Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
One thing I'm bothered about - how to do the bendy acrylic rod thing for mounting an inflight build? It looks really cool, but how do you go about bending the acrylic rod without melting it?
By the late 70s there were initial airframes with the British and German air forces, and training was undertaken at a joint base at Cottesmore, which stayed open until the beginning of the end of the Tornado in British service. During service in the RAF it fought in almost all conflicts, except for the Falklands, where the tried and trusted Vulcans were dragged from the brink of retirement, rather than use an as-yet untested airframe so far away from home. The Gulf War, the Kosovo war and subsequent peace-keeping duties, and Kuwait were amongst the most well-known operations the GR.1 was present for. In the 1990s the original GR.1s and 1As were upgraded to GR.4/4A standard, which involved many changes to the avionics and a broadening of the weapons it could carry. The GR.4 saw the RAF to the end of service, with the EF2000 Typhoon, another collaboration with European companies taking its place.
SPECIFICATION
Looks pretty familiar, the old Revell GR.1 kit which has now been not so much surpassed as smashed into the Stone Age by the new Italeri masterpiece. I have the Revell F2 nose cone a small run nose from a F3 conversion that I acquired from someone in Europe 15 odd years ago https://designer.home.xs4all.nl/models/tornado-resin/tor-resin-2.htm and a set of drawings that someone kindly sent to me. I also own the Heritage conversion. The Revell F2 nose, the drawings and the F3 conversion nose from the linked set are all the same length - however the Heritage nose is several mm longer. As I said at the start I do not have the real length of the F3 nose to make a 100% correct decision regarding who got this right. Now, let's talk about this nose...Every one of these I've seen built, well let's just say the nose looks 'off'... Let me make it clear, these are excellent models built by very capable modellers and this is by no means a criticism of their skills or abilities but to highlight what I believe to be a weakness of the existing conversion sets: The ejection seats go together easily and look great, but I had a hard time following the diagrams to install the photo-etched metal (PE) seat belts. Also have these @djparkins Flightpath ALARMs from an earlier Tornado build - they'll need a bit of work as they've been rattling around in a spares box for about ten years. But that gives you a clue what the finished aircraft will be representing...!
OK, I think it really boils down then to how accurate you want to be, how much (or little) aftermarket you want, and how creative you can get 🙂 The 11(F) decals are sourced from an Xtradecal GR.1/F3 sheet from years ago, but I'll have to make the serial number somehow, along with the stencils as the kit has no decals 😩 The aircraft is interesting, being the old two-tone Light Aircraft Grey/Camouflage Grey with one Dk Camo Grey tank and one still in grey/green. I intend to pose it inflight at a steep bank angle so it should be an interesting build!
Why us
The decals went down easily and, aside from the errors and color match with the stencils, they worked great. This service does not deliver on a Saturday or Sunday. If you would like Saturday delivery please call us on 01782 409310. This will be a conversion to the F3 using Heritage Aviation's resin conversion set as a basis. Thought I'd better get on and do it before Italeri release an F3! (I hope!!)
Great Deal 
New Comment