Scale Aviation Modeller International — November 2017

of the resin were highlighted with

a wash, careful painting, and

light brushing (I was particularly

pleased with the seats).

I’m not sure that the harness

detail is entirely correct, but

the overall effect is convincing

enough. The addition of a green

Little-Car lens, to represent the

pilot’s HUD projector, and a small

piece of acetate for the reflector

plates completed this assembly.

FUSELAGE

As is common with many swing-

wing models, the main fuselage

components comprise two forward

sections with a vertical join, and

two rear fuselage sections split

horizontally. Some filler was

required at the interface between

the front and rear sections, and the

subsequent flattening and sanding

required that surface detail in the

vicinity needed to be reinstated. I

noticed that the panel lines under

the forward fuselage sections are,

for some reason, significantly

less refined than the rest.

The long ventral side pylons also

required filler to take up the slight

waviness caused by the fuselage

mismatch. The pylons themselves

received pockets in their undersides

to represent the ordnance

mounting points. I did this by

first drilling in the appropriate

places, then tapping the end of

a square file into the holes. This

gave neat representations of square

holes, rather than the incorrect

protruding spigots of the originals.

I also added what I think are

the pylon mounts at the rear;

these were simple “T” shaped

components made out of silver-

painted plastic rod. The mounting

holes for the central fuselage pylon

were also filled at this stage.

The engine intakes are separate

assemblies and required some

filling on their inner surfaces. I

also added some small scratch

built inlet vanes. The starboard

intake touched the refueling pipe

fairing, so I thinned both parts

to give a slight clearance. I also

re-scribed the surface detail

on the top faces of the intakes

to give improved definition.

Moving to the rear of the

fuselage, the thrust reverser

fairings had a couple of sink

marks that needed filling, but

otherwise the engine exhaust

assemblies are nicely represented.

I added the Eduard afterburner

rings inside the engine tailpipes,

even though they are pretty much

invisible on the finished model.

As mentioned previously, the

window for the LRMTS pod (fitted

under the starboard forward

fuselage) was poorly moulded,

so I opted to replace the glazing

with thin acetate. This angled

window was then framed by

adding small strips of plasticard

to the fuselage and the pod itself.

Filler was applied around these

additions, and the pod re-profiled.

To add more realism, I placed a

Little-Car lens within the pod

to represent the seeker head,

before attaching the windows

and moving on to the nose cone.

Having tried to modify the

original nose cone in my lathe,

I opted for the SBS resin nose,

which fitted without incident and

required minimal filler to hide the

join. Other smaller modifications

to the fuselage included re-

positioning the fuselage air

intake (behind the FLIR pod) to

a more correct position, which

is slightly further back, and

filling the port cannon trough,

as this is removed on the GR.4.

I did notice, late in the build,

that the AoA probe panels on the

kit are moulded slightly offset

when viewed in plan. I think

they should be symmetrical, so it

would be worth checking for those

concerned with ultimate accuracy.

WINGS AND PYLONS

A dry-fit of the pylons to the very

nicely rendered wings showed

an obvious issue – the pylons

themselves attach with spigots at

90 degrees to the wing undersides.

Since the wings themselves

have a few degrees of anhedral

once fitted to the fuselage, the

28 • NOVEMBER 2017 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

TORNADO GR4

026-33-FEAT-Tonka-1117.indd 28 16/10/2017 15:26