1/72 Hasegawa Tornado GR.4

Gallery Article by Tom Berres on Feb 17 2012

 

 

I built this GR.4 together with an F.3. This is the venerable Hasegawa kit, a GR.1 that was languishing with dozens of other unbuilt kits in my closet.  To convert it to the GR.4, I used an Airwaves set.  I also used Eduard PE throughout (actually intended for an F.3).  Aires provided fantastic wheel well bays and a cockpit set.  I also used Pavla's vacuform canopy replacement.  For the canopy detonating cord, I used fine copper wire. 

 

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Like my F.3, I built up the intakes with 0.010" styrene, blending from the box shape to circular with Milliput.  The compressors came from my spares (Academy F-15s).  I decided for the GR.4 that I wanted the flaps and slats down.  Fortunately, Airwaves provide a fantastic resin set of replacement wings.  Careful fitting and sanding allowed the wheel wells, intakes, and wings to coexist in the cramped fuselage.

Another focus area was the weapons and stores.  I reworked the under-wing launchers to use BOZ launcher dispensers from a Hasegawa weapons set intended for the F-14. The BOZ chaff/flare dispensers and jammers came from old Heller and Airfix NATO weapons sets.  I modified the BOZ with the correct openings based on internet reference photos.  Sidewinders came from Hasegawa's weapons set.  For the Storm Shadows, I used Heritage Aviation resin sets with decals taken from the Airfix 1/72 GR.4.  The 'Hindenburg' tanks were stolen from the Hasegawa F.3.  I painted the kit with Tamiya acrylics and decaled with Model Alliance markings.

Tom Berres

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Photos and text © by Tom Berres