Here's my second
contribution to ARC, the Revell 1/72 Tornado Gr.1, largely built
out-of-the-box. This is really a great Revell kit, with very high levels
of detail. The
cockpit has very fine raised relief detail on the instrument panels and
the tub, and even the seats are pretty good when built from the kit.
I
choose however to use the excellent Pavla MB Mk.10A resin seats instead
for a try. The airframe structure has many fine engraved details such as
rivets, structures and recessed panel lines. The exhaust nozzles and
landing gears also come with great detail (including molded-on hydraulic
lines on the gear struts) and the kit's great decals have a very large
collection of markings and stencils. The only reason for not using these
is that I actually wanted to build one of those famous "Operation
Granby" desert pink tornados, so I sourced a Hi-Decal sheet to
complete the model. Also included in the kit is a wide variety of nicely
detailed weapons and
fuel tanks - including the big Hindenburg tanks and RAF LGB's - more than
enough for one aircraft and a lot more for the spares box!
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images below to see larger images
Building this kit is
as easy as it can be: I only used a bit of filler in leveling the engine
intakes, other than that the kit sees a great fit overall. The kit is well
engineered, ensuring good fitting of parts, even though the parts break-down is
quite extensive. Painting the model is quite easy as it all goes in one colour.
This was done by spraying Desert Pink (Humbrol 250) over pre-shaded Black panel
lines and relief detail. The pre-shading - together with a touch of post-shading
of specific panels - gives the aircraft a well-used and sun-faded look. The
exhaust area was airbrushed with various Humbrol Aluminium and Gun Metal shades.
Decals where next (on an Tamiya acrylic clear gloss layer) - followed by a panel
line wash with enamels (a mixture of Burnt Umber/Burnt Sienna). As mentioned
above, I used decals from Hi-Decal which worked out quite well. I chose to build
aircraft ZD739/AC or "Armoured Charmer". The model is finished with a
dull acrylic clear cote.
Patrick
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image below to see larger image
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