SPA Modeler

A small scale desert Tornado and a new line of 3d-printed cockpit decals.
June Leaflet

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The Small Diameter Bomb with rack is nice! I'm gonna need some of those.

I want the Tempest kit!!

I don't know what it says about us modellers that manufacturers keep re-releasing the very hackneyed 'Gulf War' Tornados - just so we can have some naughty nose art tee-hee-hee...

Desert pink was about the worst scheme the Tornado ever flew in, and the nose art was more than a bit naff and tacky, even by the standard of naff and tacky nose art - definitely overly influenced by the crap British tabloid press.

It took me blooming ages to find something acceptable when I built mine.

Yeah, nothing really for me, unless I get the MiG-21. I haven't the right color to make a Gulf War Tornado so I'll pass on that one.

Mark, Testors square bottle flat tan is almost a dead match for the color used by the RAF for the ‘91 Gulf War. I’m sure you have that in your paints.

Stuart wrote: I don't know what it says about us modellers that manufacturers keep re-releasing the very hackneyed 'Gulf War' Tornados - just so we can have some naughty nose art tee-hee-hee...

Desert pink was about the worst scheme the Tornado ever flew in, and the nose art was more than a bit naff and tacky, even by the standard of naff and tacky nose art - definitely overly influenced by the crap British tabloid press.

It took me blooming ages to find something acceptable when I built mine.

There's nothing wrong with those Tornados! I thought they were awesome and it was cool that the Brits had the more "colorful" nose art.

Stuart wrote: I don't know what it says about us modellers that manufacturers keep re-releasing the very hackneyed 'Gulf War' Tornados - just so we can have some naughty nose art tee-hee-hee...

Desert pink was about the worst scheme the Tornado ever flew in, and the nose art was more than a bit naff and tacky, even by the standard of naff and tacky nose art - definitely overly influenced by the crap British tabloid press.

All good points.... But.... it was the only time that theTornado went to war in the role it was designed for, low level penetration against an air defense system and airfields in the interdiction counter air role. Every time after the first few weeks of the 91 Gulf War, it went to war dropping bombs from medium altitude against degraded air defenses that could barely put up a fight. The overall desert pink was not as warlike looking as the wraparound Europe gray and green camo, but those planes went into the lion’s den and won the day... and night.

Stikpusher wrote:[
All good points.... But.... it was the only time that theTornado went to war in the role it was designed for, low level penetration against an air defense system and airfields in the interdiction counter air role.

In that role they're pretty unmatched until today. In the century of the multi-role fighter this kind of specialists is dying out.

Don't get me wrong guys, I had the greatest respect for the those crews during that war. We lost 6 Tornados - which, IIRC, was the highest loss rate of any of the coalition forces. I followed the war very closely when it was on, and those guys were my heroes - up until recently I still had all the newspaper clippings I kept from that period.

It was no great surprise that the first Tornado I build was a Gulf war one....



Okay, in this day and age of grey jets I can totally understand the appeal of a big pink jet with 'colourful' nose art, but like say a VF-84 Tomcat, I do feel it's a modelling subject it has been rather done to death, and whilst I kind of liked the nose art on the Jaguars and especially the Victor tankers, even in ' 91 I thought the Tornado nose art was naff.

The Tornado was in service with the RAF for forty years, and fought in every conflict we were involved in during that period (except for the Falklands), it'd be nice to see that represented a bit more often - and no scheme beat the Green/Grey anyway - having spent a while working on an RAF base in my yoof, I saw them on the flight line and they looked bloody awesome.

Cheers!