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tomcat21

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Posts posted by tomcat21

  1. I've been thinking a lot about the 'Raptor / Lightning Sheen" and for the F-35C I will just go with normal colors until the decals are sealed. Hopefully I'll do a better job of color matching and won't require many 'fading coats'.

    As final coats I think ill use the Ironbreaker with a slightly more glossing clear. The model just looks that little bit too dull to me, I think it'd be nicer with a bit more glossy finish.

  2. Just find a shop that sells Perspex. They normally make great display cases out of it too.

    I just got a bunch of tapered lengths about 8 inches long cut and polished the edges myself with sandpaper down to plastic polish.

    Then I carefully drill holes each end and screw them to a piece of wood, and to the bottom of the model.

    Then with a carefully aimed heat gun I gently warm the Perspex until it starts to bend. It happens quickly and you have about 5 seconds to position the model how you want before it starts to go solid again. I have 2 F-14s, a Super Hornet and now the F-35 all flying in parade formation at the exact same height and it's my favourite part of the model cabinet.

    You can reheat and reform it as many times as you like.

    It's strong too, check out this 1/48th Super Hornet with resin pit and wheel wells in landing config being totally supported through the exhausts. This is a heavy model.

    56F61844-D80A-424F-BBDC-C04FFE6025BA_zpse8lbyben.jpg

    I only build inflight models now as I much prefer the dynamic look of an aircraft flying. I do appreciate the exquisite detailing that goes into open cockpit/weight on wheel builds though. Maybe I'm just too lazy nowadays :)/>

  3. Thanks Wolfgun!

    Here is my Lightning 2 right now sitting on the table at the Brisbane Model Expo:

    872E36A1-A7EC-4BBE-8122-DAB9259C19DF_zpszmommygw.jpg

    It's strange how building a model changes your perspective. The F-35A used to look a bit squat to me, but now I see it as a sleek thing of beauty.

    Building and painting it felt more like building something out of a Star Wars movie than a real aircraft.

    Am happy to see it parked next to a Bi-plane too, 100 years and the evolution of aircraft is truly remarkable.

    The Hasegawa kit is a perfect gift for a youngster too. It's a tough kit, simple and very satisfying.

  4. Alright, mixed some light grey acrylic with Vallejo clear flat and gave the Lightning 2 a coat. The colors lightened nicely and the greys evened up but I lost any semblance of a metallic sheen.

    FD29A1E4-E153-44C3-A70C-F0A45218073E_zpsqknejj8v.jpg

    I decided to take a gamble and mixed some Vallejo Satin finish with the Citadel Ironbreaker in an attempt to put an all over metallic sheen back on. It was very hard to gain the courage and I was only able to because of how fast and easy this build has been.

    EE9223CF-66E6-4D8E-A921-848BF8F36280_zpsfsau7eg2.jpg

    And the results? I'm very happy and think the sheen looks awesome. From some photos I've seen the sheen does look to be all over, even on the jagged light grey bits.

    129B65DC-F88B-4749-8FD2-256FCF8971B7_zpsw5q6ocul.jpg

    Here's a shot of the unmasked sensor window on the nose. It's a separate clear part that just glues on, I paint the nose under it black.

    7FBE45FE-9144-4BE1-9151-605CE09AD088_zpspmuv9m8v.jpg

  5. Yes I definetly had trouble lining some up with the panel lines underneath.

    The bigger decals were the main culprits. However it was 2am when I was putting these on and I tore one or two trying to move them back and forth. This build, while being primarily for fun and to make sure the F-35 is represented at my local show, has been a great learning tool for the C model I will invest more time in. This thread is also a storage place for all my lessons learned.

    I thought about trying to mask and paint all the lines but having seen how complex it all is I doubt I would ever have the patience for that.

    Just glad I didn't accent the kit panels lines as the mismatch is not that visible from a couple feet away.

  6. Painted the canopy frame today, decided to try another shade of grey to try and nail the decal grey for another future attempt at the F-35C. Tamiya XF-66 is closer being bluer but too dark.

    61AA166E-288A-4390-BBAF-A73E1F4ACDAA_zpsyyabu9s8.jpg

    Glued the canopy on with Krystal clear and gave the entire model a coat of clear gloss.

