Anders_Isaksson Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 (edited) The deadline for this GB is approaching fast, and as I placed an order for the Fightertown Decals 1/32nd scale Data Sheet to use on my GB main project, I also bought the 144th sheet for Adversary Tomcats with the goal to get at least something done for this GB. For this build I'll use the Revell 144th scale F-14A Tomcat, and I'm going for a wheels up configuration. No resin or PE on this one! The kit contents: Not sure what Revell has going on with the double set of grills on each side of the spine: The pilot and RIO (callsigns Blob 1 and Blob 2) were taken from a Dragon F-14 and somewhat modified to fit the Revell seats: Progress so far, almost ready for painting: I may get this one finished in time... but time will tell. Cheers, Anders Edited July 7, 2009 by Anders_Isaksson Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChernayaAkula Posted June 22, 2009 Share Posted June 22, 2009 Blob 1 & 2! Nice one! They do look the part on the Revell seats, though. What marking option are you gonna go for? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted June 22, 2009 Author Share Posted June 22, 2009 Blob 1 & 2! Nice one! They do look the part on the Revell seats, though. ;) What marking option are you gonna go for? Thanks! Yes, while this crew lack a lot of detail those seats just looked to empty without them. :) In trying to keep this build as simple and quick as possible I will probably stay away from the multi-color camouflage schemes and go for one of the gray on gray options. Also, gray on gray schemes is usually what I prefer! ;) Cheers, Anders Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChristopherC Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 Looks good Anders! With a bit of creative painting Blob 1 & 2 will look great. The problem with the Revell kit is that you can actually see through the canopy, so you notice cockpit details, unlike the dragon kits. I have the decal set you mentioned and have built the blue splinter and iranian camo jets, and they were quite tricky to mask. Why don't you build the powder puff jet? There are no more colours than on the TPS jet and doesn't appear too complex to mask. Either way, this is going to look great when done. How do you plan to display it? Chris Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted June 23, 2009 Author Share Posted June 23, 2009 Thanks, Chris! Yes, I hope the crew will look somewhat more like a crew after some painting. :D And I'll think about the powder puff camouflage... sure looks like less masking is required. <_< Cheers, Anders Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted June 24, 2009 Author Share Posted June 24, 2009 I just noticed I failed to answer your last question, Chris. My apologies! As I will go with wheels up on this one I am currently preparing a simple stand using a piece of wood and section of clear acrylic rod. Just hope I can get everything together in time... Cheers, Anders Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted June 25, 2009 Author Share Posted June 25, 2009 Just a small update, Vallejo acrylics and a small brush made quick work of painting the cockpit and crew... about 10-15 minutes spent on paintig this area but it will have to do. Also, as can be seen I tried to drill out the gun muzzle. As all options on the FTD adversary sheet feature the later style gun vent I filled in the grilles provided with the kit. Suppose I will have to simulate the NACA vents with some paint later. Not sure how much progress I will be able to make as the upcoming weekend and following week will be a bit too busy with other things. That means little chance of completing this one before the GB deadline... Cheers, Anders Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted June 28, 2009 Author Share Posted June 28, 2009 Time to spend at the workbench has been extremely limited these last few days due to a number of real life-things going on, not to mention the very warm and sunny weather we have had here lately... <_< Anyway, as all material needed was already nearby it was rather quick work to fabricate a suitable stand for this Tomcat: This one is now ready for painting... Cheers, Anders Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChernayaAkula Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 Niiiice! :) Love your in-flight display! :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted July 2, 2009 Author Share Posted July 2, 2009 (edited) Niiiice! Love your in-flight display! Thanks ChernayaAkula, glad you like it! :) Ignoring the fact that this GB by now has passed the deadline I went ahead and got started on the painting. For some reason I choose no 10, which is the more complex of the two gray on gray options on the FTD sheet. While the basic paint scheme is basic enough there are are some interesting effects from the corrosion control that has been carried out on this airframe. A base coat of 36375 was applied to selected areas and then masking was completed. I knew those rolls of special narrow masking tape would come in handy someday: Not sure if the recommended colors (36237 and 36375) should be lightened for scale effect when used on such a small model. However, in order to keep things simple I went with paints straight from the bottle: The wing seal bags have been painted, but some more detail painting will follow and then it's time for decals... Cheers, Anders Edited July 3, 2009 by Anders_Isaksson Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twhite80 Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 That is some tiney tiney taping! Looks good! