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

[Lucky13]

Totally spiffing work old bean, top drawer and all that rot! Have a dram, in fact, have the whole bottle!

 

[Gnomey]

Looks good so far Terry!

 

[Airframes]

Thanks very much chaps. I'm having a break from it tonight - my hands are still aching from all that filing!
More in the next day or two.

 

[rochie]

racing ahead Terry

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Pulling out all the stops on this one Terry, doing good mate.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Karl and Vic. It's progressed quite quickly now that the fuselage joint and those intakes have been done. There's still a little sanding to be done at the intake joints, which will be done once filler has been applied to the other small areas which need it, but it's now getting close to the initial painting stage. Seems like quick work, but, apart from the under wing stores, there aren't that many parts to this kit.
PIC 1 The speed brakes are being fitted in the closed position.
PIC 2. The representation of the thrust reversing gears is virtually nil.
PIC 3. This is what this area should look like.
PIC 4. Work under way modifying the area.
PIC 5. A simple representation of the gears and actuator arms, awaiting clean up. Should look reasonable when painted and hidden between the jet pipes.
PIC 6. Vents have been drilled in the rear of the hear exchanger exhaust ducts on both sides of the fin.
PIC 7. The huge fin in place. It's easy to see how the Tornado got the nickname 'The Mighty Fin'!
PIC 8. How the model looks so far. The light grey painted areas are to high-light those joints which need filler and/or sanding.
Once the final bits are sanded and polished, the model can be masked for the initial painting stages. There's still a lot to do though, as the smaller parts, such as gear doors, and legs, need quite a bit of work to make them acceptable.
Thanks for looking, and more to come soon.

 

[Wurger]

 

[rochie]

nice work Terry

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Karl and Wojtek. Working on engraving some panel lines at the moment, then on to the ejection seats - the painting will be started once the filler has set and been sanded and polished.

 

[ccheese]

Coming right along....

Charles

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Charles, most appreciated. Those 'some' panel lines turned out to be nearly all of them - four bl**dy hours of tedious and awkward engraving! Ah, well, I suppose it'll be worth it in the end.

 

[A4K]

It will be Terry, but yeah extremely tedious work in between... looking great so far though!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Looks like your well on top of this one Terry and I remember the panel lines, found many in the wrong place and lots missing, how about you? Have you decided yet on swept or extended wing, I used thin card for the skirt with mould lines pressed into it.

 

[Wayne Little]

Nicely done as usual Terry!

 

[meatloaf109]

Nice detail, it looks great!

 

[Airframes]

Thanks very much chaps, but I am now Officially P*ssed Off !!
Having spent around four hours engraving the access panel lines on the front half of the fuselage (Yes Vic, most were missing, and the rest in the wrong place or mis-aligned), I still had niggling doubts that something didn't look right. So, I sat back, breathed out, and stared at the model until it clicked.
I had taken the moulded-in pitot heads on each side of the fuselage as a reference for starting the scribing, and the bl**dy things are in the wrong ****ing place!! Not only are they too far forward, they are also too bl**dy high, throwing out the panel line orientation completely!!
The photo, taken before engraving commenced, shows the pitot head and the feint line of one access panel can just be seen above it, which is where I started the engraving - half a panel's width too bl**dy high! (the darker line is the upper/lower fuselage joint.)
The offending parts have now been cut off, to be replaced later with scratch-built items, in the correct place, and work is under way removing the top line of the engraving, ready to re-engrave lower down the fuselage. Thanks very much Mr. Bl**dy Fabrique en France Airfix!!
EDIT: Sorry Vic, forgot to answer your other question. The wings will probably be spread, or at 'combat angle' (45 degrees), as they weren't normally swept back fully on the ground. The skirts over the wing slots will be made either from textured, thicker masking tape, or foil, with the texture added.

 

[Crimea_River]

My, my, such language!

 

[Airframes]

His mother was a Hamster, and his father smelled of elderberries!
What a shambles of a kit, especially at the original price - little wonder it's no longer available. I had thought of keeping this in the stash, and getting either the Italeri or Hobby Boss kit, but then there wouldn't be any challenge then !
Ah, well, back to scratching and scraping, then on to some more scratch-building, trying to transform the 'Mr. Blobby' seats into MB Mk10s .... some proper modelling!

 

[Airframes]

Well, I still haven't started on the seats, but I have got the corrections completed on the panel lines, and the main airframe is now done as far as it can go before priming and paint.
PICS 1 and 2. The moulded-in pitot heads have been removed and the location points sanded flush, the 'old' panel lines have been sanded back (although their 'ghost' image can be seen in the photos), and the new panel lines engraved. They look a bit dirty as I high-lighted them with pencil for the photos. Holes have been drilled for the angle of attack 'spike' antenna on each side (front), and slots cut for the new pitot heads, which will be made and fitted after painting the model.
PIC 3. A new RHAG hook has been made from plastic rod, and the flare launchers added. These need to have the prominent sink marks filled, and their edges tidied.
PIC 4. The Ram-air intake for the pressurisation system has been fitted, after being hollowed out. Once set, the edges will be cleaned up and trimmed.
PIC 5. The rather heavily moulded IFF antenna has been removed form the top of the nose, and a slot cut for a new one, to be made from plastic card and added after painting.
PIC 6. The anti-collision beacon on the fuselage spine was a solid, moulded 'lump', so this has been removed, leaving the base, and a new, transparent part will be added later.
PIC 7. These antenna and/or fuel dump should not be present, and the tail navigation lights are again moulded, solid lumps.
PIC 8. The unwanted parts have been removed, and the 'lamps' filed down, to be replaced by glazed items later. The rear of the RWR pod has also been sanded to the correct profile.
PIC 9. The kit parts for the ILS aerials have been fitted to each side of the fin.
Next step is to clean-up the various areas needing attention, before giving the model an overall primer/undercoat, using the underside colour of Light Aircraft Grey. This will then be set aside to dry for at least 24 hours, before checking for any imperfections, correcting as necessary, then masking ready to spray the upper surfaces.
Meanwhile, it's time to try to transform those seats into something resembling the Martin Baker Mk10A ejection seats.
Thanks again for your interest and compliments, and I hope to post another up-date some time over the weekend.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

The more you do the more I see your having the same problems. Those moulded pitot heads were conveniently place on the kit at the join of the two halves on mine, if memory serves they were the first bit doctored.

Having said that and seeing how your progressing, I've nothing but praise for your efforts and detail.