Italeri Tornado GR1/IDS Gulf War 1/48

[Bill1974]

Hiya 

 

I have my new aircraft to enjoy building and painting.

 

 

I've been looking forward to this one.

 

Any and all help and support regarding the build would be greatly appreciated.

 

It's an italeri so I know it's gonna be a little shonky so any pre-warning would be appreciated. 🤓

[Jabba]

Lots of inspiration here:- https://dstorm.eu/pages/en/gb/tornado.html

[Bill1974]

8 hours ago, Jabba said:

Lots of inspiration here:- https://dstorm.eu/pages/en/gb/tornado.html

 

Wow thank you there is so much information there, I'm not sure I understood all of it.  I'm pretty new to aircraft modelling and all the extra bits and bobs of aftermarket stuff has been beyond my wallet or skills thus far.

[Bill1974]

I have put the cockpit parts together and have tried my best to make the most out of the kit I have at hand as I can't afford the expensive extras I see other modellers using. Ho-hum. 🤓

 

 

 

 

 

I have painted various shades of grey within the cockpit parts and added some panel liner to accentuate the detail that there is and added some aluminium and bronze with panel liner to the control panels and such.

 

That's every technique currently in my locker. 

 

My hands (sadly) are not steady enough to paint the seat belts and my impromptu ejection pull handles are drying....

 

 

I will coil these and add them to the seat tomorrow after the layers of etching primer and paint and varnish have fully cured.

 

These aren't mine incidentally, but it is an example of what I would like and have tried to push what I have near it....

 

 

 

And then of course the real thing.....

 

 

Comment and suggestion welcome 🤓

Edited May 28, 2023 by Bill1974

[Eivind Lunde]

Nice progress so far. 👍 I think I have this kit in my "not as big as my girlfriend thinks, stash", so I'll be following this. 

[Bill1974]

I am stuck, the instructions state that I need to attach two plates to the side of the lower main body bit doesn't indicate exactly where or have either locator pin hole of raised edge of any form.

 

See pic it's part no. 15a two number.

 

 

My spidey senses are tingling and I feel if I put it in the slightly wrong place it will come and bite me later so...... HELP!

[Bill1974]

The picture shows a line where you would imagine there is a raised line, uh uh no locator or raised line.  

 

Also the actual part looks nothing like the picture, which is always reasuring mr italeri.

 

 

It's not as wide as shown and is longer.

 

Confidence boosted, as who expects instructions and parts to match.... I'm mean honestly.... Er hang on?

Edited May 29, 2023 by Bill1974

[Bill1974]

How do you seriously good modellers use panel liner?

 

I've watched videos and watched some more and when I've used it all it did was not really moved over the model by capillary action and when I used the thinners it seems to just smudge dark brown / black enamel all over everything.

 

I can't be doing it correctly as I've tried in the cockpit with I suppose some success but nothing stella.

[Steve Coombs]

It's been an easy 30 years since I had a go at this kit in an earlier boxing, and I no longer have the model, but I suspect those two plates are simply to act as tabs when attaching the upper fuselage. You note that the lower fuselage half has no locating pins or tabs, so adding the upper half will be a very long butt joint. Locating pins or tabs further back may foul the stabilator link, and the engine nozzle assembly is no aid to location either.
Let those plates set solid in place and you should be fine.

The strips (B15B) you are supposed to install near the air intakes have a similar tab function (the central one acts as a spacer).

A tip from me - add parts 52A and 63A to the lower fuselage half and 51A and 62A to the upper fuselage half before joining the upper and lower fuselage halves. This give you a far superior fit and easier cleanup than the method in the instructions. The air intake assemblies slide into place afterwards.

Keep calm and carry on!

[Dr. Quack]

4 hours ago, Bill1974 said:

I've watched videos and watched some more and when I've used it all it did was not really moved over the model by capillary action and when I used the thinners it seems to just smudge dark brown / black enamel all over everything.

Panel liners work best on top of a smooth shiny gloss surface - allows the liquid to flow. If the surface is matt then your wash / liner will "grab" onto the rougher matt surface and cause a smudge. Very useful for weathering effects though.

