THANK YOU to our friends and suppliers at Aires for this excellent improvement set for the Revell tornado! And thanks also to the reviewer corps leaders for making them available to me to review….

Revell continues to be one of the companies that provides excellent value for modelers; any addition to their kits is worthwhile in that the basic kit is a canvas for improvement. Revell’s 1/48 Tornado kits are perfect examples; a bit complex, and you have to work carefully as they tend to be a bit modular, but at the end of the day you have the best of the lot, if you will, of the 1/48 Tornado series by price, value, and finished product.

This set takes the kit components and improves them in a major way. Aires provides additional, third-dimension rivets and hydraulic detail. The actuating rams are also an improvement in that there is no molding seam to deal with and the detail is “harder” and more defined. Same for the wells and doors; the detail is more defined than the kit bits.

To use this set: “Drop fit” replace the kit brake wells with the Aires items, finish assembling and filling the model (yes, you will probably have some seam work on this kit, as they require it), and then finish paint. I recommend a light primer overall to improve the final paint adhering to model and aftermarket parts. Once you have the decals applied, cement the speed brake doors and actuators in place, then final finish. The Tornado, with thrust reversers used frequently, tends to end up with a bit of a dirty fanny if you are in a place where you can’t wash the aircraft, and the speed brakes would not be out of place being blasted and coated with a lot of light, flat black exhaust blowback. They would look out of place if they weren’t weathered like the rest of the jet.

Done! This set is highly recommended for improved detail! Thanks again to Aires and IPMS USA for providing these items…