A Brace of Eagles: TSR2 GR3 and GR4

[MerlinJones]

(Admins/Mods: Please feel free to delete this thread if I'm repeating myself. I would've sworn I'd posted these in here, but I was unable to find them. As I wanted the images for reference for a commission work, I've dug out a separate hard drive and posted/re-posted).

My first is a BAC Eagle GR3.
I used the Pit Road 1/144 and just added a couple of aerials, a 'seeker' and some ecm stuff. Decals from an Xtradecal set for the Tornado.

Pit Road 1/144 BAC Eagle GR3, 617 Squadron, RAF, Battle of Britain 50th Anniversary, 1990

[MerlinJones]

Big Bird are one of the many small kit companies, dealing in pre-painted gashopon aircraft. I believe that they are actually made by Doyusha, who made those rather nice pre-painted 1/144 F-15's and F-4J's, sold by Airfix, not too long ago.

In a nutshell, there are vending machines in Japan, selling candy, with a free plastic toy attached. The toys became more important than the candy and increased in quality by huge degrees. Whilst many subjects and genre exist, the favourite seems to be aircraft and 1/144 is the chosen scale. For the likes of me, this is wonderful.

Anyhow, these 'toys' became collectable and, to encourage the sale of them, you bought them blind, not knowing what was in the box. Occasionally, there would be a Special, an item considered to be extremely collectable and many boxes would be bought, in an attempt to add this Special to a collection.

Today, people tend to buy whole cartons of the things, perhaps containing 12 boxes, knowing that at least one Special will be included.
Surplus models end up on eBay and some dealers take all of the guesswork, (and risk), out of buying the individual boxes and can sell you what exact subject you want.

Initially, prices were silly-high, especially for Specials, but now they seemed to have settled down and there are bargains to be had, if you're quick enough. P&P from Japan used to be a major barrier to buying, but there are now a few UK-based sellers.

And so it came to pass that I acquired, long before Pit Road released theirs, a brace of 1/144 BAC TSR2's...

[MerlinJones]

[MerlinJones]

From this, I got myself a perfectly nice and normal, little BAC TSR2;





Not needing two of the white ones, I decided to indulge.

As with the first kit, it was made up from it's componant parts;



NOTE I removed that central plug, to improve the wing-fuselage fit.



As this model was to get a completely new paint job, I could go to town on sanding and filling with supeglue gel;

[MerlinJones]

From the original TSR2 entering service, it became the BAC Eagle and, over the next decade or two, evolved to become the BAe Eagle GR4.
Bearing in mind that the original aircraft was genuinely ahead of its time and was already future-proofed, none of what you are about to see is completely above and beyond possibility, or even probability!

For starters, new engines meant new intakes, so my plasticard bank had some withdrawals...





NOTE my removal of the prototypes camera blisters.



Of course, a rectangular intake and a rounded body do not, necessarily, sit well together. More plasticard was used;



And a lot of sanding;

[MerlinJones]

Looking at how Jaguars and Tornados have developed, I thought a bar antennae on the fin would be apt;





...And a (plastic tube) refuelling probe was a must;



Underneath, I would expect to see chaff dispensers and possibly an ecm housing;



At the front, we'd have a (ex-Tomcat) rangefinder-type thingy and, of course, at least one (plastic tube and rod) gun...Even the new Typhoon II has a gun.

[MerlinJones]

One benefit of indulging in 1/144 scale is that I've accumulated some 1/144 ordnance;



My first grey coat acted as a primer and showed me areas to improve upon;



Xtradecal do an excellent sheet for 1/144 Tonkas and this supplied me with the necessary decals.

Oh happy day.

[MerlinJones]

Big Bird 1/144 BAe Eagle GR4, 617 Squadron, RAF, 2013

[PR19_Kit]

Magic, I like the GR4 upgrade ideas, and feel they'd have happened in the RW eventually too. 

[zenrat]

 

[NARSES2]

I do like the GR 4 

[The Rat]

Crackerjack! 

[DogfighterZen]

 

[thundereagle1997]

Love the interceptor variant

[Devilfish]

You can't knock a TSR2 Whif.....