Anders_Isaksson Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 (edited) Thanks Cliff! Yes, hopefully the intakes will now look acceptable when everything is together. I am about to call the cockpit done. Just need to add those yellow/black handles (provided as PE) and paint the turtle deck black. The instrument bezels received Mike Grant decals as painting them just did not work out. More detail could certainly be added around the cockpit, but then I think it would be wiser to go for an aftermarket cockpit where more detail would be provided from the start. When the HB decal team were asked to produce decals for this cockpit I suspect they got the scale mixed up, as they are closer to 1/32nd or even 1/24th scale. They are huge! :blink: Cheers, Anders Edited March 2, 2011 by Anders_Isaksson Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Neo Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Do what my GF does to my clothe but them in the drier and they will shrink :blink: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Flavio Romero Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Hello Anders, What colors did you used on the cockpit detailing? please be as specific as possible. Thanks in advance Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 Do what my GF does to my clothe but them in the drier and they will shrink Thanks Neo for that tip... I think! :o Hello Anders, What colors did you used on the cockpit detailing? please be as specific as possible. Thanks in advance Hi Flavio, the base coat was Tamiya XF-54 for the gray and XF-69 for the black. Then the details like buttons and switches were picked out with Vallejo colors and a fine paintbrush. No specific colors were used but rather a random mix of basic black, light gray and white plus a little red here and there. For the paint chipping I used light gray and black artist pencils. Not sure if this was specific enough, but hope this helps. Cheers, Anders Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FEDE Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Wow great work on this cockpit, look´s so good!!! Congratulations Anders Keep it coming!! Greetings FEDE Quote Link to post Share on other sites
KRI76 Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 That cockpit looks awesome! Bra jobbat! /Kristian Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JohnS Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Looking good Anders. :D Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Flavio Romero Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Thanks! it looks great! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Thanks FEDE, Kristian (tack!), John and Flavio! Glad you like it so far, as for me I am really glad to have the major part of the cockpit work done in such a short time. I decided to coat the entire cockpit in a satin clear to give the panels a more 'metallic' look. The application does not really show up well in the pics, though. The sidewalls were then attached... ...and the entire tub test-fitted in the forward fuselage with the coamings temporarily installed. While those canopy hooks are a bit plain I am still happy to see that HB include them. ;) The fit is rather tight. But then I have not yet cleaned up any pin marks on the inside of the fuselage that may interfere. The front coaming does not seem to sit quite right as I believe the pilot's instrument panel really should sit a bit deeper (or possibly the coaming perhaps sit a bit further aft). Will have to investigate this later. Also, there is a quite prominent gap on the right hand side (circled). A quick peek in the DACO book indicate there should be a few details there to fill this space and I can not see that HB provide these in the kit. The RIOs coaming had a circular recess added to each side (arrow). Cheers, Anders Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Anders. Great job on the cockpit so far. As you've noted in this build, gaps in and around the glareshield is a very common phenomenon. My guess is that the manufacturers think that with the windshield installed, nobody will notice. I really like your cockpit painting. That's tough to do at this small scale. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 (edited) Thanks Chuck, one advantage of the smaller scale is of course that the cockpit painting is completed in a little less time. :huh: And going OOTB sure make things happen a lot faster, although an aftermarket cockpit will definately be used... when released and if I do another one of these in the future... I went for a quick and dirty solution for the glareshield, as I simply extended the shield to fully cover the instrument panel. The gap on the right hand side was patched up with a little styrene, a solution which turned out to be quite close to the real thing when I took a second look at my references. I then proceeded to install the seatbelts and ejection handles (the ejection loop between the leg cushions is left off until after painting). This was the first time I used Aires PE and I must say it was a pleasure to work with the parts, as the belts are very easy to bend and fold as you want. Unfortunately I managed to screw up the belts for the actual seat (did not realize each length should be folded in half) but I hope the error is not too noticable. As can be seen I went for another quick and dirty solution with those plates near the legs. I replaced all of them with some simple styrene, they are bit small but still good enough as not much of them is seen when the seats are installed in the tub. Time to paint those seats I guess... Cheers, Anders Edited March 4, 2011 by Anders_Isaksson Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Netz Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Here's some shots I took today hope you can use them. Curt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Qian Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 The cockpit looks really good!!! Almost like the real thing! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 Thanks Curt for posting those pics. Great reference for the intake area and these pics will be useful when I finalize the intake modifications and assembly. And many thanks, Qian - glad you like it so far. :) Painting of the seats has started but not much to show yet. To be continued... Cheers, Anders Quote Link to post Share on other sites
