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Are you sure it is always like that?

I thought they maybe did like we did in the army air corps, starting the port engine first on weeks with even numbers, and the stbd engine first if the week has an uneven number (in Sweden we do a lot of planning using numbered weeks). This was to even out their running time. If the starboard engine always was started first, it would accumulate hours faster and it would need service earlier than the port engine. So I never bothered to check this out (although the thought occurred to me!).

But a quick google tells me I should have looked :-/ ..

The nozzles are attached with a little amount of superglue, so they *should* come off quite easily.. or so I hope.

Thanks for the heads up!

/E

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Are you sure it is always like that?

I thought they maybe did like we did in the army air corps, starting the port engine first on weeks with even numbers, and the stbd engine first if the week has an uneven number (in Sweden we do a lot of planning using numbered weeks). This was to even out their running time. If the starboard engine always was started first, it would accumulate hours faster and it would need service earlier than the port engine. So I never bothered to check this out (although the thought occurred to me!).

But a quick google tells me I should have looked :-/ ..

The nozzles are attached with a little amount of superglue, so they *should* come off quite easily.. or so I hope.

Thanks for the heads up!

/E

Hi again Erik! Sorry to say that on the Tomcat with TF-30 engines (F-14A) the position of the nozzles with the engine shut off is always the same (and the oposite of that on your kit). AFAIK it is given by wich engine is shut off firstly. You can find a technical explanation about this here:

http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-detail-engine.htm

HTH

Juan

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  • 2 weeks later...

Slight progress has been made to the Persian Cat.

DSC2433-600x398.jpg

As you can see it has received a base coat of tan. To be honest, I when I have added the camouflage pattern, I have no idea what to do next to achieve something that looks like a weather and war beaten aircraft. I guess I'll think of something. The salt method used by other tomcatters out there isn't as correct for the Iranian cats, I think. The photos I have of "Alicats" that are not pristine, looks somewhat different. More faded, slightly patchy, but not patterned like the USN birds.. well, I´ll deal with this when the time comes.

DSC2439-600x398.jpg

I swapped the exhaust nozzles so they are now correct I hope. I also added some panel lines that was missing. I was a bit scared since I am really ham fisted when it comes to scribing. To impatient I guess. But I think they turned out good.

Then I went ahead and did something really wild and crazy..

DSC2438-600x398.jpg

Those inflatable bladders, they seem to have a bit of a texture to them, In several photos it looks like there is a lot of dirt attached to them. On some pictures they appear almost sand coloured. To get a bit of texture, and to have something that the dust (pastels) will stick to, I used surgical tape on the kit part. The wild and crazy part is that I tried to find good close ups of the bladder, and I know I've seen them somewhere. But I could not find any, and I got ahead and used the tape anyway. The bladders need a bit of cleanup, they are only dry fitted in place.

I also sprayed the area of the turbine-stripe red, added a stripe of masking tape, sprayed tan - voila! Red turbine stripe. Unfortunately it doesn't look as straight as I want it to look, but I blame the camera angle..

There is still a long way to go, but apart from getting an even coat of white on the missiles, I think there are only fun parts left to do in this project. Looking forward to the camouflage painting, but that have to wait until I return home. I am presently in the wild and exotic Denmark.. In the home of the small plastic building blocks..

/E

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The wild and crazy part is that I tried to find good close ups of the bladder, and I know I've seen them somewhere. But I could not find any, and I got ahead and used the tape anyway. The bladders need a bit of cleanup, they are only dry fitted in place.

/E

Looking good Erik! Here's a couple of pics to help with those bladders.....

http://data3.primeportal.net/hangar/bill_spidle_f-14d/f-14d_159600_christine_parts/images/f-14d_159600_christine_parts_059_of_354.jpg

http://data3.primeportal.net/hangar/bill_spidle_f-14d/f-14d_159600_christine_parts/images/f-14d_159600_christine_parts_060_of_354.jpg

They and a lot of other F-14 detail pics can be found here:

http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/bill_spidle_f-14d/f-14d_159600_christine_parts/index.php?Page=1

Cheers,

Chuck

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Looks awesome Erik, the fun is just beginning now :woot.gif: I recently seen a build on here where the modeller lightly sanded the base coat to give it a faded look... I think it was a 32nd Flanker build. Good luck with the camo :thumbsup:

/Jesse

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Hi Erik! Your Alicat look awesome now!

About your doubts on how to acheive weather effect on your paint, here are a couple of seggestions: take your base colour (tan in this case) spray some spots and patches on different shades of it. I.E: add a drop of a slightly darker colour to it and with this mix quite diluted spray it freehand over determinated areas of the airframe like panel lines and the area just below the cockpit, the walkways over the intakes and so, to simulate the worn produced by the pilots, ground crew and so... you can do this with one or several variations of the darker shade of the tan. Then you can do the same, but with lighter shadows of the base colour on the areas that are most exposed to the sunlight, i.e. the upper part of the fuselage and the horizantal areas. Again, you must use the mix quite diluted and several variations of it. After taht I would aply a light coat of the base tan, again quite diluted to merge the effect. I would suggest you to try this on a scrap piece of plastic or on any discarded kit that you could have. The key is to try not to have this overdone, so work slowly and judiciously. Of course, you can repeat this with the brown and the green.

Or, if this looks some troublesome to you, you can try to do the same but at a later stage with light applications of pastel chalks.

Dont,t know if my explanation has been enought clear to you, as I think that my english could not be good enougth. Hope this helps, friend. Keep that good work on that bird.

RGDS

Juan

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  • 4 years later...

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