Panavia Tornado IDS - Deutsche Marine (MFG1)
Comments
Daniel KlinkVery authentic paintjob and fantastic overall result...
Like it very much 👍
Konrad -Awesome Toni! Love those Marine Tonis! Your background stories are also very interesting!
Piotr Sarniński-GóreckiVery nice ! Rare marine Tornado with interesting weapon - Like it 🙂
Mid FranconianUhmmm... may I say that I like this Marineflieger Tornado even more (than your previous EG1 ECR-Tornado)? Very nice! Do you have another Tornado in the pipe?
MariusThank you so much everbody for the nice words. I really didn't expect it.
I have to admit, the bicolor paintjob of the MFG1 is my favorite from all Tornados ever (second place is the RAF desert pink). It has this delicate retro touch but in an attractive way.
@Mid Franconian: ooooh, you don't want to know what Tornado mania engulped me when I discovered these Revell kits. I initially bought this kitschy Tiger Meet 2018 edition kit as a joke when I was with a friend out. Little did I imagine what was about to come. I have managed to build 9 of them in almost one year, but one was a gift and never got the chance to be properly photographed. All of them are rather older ventures when I just came back to the hobby after 10 years of break so they are far from perfect. I am not particularly or equally proud of all of them. A few of them need a bit of rework.
I will post them soon, so be ready to be Tornado-spammed. You can check my gallery, since I already posted the third one from the initial MFG2 (before the fusion with MFG1). From the remaining 8 Tornados I still at home, 6 are German and 2 are RAF. I am planning a further German one (or two) and a Saudi one with the nice desert camouflage in three colors.
Mid FranconianNa dann... hau´s naus Deine Tornados!
I have the Tornado kit as Black Panther edition here... and the same Modeldecal sheet like you used. But I do not know what to make of it... a MFG1 like yours, a TTTE Tornado in Norm 76 or a classic Norm 83 (or is it Norm 81?) with a MW1 taken from the older ESCI/Italeri kit... so many choices. But the Revell kit is still a nice one I must say. I built it once back in 1998... time flies...
Album info
The first German Navy unit to receive the new Tornado IDS was the Marinefliegergeschwader 1 (MFG1) in 1981, which previously operated the F-104G Starfighter.
The new Tornado could now equip 4 Kormoran anti-ship missiles at once, instead of only two like the Starfighter. My model is equipped with two different generations of Kormoran missiles, one is Kormoran 1, one is Kormoran 2 and this is why there is a difference in their appearance. The reason is: this is what the Eduard Brassin set is offering (strangely), but it wasn't an uncommon sight in reality either. Kormoran missiles used for training were painted green with white stripes (see second last picture in my gallery), while the live (armed ones) were white (like in my model).
Both the Starfighters and the Tornados of the MFG1 were painted at that time in the bicolor Norm 76, with bazalt grey on the top half and light grey/white on the lower half.
The end of the Cold War has brought new limitations of NATO armed forces, with Germany needing to reduce its army units. In 1991 it was announced, that the MFG1 will be disbanded, with some of its Tornados being slowly repainted and integrated in the MFG2 (Marinefliegergeschwader 2).
The 43+73 is likely to be one of the last Tornados of MFG1 to have flown as late as 1993 still painted in Norm 76, when MFG1 officially ceased to exist.
It seems that the stencils and walkways of the MFG1 Tornados were repainted several times during their 12 years of service. Most stencils and walkways were initially red, while with time the walkways were repainted yellow and some red stencils became black. I am aware that I might have gotten some of them wrong in my model.
An interesting feature of the MFG1 Tornados, the wing surfaces which were retracted in the fuselage during sweep angle change were painted only on the underside in a very dark grey (for stronger contrast), while the upper side in a light grey (contrasting with the bazalt grey). Also, some of the MFG1 Tornados have had for a short period of time black leading edges at the horizontal stabilizers (including the 43+73, see second last picture in my gallery), although it's not clear for how long since these black leading edges are not seen in any photographs at a later stage any more.
