Dragon

1/144 Double Kit Tornado ECR - Italian Air Force. "Diavoli Rossi" & "Sharkmouth"

Kit Number: 4602

Reviewed by  Clare Wentzel, IPMS# 1096

MSRP: $10.95 Review kit courtesy of Dragon Models USA (www.dragonmodelsusa.com) The Panavia Tornado was an international cooperative design developed between England, Germany and Italy. The initial design first took to the air in the mid-70s as the MRCA - Multi-role Combat Aircraft. England had initiated a design to fulfill some of the roles of the cancelled TSR-2 and looked for other European partners to help work on the project. The resulting twin engine, two place variable sweep wing aircraft has proven to be exceptional. It operates well in both the low level all-weather interdiction/strike role and the air defense role. Main models are designated IDS and ADV according to the role. An additional configuration based on the IDS was the Tornado ECR, Electronic Combat and Reconnaissance. The RAF, the German Luftwaffe and Marineflieger and the Italian Aeronautica Militare Italiana use the Tornado in various variants. It has also been exported to Saudi Arabia for the Royal Saudi Air Force. The Kit This is a double kit from Dragon and provides markings for two ECR aircraft of the Italian Air Force. One is from the 102 group of the 6th Stormo and represents an airplane that was painted to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the "Diavoli Rossi" (Red Devils). The tail markings represent a World War II camouflage with a Red Devil peering out. The second aircraft is from the 50th Stormo and contains a nice Sharkmouth as well as a blue triple chevron marking on the tail. Note, the kit indicates that both models represent the Tornado ECR variant but internet references seem to indicate that the Diavoli Rossi aircraft is an IDS model. I am not sure of the external differences between the two but I suspect that I should have removed the gun panel from the nose of the Sharkmouth. Assembly I was not happy with the directions. They simply consisted of two exploded view drawings plus the obligatory painting schemes. I started with the cockpit. In this scale, very little detail can be seen and very little is provided. The cockpit tub contains two pilots, which eliminate any chance of providing some added details. Although nothing was called for, I added some weight to the nose. Next came the fuselage upper and lower halves which sandwich the main wings that interlock to provide equal wing sweep. I have to admit that I missed the main landing gear wheel well panels, parts B11 and B12, when I assembled the fuselage and wings. I blame the hard-to-read exploded directions rather then any fault of mine <G>. I ended up feeding the panels in through the wheel opening and trying to glue them into the proper place. I got them close to their proper locations but they were not perfect. Assembly was finished with the horizontal and vertical stabilizers, crude representations of the landing gear and a few extra items. I found the accuracy of the kit moldings to be poorer then expected. The front fuselage halves were different widths at the rear of the canopy and the wings were very loose in their mountings. I ended up adding some glue to the wings and the wing to fuselage pivots in order to fix the wing sweep and to set the amount of anhedral. Some filling was required at the fin to fuselage joint as well as at the front fuselage to rear fuselage joint. In addition, the connections of the kit parts to the sprues were more representative of a cottage industry product rather than a major manufacturer. Color and Markings The aircraft are painted in two light colors of gray. Model Master and Mr. Color references are given although the lighter gray Model Master reference was not correct. As mentioned at the start, the kit decals from Cartograf provide markings for two aircraft of the Italian Air Force. The decal for the tail markings of the Red Devil airplane went on very well. It fit correctly and nestled into place with a little setting solution. The tail markings for the Sharkmouth airplane, on the other hand, proved impossible to use. Very little transparent carrier film was provided for the triple chevron. As a result, when I tried to remove the decal from the backing material, it insisted in first turning into a straight line and then it crumpled into a ball. After screwing up the first decal, I was especially careful with the second decal - same result. I ended up using a blue pencil to make the markings. Following painting and decal application, a light wash was applied to bring out some of the panel lines and to "dirty" up the Tornadoes a little bit. This brought out the beautiful, fine surface detail on the models. It was all engraved and was very subtle. Conclusions I had mixed opinions on this kit. On the plus side, it offers an inexpensive, easy to assemble kit with excellent decals. On the minus side, the kit seems to be a little cruder then I would have expected. I did not put in a lot of extra effort but it would be difficult to make a contest winner out of these kits. However, since the majority of modelers don't normally enter contests, this kit makes up into an accurate model of this important airplane. Recommended for modelers who want to easily add a 1/44 scale Tornado to their collections. A big thank you to Dragon USA for providing the kit to the IPMS Review Corps. References Panavia Tornado in Action. In action aircraft book number 111 from Squadron Signal World Air Power Journal - Volume 3, Fall 1990. The Tornado is the featured airplane in this issue.

Information, images, and all other items placed electronically on this site are the intellectual property of IPMS/USA ®.