Hi all,
I'm new to aircraft modelling (apart from slapping kits together as a boy), but I'm not new to modelling. My background is wargaming and recently armour.

I've been tempted to try an aircraft by a colleague at work and thought a suitable subject might be a GR1 Tornado as my brother was a technician on them at the Tri-National Tornado Training Institute and it might make a nice gift. The difficulty I'm having is that because of his intimate knowledge of the subject I want to do a really good job, accurate with detail. I want to make him ooh and ahh when he sees the little touches that will remind him of his time in the RAF.

As a newcomer, I'm not familiar with the kit combinations which is what I'm asking for help with. I'm thinking 1/48, so what are my possible combinations to achieve my aim? Putting it together should be fun, but knowing what to buy... it's giving me a headache!

Thanks for any help in advance,

Jon

Putting an actual GR.Mk.1 together will be a bit tricky. Airfix's original kit was a 1 but it was fairly quickly adapted to a 1A and then a 1B. It's currently a GR.Mk.4/4A, I believe. Parts for earlier variants are likely to be on the sprues somewhere, but there's no guarantee that they're all there, and the instructions and decals will miss them.

The other main 1/48 kit is the Italeri one, which is reckoned to be better overall but actually makes up as either an IDS or an ECR, depending on the boxing. Whether it would make an accurate GR.Mk.1 is uncertain. Some people recommend buying one of each and mingling the parts...

You might want to check ARC or Modeling Madness for reviews of what's available - they're both pretty good - and then start lurking on eBay.

Hi Mate,If you really want to step up to the "ockey try to get hold of Revell`s original 1/32 scale version of the timorous beastie.They come up on E-Bay occaisonally but are about as close as you`re gonna get.
Yes, it has raised panel lines and a really basic cockpit but it`s still a beauty.
HTH