JUMP'N JASPER JONES!! ITS ANOTHER MUDHEN

[dublg]

I would like to know how you shrunk a real F-15 down that small. Simply amazing!

[.linus]

linus, just finished reading through your build blog. Absolutely amazing work. Your painting and weathering is by far the best I've ever seen. Since I'm no fan of pre-shading as it rarely looks realistic, your post shading technique really opened my eyes to what careful planning and execution can produce. Your natural metal finishes are so realistic it's just plain scary, especially those cans. The time and effort you spent on them is rarely seen, but the results are more then worth the effort.

Really looking forward to your next update.

Joel

Wow! Thank you so much Joel! I've seen your posts on other builds, and man, i think you're probably the most incouraging person on here! i really appreciate the complements. this was my first try going the non preshading reute i got the idea from this build by juan villegas. http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=28272&st=0

it blew my freaking mind when i saw how solid of a painter he was. Definately check it out!

for the metal surfaces, this is were i got the idea: http://www.network54.com/Forum/657050/message/1260922658/Proceso+de+pintura+aluminio+mate-+Fw+190+A8+%26quot%3B69+blanco

its by diego quijano. i had to use google translate to read it but i learned a lot from it. I experimented with his technique some and figured out what worked best for me. one thing that i've learned for this was that i probably will primary use the only high-shine alclad finishs for doing larger metal surfaces. once weathered down they really look good. they maintain a slight reflective glare but dirty up really nicely. i was never able to get the same effect using the none shine finishes.

As far as the cans. it was a part of my past builds that i really neglected. And i thought this is something i want to be really good at. so i took some spare cans from my previous sets and just experimented until i worked it out.

Edited March 6, 2014 by .linus

[.linus]

I would like to know how you shrunk a real F-15 down that small. Simply amazing!

haha thanks man!

[.linus]

okay so it's time for another updated. i've gotten a few things done here and there. It's mostly little things, and it's the little things that can really help transform a model. The little things can also really wear on your patience. haha

first things first , the tail hook is complete and ready to attach.

the wing pylons are complete and ready to add launchers.

i'm particularley proud of this. I call it the "whatever you call it vent". i scavenged decals from an old kit to make the labels that are mounted under it.

work has started on the seats. This is the WSO seat. The base is finished and i'm about to start working on the cushions and harness. i did some minor detail on the back. Most of it will be covered so i didn't spend much time on it. I drilled out and added a styrene rod for the piston that runs down the back of the seat.

And lastly , work is almost complete on the CFT bomb racks . this is the last of the group so i thought i would show the process on it. theres a huge gap between where the launcher meets the support. that gap doesn't exist on the real aircraft, so i used some .005 styrene rod to fill the gap. I sanded it down and voila! Additional work will be posted on these later.

that's it for the night!

[Joel_W]

.linus,

That's not what I would call a small update. You did a lot of work. Your seat detailing really came out great. Nice, sharp, and well defined details. Both your pylons and bomb racks look like the effort and time was well worth it.

Joel

[.linus]

.linus,

That's not what I would call a small update. You did a lot of work. Your seat detailing really came out great. Nice, sharp, and well defined details. Both your pylons and bomb racks look like the effort and time was well worth it.

Joel

hahah , you're right i guess, its not that small. thanks for the kind words joel!

okay finished the last CFT bomb rack. there ya go.

and the underside

i'll post more later tonight.

Edited March 12, 2014 by .linus

[Check Six]

okay so it's time for another updated. i've gotten a few things done here and there. It's mostly little things, and it's the little things that can really help transform a model. The little things can also really wear on your patience. haha

And lastly , work is almost complete on the CFT bomb racks . this is the last of the group so i thought i would show the process on it. theres a huge gap between where the launcher meets the support. that gap doesn't exist on the real aircraft, so i used some .005 styrene rod to fill the gap. I sanded it down and voila! Additional work will be posted on these later.

that's it for the night!

Man; I can't believe I missed that on my W.I.P.

Thanks for sharing. I have to go back and make the mods.

Luckily I'm still in pre-primer stage though.

[.linus]

Man; I can't believe I missed that on my W.I.P.

Thanks for sharing. I have to go back and make the mods.