Hope that helps.

Q

 

[Bill1974]

There is an oddity with the weapons pilons (not sure what they are called) the fixing point for the weapons beneath the wings.

 

They do not follow the profile of the wing???

 

They are straight and the wing is curved???? 

 

 

 

What's more perplexing is I see that on others models I do not see the gap that would be created if I simply glued them on.

 

I have also, like a fool, missed something on the instructions.

 

The instructions asked for me to heat the end of the pilons within the wing, I didn't understand at first but of course it's so the weapons and pilon can turn with the wing and remain aerodynamically stable.

 

Needless to say I have not done this, ‘dop.

 

Help please as I'm stumped. 🤓

[Steve Coombs]

The pylons in the kit are a compromise. If you have the wings swept back, they will be a better fit. In real life and with the wings swept forward, there was a spring-loaded fairing at the front of the pylon that would fill the gap towards the leading edge, after a fashion. You might want to experiment with small wedges of plastic if you want the wings forward. Look online for pictures to see what they look like.

One thing you really do not want to do is swing the wings too often and turn the pylons to match. The attachment pin/pivot is a weak spot and snaps easily. There is a strong argument for replacing it with a metal rod or pin, with a shrink-wrap plastic tube collar locked with superglue to hold it inside the wing. But that would be before you join the wing sections...

I can't be doing with the heated screwdriver nonsense; far too many opportunities for getting things wrong and burning something merely meant to melt.

[Bill1974]

4 minutes ago, Steve Coombs said:

I can't be doing with the heated screwdriver nonsense; far too many opportunities for getting things wrong and burning something merely meant to melt.

 

Thanks for the heads up. 

 

I'm not sure what I'm going to do as I have attached the wings halves together and have the pylons separate, bugger.

 

I have some strong and thick wire and plenty of spare sprue, I'll have a think on how to strengthen it all before closing it up.

[Bill1974]

My grey cells have been working hard and I have come up with a plan......

 

Baldrick: "I have a plan, sir."

Blackadder: "Really, Baldrick? A cunning and subtle one?"

Baldrick: "Yes, sir."

Blackadder: "As cunning as a fox who's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University?"

 

Well it goes like this......

 

I've removed the circular rod sections on the pylons that were to be heated like an old school rivet in steel and sanded them so that they have a slight curve to them that cannot be noticed in either position ‘wings swept forward or back.

 

I'm going to add some new ones longer than needed and soak the ends of these (once attached to the pylons and filly cured) in tamiya extra thin and get them really melted and then ram them into the hole for the pylon and immediately sink it in water and spin the pylon until the glue has set.  The melted glue will act like a plug and fix the pylon so it cannot fall off and I can adjust the armaments to suit the wing angle.

[Bill1974]

I've made a lot of progress on this kit. 
 

I have been deepening the panel lines as they were pretty poorly done out of the box.
 

Nothing too heavy or wide and surprisingly I haven't made lots of mistakes, a few here and there.  I'm definitely getting better at this which is hugely encouraging.
 

I'm still in the scraping panel lines and carefully sanding them removing all the swarf and carefully filling over runs or mistakes on circles and arcs.

 

There is quite a lot of detail there to scribe and accentuate and I really want to do better on the panel lines pin wash and such.

 

More of the same tomorrow and continuing with the pylons.

[Steve Coombs]

Are you going to use some foam rubber for the side bags? Painted and scored to look like the real thing, strips of the stuff each side will seal the gap in the fuselage where the wing swings, and conform to the wing if you sweep it back or forth.

[Bill1974]

15 hours ago, Steve Coombs said:

Are you going to use some foam rubber for the side bags? Painted and scored to look like the real thing, strips of the stuff each side will seal the gap in the fuselage where the wing swings, and conform to the wing if you sweep it back or forth.

I have some crafting foam sheets and some thin packing foam that I've used for bed roles and folded tents when I was making tanks.
 

I had imagined using that as I thought there would be some gaps.
 

The issue I have is having not made this type of aircraft before I have no idea where I need to put the foam.

