Hobbyboss 1/48th Tornado

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Hi all, right with a bit of time on my hands, I've started work! My aim is to offer my experiences as I progress, which will hopefully be of use to others, and stop you tumbling into any pitfalls that I am bound to!!

I've put this in Critique Corner as I feel this build should be open to all comments etc. So don't hold back:)

Overall the detail on the model seems very good, and fit so far is, while not superb, better than average for a model that is of a modular nature ( more later on this)

First up - those tailplanes. Well a bit of sanding has improved the look immensely, as you can see from this comparative shot.

I'll need to rescribe panel lines and to sharpen up the trailing edge rear tip, but overall you can expect this to be an easy fix.

The main fuselage: This is supplied in top and bottom halves with inserts for UC and airbrake bays. The rearmost section which contains the afterbuners and thrust reversers is separate. HB would have you build this as a complete assembly and add it very late on in the build. My advice here is DONT!! If you glue the rear sections to their appropriate top and bottom fuselage halves first, the fit is very good. the join is on a panel line, so if you are careful theres no seam to clean up either.

By doing this you can also add the airbrake bays which as their rear wall attaches to this separate section, will also strengthen the join. Fit of these bays is good, as is the fit of the main UC bays too. The fit is postive and I clicked them into place then flooded Plastic Weld around them, pushed down on them - and hey presto, good neat installations.

I've also added the wing gloves to the respective top and bottom halves too. Again fit is good.

With the bays installed the fuselage halves become pretty rigid, however as you can see in this pic:

I've added a sprue stiffener across the upper rear fuselage. This stops this section flexing in, and looks like it will ensure the tongue and groove join on the fuselage edge wont flex too much when its cleaned up.

Here's a shot of the fuselage dry fitted, with the mighty fin added too. The join in the pic looks bad, but in truth it isnt. Some hot liquid cement will produce a good clean seem here that will clean up easily ( I hope!)

Right that's it for now. Any questions just ask, and if you want to see pics of various bits - just shout too.

Cheers

Jonners

Edited March 4, 2010 by Jon Kunac-Tabinor

[sartois66]

Great work there Jon. I'm at about the same stage as you, found the same good fit. Spending a bit of time in the cockpit at the mo, cuz I want to put some figs. in there for a landing dio I'm going to put it in. Are you going to use the kit seats? Keep up the good work.

Cheers

Kirk

[Mike]

Good work so far Jonners... now crack on. There are an awful lot of Tonka lovers that are hanging on your every word

[spike7451]

Jon,beforre you close up the rear,drill out & box in the APU exhaust.

Merv

[Stephen]

Kudos to you for taking the plunge with the kit.

Stephen

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Hi again - cheers for the tip on the APU exhaust Merv - got that cut out and boxed in.

Now - can any one tell me what the colour of the intakes should be, or, and if there's a demarcation line between whatever it may be, and the outer camo grey colour?

cheers

Jonners

[AnonymousER99]

Jon

Your build determines whether or not I buy this kit so..............

No PRESSURE!!

[atdb27]

Nice start.

How could they get the stab shape so wrong!

Adrian

[daz greenwood]

Nice Tonka!

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Yes how indeed could they get the tailplane shape so wrong??

I'm currently trying to work out a method I can tell you lot about that will enable the thrust reversers to be fitted in their closed configuration.

So far it ain't pretty!! I think it will all fit but be prepared for some sanding, some swearing, some more sanding, then a lot more swearing

More news & pictures as I figure it out.

Jonners

[spike7451]

Hi again - cheers for the tip on the APU exhaust Merv - got that cut out and boxed in.

Now - can any one tell me what the colour of the intakes should be, or, and if there's a demarcation line between whatever it may be, and the outer camo grey colour?

cheers

Jonners

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...20&start=20

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...20&start=20

Cheers mate!! Oh gawd thats goona be a lot of work!! I think covers may be called for!!

On the plus side I think I have cracked the thrust reverser fit. Just need to double check a few things and with luck it should work!

Jonners

[Mentalguru]

Come on Jon- stop coming on here yakking and get your finger out and finish the bloody thing

[Skyhawk174]

Wow, great work so far. I was excited about this release until I started to see initial reviews. I have several Italeri kits still in the stash so it is not like I am Tornadoless. After suffering through half of the ESCI Tornado (oh the horror!!!) I think this kit will be a joy. I passed on the Airfix kits.

