Rob's Tornado GR4 *Finished*

[rob_van_riel]

So, there I was, all ready to start a second wave on Tornados. Had some interior work done on an old Revell kit, everything seemed good, until I got to the wings. One of them was as badly warped as Paul's. Didn't particularly feel like wrestling that wing for weeks, so I stole whatever parts seemed useable from it, and chucked it. After all, I had plenty of old Tornado kits in the stash.
Next up was an old Esci kit, old both in technology and actual age. This blighter turns out to have fuselage halves of somewhat different lengths. Again, not my idea of fun to try and fix this, so out it went.
There was another Esci lurking in the stash, but of much later production. Without much hope, I checked to see if they'd fixed the problem. You can probably guess the outcome. More junk for the trashcan.

Sometimes you're in the mood to fix a problem kit, sometime you're not, and this was definitively a "not" day. Reduces the stash very rapidly, though

Time to pick up a new tool Tornado at the LHS tomorrow.

[rob_van_riel]

The initial coat of primer revealed no major problems, so I finished building to the point where the kit can hit the paintshop. It looks like I got things on reasonably nicely.




However, the metal nose wheel legs appears to be too short relative to the depth of the resin well. The plane now has a noticeable nose-down posture. There little I can do about the legs, but I'll seen how much I can still fudge by fiddling the wheels.

[ShaunW]

Don't Tornadoes have a bit of a nose down attitude on the ground? it doesn't look too bad to me. If you're trying to adjust the stance, it might not be too easy from the wheel end.

[rob_van_riel]

Don't Tornadoes have a bit of a nose down attitude on the ground? it doesn't look too bad to me.

A bit, but I think this is a bit much, and once the wheels are on, it will get worse. I don't think I'll be able to fix the current attitude, but I might be able to limit the effects of different wheel sizes a bit.

[rob_van_riel]

I swear Hannants has it in for me
Not being a great expert on British planes, I followed their colour callouts, and gave the plane a nice coat of X3: "RAF Medium Sea Grey". It looked horrible. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful colour, it just doesn't belong on a Tornado. For comparison, I photographed the result sitting on top of a Hasegawa box that features a great photo of an operational GR4 as box art.

Not only is the X3 far too dark (although other references show that this is somewhat dependent on light conditions), it is also has a very strong green component to it (more pronounced in real life than on the photo). This picture shows grey with just a hint of dirty brown to it, while other references show a somethat darker blue-tinged grey. Whatever the truth is, X3 isn't it.
I'm beginning to see a pattern here. The Dark Earth on my Lancaster was way too green and rather too dark as well. Also, it was a rather nice colour (in fact, I'm considering it for the green part of the wrap around camo for one of the twins).
In any case, this wasn't going to do, so I re-painted with Humbrol 28. This has turned out just a bit too beige, but I'm hoping a coat of varnish will add just enough gleam to make it look OK.
Comparison of Humbrol 165 (also Medium Sea Grey) with the pictures of the commemorative plane show a much better match to the darker, blue-er references, assuming the lid and colour binder chip match the contents of the jar. I'll be using that for the corresponding build.

[rob_van_riel]

The coat of varnish did the job, and the colour now closely resembles the picture. I'd show you photo, if the whitebalance in the camera hadn't lost the plot completely and turned everything blueish
In any case, this Tornado is now in the final phase, spot painting, decals and final assembly, and should be ready before the deadline.

[rob_van_riel]

I've just finished sticking on what seemed like a million decals, and that's after leaving out a bunch. The Xtradecals and those I printed worked well, but the Airfix decals? Let's just say they'll stick to anything except the kit. Even after having been on the kit for several hours, touching them is a sure way to have them jump over onto your fingers. I really, really hate that decal sheet now
I just hope they'll stay on when I wash[*] and varnish the kit.

[*]ie, airbrush soapy water over the kit, followed by clean water.

[ShaunW]

That X3 was certainly not the shade for the GR4! Now that's been sorted out, here's hoping those Airfix decals don't cause you any further bother!

[rob_van_riel]

Here she is, all fitted out. Alle that remains is varnish, hopefully without blowing of any decals (I'll be skipping the bath in this case; no need to tempt fate any further), and cockpit frames.



The nose down attitude is visible even in this photo, but there's not a thing I can do about it. Let's just pretend the pilot just slammed the breaks, hard

[rob_van_riel]

The varnish went on relatively smoothly: only one decal tried to jump ship.
I think I may have been overly harsh to Airfix with respect to the decal. The escapee was one of the Xtradecal decals, and those have always behaved perfectly in the past. It may be that the intermediate varnish I used is just not very decal friendly. Next time, I'll stick to Tamiya gloss for this.

[rob_van_riel]

I just removed the masking tape from the canopy. Some corrections will be required, but nothing I can't deal with.

[rob_van_riel]

The Tornado is done and ready to roll.

Don't have any time left for a decent foto shoot, and besides, some of the paint is still wet...

<<Picture deleted>>

I'll take more and better pictures tomorrow and post them.

[lancfan]

Looks great Rob, all finished and two days to go.

David

[ShaunW]

Despite your misgivings about the nose down stance Rob, the finished model does look good.

[rob_van_riel]

I'll take more and better pictures tomorrow and post them.