1:32 PANAVIA Tornado GR.1 - Undercarriage (for Italeri Kits)

The legs of a heavy fighter

The Tornado was designed from the start as a machine that is to take off from short and damaged runways and carry tons of bombs under its wing. Its undercarriage corresponds to that: massive legs with a long travel, high-pressure tires and bays full of hydraulic lines. The British GR.1 version flew with all of that at low altitudes under the radar horizon, that is in a regime where the airframe is subject to constant vibration. The undercarriage spaces therefore belong to the most intricately shaped places of the whole aircraft.

What etched parts add

Injected plastic cannot pull out the thin rims, ribbing and cable clips that are in the bays of the real machine. Photo-etched parts from thin brass sheet manage them, because after conversion their thickness corresponds to only a few millimeters of reality. The set handles the fillings of the bays, the doors, small panels and accessories directly on the struts of the main legs and the nose leg.

Working the material

The parts are nipped from the fret with sharp nippers or separated with a scalpel over a mat, and the bends are made in a bender or between two blades. Before gluing, degrease the brass and roughen it lightly so that the base holds. Cyanoacrylate glue in gel form has proved its worth, as it gives time to position a part.

The package is intended as an accessory to the Italeri kit in 1:32 scale. The model, the paints and the glue are not in it.

The work pays off: open bays with the inside drawn out are the first thing every viewer notices at a large scale, because a model is looked at from below as well.