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted July 3, 2009 Author Share Posted July 3, 2009 (edited) That is some tiney tiney taping! Looks good! Thanks Tyler! :) The lighter areas (36375) were toned down with a very thin overspray of 36237, and looking at the pics now I feel the contrast is perhaps too small between the two colors. But I will stick with it, no way I'm doing all that masking again! :blink: Cheers, Anders Edited July 3, 2009 by Anders_Isaksson Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 (edited) Ok, I managed to get this Tomcat done! I suppose this one falls outside the GB as the deadline was nearly a week ago, but as this build started as a GB project I will post it here. The markings are not correct for the paint scheme of this aircraft. However, this was not because of any problem with the FTD sheet, rather the problem was that this modeler didn't pay proper attention to what he was doing. Anyway, onto the pics: Now, where did I put my Tamiya 1/32nd Tomcat... Cheers, Anders Edited July 7, 2009 by Anders_Isaksson Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Brian P: Fightertown Decals Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Looks great! Seeing the 16 jet built is hellacool. When I saw it up at Fallon, it really stood out as a fun project. What's wrong with the scheme? If it's something you are going to fix, I'm happy to send you another set of decals if they'll help. great job, brian Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChristopherC Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Looks great Anders! The scheme you chose adds an interesting twist to the normal grey on grey. Chris Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 Thanks Brian and Chris, glad you like it! :P ...What's wrong with the scheme? If it's something you are going to fix, I'm happy to send you another set of decals if they'll help. ... Brian, thanks for your generous offer! :) But, I plan to put this one behind me for now. The reason I goofed with the decals on this build was that when I ordered your 144th scale sheet it turned out FTD were temporarily out of instructions for this scale and supplied a 48th scale instruction instead so I wouldn't have to wait for my order. As you might remember you asked me to let you know if I needed the instructions for the 144th sheet and you would mail it out to me as soon as you got it back in stock. Well, I answered that the instruction for the 48th sheet would do perfectly well for my build, as which decal goes where looked easy enough to figure out. Or so I thought! What I did was that I looked at the instruction sheet in front of me when choosing a marking option - without really looking at the decals to see what was supplied on the 144th sheet. As I (in error) seemed to remember there were two TPS options on the 144th sheet (as there are on the 48th sheet) I assumed no 10 was among those, but when it was time to apply the decals I only had a single TPS option on the sheet, no 16. So I ended up with the paint scheme of no 10 carrying the markings of no 16. As no 10 and no 16 has different TPS schemes it turned out the decals for no 16 that I used were darker than needed for no 10, so although the FTD decals themselves performed really well the national insignia on the forward fuselage and "NAVY" decals kind of disappeared into the 36237 base coat. So all in all, if I had simply checked the decal sheet more carefully I wouldn't have run into this problem. Next time I will sure examine the available options better before making my choice! ;) On the other hand, now I'm even more interested in modeling no 10 with its special visual effects from the corrosion control and replacement panels. While I always have thought Tomcats look better with the auxilary fuel tanks and Phoenix pallets installed this build has made me appreciate the 'clean' look of those reserve and adversary Tomcats. So I am pondering wether to go with 72nd or 48th scale for that one, and I see FTD has both scales covered. Leaning towards 72nd scale, much better chance of actually finishing that one! (Sorry for the long-winded reply...) Cheers, Anders Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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