geedubelyer Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Dang it all! How'd I miss your cockpit painting Anders? I turn my back for a day or two and look what happens Very sharp my friend, particularly in this smaller scale. Those seats look superb in the bare resin so I'm positively salivating to see what they look like when you've worked your magic Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 (edited) Thanks, Guy - looking at those seats now and comparing with your larger Tomcat seats I wish I had not arranged the seatbelts in such a 'neat' manner but too late to fix that now. Will have to do better with the 32nd scale versions. Anyway, hope I can be back soon with pics of the seat progress. :D In between working on the seats I have been tinkering with those panels for the gun and ammunition area. As noted by other modelers, a separate fuselage half with all panels molded shut would indeed have been welcome. The forward area with its three panels seemed a bit problematic. Getting these properly lined up required a little patience with lots of dry-fitting, a little trimming and some filling. Small pieces of styrene were used to fill a few gaps (see arrows), a minor application of filler took care of the seams for the remaining panels. The same pic again just to show a pair of small modifications (circled), the angle of attack (is that the one?) probe was exchanged for the tip of a needle and the reinforced plate around the RIOs step was sanded away, as this detail should not be present on this airframe. Edit: Not circled (and barely visible) are the two holes (IIRC for spent cartridge cases?) below the gun vent area which has been hollowed out. Now, back to the seats... Cheers, Anders Edited March 10, 2011 by Anders_Isaksson Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted March 11, 2011 Author Share Posted March 11, 2011 I am calling the seats done. While they took some time to paint they ended up being a rather fun mini-project. The small placards etc were taken from the VF-Decals F-14 data sheet. The ejection loops could use another round of yellow/black to sharpen them up but it will have to wait until... later. Not sure the paint chipping on the sides is logical but it was too much fun to add so I think it will stay there. :blink: As always, thanks for looking! Cheers, Anders Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Josan Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 mmmm, excellent work on the seats, the paint of these is fantastic, really nice! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jezones Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Those seats look insane Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Janissary Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 Anders, the cushions you made look very nice. Did you use 2 part epoxy or something like that? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted March 12, 2011 Author Share Posted March 12, 2011 (edited) Thanks Josan, jezones and Janissary! Anders, the cushions you made look very nice. Did you use 2 part epoxy or something like that? Thanks again and yes, I used Magic Sculp for these seats but I guess any good epoxy putty (Duro etc) should do. A couple of pics from earlier in this thread showing the seats in progress: Please note that I took a shortcut and did not bother to completely remove the green 'factory' cushions provided on the Aires seats. This gave me some problems during painting as there was an extra layer beneath the new cushions which required a suitable color to blend in. I went with plain green for these and in the end I hope it came out ok. The seats test-fitted in the cockpit: Hmm, I still have trouble getting the tub and sidewall assembly to fit comfortably inside the fuselage. :lol: Not a major problem but I will have to do some more tweaking. Cheers, Anders Edited March 12, 2011 by Anders_Isaksson Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 I love your seats Andres, your work improved them a lot well done Arnaud Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JMan Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 Very nice job on the seats Anders. I have the same ejection seats, well I think they are, well at least very close to the Tomcat seats. I am doing the Kinetic Prowler, with the Aires pit and they look very similar other than they have a single face curtain pull ring where as the Tommy has the double loop pull ring. Hope mine are half as good as yours. Cant wait to see more of your HB Kitty she is looking awesome, keep it up! Jeremy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted March 13, 2011 Author Share Posted March 13, 2011 (edited) Thanks for the encouragement, Arnaud and Jeremy! Jeremy, yes I suppose the seats are about the same for both the Prowler and Tomcat. Looking forward to learn what you think about the Kinetic kit as you make progress, I have been eyeing one of those Prowlers myself but too much on the go already... :) A little bit of sanding of the NLG wheel helped to reduce its height, which seem to have sorted the fit issue for the cockpit tub inside the forward fuselage. I could now bring the forward fuselage together and have the cockpit sills and fuselage sides sitting reasonably level to each other (in anticipation of a single part to be attached on top along both sides of the cockpit). At this stage I just had to see how the forward and aft fuselage would fit together when the time comes. Even in this scale the size of the F-14 is rather impressive. Close-up of the area where the forward and aft fuselage meet. Nice! :P Joining these assemblies looks like a rather pain-free operation compared to my experience of the Hasegawa offering. Just hope I don't have to eat my words later... Cheers, Anders Edited March 13, 2011 by Anders_Isaksson Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted March 14, 2011 Author Share Posted March 14, 2011 (edited) Just now had a brief look at the assembly for the intake interior, and found a slight problem with the way HB choose to engineer this area... I first wanted to install the forward ramps so that they are nearly flush against the roof of the intake, with the rear ramp hanging slightly lower. This configuration requires the forward ramp actuators to be omitted. However, having the forward ramp flush reveals a few gaps on the inside of the intake. The reason is quite simply that the HobbyBoss intakes lack a proper inner wall. A quick comparison between HobbyBoss and Hasegawa shows that their intake piece feature a complete inner wall instead of the multi-part assembly from HobbyBoss. If using the actuator as shown in the instructions you will have a forward ramp that hangs about halfway down the intake. While this IMHO does not look as good as having the forward ramp in the "up" position, this serves to hide the gaps and therefore make this solution feel like the easiest way to deal with the problematic area. The gap seem to be all gone, except for the small gap towards the front. The gap inside the intake itself thankfully seem to be hidden behind the ramp. Hopefully a little putty will be enough to rescue the forward area, but I just hope I can avoid being stuck all week dealing with those gaps... Cheers, Anders Edited March 14, 2011 by Anders_Isaksson Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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