Finished: 1/144 Panavia Tornado IDS aircraft

Hi folks,

Another rush job for the large game I attended at the end of July. These two strike aircraft are Battlefront repackaged Revell kits - something that Battlefront moved to due to the cost, fragility and complexity of their older resin aircraft. 

The models came with Battlefront decals for the Luftwaffe, as currently the Dutch in Team Yankee have no organic air support. I do have a distant notion to get a couple of 1/144 F-16s for my collection in the future, but for now these jets will do. 

As a child of the 80's, these bits of kit were always iconic. The area I was born in was regularly buzzed by a variety of RAF and other NATO aircraft, and these things at that time were top of the line. Futuristic, with their swing wings, speed and payload they were perhaps my favourite aircraft of the period. I definitely felt old when these started being retired from service by the RAF. 

They did see the table at the gaming day - but not my table. So the above shot is a propaganda pic after the fact. When they did make an appearance, one was downed by soviet AAA, while the other was taken out by tank self defence AA fire... the fate of most newly painted aircraft models!

Kit wise, these were easy enough to build, though not of great quality. I decided to include the plastic missiles, as well as the BF resin cluster munitions dispenser. the model also comes with a BF resin solid cockpit. Dave helped me out by kindly airbrushing the camo, which I put a wash over and attempted to highlight. Decals were then added, and I decided not to weather these as they look cooler nice and fresh on aircraft. 

Air support wise, I've only a couple of German Helicopters to finish - which hopefully will be just as quick as these pair turned out to be.