 

I will dry fit things together tomorrow and figure something out.
 

I have been warned that the fixing points for the wings were shonky so I have cut away the the raised plastic that the plug was meant to sit on in the lower fuselage and super glued some 3mm wire in its place that I'm going to trim so that it can be superglued to the top fuselage when mated.  
 

I have also made two sets of 2mm wire that form the connectors between the wings and the tailerons.

 

I will post some photos tomorrow as my phone camera doesn't take the best photos when there is no natural light.

 

Things are coming together nicely and I have finished all the panel line depth increasing work.

 

I've had to think again for the pylons, the glue did soften the ends of the longer circular connectors I added but it also weakened the join to the pylons and I wasn't sure they would stay fixed.

 

I have added slightly thinner and much longer circular stretched parts of sprue and I will force them in so that they bend and hold them in place by friction alone.  The extra long sections are curing now and I'll have a go tomorrow forcing them in and post some photos. 🤓

[Bill1974]

16 hours ago, Steve Coombs said:

Are you going to use some foam rubber for the side bags? Painted and scored to look like the real thing, strips of the stuff each side will seal the gap in the fuselage where the wing swings, and conform to the wing if you sweep it back or forth.

Do you have any photos of the painted and scored foam that you or others have installed in a model and also anything of real thing that has whatever fills that particular gap?
 

The photos I have don't show those areas in great detail, I will have another look through my folder of tornado photos to double check. 🤓

[Steve Coombs]

There's this for starters: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235043559-tornado-wing-seal-colour/

[Bill1974]

As promised photo of progress thus far.

 

Edited May 31, 2023 by Bill1974

[Bill1974]

I have been dry fitting for most of the day and have things set ready for a lot of glueing together.

 

I have been studying photos of the wing ‘membranes’ that cover the wing movement.  Some useful photos below.  I plan to add some crafting foam sheet that I have prior to glueing it all together.

 

 

Photo of a model.

 

And two of the real thing.....

 

 

 

And some photos of my dry fitting of the wing mounts.

 

 

 

The metal wire has been thoroughly glued to the lower fuselage and I have formed a mount from milliput fixed to the top that I will sit a blob of superglue in when mating the two fuselage pieces together so that the metal wire mount has no where to go and is fixed top and bottom.

 

 

I have super glued the metal wire to the taileron plastic mounts so that they are aligned and they are strong and both wing and tailerons work smoothly.

 

Comments and suggestions welcome 🤓

Edited May 31, 2023 by Bill1974

[Bill1974]

This will have to wait for tomorrow as the milliput needs to fully set and I've only just got that in place so it will take quiet a few hours to cure fully as I want the superglue to bite into something completely set and solid and not risk any form of reaction to setting milliput and superglue mix / things moving or misaligning and such.  If it goes wrong once it's glued together (the plastic model parts) it would be an absolute nightmare trying to pry it apart to fix it or attempt a fix within such a small space and then realise after I've mangled something that I then have to pry the plastic apart anyway..... No I will be patient and wait. 🤓

[Bill1974]

The taileron bits of plastic broke and I had to drill through and add a 2mm piece of metal wire in it's place.

 

I was lucky really that it broke before mating the pieces together, not that it would have stopped me doing the same I have and add a wire through instead.

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by Bill1974

[Bill1974]

Lots of fine sanding and adjustment of some of the panel lines now the fuselage parts have been glued together.

 

She's shaping up nicely and I've really tried hard to get as fine a finish as possible and move on attempting to get that kinda soft smooth finish all the way through the painting.

 

I'm going to have a go at adding rivets tomorrow, I'm really not confident of using the rivet maker and will probably go with the needle in a pin vise.

 

What I can't get my head round is how to use the rivet maker when you can't properly see where your starting or finishing because of the way the tools is set up.

 

I wonder if I should be using two layers of tape start and finish or something then it wouldn't matter if I started too soon or went past where I wanted the rivets to stop???

 

I will post some photos tomorrow with better light. 🤓

[Steve Coombs]

How about using Dymo tape as stops and guides for the riveter? If anything goes wrong, you rivet the tape and not the kit.