    In this pic you can see the decals Vs XF-66 color match. I'm not worried as my other paint is out, just hoping the flat coats smooth things out a bit.

    1C22D6E2-4A19-43B7-A134-25B99D2CEA14_zpsxqkn9flq.jpg

    Has to be finished tomorrow for the weekends model show.

  7. Got home from evening shift and spent 3 hours putting on all the decals. They are amazing and respond well to Mr Mark Setter which is essential to get some of them to conform to the curves.

    b41d16e76eacb118bc4e22f354648e40_zpscedddad2.jpg

    From this photo you can see that the decal grey has a bluish tinge that makes it look more like a compass ghost grey color like FS36320.

    I doubt it will matter too much as my clear coats will have base color/sheen that will lighten all the colors and hopefully blend them in more.

    At this stage I'm a little worried that my metallic main color is too dark, but it looked fine before the clear gloss so am hoping it will look better when the flatter coats go on.

  8. Ok, time for the special metallic sheen color!

    I invested in some Citadel acrylics that have been recommended by a few folk for the F-22 paint sheen. So here goes the experiment of on the fly mixing to try and guess it right. First a coat of straight "Leadbelcher" metallic:

    97CF9982-13BA-4D03-AEFB-EB4E832C335D_zps5r9dxcvw.jpg

    Now with a dollop of "Dawnstone" and Abbadon Black. There's two different mixes in this pic, I went too dark and had to lighten back a bit.

    DA39349D-AAB9-4CF1-B178-6FB7178727C2_zpsbswd8dna.jpg

    Finally got a color time I was happy with. At times it looked a bit flaky and I found you had to do a good wet coat to make it look good:

    F7B858A2-48B4-4FDC-9990-A55506580213_zpsplznzvrt.jpg

    Tamiya X-22 clear gloss went over the top with masking removed. This makes it looks darker than it's will be.

    The decals for all the serrated panels are quite dark and I want them to stand out a bit.

    E6E71D9D-9E41-4581-B25A-693567A64BC2_zpssw5mlmhd.jpg

    Next step Decals! My final coats with have a slight grey/silver sheen if I can manage it. I think the colors will lighten up and look pretty good. Fingers crossed!!

  9. Thanks mate much appreciated.

    Slapped some filler here and there, sanded and painted a base coat. The instructions say FS36270 is the lighter grey colour which Testors Model Master calls Neutral Grey.

    E1C1FE8F-1BA7-46D6-88BA-E470B815B368_zpsqhjyiqrf.jpg

    0DC22323-66B6-4A61-B15C-AC883D42BD92_zpsmktl9jsj.jpg

    750C8FFF-B9A6-4893-89BD-6A7E761418B8_zpskqoedn6u.jpg

    The main colour is a weird metallic grey which looks different in every photo I've seen. I've got a deletion of the Citadel paints that have been recommended for the F-22 sheen so I will experiment and see how close I can get.

    The masking up is the most tedious part so far..

    13AC5063-94CB-4090-BFF6-6704F665062F_zps5eoynmhk.jpg

  10. Finally I am on night shift so my photos will be in natural light. I'm just using an iphone 5 to take the photos so sorry they aren't as professional as others on here.

    Here's the canopy assembly with the two-piece framework installed.

    From reading another forum the bow is necessary for bird strike requirements. The fine metal cord is a detonation cord I believe because the seat goes through the canopy. As mentioned earlier there is a decal for this that looks OK on the sheet but am not sure if I will attempt it.

    1BD6853F-0D34-448F-9B2E-38DA906FAE96_zpsmcjffnru.jpg

    Here is a photo of the 2-piece instrument panel with it's decal installed and a coat of future. The seat is four pieces and looks OK with some tiny danger decals.

    There are two console decals that look fine for me because they are under the pilots arms. The parts for the cockpit are fun to assemble and look pretty good with minimal work, I'm still adding bits of detail as I go as because the canopy is so big you can see inside the cockpit fairly easily.

    2C81E827-F36C-4C18-B170-08A5008ED51E_zpszol3mwxx.jpg

  11. Hi Aggressor, thanks for the info.

    A F-35 crew chief answered the question for us-

    "We call them AME's and they are in fact radar reflectors as to what Milli posted. We normally fly with them on, but on certain missions we take them off. If you want the model in peace time, I would leave them on. But if your doing a combat aircraft before a mission, leave them off."

