glass Coat as it seems to have a good reputation for improving canopies.

Before and after pics.......

 

BEFORE

52321939311_7344750755_c.jpg61 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

and AFTER

52321939216_6a5d5fe6f6_c.jpg62 by Niall Robertson, on Flickr

 

oh poo.  :blink:

 

 

I've soaked the parts in ammonia solution, scrubbed with a nylon toothbrush and power-buffed it to no avail. It still looks bad ( :tmi: )

Serves me right for trying to improve on a perfectly good kit part.

 

I suppose I could try dipping it again - but I'm rather reluctant.

If anybody has any suggestions for recovering this, I'd be grateful - I've emailed revell.de to request spares (happy to pay up) but no reply as yet.

 

Keep Calm..

and mangle plastic

Q

:dunce:

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Terrible result on the canopy there! Very unlucky to get that reaction. Hope Revell can supply a replacement, they were really quick when I asked them about some missing bits on my ADV. I guess at this point there's nothing to lose by re-dipping the canopy. Possibly can also try coating it in something else like one of those famous floor varnishes. I have no reason to think that will help apart from when I got white clouds all over my model from a satin varnish, putting a gloss varnish on top magically (to me) made the clouds vanish. So who knows? Maybe a gloss varnish will somehow fill in, mask, dilute, refract or dissolve whatever effect has made the canopy foggy. Or maybe it will just mean the canopy now has two messes to deal with instead of just one.

Edited by kiseca
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spacer.png

 

You could try polishing.  I've seen Tamiya's polishing compound being recommended more and more in place of dipping canopies, so got some earlier this year.  A couple weeks ago I gave it a shot on an F-16 canopy after sanding out the mold seam and was surprised how quick and well it worked.  I used a microfiber glasses cleaning cloth.  

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It was all looking so good too.

That's really unfortunate with the canopy though.

I hope Revell can come up with a replacement.

 

 

Last time I used them they took about 4 weeks to reply but after that the replacements arrived really quickly.

 

Cheers,

Alistair 

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Grateful thanks @kiseca, @Steve McArthur, @AliGauld. Most encouraging, and good tips. I will be patient awaiting a reply from those nice Revell people.

In the meantime I've had a go with the graded Micromesh polishing cloths from Alclad II. Things look marginally better so I may keep at it.

Thanks for looking in.

Q

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Great progress on a challenging kit. 
 

I do desire to build a decent 1/48 DS1 Tornado…but I will be honest, I just don’t want to put that much work into it with all those other kits in the stash waiting to be built. 
 

Cheers

Collin 

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