Panavia Tornado ADV/F.3 - UK - 1990
ZE206 - Gulf War

My model represents the Tornado F3 (F3T actually) ZE206/DC as used in the opening phase of the Gulf War (1990).

The Tornado ADV (F3) is an aircraft that was preceded by its negative reputation more than it actually deserved. Designed as a dedicated interceptor against Soviet bombers over the northern Atlantic, the F3 served for the UK as a transition or compromise until Eurofighter became available, instead of buying any F16 from the US. The decision of designing the new interceptor was based on the Tornado Gr.1, from which it was attempted to use/borrow as many parts and structures as possible.

The first variant was the F2, which was rather a catastrophy. Weak engines and an almost useless radar. Athough improved as the F3, the negative reputation has accompanied the improved F3 during its entire service since its introduction in 1985 until its retirement in 2012.

By the time the Irak invaded Kuwait in 1990 and the Tornados F3s were called for air defence of the allied missions, the F3s were lacking the required performance for such missions. Upgrades and changes which were long due and always postponed had to be hastly implemented in the very last minute before the deployment in their new home in Saudi Arabia. Improved performance of the RB199 engines, better avionics, chaff dispencers (underside) and many other needed changes increased the morale and confidence in the mission.
Whoever is interested in the topic, I HIGHLY recommend you reading this short interview with a previous F3 pilot involved in the actions of back then, it really captures the atmosphere very well:globalaviationresour..war20thtornadof3.php

The Tornado F3 has subsequently never been involved in any actual dogfight and has never destroyed any enemy aicraft.

The KIT:
The kit is the old Revell/ESCI, which I understood from forums should have been the best one. The Hasegawa might have had some ugly shape issues, but I have no idea if that is true. To me the Revell F3 was rather useless, since panel lines are very wide and annoying and many of them were actually wrong. The cockpit is a complete joke with random parts which have nothing to do with the real aircraft. In the end it's an ancient kit, so expectations should not be high. I decided to do a kit bashing using the far better Revell IDS.

The F3 should have had an elongated fuselage and elongated air brakes in the rear area, but I have not found on the internet any drawings actually showing this (since they were probably all wrong/inaccurate). I had difficulties understanding where exactly the F3 had added structures in the fuselage, so I just proceeded adjusting the IDS/Gr.1 based on photographs. The Revell F3 kit has the exact same length of the aerodynamic brakes (wrong) as the Revell IDS, therefore I did nothing wrong in replacing most of the fuselage of the F3 with the IDS/Gr.1.