Tornado F.3 - Flying Start Models / Revell

[Isar 30/07]

Hi all,

 

as I didn´t had the intention to do a WIP, the selected pictures during the building so far are not as good as you expect them here - sorry.

I started this model in October 2021 after I completed a Tornado GR.1 (OP Granby) that I did for a German model magazine. The built of this Tornado took 

half a year where I learned a lot of the pro´s and con´s of the Tornado from Revell.

Having this in mind I thought the F.3 conversion might be a little bit easier since I knew all the challenges...

I quickly realised, it won´t be a quick or an easy built!

 

Three reasons for that:

I had to dig very deep into the F.3 and bought a lot of books on this a/c, but still there are some questions left. More on that later.

Next: As we know, Tim Perry never had the intention to do a conversion set as we know it from other producers. As far as I know, it´s just some kind of test if this conversion was 

doable. This means you have to do a lot on your own, i. e. the cockpit.

And last but not least: I´m building a house at the moment which means that modelling had to step back - way back often.

So, this WIP here won´t be a quick one, but after all those challenges done so far, I want (and hopefully will/can) to complete this model before removal.

 

Doing research I saw pictures of Tornado F.3´s during "OP Deny Flight" (the air war over Bosnia) in 1993 - 1996. Located at Gioia del Colle (Italy) there were F.3´s from N° 11 Squadron on duty.

As they carried the smaller, lighter weight tanks (borrowed from GR.1/GR.1a units - during OP Granby it were the GR.1 units that borrowed the `Hindenburger` from the fighter units) this added some colour spots to the light grey F.3´s as the tanks wore dark grey/dark green, allowing higher `g`turns.

These A/C´s had armament of 2 Sidewinder and 2-4 Sky Flash missiles. Sidewinder came from Eduard and the Sky Flash hopefully will come with my second Jaktviggen from JetMads (I asked for 2 additional missiles and they promised to pack them into the box).

Photos show 2 Phimat chaff dispenser pods on the outboard wing pylons. As these pods are not available in 1/32, I made them scratch using the Eduard ones in 1/48 as a guide.

 

I´m planning to display my F.3 at the `last chance position´ with an mechanic nearby (coming from Videoaviation). Pilots are from JP Productions, Res-Im spending the wheels, AIRES the exhaust nozzles, Master the pitot tube and Quickboost the mirrors, later placed into the canopy.

Airscale helped a lot when doing the cockpit. Beside that I did a lot scratch and there will be some more to do.

 

OK, when planning to do my F.3 leaving the `last chance`, it is logical that it MUST be lit. I had to choose between the set from Magic Scale Modelling and the one from Tirydium Models - the latter won, simply because it offered no afterburner flickering. The only thing I had to add was a micro LED to do the taxi light on the nose landing gear.

 

Beside all the challenges so far, the only thing I can say: This conversion is not an easy one but pure fun to me.

 

Photos next....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Isar 30/07]

One of the A/C´s that inspired me:

 

https://i.postimg.cc/DfM1q2Xf/20220505-180325.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Isar 30/07]

 

and again...

[Isar 30/07]

Checking the front fuselage parts. Beside some sink holes, there are a lot of panel lines to be filled and some panels to be moved forward/downward, i. e. the AoA sensors

 

 

 

 

 

The gun opening on the port side had been filled

 

filling the holes using heated/streched sprue

 

one of the first critical moments: to cut behind the cockpit section. There are some more things to do: engrave the panel lines, i. e. the panel for the refuelling boom or to reposition the emergency canopy release handle

 

the forward missile bay in a rarely seen colour. Reminds me on all the Smileys

Beside the friendly looking yellow, I had to putty and sand at least 6-7 times to make the surface smooth. During the putty-sessions, I diluted the putty using a brush and acetone - it did a smooth surface and hardened faster than the putty normally does without acetone

 

 

 

as you can see the parts can´t deny their origin - a 3-D-printer. Nothing that can´t be dealt with!

 

nearly every part needs this treatment, here the nose cone. Having enough putty at hand, all you need just a little time...

 

the engine insert needed more treatment, since it´s slightly smaller in diameter than the kit part. Beside that I cut off the rectangular openings of the unused kit parts and inserted them to the new part. The round openings are made of rod. Don´t forget to do the opening for the last tip of the arrestor hook.

My first challenge was then the engraving/rivetting of this insert. Since the material acts different to the usual plastic, I recommend to paint the part white or light grey and do carefully engrave or rivet. To hard and the lines of the printed plastic break all to fast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

the intakes look good but show rough surface in- and outside caused during the printing process.

At first, I tried to sand them down inside which is nearly impossible. Next I took a brush and took some white wall paint inside.

After sanding I repeated this some 3-4 times and finished it by spraying white from Gunze. 

It is much smoother now inside, but not perfect at all. But - who will ever recognize....

 

 

 

 

As Tornados had their auxiliary air intakes (sorry it this the wrong term) open, I had to open them as well.

But, when the auxiliary air intakes are opened, the part of the conversion set stands in the way. Ok, let´s cut/shorten the part.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was some sanding to bring these parts together. I will blend the conversion part to the kit parts later using lead foil and even more puttying and sanding - it´s a little time consuming but it works, so no one will see the edge later when looking into the intakes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Isar 30/07]

To complete the fuselage, there is the same problem I faced when putting the engine insert to the kit part: the conversion part is slightly to small in diameter.

Again, the insert after the cockpit is too small.

