Revell Tornado GR4 as GR1

[RKic]

My big build for this GB will be Revell's Tornado GR.4. I'm converting it to a GR.1 from Desert Storm. Most of the conversion requires excluding a few pieces, and changing a bit of the rear cockpit.

I'll be using the excellent Kits-World decal sheet for some racy nose-art. I also have Aires seats, but I may save these for a different kit, as the ones provided by Revell are pretty nice.

I started the build with the landing gear well assembly. This is consists of sidewalls for the nose gear, which get attached as a single piece to the fuselage floor, and well roof parts for the main gear. The main well walls are part of the lower intake trunking assembly. This kit has really interesting engineering.

The gear wells don't have a great deal of detail, but since they are so deeply recessed, there isn't much to see in there anyhow. I mixed the light gray from Tamiya light gray, white, a touch of cockpit green and some Future.

[Aussie_superbug]

Nice start Ralph,

while I don't model in 1/48, its great to see a variety of scales being built.

I 'm surprised that Revell engineered the kit this way, I suppose manufactures have to engineer them differently to each other due to copyright laws.

[Grandboof]

Nice one

Martin H

[rom]

Hi

nice project!

I have a question:

To build a Desert Storm GR1, is it simpler to start with the GR4 or IDS boxing?

Thanks

[Lancer512]

A GR.1 can be build out of the IDS Box, as it contains parts for a GR.1, but you don't have the british MACE pylons below the fuselage and the small tanks only.

[RKic]

Isn't there also some business about the guns? I don't know tornados too well.

[Pete]

Yes, the GR.4 only has one gun, on the right side, and two chin pods instead of one.

[Lancer512]

I don't know tornados too well.

We can change that! See my link in post #6:

http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=294597

I've got both kits in my stash, and I'ld say go for the GR.4 kit and leave stuff off to downgrade it to a GR.1

[airmechaja]

So how does the Revell compare to the Italeri kit?

[RKic]

So how does the Revell compare to the Italeri kit?

Its a far more complex kit, with oodles more detail. The tail is more accurate. The wings, flaps, slats, airbrakes, thrust reversers, and canopy are all posable. Surface details are more numerous, but a bit softer on some parts (molding flaw). At least in the U.S. the Revell kit is less expensive than the Italeri kit, thanks to the scum sucking thieves that are Steven's International (F.U. bastards, if you're reading this!) jacking up the prices.

Edited September 7, 2016 by RKic

[RKic]

A few weeks into the build, and I can say it hasn't been a very pleasant experience. 

 

First of all, the PE cockpit designed for the Hobby Boss kit does not fit the Revell kit. The rear panels are too wide. and the front panels are too tall and just too - different. I don't know which manufacturer got things more correct, but I ended up doing a lot of cutting of the PE parts, and re-jiggering them to sort of work. I'm not thrilled with the results, and I'm hating the self-adhesive, which is at its most adhesive when I don't want it to be, but which then makes parts fall off at random a day or two later. 

 

Here it is a few weeks ago. It'll work, but it ain't too pretty. 

 

Once the cockpit parts were more or less together, I began building up the fuselage. Boy, did Revell crap the bed with this one. The forward fuselage halves fit awkwardly. There is a gap between them and the rear fuselage sections, which I filled with sheet styrene spacers. You can see the thin white lines just under the intakes, in the photo below. There is going to be a lot of rescribing along the wall-to-floor-joins, where I had to use filler to get everything looking neat and tidy. 

 

 

I was concerned that this gap was of my own making, but after test fitting the top fuselage parts, I see that the intake sections line up just right. Unfortunately, the fuselage spine behind the cockpit fits terribly. This is going to be a big job. Look at how much wider the sides of the spine are on the top piece, than they are on the sides, just aft of the rear-cockpit bulkhead. I don't even want to think about how this will affect the fit of the canopy. :-0 

 

 

I love the Tornado, and really want a GR.1 in my collection, so I'll persevere, but this is going to be a long slow fight. 

[Grandboof]

The cockpit looks great from here.Worth the trouble. Looking forward to the finish 

Martin H

[RKic]

Thanks, Martin.  

 

Wings are on, and locked in the full forward position, as flaps and slats will be down.

 

[bikerider]

Sorry to see the troubles with this kit. 

I have it in my to-do list too and was hoping it would be better.   I'm just painting a Revell Super Hornet that had similar poor fit and took a lot of effort with putty and sanding to make decent.  Was hoping the Tornado would be better 

 Keep going 

 

[RKic]

It isn't terrible, just modeling skills required, you know? :) 

[murad]

it's probably due to the shape of the real thing, i haven't seen an easy to build tornado so far. revell's 1/72 is the only kit that i've thrown out in my life also, due to those pesky intakes

[mlicari]

Looks like a real challenge, there, but you're doing very nicely so far!  Keep going!!!
 

Mike

[RKic]

A bit more tornado-like. It appears that my choice to put shims behind the forward fuselage sections was a good one. The dorsal fuselage section lines up perfectly with the inner intake side pieces, and everything else.

 

[Nathant]

12 hours ago, RKic said:

A bit more tornado-like. It appears that my choice to put shims behind the forward fuselage sections was a good one. The dorsal fuselage section lines up perfectly with the inner intake side pieces, and everything else.

 

 Very nice work. I'm about to start this kit soon. Where exactly did you put the shims?

[RKic]

2 hours ago, Nathant said:

 Very nice work. I'm about to start this kit soon. Where exactly did you put the shims?

Hi, Nathan.

 

If you scroll up to my second or third post in this thread you'll find a photo showing the belly if the aircraft. The shims appear as thin white lines (I used white styrene sheet cut to shape) behind the sides of the fuselage front sides.