Metallic areas
I then moved onto masking off all the metallic areas, the exhaust cans. A panel on either side of the tail and the panel around the Mauser cannon at the front. For these I decided I was going to try out AK Interactive’s True Metal wax. Literally just brush on, let dry and wipe back and polish. It wasn’t too bad on the smaller panels but I didn’t like the finish on the larger surfaces of the exhaust cans. The exhaust cans are weathered with thinned down gun metal and thinned Tamiya Smoke.
As I am one for a dirty bird I decided to add the distinctive exhaust staining on the tail that is found on all Tornado variants, which blows forward when the engine reverse cups are engaged. This was achieved by airbrushing an extremely thinned down Vallejo Air Nato Black and touching up areas with Tamiya’s Weathering Pastels Soot and Oil Stain.
I then masked the spine, exhaust cans and tail off and sprayed Vallejo Matte varnish over the entire model to matte back the finish of the grey paint. I then unmasked the model and added all the final finishing pieces aerials, lights and I used Master Models Metal Pitot Tube and angle of attack probes which added a really nice touch.
Final steps
The final steps of finishing the aircraft were to do the stores and pylons that it would carry, x2 Hindenberg fuel tanks, x2 Sidewinders and x4 Skyflash Missiles. All the missiles I used were Flightpaths Resin versions. The Skyflash missiles I used Sparrow missiles as they are a variant based on this missile.
I then sprayed the re-heat onto the acrylic rods using Tamiya Clear Orange and Yellow and added a drop or two of white for the rings in the flame. I then made my base for it to all sit on.
