Tornado ADV (F3) - Gulf War (1990-1991) - RAF
Comments
Maxim MalpartePure bravery. Thumb up. BTW, Hase is even worse. They used the GR rear panel unchanged.
Łukasz GlińskiVery nice build and extensive research 👍 Isn't it too tidy on the undersides? 😉
MariusThank you so much guys! This was somewhat a challenging build. I am happy it's finished, so the various mistakes are now rather secondary for me. I think the Tornado ADV/F.3 is a very special aircraft which I really wanted to have in my small Tornado collection. @Lukasz indeed it's too tidy on the underside 😄 I noticed that in the pictures too. Maybe I will fix it at some point in the future, why not. Weathering is fun.
Album info
My model represents the RAF Tornado ADV/F3 (F3T actually) ZE206/DC as used in the opening phase of the Gulf War (1990).
The Tornado ADV (F3) is an aircraft that was preceded by its negative reputation more than it actually deserved. Designed as a dedicated interceptor against Soviet bombers over the northern Atlantic, the F3 served for the UK as a transition or compromise until the Eurofighter became available, instead of buying any F16 from the US. The decision of designing the new interceptor was based on the Tornado Gr.1, from which it was attempted to use/borrow as many parts and structures as possible.
The first variant was the F2, which was rather a catastrophy, underpowered and with an almost useless radar, it generally underperformed as an interceptor. Athough improved as the F3, the negative reputation has accompanied the F3 during its entire service since its introduction in 1985 until its retirement in 2012.
By the time Irak invaded Kuwait in 1990 and the Tornados F3s were called for air defence of allied missions, the F3s were lacking the performance for such missions. Upgrades and changes which were long due and always postponed had to be hastly implemented in the very last minute just before the deployment in their new home in Saudi Arabia. Improved performance of the RB199 engines, better avionics, chaff dispencers (underside) and many other needed changes increased the morale and confidence in the mission.
Whoever is interested in the topic, I HIGHLY recommend you reading this short interview with a previous F3 pilot involved in the events back then, it really captures the atmosphere very well: globalaviationresour..war20thtornadof3.php
The Tornado F3 has subsequently never been involved in any actual dogfight and has never destroyed any enemy aicraft.
The KIT(s): The Tornado ADV/F3 is generally badly represented in 1:72. We have the Hasegawa and Revell/Esci as options, both bad.
The kit I used is the old Revell/ESCI ADV, which I understood from forums should have been the best one. To me it was rather useless, since panel lines are very wide and annoying and many of them were actually wrong. The cockpit is a complete joke with random parts which have nothing to do with the real aicraft. I decided to do a kit bashing using the far better Revell IDS.
When compared to the IDS/GR.1, the F3 should have had an elongated fuselage and elongated air brakes in the rear area, but I have not found on the internet any drawings actually showing this (since they were probably all wrong/inaccurate). I had difficulties understanding where exactly the F3 had added structures in the fuselage, so I just proceeded based on photographs. The Revell F3 kit has the exact same length of the aerodynamic brakes as the Revell IDS, therefore I did not make the initial kit even more wrong than it was from the very beginning.
