Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Hi Pig,

If the CFT seals are similar to the Mudhen you might get away with some Evergreen strip. I used some thin plastic extrusion and glued it in stages taking care to fix each one a bit at a time. Polystyrene cement softens the plastic which allows you to create the dished effect to the joint. I remember using the rounded tip of a small paint brush handle to smooth the plastic strip down between the CFT and the fuselage.

Tomorrow I'll have a look and let you know exactly which size I used if you like?

HTH

Terrific work on that cockpit BTW. Every time I look at it, it takes my breath away!

:thumbsup:

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
Pete, as usual I am learning from you. Wonderful job on the cockpit and landing gear. One question about your painting before assembly. How can you get the paint to match if you paint one section then a couple of months later you paint the rest of the plane? Do you keep mixing ratios or what is your secret? I, being clumsy me, would be worried about ruining the first section of painting and then have to do some creative masking but not matching the previous colors?

Thanks,

Wayne

Hey Quiddy!

I'm sorry I never answered this question from a while back-

I dont have any real secret for this, other than shooting the color straight out of the bottle, thinned about the same every time. I do use the same bottle of paint..ie I keep track of the particular bottle I used, and make sure I use the same one for follow-on painting. Doesn't happen too often, but I have had a situation or two when 2 bottles of the exact same paint looked different coming out of the airbrush :P

If I have to mix paint for a special color, like the blues for my F-2A, then I mix up alot of it...more than I'll ever need, and split it into 2 separate empty bottles. I spill paint regularly (and Tenax...I now epoxy my Tenax bottles to a big, flat piece of wood)

Hope that helps!

Regards,

Pig

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Pete. Terrific work as always, I am in need of a little inspiration at the moment. I’ve made a note of your Aires NG bay comments for future reference. Similar to Guy, I used strips of 5 thou card to simulate the CFTs seal on the F-15E; these look fairly flat when looking at the photos in the Lock-On book.

Real glad to see you have gone for the wicked-cool look.

Trust you are making progress with the Foxtrot Two Alpha nose. I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I read that.

Regards :thumbsup:

John

Link to post
Share on other sites
Hi Pete. Terrific work as always, I am in need of a little inspiration at the moment. I’ve made a note of your Aires NG bay comments for future reference. Similar to Guy, I used strips of 5 thou card to simulate the CFTs seal on the F-15E; these look fairly flat when looking at the photos in the Lock-On book.

Real glad to see you have gone for the wicked-cool look.

Trust you are making progress with the Foxtrot Two Alpha nose. I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I read that.

Regards :bandhead2:

John

Thanks John,

The .005 strips worked like a champ-Many thanks to you and Guy for helping me solve a puzzler, again! :woot.gif:

The 2-seater is all painted up...mostly. A few touch-ups and it will be ready for a gloss coat. My wife has got the camera with her on a business trip, so I'll have to wait a few more days to get some photos posted..

On those days, when the challenges of pulling the F-2 together seem to stop forward progress... when I say to myself "what is the solution to this problem?" I always look to others for inspiration-Modelers like you John, Guy, Skyking, FrankC, Zacto, so many of you. Every one of my builds has a bit of all of you in them, because I learn so much from other modelers. I'm continually amazed at the innovation that others are capable of-I don't think I've ever come up with any technique or solution that anyone could say "wow, I've never seen that before!" All that I am as a modeler I've begged, borrowed, and stolen from better modelers than myself! :banana:

Glad you got a chuckle from my story. Modelers are a strange breed, aren't we?

Love your mother country BTW-Always my favorite place to visit-The people are wonderful. As a pilot with a very German last name, it is always somewhat surreal to get a cockpit view of London in the summer.

Warm regards,

Pig

Link to post
Share on other sites
(i) All that I am as a modeler I've begged, borrowed, and stolen from better modelers than myself!

(ii) Modelers are a strange breed, aren't we?

(i) Yeah, right Pete. A well known saying comes to mind.