Luckily I'm still in pre-primer stage though.

no problem!. After i finished mine, i noticed that there are two slats that stick out from the back between the rack and the CFTS. oh well. haha

Okay, i feel like its time for a general progress report on this thing. Sometimes you just have to take a step back and look at where you're at, to know where you need to go next. So, here we go:

wing pylon launches are finished. On the jet i'm building. there is some chipping on the inner supports so i took the liberty of adding that as well.

clear sprue was cut down , melted and shaped to make the formation lights on the twin tales. The left was touched with a bit of smoke, and the right with clear red

here's a look at the nozzles installed. i promise this is the last of the nozzles for a while. haha sorry for nozzle over kill. they were really fun to work on.

and here are a few random shots of the bird.

now the inner bomb racks!! this thing is going to be the death of me. haha

have a good night

[Check Six]

Looks great !

Thanks for sharing the progress pics.

[Joel_W]

.linus,

Nice touch on the formation lights. Post all the pictures of your exhaust cans you want, they're amazing. Hope that my 1st effort looks something like them. (I'm a long time WW11 modeler, building his 1st jet)/. Really appreciate the overall pictures. Paint and weathering is just outstanding.

Joel

[.linus]

Looks great !

Thanks for sharing the progress pics.

thanks again Check Six!

.linus,

Nice touch on the formation lights. Post all the pictures of your exhaust cans you want, they're amazing. Hope that my 1st effort looks something like them. (I'm a long time WW11 modeler, building his 1st jet)/. Really appreciate the overall pictures. Paint and weathering is just outstanding.

Joel

Thanks Joel, then i'm going to go back , and replace all of my previous pics with just burner can shots haha! I'm sure your phantom is going to be awesome! you're off to a really great start. BTW do you have a link to the Avenger you have shown on your comment post? It looks REALLY good and i want to check it out. i tried searching for it but couldn't come up with anything.

okay , back again for more. i haven't shown much of the underbelly of this beast yet so here's where we are:

the weathering of the metal surfaces are finished. there are 2 vents that come out from the back of the CFT's-i haven't completed those yet. Don't worry i didn't forget about them.

here are a couple of shots of different launcher positions. I've posted previous shots of the center line pylon prior to paint. That section will be empty so i took extra liberty in sprucing it up.

the main CFT pylons are complete. they haven't been attached yet. You may notice the darker areas in the middle. I didn't bother rebuilding that section as they will be covered once the bombs are attached. However enough of the part will be visible. So , so i painted these areas to give the illusion that the section is hollowed out where the launchers would be.

ps. you'll notice i haven't painted the flare and chaff dispensers yet. this will be taken care of at a later time

And finally . the seats are complete and ready for installation. i didn't have a very good way to replicate the wool seat cover on the one seat so i just painted it black and weather it to look like it. I saw several different strategies to replicate that effect, but i just didn't like the overall outcome.

have a good night!

[Just4kiks]

Nice,i love the tone of the green of the seats

[.linus]

Nice,i love the tone of the green of the seats

Thanks man! It was really trial and error to find the right green. I think I went over it several times before I felt right about it.

[.linus]

seats installed and ready to go!

and a view inside the cockpit

[chuck540z3]

Hi Linus.

I have not followed your build because I'm not a huge F-15 fan, but your build is gorgeous! Really nice work and the bare metal parts look very real. Great job.

One small suggestion which is super easy to do, might be to tone down the outline of the refuelling markings with Tamiya pastels, because right now they jump out at you as too bright and clean. 10 seconds of pastel work and your build will be perfect- again, great job!

Chuck

[JesniF-16]

Sorry I haven't replied in awhile, but linus, the paintwork on the airframe is just right... I hope to achieve a similar look on my 32nd. I must add that the exhaust and the hot metal area really really looks nice, hats off to you man! I'm really jealous, all I can do is think about modeling a Mudhen, since I don't have any time to build right now

/Jesse

[Joel_W]

Linus,

Your NM on the belly by the exhausts really looks so realistic with so many slight variations of Aluminum. Really learning quite a lot while following your build.

Joel

[.linus]

Hi Linus.

I have not followed your build because I'm not a huge F-15 fan, but your build is gorgeous! Really nice work and the bare metal parts look very real. Great job.

One small suggestion which is super easy to do, might be to tone down the outline of the refuelling markings with Tamiya pastels, because right now they jump out at you as too bright and clean. 10 seconds of pastel work and your build will be perfect- again, great job!

