Battlefront brings the Tornado Flight (TGBX13) to support Battlefront's Team Yankee West German Forces. This model kit is all resin (the first one I can think of truth be told) and very reminiscent of their older aircraft kits.
A solid resin airframe...a resin nose cap...and resin weapons module. The resin body had a slight warp of the tail, but nothing a little hot water/steam bath couldn't straighten out.
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| Prepare the hot water!!!! |
The nose cone needed a little smoothing on the edges, but super easy to clean up. The bomblet dispenser needed a little cleanup to remove flash around some of the holes...again
pretty easy.
Build: Super easy build. Glue the nose cone on and then bomblet dispenser.When putting the bomblet dispenser on, align it so the tapered and shorter end points to the nose. Also the magnet needs to go into the BOTTOM of the bomblet dispenser don't forget! That's all there is to it.
Paint Plan:
I followed the artwork on the box and the guide for the PAH in Leopard on page 46. The only differences were a second camouflage color and the color of the bomblet dispenser.
- The base coat was the now standard West German NATO Green. For these, I started with Vallejo Surface Primer Black and then a base layer of Vallejo Model Air 71.093 Field Green. I mentioned in the Gepard article (LINK) that VMA 71.093 Field Green isn't in the Vallejo catalog anymore and that Vallejo had changed their numbering and VMA 71.93 was now NATO Green and isn't a match for the West German Green. Luckily, VMA 71.022 Camouflage Green is a good match. So you will see a mix in the future of me using VMA 71.093 Field Green or 71.022 Camo Green..
So you will see a mix in the future of me using Field Green or Camo Green.
- Once you have the green base laid down, it's time for camouflage. Again look at the templates Battlefront has for these. The only bit of camo on these birds is the black stripes. The guide calls for Worn Rubber. I am in love with the Vallejo's Model Air colors and used a mix of Vallejo Game Air 70.862 Black and Vallejo Model Air 71.048 at a 2:1 ratio for the black stripe/blobs.
- The second color I had to guess at. It is a lighter color, similar to Vallejo Model Color 70.886 Green Grey; but not quite. I arrived at a mix of VMC 70.897 Bronze Green lightened with VMC 70.951 White until I hit the right shade for my mix.
- The bomblet dispenser is a base of Vallejo Model Color 70.872 Chocolate Brown and a drybrush of Vallejo Model 70.988 Khaki.
- Next I did a little clean up to hide any of the little "splatter" marks that creep in when you airbrush and to add a little depth to the camo lines. I used the same colors I used for the base, but in a thinned mixture of maybe 2:1 water to paint if it isn't an airbrush prethinned mix and for those I just used them straight from the bottle. The thinner nature helps you keep the feathered airbrush edges...feathered.
- Next was a drybrush of Dry Dust. I used the old standby of Vallejo Model Color 70.819 Iraqi Sand. You aren't trying to get the dirty/dusty look at this step. You lightly (and I stress lightly) drybrush the Dry Dust/Iraqi Sand. What this does is tone down the brighter/bolder tone of the NATO Green.
- Glass effect was done by starting with a 70.950 Black base then adding 70.816 Luftwaffe Uniform as a 1st layer on top of that. Last is to add some reflection lines and a jeweling effect with 70.943 Grey Blue by adding a little curve on the outer bottom of the light and then a little dot in the opposite corner and little "scratches" on the curved portions of the glass...especially on the bigger pieces.
- The model is gloss coated; decals applied; Ordnance Shade (or other black wash) is applied and then model then hit with a Flat Matte or Anti Shine. Last step is to add a little gloss varnish to the glass areas to wrap it all up.
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| After I took the pictures I realized I didn't paint the engine flames...started with VGC 72.011 Gory Red, with a 50/50 mix Gory Red and VGC 72.008 Orange Fire, then pure Orange Fire in ever smaller circles from the center with a final touch of VGC 72.007 Gold Yellow in the center |
Now let the terrible wrath of the Tornado tear troops totally to tatters!!!!!!!!
I'm terrible :-)
Jeff Flint "SonBae" has been a long time contributor to WWPD and admin on the forums. A long time gamer and painter and recently a new studio painter at Mastermind, Model and Miniatures in Huntsville, Alabama. Just trying to keep the cats herded in WWPD-South.
