**** DONE: 1/48 Tornado F3 - Home Country Modern Aircraft / Spitfire Mark GB

[Matt308]

Sorry to hear about that. I've been there, but not such a duration.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Matt. I'm just working on the last few decals now, and having a break to assemble the wing pylons and missile rails, ready for their decals. Did I say assemble? Oh yes, of course - I meant file, sand, scrape, cut, curse, twist, curse again, sand some more, cut a bit more, more cursing, a little more filing, some glue and hey, look - they're assembled!
Bl**dy Nora! What a shambles of a box of bits!
Might have some pics later, as only about another 20 decals to apply, so shouldn't take long - maybe five or six hours .......

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Oh my mate, when I saw the underwing assortment and how they looked, they just went into the scrap box. Consequently none of my Tornadoes are armed. Mind you Terry the scraps have come in use, as you remarked on the Tiger thread, you've seen that exhaust cone somewhere before. No prizez for guessing where!!

 

[Airframes]

You're not wrong Vic!
I've finally finished the decals, with the home made fin checks and the 'Clear Fix' Firebirds the easiest to apply!
As for the underwing stores - well, apart from the pylons and rails, the rest have been consigned to the spares box!
I had intended to fit two inert training rounds, modified by removing the fins from one ASRAAM and one AIM 9L but, apart from the hassle of getting a saw through the thick, plank-like plastic of the fins, the mounting slots and corresponding 'tabs' on the rails were just blobs, with no chance of fitting the 'missiles' snugly, and I definitely didn't want to use a decent missile from the spares box!
So instead, the tabs were removed from the rails, and around three hours spent filing and cutting in order to get the rails to fit onto the pylons, so that the model will now be 'clean', unarmed.
The pics show the pylons/rails painted and the decals applied, but I have yet to do the detail painting and simulate the missile mounting points.
The rest of the pics show how the model looks so far, ready to start masking for detail painting and a matt clear coat. Then it's back to b*gg*ring about with the rest of the lumps of plastic to try to make this thing look like a complete Tornado. More soon, once I've had a fist full of Valium or eleventeen pints!

 

[Catch22]

Problems or not Terry, it looks really good.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Cory.

 

[Wayne Little]

Damn nice work Terry!

 

[brucejscott]

Bad plastic aside Terry, you are making it look great.

 

[A4K]

With Wayne and Bruce on that... (or should I say Bruce Wayne? Hey we have Batman on the forum!! )

 

[N4521U]

Problems?
Nah, looks "the biz"!

 

[ccheese]

I know the feeling, Terry, I had more mishaps with the floatplane than I care to think about. Keep plugging away, it will all come out OK.

She does look good...

Charles

 

[meatloaf109]

It looks great!
I always like when someone goes the "whole hog' on the stencils, really looks the part!

 

[Airframes]

Thanks very much to all of you, your interest and compliments make it all worthwhile. I'm hoping to get the jet pipes done tonight, and maybe make a start on building a HUD and the other instruments for the top of the instrument shroud, then move on to the sticks pretending to be undercarriage legs!

 

[Crimea_River]

You're doing a great job Terry. Definitely looks the part and will get better yet.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks very much Andy - I just hope you're right !

 

[vikingBerserker]

What a beaut!!!!!!!

 

[Airframes]

Nice of you to say so David, thanks. Just having a quick break from doing the detail painting - might have some pics later tonight.

 

[Gnomey]

Coming along nicely Terry! Despite the problems.

 

[rochie]

looks like its definatly been worth all the effort Dogsbody, looks great

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Hugh and Karl. Just finished spraying the semi-matt clear coat, but can't move the model to photograph it yet. I'll hopefully post some pics over the weekend, after a second clear coat, and when the remainder of the detail painting is done.
Meanwhile, I'm working on the jet nozzles and landing gear, and trying to decide whether or not to drill-out the nozzles to give a better appearance, or leave them as is - the insides won't really be seen anyway I suppose, so a careful paint job might do the trick.