Chuck

hey thanks chuck! You're right. it is a little too strong comparative to the tone of the rest of the aircraft. i took your advise and used some pastels to tone it down slightly. Also, when i went back over some ref. pics of this particular jet, i noticed that the entire panel from the refueling port forward was a slightly different color than everything else, so that needs to be corrected too. thanks for bringing that to my attention or i would have never noticed it!

Sorry I haven't replied in awhile, but linus, the paintwork on the airframe is just right... I hope to achieve a similar look on my 32nd. I must add that the exhaust and the hot metal area really really looks nice, hats off to you man! I'm really jealous, all I can do is think about modeling a Mudhen, since I don't have any time to build right now

/Jesse

wow, thanks jesse! i completely understand the no time thing. My son is just now old enough to take solid several hour naps so i have a little more time to do things these days. i'm sure you're mudhen is going to really turn out great when you're able to get to it again, there is so much more you can do in that scale. it's kind of intimidating haha

Linus,

Your NM on the belly by the exhausts really looks so realistic with so many slight variations of Aluminum. Really learning quite a lot while following your build.

Joel

hey thanks joel! i'm glad you like it. I feel like the metal sections are so hard to get to look right , and i was sweating bullets the whole time i was weathering that section down. It's a really easy section to over do. surprisingly though, there were several things i did that originally i thought were mistakes, but later realized to work in my favor later.

[.linus]

work has started on the an/aaq-13 & an/aaq-33 sniper pod. btw sorry these photos kinda suck. my good camera battery is charging so i used my phone, and bad lighting.

for the lens on the front of the an/aaq-13 i used a thin gold sheet behind the clear part i might later hit it with a thin layer of clear orange. not quite sure yet.

the sniper pod is a mash-up between the academy rear unit which looks more like the real thing, and the hasegawa head unit from the hasegawa e-set. i gave it a few add on's .I drilled out the lense area and this will be replaced once painted. i've got a pretty cool idea for this. i can't wait to show it!

[HOLMES]

Linus. .

One of the BEST Mudhen builds I have seen.

AWESOME work. .

[.linus]

Linus. .

One of the BEST Mudhen builds I have seen.

AWESOME work. .

:yahoo:/>

Wow! Thanks Holmes! I don't really know how I compare to all the awesome "e's" on here, but I know it's the best I've personally built so far. And that's good enough for me. Thanks for the encouragement!

[SERNAK]

Can't say much about this build. The result speaks for itself!!!!

I can only seat and enjoy it!!!!!!!!

Cheers for this excellent build

[.linus]

Can't say much about this build. The result speaks for itself!!!!

I can only seat and enjoy :popcorn:/>/> it!!!!!!!!

Cheers for this excellent build :cheers:/>/>

thanks SERNAK! i'm glad you're enjoying it!

well this is shaping up to be one of those builds where things just click, and I'm so excited with how things are turning out . I just began work on the aim-9m's. My attention to detail in the ordinance area has been pretty lacking in the past. usually by the time i get to this point i'm just ready to be done, and i don't spend the neccesary time on them that i should. i made a point that when i started this build, that i was going to really go for it on every aspect and to have something to be proud of. so here we go knuckling down on the weapons, and there are a lot of them.

so this is hands down my best attempt at the getting the seeker heads as close to the original as i can in this scale. i'm really stoked to see them on the finished product. i mask the tip and sprayed alclad chrome first thin dipped the tip into a small dish of alclad magnesium. once dried i made a light mix of tamiya kaki w/ buff and dipped the seeker . once that was dry just the seeker tip was dipped into a thin layer of future to give it that glossy translucent look.

the entire front assembly was painted with a mix of alclad jet exhaust w/ tamiya kaki . i then masked the fines and sprayed them dark aluminum mixed w/ jet exhaust. Modelmasters chrome enamel was used for the highlights on the fins. most directions call for black or steel. but from a majority of reference photos as well as from photos of the jet i'm building . this color combo more closely represented what i saw.

the base of the missile is model masters light ghost grey, as the dark ghost grey was just too dark for this scale. highlights have not been completed yet. this is just the base color

[Falconxlvi]

The colors of the 9M guidance section and fins are spot on! The chrome highlights on the fins really capture the worn look of the real deal. Well done and I can't wait to see what's next!

Steve

[Joel_W]

Linus, when I 1st looked at the Aim-9m, it didn't grab my attention because I'm a WW11 guy at heart, and all this fancy technology is a real learning experience for me. But after reading what you said, I went back and really took a good long look. Excellent modeling skills are just staring right at me. Just an outstanding job on that head.

Joel