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Panavia Tornado F.3


ringo

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Good evening everybody,

 

I hope i can get some help here as i have a "small" technical problem and i don't have the technical knowhow to solve it...

 

My son gave me a nice present for Newyear, the Revell Tornado F.3 ADV.  We were planning that i would make a dessert livery in dessert pink for a Tornado who flew in the Gulf War.

 

When i looked at the decal set i saw that the Tornado's who flew in the Gulf War were Tornado GR. Mk 1, stupped i didn't think about that but my knowledge about Tornado's is not that big 🙄...

 

My question is, is it possible to make a Mk1 with some adjustments on the F.3?

 

Thank you for your help!

 

Ringo

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Hi, Italeri have several 1:48 Tornados on the market although they are boxed as IDS

(which is the generic name for the ground attack Tornado) The better kit, however, is the current Revell. This is boxed as the 'GR4 farewell'. It's easy to back date to GR1 as the parts you need are still in the box. Basically add the cannon so there is one each side, use the spine that doesn't have the small GPS circular antenna, don't add the FLIR housing that is under that left hand side of the nose (opposite the LRMTS which looks similar in size and shape) lastly the Pilot cockpit should have a circular radar repeater and not the square LCD that replaced it on upgrade. All Tornado GR4s were GR1 airframes modified in the late 1990s early 2000s. Hobby boss also make a GR1 (boxed as IDS) 

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Seeing as the OP is in Belgium, Domino also have the IDS Revell 1/48 available .

 

Those who are Tonkistas may be better aware of what needs to be done in details to make that into a GR.1

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The Tornado F3 was involved in the Gulf War, of course. No 29Sqn deployed with them to  Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.   I don't know if they changed livery from grey to desert pink though; seems unlikely for air defence operations.

 

Edit : I have found a photograph which suggests some F3s were painted desert pink. Most handsome too, so that would avoid Ringo having to buy another kit at all  ! 

 

John B

Edited by John B (Sc)
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18 minutes ago, John B (Sc) said:

The Tornado F3 was involved in the Gulf War, of course. No 29Sqn deployed with them to  Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.   I don't know if they changed livery from grey to desert pink though; seems unlikely for air defence operations.

 

Edit : I have found a photograph which suggests some F3s were painted desert pink. Most handsome too, so that would avoid Ringo having to buy another kit at all  ! 

 

John B

In fact it was a mixture of 5 and 29 Sqn that deployed to Dharan,  they were changing over at the APC at Raf Akrotiri when the Kuwait invasion happened.

 

Selwyn

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21 minutes ago, John B (Sc) said:

Edit : I have found a photograph which suggests some F3s were painted desert pink. Most handsome too, so that would avoid Ringo having to buy another kit at all  ! 

 

John B

 

Can you share this (or at least the source)?  I believe I share the understanding most have expressed, that the F.3s deployed for Desert Shield/Desert Storm/Operation Granby remained in their pre-war scheme of Barley Grey over Light Aircraft Grey, simply removing squadron markings (and in at least some cases adding a "Desert Eagles" badge in all white to the tail).

 

The GR.1s were repainted in FS30279 "desert pink" because their then-current Dark Green/Dark Sea Grey wraparound camouflage was wholly inappropriate for the KTO, but since the F.3 s were already light gray and their role did not involve low level operations it would be really surprising if any had been repainted even as a test. At the very least I've never seen such a scheme on an ADV.

 

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Hi CT7567 (interesting title), I have sent you a private message, since the photo is not mine to use, Looking more carefully at it now, I think the aircraft shown are actually GR machines, not the F3 at all. Sloppy photo titling by the owner.  Aircraft look too stubby and wrong kit under wings.  Too much rush earlier, tsk, and  I am not at all expert on the Tornado  !

 

Cheers,

John B

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The Tornado F3 only wore 2 colour schemes in RAF service - both grey. Initial scheme was  Upper surface: Barley Grey (BS4800.18B.21) now known as Camouflage Grey (BSC381C:626)  (satin); Undersides: Light Grey (BSC381C:627) (satin); Radome: Medium Grey (matt). In the mid 2000's RAF F.3’s were repainted in overall Medium Sea Grey (BSC381C:637) with a slight variation in the radome colour.

 

I can recommend 2 recently published Osprey books on RAF Tornado units in combat (well written, with copious colour scheme profiles) by Michael Napier who spent 10 years on the Tornado GR1.

 

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Rich

 

 

 

  

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Anything is obviously possible when it comes to reshaping plastic but the mods required means it would be far, far easier to purchase an IDS boxing, or even better a GR1 can also be built from the GR4 Revell boxing.

 

The F3 had some major differences to the GR1/4 such as an extended fuselage with 'plugs' inserted behind the cockpit and rear fuselage, a different radome for the Foxhunter radar, different shaped wing gloves and fin. It also had a single cannon as opposed to the two on the GR1 and an internally stowed IFR probe situated on the port side instead of the GR1's bolt on probe on the starboard and also fuselage recesses for 4 Skyflash missiles. The F3's rear cockpit was also noticeably different.

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Per our PM conversation and your subsequent post, the photo in question was miscaptioned and clearly showed GR.1s in the famed "desert pink" scheme.  No worries confusing the two, all of us have things we can learn - one of the great things about this forum!

 

As others have suggested, the level of effort required to make an ADV from an IDS is such that it makes more sense to pick up a second kit for the pink GR.1 and build the F.3 in its grey guise.  And as any poster here can confirm, it's always better to have two kits than one! 😉

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you all for your messages, research and tips!  I am very happy with them.  I will find my a GR1/GR3 box and then later build the F3...  Will show you the result when they are finished 🙂

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Jings, crivvens and help ma boab! 

 

Tornado F3 operations during Op Granby and no-one has mentioned the 'Battling Bantams', 'Punchy Poulets' or indeed the ' Fighting Cocks'? 

 It's enough to make you weep. 

 

Some Photo's from 30 years ago from this 12 year old thread. 🙂 

 

Gloria Finis!

 

 

 

 

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