Chiefs Revell 1/72 Tornado gr1 op granby

[chief5437]

Hi guys

Being a glutton for punishment, I'm back with another 1/72 kit! Revells tornado gr1.



I'll be doing it in desert colours, hopefully a bit like this. Credit to copyright owner.



Tornado GR1
RAF IDS variants were initially designated the Tornado GR1 with later modified aircraft designated Tornado GR1A, Tornado GR1B, Tornado GR4 and Tornado GR4A. The first of 228 GR1s was delivered on 5 June 1979, and the type entered service in the early 1980s. A total of 142 aircraft were upgraded to GR4 standard from 1997 to 2003.

Nicknamed the "Tonka" by the British, the Tornado made its combat debut as part of the British contribution to the Gulf War in 1991. Operation Granby saw nearly 60 RAF GR1s deploy to air bases at Muharraq in Bahrain and Tabuk and Dhahran in Saudi Arabia. Several Tornado ADVs were deployed to provide air cover, the threat of their long range missiles being a significant deterrent to Iraqi pilots, who would deliberately avoid combat when approached.

Early on in the conflict, the GR1s targeted military airfields across Iraq, deploying a mixture of 450 kg (1,000 lb) unguided bombs in loft-bombing attacks and specialised JP233runway denial weapons. In an emergency deployment, the UK sent out a detachment of Blackburn Buccaneer aircraft equipped with the Pave Spikelaser designator, allowing Tornado GR1s to drop precision guided weapons. A further crash programme in support of the sudden military action saw multiple GR1s outfitted with the TIALD laser designation system; author Claus-Christian Szejnmann declared that the TIALD pod enabled the GR1 to "achieve probably the most accurate bombing in the RAF's history".

I've ordered some am decals, so hopefully they'll arrive soon.
Cheers fellas

[chief5437]

Hi guys

Decals arrived, two RAF options and a Saudi option. Needless to say, I'll be using the Sharks mouth one!



Cockpit installed, I'm going inflight with this, so I found a couple of pilots in the spares drawer. They both sacrificed their legs for this mission!



Got the fuselage together, the lower part was a bit warped, so I added a toothpick brace to straighten things up.



Main sub assemblies done. Horizontal stabs are a bit baggy, but I'll glue them in position later.



I ordered a 'correct' resin radome and new pitot tube. Opened the radome to find it comes with a new pitot and aoa probes included! Never mind, gives me an excuse to build another one, lol!

Here's the resin (black) and kit parts for comparison, not a great deal of difference to my eye! Might be more prominent once fitted?





And here we are ready for primer. A bit of filler needed in various places, hoping I've smoothed it out!



That's it for now, thanks for looking fellas

[Coen]

No flys on you chief. Another one fast on the way.
Very cool subject too. Such and awesome bird.

[gaz45]

Your flying. i built this kit when i got back into the hobby there were a fit issue when putting the cockpit section into the fuselage when i built this mate

[chief5437]

Damn, damn , damn! As usual, I've finished this build but neglected to take more pics so I'll put the result in the reveal section.