MatCat

And here are some images of the final model after a month of work. Not great I know, but I'm happy enough for a first build. Some lessons I learned along the way 1/ Use good quality paints - I tried to use the paints supplied with this kit and the difference between them and good quality paints was like night and day 2/ I invested in a spray booth (extravagant I know) but it makes all the difference when painting in a confined area. The one I built shown in an earlier post fell apart! 3/ Use Micro Sol and Micro set for decals - I had never used these before but they really do w

So here's the kit that I worked on to get me some modelling practice and also the pilots from this kit that I'm going to put into my F-14. They're not very detailed pilots but hopefully with the canopy down no-one will look too closely. I'm still in the market if someone has two more detailed pilots they are willing to sell (in the UK).

So, I haven't posted for a while and modelling has been at a standstill since I have been busy getting married and then the only building I've been doing is IKEA furniture. For the past month I have been practicing on a cheap 1/48 airfix kit I bought from eBay. The reason I bought it was because there were two pilots in it and it was cheaper to buy the kit than buy two pilots separately!! Anyway, I'll post some pics of the airfix kit I bought later but in the meantime - its good to be back :)

...or if you want to be a bit less dramatic, simply go to the security tab in Safari preferences and turn off the Phishing warning!

Apologies for the title-just my weird sense of humour (or lack of it!) Anyway, I got a HobbyBoss F-14 as a present but unfortunately the kit doesn't come with any pilots. So, I was wondering if anyone out there had a couple of modern US jet pilots that they would be willing to sell? They don't need to be any specific specification-just as long as they are seated! Someone in the States kindly offered to send me some for free but when we looked into the postage costs from US to UK it would cost as much as buying them from a shop over here -hence, the reason why I need to find someone here in th

Thanks Fighting Eighty-Four! Any pilot will do , -maybe something Top Gun style if you have it? But, failing that, anything is fine-just didn't want the seats to be empty! I think also if you mark it as a gift there won't be import duty on it. Thanks so much again :cheers:/>

Hey, thanks Fighting Eighty-four If you were able to find out cost of postage sometime, and it wasn't too expensive, more than willing to pay that (via paypal if you have an account?)

Hmm, thanks for the info. I used to build lots of airfix kits when i was a kid and they always seemed to include pilots! I guess things have changes in the past 35 years!

Hi I just bought the Hobbyboss F14-B kit and to my shock found out that they don't include pilots in the kit!!! I have noticed a lot of you on this site build kits without the pilots (with just the canopy open) so would anyone be willing to sell me any for my kit? I'm in the UK so would prefer someone from here if you are willing to sell so I dont have pay too much for postage. Many thanks Mat

No Pilots???!!!!!! So while testing with different paints and learning to use my airbrush I thought I could maybe make a start and do some of the cockpit interior. While trying to identify the various pieces I have just realised there doesn't seem to be any pilots include! Huh! . At first I thought maybe the kit was incomplete but on looking at the instructions there doesn't seem to be any mention of pilots! Is this normal for Hobbyboss kits or just this particular kit that doesnt include the pilots? So, does anyone know where I can buy cheap 1/48 scale USAF or Navy pilots for my cockpit?

Regardless of the research time they are still very impressive builds. I do like using acrylics since they are so easy to clean so ordered a vallejo dull aluminium. Looks like I also maybe need to invest in a regulator as well (thanks for the advice joel_w). With the various paints, materials and tools, the cost of this wee tomcat is mounting up! :(

Thanks Darren, will bear that in mind when doing my landing gear bays. Wow, that's some collection you have there - guess I'm not the worlds biggest Tomcat fan after all ;)/>/>

I found a pot of Tamiya 'Smoke' acrylic paint among the paints that were given to me so I decided to start applying it all over the Falcon to give a weathered look and to re-colour some of the panels. This seemed to break up the shinyness of the surface but its still a bit too dark and shiny for my liking. I will need to find a colour that dries to a dull aluminium for the Tomcat. I obviously need lots of practice, learning and testing before I can tackle the F14! and here's a comparison of the original and the painted Millennium Falcon - amazing what a bit of paint can do! :)/&g

Hi all. OK, here's the results of my (unsuccessful!!!) paint job. First I mixed the primer with varying amounts of black to get different shades (in the hope that when I sprayed the metallic colour on it, the panels would all have slightly different shades (to represent panels that had faded or been replaced). As you can see from the pictures below, I wasn't too successful in being able to keep within the panel lines using the airbrush. I'm not sure if this is a fault of the Airbrush, the compressor or my lack of skill! Anyway, I wasn't too worried and I hoped this would just blend in when I

Thanks for those tips Joel_W - great advice 😀 Unfortunately with the cheap compressor I bought theres not much control over the psi so will just have to do the best I can. I'm about to try some more spray tests on the Millenium Falcon so will post some pictures in a bit.