"on bells the one other has pull it" :thumbsup:

(ii) The Aussies have a good description. They're (we're) a weird mob.

Regards

John

ps Chq is in the post.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hello boys,

..Took the first pass at this jet with the airbrush the other day-I've got a lot more work to do from here on the paint, but I'm getting there!

One of the things I've noticed with some camo's-and it is really pronounced on the Polish jets, is the dark demarcation between the 2 colors. If you look closely, the darker color frequently gets darker right before the transition to the lighter color. It's as if the outline of the darker pattern was sprayed in at a shade darker before the rest of the pattern was filled in. It is more obvious on large, flat painted surfaces, like the vertical tail. Why this is, I don't know, but looking at my references I tried to replicate this paint effect on those areas of the jet where it was most pronounced.

The model was pre-shaded first with Floquil Grimy Black. The camo pattern was lightly drawn on the model with pencil. The light gray was painted first. I used blue tac just outside the pencil lines to set up the color transition. Before spraying the darker grey, I went around the inside perimeter of the blue tac with floquil grimy black-essentially pre-shading the transition between greys-again, only in those spots that matched my references. Here's a look:

paint001.jpg

paint002.jpg

paint003.jpg

paint005.jpg

paint006.jpg

paint008.jpg

paint016.jpg

And the belly-Nose well not weathered yet-

paint017.jpg

Link to post
Share on other sites

Pete, is it a soft transition between the Floquil Grimy Black and the dark gray or is it a hard line with the dark gray oversprayed a little to soften it? It looks phenomenal! You obviously ended up doing something with the seals, was it what Guy recommended?

Superb job, as always!

Link to post
Share on other sites
Pete, is it a soft transition between the Floquil Grimy Black and the dark gray or is it a hard line with the dark gray oversprayed a little to soften it? It looks phenomenal! You obviously ended up doing something with the seals, was it what Guy recommended?

Hey Burner-

Check out this link-

Polish Viper

You can really see the effect on the vertical tail.

(Interesting too, you'll see AIM-9X, old, "Low Speed" TER, and Sniper/Pantera pod)

Also, I rummaged through the Evergreen box and found some strip stock, and just tacked it at one end with super glue, then slowly put it down along the perimeter of the CFT's with Tenax..I used some folded lead foil for some of the fatter portions. Simple!

Regards,

Pig

Edited by Pete "Pig" Fleischmann
Link to post
Share on other sites

Lovely paint job Pig :)

You have a keen eye. Now that you've mentioned the demarcation line between the colours I can see exactly what you mean and comparing your model to reference piics shows,....you've nailed it buddy :bandhead2:

Great stuff,.....the colours look perfect from your pictures.

Glad you sorted the CFT seal out too. Little details like that make a big difference in this scale. I'm super impressed by the way the spine looks now. It matches the rest of the model to a tee. Very neat scratch-building.

She's shaping up beautifully.

:bandhead2:

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks you guys!

Been busy with the paintwork.....still. I'll post some recent pics-Getting closer! I'm accumulating a big pile of stuff:

100_7152.jpg

100_7159.jpg

100_7160.jpg

100_7161.jpg

Still tweeking the sniper (sounds obscene, doesn't it :thumbsup: )

100_7156.jpg

The FMS Block 52 has a different nose gear door structure-working on that-

100_7158.jpg

Just paint and drybrush here so far-

100_7157.jpg

Better pic of these-

100_7155.jpg

Thanks for looking!

Pig

Link to post
Share on other sites

Ouch!!!

That´s one hell of a cockpit and wheelbays! I gotta go through this whole build again, but much slower and check all those magnificent details.

The effect on the camouflage is interesting. Is this also the case with other types of aircraft serving in the polish air force? It has an interesting look and I believe you will just do extremely well finishing it.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Pig,

actually it's just the newer Block 52+s that have the different Nose Landing Gear door structure. I suspect the change is coupled with the increased nosewheel size, which allows the max takeoff weight to be 52000lbs. those manufactured in maybe, FY 99?? and before that, have the "old" nose gear door

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...