"Tiger Meet" – Håkan Ekberg Music, tarot

23 February, 2022

Tornado ECR 1/32 Update 6

I tried to mask the inside of the canopy and front glass, but gave up and decided to only mask the outside.

To be ready for putting the canopy in place, I had to sort a few other things. First I put decals on the ejection seats.

Then I glued the sight/HUD display.

I gave the seats a wash and then both seats and interior got a light dry brush with grey primer.
I forgot to take a pic of that before I glued the canopy parts in place.

Then I painted the frames with grey primer.

I decided to go with the open fuel probe.

These three holes on the bottom confused me a bit as the instructions told nothing about them. I realized that they are for a mid pylon that isn’t used on the ECR model.

I found a rod that was close, drilled some and glued in place.

After it had dried, I cut them even, sanded a bit and then filled with some putty.

I’ll sand that down, and then it’s soon getting ready for paint. I just need to cover the inside of the intakes, air brakes and the wheel bays.
I think it’s ok to add all small antennas and other stuff later.

12 February, 202223 February, 2022

Tornado ECR 1/32 update 5

The tail fin was glued in place!

All in all parts seems to fit quite well, and the fin only needed a little putty and sanding.

While handling the plane I accidently knocked off one of the stabilizors. So now it was time to sort this problem somehow. My options as I see it was either to glued them in a fixed position or find something better than the current rod system.

My idea was to find a tube and a rod that fit snuggly into each other, and by chance I had saved a few lollipop sticks that is hollow, and then I noticed that my ordinary wooden tooth pics fit very well.
After removing the kit rod, I could put the lollipop stick in place and glue it, and I also drilled the stabs and glued tooth pics instead of the old mechanism.

I also did the same thing with the broken pylon.

Stabilizers in place.

I’ve also painted some of the load out with black primer.

By the looks of it they need some more attention to look good, and then some more primer.

Next will be sorting the canopy so I can start priming and painting the plane.

20 January, 2022

Tornado ECR part 2

The front wheel bay was glued to the bottom of the cockpit tub and then the whole thing was glued in place into the front fuselage halves that was glued together. Everything but the seats was glued in place.

The intake fans got a black oil wash.

The wings was connected, aligning the cogs.

Putty was applied to the fuselage seams.

Stabilizers was connected and put in place in the main body.

Then it was time to do the same with the wings, which took a bit of adjustment to fit in place.

Then the upper fuselage half was glued in place.

It wasm’t entirely easy to get the seams even, and they’ll need some work with putty and sanding to look right.

The exhaust parts was painted black.

The front fuselage needed some more putty as well as some parts for the intakes and air brakes.

Fuselage and some parts puttied — Fueslage and some parts puttied

The sander starter set I ordered arrived yesterday.

Maybe no bearing on this build more than that I started using some of them. I really liked the skinny ones as they made it easier to sand areas where the larger ones wouldn’t fit.

Some of the exhaust parts got a cote of steel and here’s a pic of the parts I’m working with at the moment, that needs to be done before I can progress further with the build.

Some putty was added to the fuselage seams.

I guess it’ll need more than that to look good. Working with the seams is a bit hard as the stabilizers and wings are in the way. I just hope I can avoid breaking anything!

17 January, 2022

Tornado ECR Tiger Meet – Revell 1/32

I started building this kit for a tiger meet and special markings group build on Facebook.

I guess the big challenge with this one will be the painting and tiger meet decals. I’ve never done that before, and certainly not on a big model like this.

I started by assembling some of the cockpit parts.

Like all good tv-chefs I have already prepared and done the entire cockpit! 🙂

That’s actually for my stalled RAF Tornady, which I might pick-up while I’m at it.

Next step was to paint some dark grey.

The idea was to create some kind of pre-shade. Then everything was painted in a light grey.

I don’t think I managed to make the pre-shade show very much.

While getting the front fuselage halves from their sprue, I realized that there was two more instrument panels, and after checking I noticed I’d taken the wrong set.

There are minor differences, and luckily I managed to sort that in time. Now they only needed some paint.

After painting light grey, some details was picked out in black and the seats was painted with a darker grey on the side frames, then masked and painted in a different grey.

The cover between the front and rear seat was painted, and the seats masked and painted green.

With the tape removed it looked like this!

The instrument panels got some decals.

For some reason some of the decals wouldn’t fit with the dials on the plastic, so I had to cut them apart, and some decals seemed to be better fit with the panels I shouldn’t use. I opted them out.

After painting some more details and adding a clear cote, I did a black oil wash on the tub.

The radar nose parts was painted black.

Then I turned my attention to the wings and movable pylons.

Maybe due to the movability the fit isn’t optimal.

The instructions calls for 55g of weight in the nose. Here measured in a lid.

Some hours later the excess wash was wiped off.

Some more weathering done and the panels got a clear cote

I decided to use the pylons as they are without trying to create something to make them move along with the wings.

Pylons fastened with clips on the inside

The panels got the same wash treatment and the body section with intake fans was painted.

Panel wash and intake painted — Panel wash and intake fans painted

The radar got some details painted in aluminium and was then assembled.

The wash on the panels was wiped off.

Then some dry brushing with white was done.

The seats got details painted by hand.

I need to touch up somewhat and add a few more details to the seats and also some decals.

Next will be building the cockpit and inserting that and wheel well into the front fuselage. I’ll also start assembling the main body and wings.