Tornado ECR "Lego Bomber" In-Progress

Sprues and extras all laid out. This is a big kit!  

Seats are painted. Need some ideas on how to paint the panels and switches, they are very flat and need some 'pop'. 

I have not been working much on this kit because I didn't want to screw up the instrument panels. Turns out there are some decent decals included that make short work of the whole thing. Not perfect by any means but an adequate level of detail. Lesson learned be sure to read the instructions! 

The nose section is assembled, added about 5oz of wheel weights hope it's enough I'm just guessing at this point. Alarmingly I realized the seats may be too tall to fit under the canopy! I foolishly forgot to compare the resin parts to the plastic kit parts before I glued them in. I should be able to remove them if needed but will not be fun.

Also the pylons were joined and clipped into the bottom wing half. They are able to rotate on the finished model to match the wing sweep. I'm guessing these will break off at some point but that's fine I'll just glue them in place. Won't be moving them after the model is finished anyway.

 

Wings and horizontal tail fins are assembled. I also built one of the kit ejection seats and found out that the resin seats definitely need to be trimmed shorter. Luckily the seats came out easily with a rocking motion. Once put back in place no one will be able to tell they had to be removed.

Still need to finish profiling the front nose section. Lots of putty.  

I like to download a 3D model of the subject, usually can find one for free. Helps a lot with being able to rotate the model around and see all angles. I'll use this to verify the nosecone profile. Blender is an amazing open source program. I could use this model to make corrected 3D printed parts if needed. 

First quick mock-up just to get a feel for the whole thing. It's Big!
Also I already broke one of the pylons off lol.  

Resin exhaust has been painted. Not super great but ok for now. Been a long break on this project hope to get it done at some point.  

Spent way too much time on the front getting the filler blended. It's not perfect but I'm calling it good enough for now. Main body with wings have been assembled, a few touch ups then the front will be attached along with the inlets.  

Major components assembled. Vertical tail is just dry fit for now.  

Built stand for holding airframe while painting. Started work on missiles and other attachments. Spilled extra thin on one of the side winders whoops, might display the one left on the side. Landing gear is assembled but I will wait to glue it in until after body paint is finished.