BillS

I was around the droned duece at Holloman; lots of ‘em. The doors opened opened together.

I’m a simple man and like simple approaches. The less coats of stuff, the better. If t you mess up and need to go back, more junk will inhibit spot repairs. I’m not even sure if there was a coat of zinc chromate under the blue final finish. Maybe one of the other better informed contributors know. The technique you outline does look realistic though. Love 11bee’s example, color, degree of sheen, etc

Ditto. One other thing that might prove useful is a silver prisma pencil you can use for scratches around the cockpit sills, steps, maybe hand holds and dzus or camlock type fasteners on engine cowls, fuel filler and gun bays. You can make a pin-point trace of scratch easily with this method.

Or see if you can find a Collectaire EA-3. I built one years ago. It was a very nice kit and I’m sure would line up with a loft sheet. It was a true EA-3. I have The Trump kit and all the Hypersonic goodies but haven't had a go at it to comment on how it compares.

i got mine a week ago and posted a question on cockpit color then. Dave is the man on his impressions because they are bang on. Mine too but not as informed because I simply know zilch about this jet other than I like it. It’s hard (for me)to unravel the 2000 especially since there have been improvements to the real thing over time. What markings apply to what improvements and when? Anyway, this is a very nicely molded kit despite being sans intake duct and cockpit variations.

Got the new 32 KH kit. It’s super nice looking including the resin pilot and AB nozzle. My question is what is the right cockpit color for the c? Some photos depict gray, others black or very dark gray. Same applies to geR wells and struts. The plans call out 36495. Is that close. I’m using Xtracolor Mirage 2000 grays for the airframe.

I searched “A-7E NATOPS” and got all kinds of stuff. Although the manuals are b&w, they give you accurate depictions of panel/console configurations. I’d anticipate there weren’t worlds of technical differences between Ds and Es. I’ve seen both in real life and I can’t remember anything about either that jumped out.

Xtracolor makes international orange fs12. whatever. Kitlinx carries it. Sprays beautifully.

FWIW I’ve purchased the B-36 and B-70. They showed up when promised but broke my back trying to haul all that fibre glass, resin and etched upstairs. They do some nice stuff.

See, it’s just not me!

I ordered mine 2 days ago from sophii on Ebay. I guess that’s Kitty Hawk. Anyway it just hit the doorstep in Dallas. So as to be efficient and not crowd the discussion group with too much FJ prattle, I want to broach the topic of cockpit color. Several years ago Aerojet did a CD on the Fury and part of it was devoted to an old Navy training film on the 2. It was probably shot in a studio using a mock up. The color of the cockpit appears to be a color sort of like RAF interior green. In searching the web I found images of the USS Hornet museum’s restoration jet. Guess what? The same green. Let the fur fly.

On USAF bombs the bodies are any faded Olive Drab. LGB seekers are plastic approximating olive drab in color. Fins, “balutes” (bsu-49) etc. tend to be newer looking and might be semi gloss-like and probably 34087ish. Bolt on JDAM kits are 36375. I wouldn't get to caught up on exactness because the ones I saw were often weathered somewhat and variable. Believe it or not a readily available paint I lean on is Testors Olive Drab in the little bottles. My zietgeist is that color standards are a good starting point but in reality there are visible differences in stuff supposedly painted the same color. Missiles are 36375 except I think you’ll still see AGM-65s in OD. I was never around HARMs but I’m pretty certain they remain white. If you do an online search you’ll find painting instructions for one of the decal makers who did weapons stencils. There might even be technical orders outlining markings for particular munitions.

Ebay always works for me

I’m forever in a quandary at the aversion there seems to be over enamels. Xtracolor and Model Master both make 15042. They airbrush so nicely, can be wet sanded between coats and dry hard. They seem to readily available as well. I just don't understand the logic of spraying a base color then spraying clear gloss and then a final top coat. For virtually all of my gloss sea blue subjects, I spray 2-3 coats of SB, wet sanding between coats then use a VERY thin final coat applied lightly to bring out the final color with a “military gloss” finish. But then, I’ve always been odd man out.

Less than $20 plus free shipping? Yeah, no.