    Hi Paolo, the kit supplies a decal to replicate the metal cord you speak of in the canopy. I will try it out and see how it looks.

  12. Here are pretty much all the parts and decals that make up the cockpit, this should be easy!

    The canopy is a smoke tinted one (kit supplies a clear as well) so it should be hard to see the cockpit well, hence I won't be going to much trouble here.

    BCF49694-914F-4ED1-8CEC-BEDD5F83F709_zpslyut7nac.jpg

    This lazy build is just what the doctor ordered for my modelling enthusiasm. I'm having a lot of fun with this kit.

  13. Thanks guys, am probably just going with the kit supplied decals just to keep it OOB.

    I got a reply about the bumps and they are indeed "Luneberg lense RCS enhancers" or radar reflectors that would not be fitted to combat ready aircraft.

    Here is what my F-35 friend posted:

    "We call them AME's and they are in fact radar reflectors as to what Milli posted. We normally fly with them on, but on certain missions we take them off. If you want the model in peace time, I would leave them on. But if your doing a combat aircraft before a mission, leave them off."

    Here's the pic I was linked to:

    http://www.f-16.net/forum/download/file.php?id=17770&sid=20de5e321a55be0d55f5e732e22f4c2f&mode=view

    So yeah, the instructions don't indicate that drilling the holes or glueing the RCS bumps on appear to be optional. I don't want to fit them so am glad I didn't back drill the holes.

  14. Things are rolling along nicely and the two fuselage halves are now glued together.

    My favourite aspect of modelling is the appreciation you get of an aircrafts shape from building a model of it.

    The biggest surprise I have seen in the F-35 is the nicely curved wing, it really demonstrates the jump between aircraft that were designed in the 60s/70s compared to those designed nowadays.

    I was also impressed at the apparent dihedral on the horizontal tails.

    Here is a link to the real aircraft for comparison, I was initially worried my model had warped.

    http://www.air-and-space.com/20081023%20Edwards/BL2_2330%20F-35A%20AA-1%20left%20rear%20tlanding%20l.jpg

    And here is my model viewed from behind.

    C80824B8-7898-438F-B7D1-D6B4F093FD74_zps2ougqe58.jpg

    I accidentally mistook the fan for the turbine and painted both incorrectly. I should paid closer attention to the instructions as I now have a burnt iron fan and a titanium silver turbine. The fan is impossible to see but the turbine disc will need a repaint.

    The instructions say to install the exhaust nozzle before joining the fuselage halves but as I wanted to be able to paint it separately I left it off. Luckily you can easily fit it later, I was worried the aft fuse section would be to small to allow that.

    C1B934B1-67BE-4F51-BC70-DB28BDF6BD66_zpsmvzzsree.jpg

    You get extra gear doors to model them closed/inflight which is how I am building this one. These are perfect and only required minor sanding, mostly on the aft edges of the nose gear doors, to drop into place.

    Before you glue the halves together the instructions direct you to open up some holes from the inside so that parts E4, E5 and E11 can be installed later on.

    I chose not to do this as I think these might be those bolt on parts that increase a stealth aircrafts radar signature to allow Air Traffic Controllers to see it. I'm going to ask a friend at another forum who is a F-35 crew chief so hopefully I'm right.

    Here's a pic of the upper two E11s if anyone wants to have a guess at what they might be and if they're optional:

    08516A32-2513-49CD-A91E-AA8BF660CE83_zpsyccf3gnc.jpg

    Thanks for the kind feedback too, I was waiting for someone to review this kit before I built it, it's exciting to be one of the first ;)

  15. Painted the inside of the intakes white and glued them together then stuck them in the lower fuselage half.

    The plastic of this kit is very high quality and hard.

    There are some ejector pin marks in the intake (which I didn't fill) but it's such a snaking intake that I doubt they will be very visible.

    0E612B6E-DD95-4552-93C9-E65A3295A8B9_zpskok2qu1t.jpg

    The intake assembly joins the fuselage in what I thought would be a disastrous seam, but this kit is so high quality the fit between parts is fantastic with minimal work.

    You can dry fit whole sections and they just sit happily together with no glue.

    9BAFB39C-943B-4404-993F-15B82D5813E7_zpscubkl3jw.jpg

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