Hi all, Its been awhile since Ive dabbled into wingy things and I have some questions about desert pink Tornados as I am about to start building two.
Was the desert pink applied directly over the (Or was there) original camouflage? So if there was chipping would it go to the primer or the camo?
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They were overpainted in overall desert pink with a black radome.
Any chipping would have uncovered the original camouflage, but I very much doubt there would have been any chipping on the aircraft, but the desert pink paint did fade after time, too more of a sand colour.
Andy :).
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I had a hunch it might be that, thanks a lot Andy!
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The temporary desert pink paint was applied over the whole airframe, except the radomes. In service it weathered quickly and sand abraded it, mostly along the wing and fin leading edges, which showed the original camo underneath. Unlike normal paints that lighten with age this temporary paint darkened towards a tan colour. Touching up of the worn paint looked odd as the newly painted parts were light and bright in comparison. I worked on the Tornado during this period and saw the touched-up aircraft. If I was painting one now I would apply normal grey/green camouflage to the leading edges first, then paint the desert pink, darkened slightly, overall. I would rub away some paint from the leading edges, view actual aircraft photos to see where and how much. Then I would apply fresh, un-darkened, desert pink sparingly to a few areas to show that the finish was being maintained in service.
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They picked up a lot of dirt, exhaust soot and dust. Especially from the base of the fin, going forwards and up at angle. This was caused by the blast deflection plates (I think that’s what they’re called) deflecting the exhaust forwards on landing. You can see it on these Tornado’s.
Some got very dirty after a while.
The Hindenburg tanks on those two are probably still in the original light aircraft grey. Iirc they were borrowed from the Tornado F.1 squadrons.
You might find this little video interesting. Some good footage of Desert Storm Tornados, Jaguars and Buccaneers. Plus awesome theme track by Whitesnake!
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