spike7451

Lovely work mate!....I've got the same kit on my shelf,although I sota overdone the weathering...

GR4 has a square TAB display for the pilot & not the round wet film moving map display. PS,where did you get the shoulder pylons from?

It's done! Cue one 1/48 Revell Tornado IDS kit going in the bin!!!! Fuselage fit was bloody awful to the point that it wasn't worth any more effort!...I dry fitted it all before assembly to no avail & I'm not gonna waste anymore time on it!! Worse kit I've made in a long time!

I believe Airfix also made one years ago,I remember building one &,at the time,Airfix & Matchbox were the only real contenders.

It is,for one it's got the French seat & the only weapons you can use are the BL-755 CBU's,Sidewinders & that's about it & aside from the centerline pylon & outer pylons,the weapon pylons are wrong for an RAF jet.Think it's also got the wrong IP & is missing the flare packs that were fitted to the engine bay doors. Merv (RAF Armourer)

Don't need to ask him that,as an Armourer I've loaded quite a few ALARM's myself. The pylon itself is wired for ALARM's on the stubbies after the jets were upgraded to carry the missiles & the software on the WMC was upgraded on the GR1/GR4,on the F-3 only the shoulder belly pylons were wired for them as the shoulder pylons were also fitted to carry extra drop tanks if needed.

Friend of mine's sending me some detail pics of the ALARM & the launcher,I'll have to send these to you by PM if you want them as they can't be posted in an open forum.

OK,It's just known as "Assembly,Alarm Launcher". The designation LAU??? is mainly American in origin which is why all the Sidewinder/ASRAAM missile rails are called LAU??? as these are basically American,but the ALARM launcher is British & we don't use the LAU designation so it doesn't have a LAU designation...

The's a thread on Britmodeller in the Modern aircraft board all about the Tiffie & it's varients.. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/50168-typhoon-reference-information-updated-with-corrected-italian-typhoon-colours/

I've asked on our RAF Armourer's face book page..

Originally 9 & 31Sqn at Bruggen were the first ALARM GR1 sqn's in the RAF,I was at Bruggen on 17f as an Armourer,and the ALARM's were rushed into service at the start of the first Gulf scrap in 1990.At that time most of the jets were not wired to carry missiles on the shoulder (belly) pylons,hence why you'll see photo's of jets with tanks on the shoulder pylons. Eventually all the jets were wired to carry them on the belly pylons but 9 & 31 also had the wing pylons wired first,s SEAD was their 'cold war; role at the time of the war. As for the launcher designation,it is a specificall

Correct mate,it was a rush job that was done just before the second Gulf scrap iirc,but never made it past the flight test phase...It was a idea someone in the Ministry of funny walks had to free up GR4's from SEAD duties...Not that we'll do that now,ALARM was withdrawn from RAF service a few months ago.

You'll also need to add MACE fairings to the shoulder pylons & you'll need to omit the sway braces from all of the weapon pylons,as ours are internally braced.

If you read the webpage I posted in the opening post,you'll see that the FLIR turret is retractable into the nose & the's another position in the rear,as well as a bomb bay

Appeared at the Waddo airshow,looks like this could be a serious low cost alternative for new strike aircraft,possibly even the A-10.Six underwing hardpoints,an internal bomb bay & retractable sensor suites... http://www.scorpionjet.com/aircraft-features/

No problem Paolo,...Although being an Armourer,we didn't have cause to open these panels much,we left that the the ancillary trades...

I've been thinking about this,trying to rack my brains as it's been a few years since I worked on Tornado's,but I'm sure the kit is correct,as the radome is a double hinged part arrangement,the forward section (the radome) allows access to the radar assembly & behind that is another hinged part that allows access to the avionics behind the radar set. I know it's an F-3 but is shows what I mean; http://zarco-macross.wdfiles.com/local--files/wiki:panavia-tornado/0361-02-2-7.jpg HOWEVER...in this photo below you can clearly see the join line that the OP refers to as needing to be removed,s

The aircrews flying suits worn on DS by the RAF were tan in color,the was a few olive colored suits floating about but generally tan.We haven't used blue gray flightsuits since the 70's

I used the picture to compare the diference between the shoulder pylons on the RAF/RSAF jets & the Italian/GAF jets,wasn't really concerned about the exact role type.

Gun bay is the same as the GR1/IDS,the only thing different is the ammo tank,which is smaller & sited behind the nose gear door. Merv (Ex Tornado Armourer RAF)

Like the KH F-15A I'm building,they enclose the wing pylons & weapons for them,show them on the box art & in the painting guide but have ommited them from the instructions..

Same as the new,long awaited Revell Tornado IDS,the instructions are too cluttered & some of them are too small for you to make out the proper placement of parts.

Been thinking,I've got the new Revell 1/48 Tornado IDS kit &,to my mind,it's over engineered.So bearing that in mind & the increasing demand for aftermarket stuff,are model kits getting too complicated & over engineered?I mean look at the instructions for the Revell Tornado,they are cluttered & quite vague in parts,the Kitty Hawk F-35A,while showing the missiles under the wings & having them included in the kit,the are no steps in the instructions to fit them... Would you settle for a cheaper,less complicated kit seeing as a kits now are nearing the £40 mark. (ie,Kittyhawk

This any use?...Dunno where I got them from it was so long ago...

It's not, Look at the picture I posted,the rear opening of the kit BOZ is a complete circle compared to the unloaded RAF one also posted,they don't have the correct hexagonal shape for the flare pack,which slots over the two rods & is fixed in place by a series of captive bolts.The inside face looks correct for the contact plate tho & is angled correctly.Trust me,I've loaded more flare packs to BOZ pods than you've had hot dinners.... The BOZ pods used by RAF/GAF/Italian/RSAF are basically the same apart from the GAF also use a BOZ pod that is angled to port for use in place of the