[Serpiko]

box picture as found in the web


PROS:
- Three alternative versions
- Choice of optional loadouts and sensor pods
- Pylons can be built "movable"...

CONS:
- ...but this is difficult and makes them fragile
- Average detail
- Fitting problems with the fuselage


THE PLANE

Since the versatile Tornado entered service, its different versions have fulfilled a variety of tasks, from air defense (ADV) to ground attack (IDS), while being constantly upgraded with new avionics to keep up with the technological evolution of aerial warfare.
The ECR version is intended for specialized SAM suppression: taking advantage of Tornado's good performances in low-alt high-speed flying, it carries electronics to detect and locate enemy ground radars, and missiles (such as the AGM-88 HARM) to destroy them while staying out of reach.


THE KIT

There's plenty of 1/72 Tornado kits from several manufacturers around, many of which feature wonderful "Tiger Meet" liveries. But, unfortunately for me, most of them are in British and/or German markings only. I've been looking for an Italian Tornado kit and, despite some research, this one is the only I found! >
Just after opening the box, I felt slightly disappointed. Although panel lines are engraved, the rest looks like it was manufactured by older standards. The overall detail is just average; sprues have little flash, but many pieces feature a neat edge where the molds joined.
On the positive side, the kit offers a choice among three variants (either Italian, German or British) differing in paintscheme, equipment and loadout. The decals sheet appears to be good enough; it has a "common" section and dedicated decals for every version.




BUILDING

I'm going to describe the building of the Italian version I did. German and British versions build up pretty much the same, with minor differences in optional details such as antennas and small sensor pods under the nose.
You can immediately notice that the whole fuselage, from nose to exhausts, comes in two large pieces featuring the upper and lower sides. Cockpit, wings and tailplanes, once ready, will be enclosed between these two halves.

COCKPIT - Quite conventional. You get a floor, on which you have to fix the two seats (no difference between front and rear), the stick and four side instrument panels (these, instead, are not exchangeable). Then you add a front "cap" and a rear one that, fitting in dedicated slots inside the lower half of the fuselage, will keep the cockpit block firmly in position (note that, before fixing the cockpit, you must put below it the interior of the front gear bay).
The main gauges panels, instead, must be glued to the upper side of the fuselage. All panels look adequately detailed, while seats are pretty basic (the ejection handles you see in the pics are home made). Sadly, once the cockpit is finished and enclosed inside the nose section, some "empty" portions of floor and side walls remain visible. But, since it looks like the kit is intended to be built with the canopy closed (no bracets included, and instructions don't even consider the open canopy option), you don't need to concern too much about that.



WINGS - This part requires some care. As you see, the Tornado has got hardpoints under its wings too, and these hardpoints pivot to keep parallel with the yaw axis as the wings sweep back and forward. This kit actually allows you to build pivoting hardpoints, so that you're not forced to choose a definite wing position and be stuck with that. The concept is quite simple too, but you need to be careful, because there is margin for errors and, even if you do everything fine, the result will be quite fragile anyway.
How is this done? Well, the wings are composed by a "main" upper piece and a lower panel with a single hole for each pylon in it. In fact, pylons have a single large "pin" on them: you are supposed to put that pin through the hole in the lower panel, then "melt" its tip with a heathened tool. This way, the tip should flatten and enlarge, actually becoming a plastic rivet, thus preventing the pylon from "escaping" while keeping it free to rotate.
This does sound like a smart solution... and indeed it is, but you must be VERY careful with the melting job, because the ideal result sits in a very narrow gap between "not enough" and "too much - screwed up". That means, you need to flatten the tips enough to make them fit inside the narrow space between the upper and lower sides of wings; while at the same time making sure not to exceed, or the pin tip will melt together with the panel, ending up stuck. In that case, trying to force it will easily break the flattened plastic off the pin, leaving it too short to try again.
So, go easy with the melting! The good news is, even if you mess things up at the end of the job, nothing prevents you from just ripping the pylons away (whatever you do, they remain fragile) and either glue them fixed, or leave them missing at all!
Once both wings are completed, they must be linked at each other. Their synchronization system is simple but effective: a single "rod" (that will remain completely hidden inside the model) must be fixed at its opposites to dedicated holes in the wing roots, again with the melting technique (luckily, less accuracy is needed here). As you can test by placing the wings on the lower side of the fuselage, the wings should properly move together without any trouble.

TAIL - In a similar way, the two one-piece elevators are linked by a rod, which in this case forces them to pitch together. This time, you can simply use dear ol' glue. The huge rudder fin, instead, once its halves are joined, can be fixed onto the upper fuselage part (you'd better do that after the fuselage is complete).



CLOSING THE FUSELAGE - This is the other critical step, since the upper and lower halves of the fuselage appear to fail in matching each other's edges. Even if this appears to be due more to deformation than to bad molding, the result is the same. Anyway, you need to put the cockpit block, wings and elevators in position on the lower half, and then add the upper one.
Since a "gap" will eventually remain in the middle section (to leave room for the movement of wings), my advice is to try dry fitting then to start by glueing either the nose or the tail only; so you can focus on the fitting of that section. Then, once it has dried solid, you can focus on the opposite side.
You can now add fuselage racks, air intakes, engine exhausts and airbrakes (either open or closed). You can also choose between extended or retracted refueling probe; whatever the choice, some adjusting is likely to be needed in order to make pieces fit properly alongside the canopy.

GEAR - As you can see in the pics, there's not much about interiors inside gear bays. On the positive side, gear legs are decently detailed, each of them comes in a single piece (you only have to add wheels) and they all fit firmly inside their slots. Unlike front gear doors, rear ones have no pisitioning pins/slots.

LOADOUT - This depends on which version you're building. Provided options are: 2 droptanks, 2 Sidewinders, 2 HARM missiles, 3 "huge-missiles-I-don't-know-but-probably-sorta-HARM-like" , and 4 more pods that appear to be a pair of chaff/flare dispensers and two different ECMs.



DECALS

I have no compliance about the quality of decals. The Italian set may cause some nuisance, but that's just because some of its decals are long, thin and complex red lines, which require greater accuracy in handling and placing.


SELF-INFLICTED TROUBLES

- When almost fully built, the model accidentally fell off the table and hit the ground vertically straight on its nosetip. Incredibly, no damage reported (no pitot there yet)! Phew!
- After decaling, I realized I had forgotten to paint the black band on the root of rudder fin's leading edge. So, in a moment of real dumbness, I did it with plenty of tape masking: obviously, removing the tape ended up in ripping away part of the thin "red line" decals. A lot of swearing followed, and paintjob partially repaired.
- While just taking the pictures you see, I broke off one HARM, the left gear leg and right wing's inner pylon!



CONCLUSIONS

If you're looking for a 1/72 Tornado ECR, you should be able to get a decent one out of this kit. But I have to say that, during most of the work, I kept feeling some "less-than-expected" sensation.
OMG, had I seen no other Tornado kits, I'd probably feel happy enough wit this, but... I compared it with a Hasegawa kit I had tried to build in the '90s and never painted, and the Italeri one looked inferior both in detail finesse and fitting.
In the end, I think that this kit ranks in the "average" zone. Not a jewel, but nor either junk.

Yellow light!