After puttying/sanding (to get a smoother surface) I used leadfoil to enlarge the upper part of the insert. Doing this using leadfoil was easier for me than trying sheet

On the fuselage sides I used very thin sheet that was `melted` using MEK (I have no idea what this really is, but I bought mine from a hobby shop in Germany as a plastic glue. A friend of mine works as a aircraft mechanic and he uses this when cleaning parts when repairing aircraft). When dry, you have plastic that needs some sanding - and that´s all. You can engrave it as the kit parts with no difference.

 

Let´s see how big this kit will be! On the right hand side you can see two wires for lighting the model up later

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop: the wing gloves.

During taxiing the wings are swept forward. The kit parts are built to have the wings swept back, so there is a big gap to be filled.

In my view, the kit parts are not that bad at all when removing the lips leaving just the frame. 

I engraved a piece of lead foil representing these lips, bend it and made four parts in the end. Then two parts were glued to the frame of the kit part.

When closing the fuselage at a later stage, these lips are glued and then one can carefully bend the lead foil into shape looking much better then.

One note: I tried wing gloves from Two Mikes and Paragon. Sorry to say, both can´t match with these lead foil lips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kagemusha]

I don't know if they'll fit, but it is possible to buy sprues from Italeri, regards the intakes.

 

Great to see another F.3 in the works.

[Isar 30/07]

The cockpit was done using Revell´s parts and convert them - mainly these things that are visible later when the canopy is closed.

As mentioned, Airscale photoetch parts and decals were very helpful.

The front cockpit needs some attention, too, as the front cover needs to be lenghtend so it is overlapping the instrument dashboard by 1mm) This was done using sheet and after that some more scratch built instruments were placed on the edges.

At a later stage, the front of the cover gets some more attention as well as the HUD.

The consoles of the WSO needs the most attention: All these changes were made scratch using only the screens from the kit. The rest was made using sheet, lead foil, copper wires - and a lot of research. When closing the front fuselage the cockpit tub needs to be glued in at this stage. The remaining parts will be glued before closing the canopy.

 

 

 

the dashboards at an early stage. some more rearragements had to be done

 

 

 

 

 

 

Men at work: The crew from JP Productions, only slightly modified to fit in the cockpit as well as to `communicate` later to the mechanic 

Ejection seats are leftovers from AIRES, I think 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Isar 30/07]

As written before, the front landing gear needs to be wired to get the taxi lighted.

Beside that, I improved the FLG omitting one scissor and refining the front scissor to look more like the real thing.

Adding some copper wire and repositioning the wheels let the FLG look not that bad.

 

 

 

 

 

it works 

 

 

 

Bringing the electricity into the model is carried out by wires going to one wheels of the main landing gear and from there nearly invisible in one leg into the fuselage.

Sorry, no photos yet.

 

 

when putting the model to the base - connectors are used later

 

 

[Isar 30/07]

The smaller tanks were made look like the british. As far as I have seen they had rivets on it. These were made using resin rivets from ARCHER in different sizes.

Some more details were made using again sheet and bolts made by a puch&die set.

After painting I used the kit decals which were horrible to put on. Even softener hardly didn´t work. I think, the base kit was one of the first release from the 90ies.

The tanks still need some weathering,

 

 

 

The Phimat chaff dispenser pods had to be made by scratch. Different rods, tubes and the front ends from 1/35 grenades needed only some sanding.

The fins are made of thin sheet, cut to size using a NWSL `The Chopper II`.

To put them later very easy to their stations, I put in two copper wires.

 

A BIG thank you to my friend Alex who let me his 1/48 Eduard Phimats to use them as a master.

As with the tanks: some homemade decals and weathering need to be done. 

 

 

 

 

The wings had to be cut to add the PARAGON set for separate slats and flaps. Not a big match, cleaning takes most of the time.

As with the MLG earlier - no photos from a later stage yet.

 

 

 

The outer openings for the pylons needed to be closed. Again, a 1/35 grenade was helpful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Isar 30/07]

That´s for now so far. 

As written, I´m building a house which means hardly any time for modeling at the moment and this will last some more weeks/months.

I can´t promise to react to posts at all or soon. 

This doesn´t mean, I do not read them, but my time is running. 

Please have that in mind when waiting for an answer.

 

When Eduard is sending me the requested stencilling, I will post a few photos.

 

 

Cheers

Reimund

 

[Isar 30/07]

1 hour ago, Kagemusha said:

I don't know if they'll fit, but it is possible to buy sprues from Italeri, regards the intakes.

 

Great to see another F.3 in the works.

I had this option in mind as well as maybe using Italeri parts for the wheel wells. 

As I used lead foil to do an seamless intake in the GR.1 built, I know it´s working.

I checked the Italeri wheel wells but this would be an major task to bring them to the Revell Tornado.

[Kagemusha]

Outstanding work so far, all the very best building your house.

[themongoose]

Ohh Baby that’s a lot of work, fitting/aligning, and scratch building! Looking good so far. I hadn’t heard of Tirydium Models so will be anxious to see how their lights play out. MSM I’ve used a number of times so if you have used them would be interested in a comparison.

[Stevepd]

Those fuel tanks are the same as the similar sized 4 fin’d tanks, but they would remove the top 2 fins which meant the tank could then go supersonic. 4 fin’d tanks were limited to subsonic.

 

Watch the height of the kit NLG as it’s too long and will make the kit sit obviously nose high!.

 

Excellent work so far though

 

[crobinsonh]

Fabulous work - love this thread!