For some reason I am really looking to see if they will eventually do an F.3, now there would be joy in my modelling world provided of course they take some of this info and "correct" the errors.

Cheers

Chris

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Right - the thrust reversers. HB has designed them to be displayed open, and provides PE arms for such. However if you want them in the closed position ( whihc is highly likely as its the most commonly seen) you are going to need to do a bit of work

My first idea was to cement the top and bottom reverser to each engine nozzle ( the extreme aft reheat nozzle is a separate part, and not shown in the following pics). The reversers actually fit well to this, but when you try and fit this complete unit, it doesnt want to know, at all. What eventually dawned on me is that the reversers are moulded with lips on each external edge that foul up a closed fit, plus the inner edges of each are too thick, so I pulled everything apart, and went for "go 2":

With a bit of judiscious sanding and a bit of bending you can get the reversers to fit but they need to fit onto the fuselage first rather than the jet pipes:

The jet pipe can then just slide in between them. Notice in the top pic that the fairings that blend the top reversers into the base of the fin need a lot of thinning - heres a pic of the inner edges to show what I mean:

The whole area now needs a clean up to get rid of the glue seams from my first attempt plus some general finessing to thin edges etc etc, but it will work.

While I invented new anglo saxon words doing all this, I also made up a seat. Not bad but, if I had some resin ones it would be a no brainer as to whether they were replaced or not. Still I'll add some lead foil straps and belts etc, and they should look OK under a closed canopy

And fitted, filled and sanded the infills for the inner air intake lips - goodish fit, but filler is required if you are going to show the air intakes ( rather than drape a cover over them to hide the criminal lack of intake ducting).

Personally I think HB would have been better supplying some intake ducting rather than waste time with the PE and tooling for the open reversers. But what do I know!

More today as construction progresses

Jonners

[AnonymousAA72]

Good job Jonners.....keep it up. Nice fix on the buckets!!

[Mentalguru]

You are making me SO JEALOUS! grrr.

Do the wings click in and out after the top/bottom fuselage is assembled?

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

You are making me SO JEALOUS! grrr.

Do the wings click in and out after the top/bottom fuselage is assembled?

hello MG - no they are designed to be trapped on pinions before the top and bottom halves are joined. However its a simple mod to cut a notch into them so they can be slipped in afterwards ( doing it at the moment in fact)

cheers Jonners

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Right - so with an afternoon at hand - more work. First up the wings:

its a simple job to cut a slot so they well fit in at a later date. PS the wing halves are bereft of any joining pins, other than a firm location over the pivot point - so work slowly when joing the wing halves as its easy to get them out of alignment, and for an RAF bird remember to open up the outer pylon holes too.

Heres a taped together shot showing the overall shape of things.

And a shot of the exhausts now I've cleaned up stuff and added the reheat section too.

Now - the nose shape. Something has gone wrong here with HBs research, and the shape of the lower nose just isnt right. Basically its all too svelte and smooth and not quite that pinched in jowly front end. I thought long and had about this because it involves taking a razor saw to nearly 50 quids work of model.

But when did that ever stop me

So following panels lines on the nose undersurface I made some cuts and added some shims of plastic card to push out the cross section then pull it back in towards the radome. you also need to get hold of the plastic around the cannon trough area once the cuts are made and give them a a bit of a bend to try and get that waisted in look.

Since these pics were taken I've done the other fuselage half too, and sanded and filled - so hopefully you see some more pics later when the filler is sanded. In all honesty this hasnt been as tricky as I thought it would be, but whether it improves the look only time will tell.

I've also given the too square profile of the fuselage top corner along the front part of the windscreen and canopy a vigorous sanding to round it out more. Again more pics to follow.

Hope these are proving useful.

Jonners

[Troffa]

Great work Jon, very brave with the surgery!

[spike7451]

Right - so with an afternoon at hand - more work.

Since these pics were taken I've started to drink heavily....

Hope these are proving useful.

Jonners

Good work J!

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Good work J!

Cheers Merv - well actually I have cracked a bottle of wine open. Your help has been invaluable too mate.

regards

Jonners

[Mentalguru]

"Into the Valley of plastic Death rode the Brave Six Hundred- etc......"

Madman

Edited December 30, 2009 by Mentalguru

[Calum]

Nice to see this one being built. Good luck Jonners

[Av8fan]

Wow!

I am still waiting for the F3.

In the meantime, this is great stuff.