1/48 Hasegawa F-14B

[a4s4eva]

After a pleasant version into a Eduard 109, I'm back on task with this build

The next issue I've come across is the gap between the engine fairings and the beaver tail.

I couldn't find a good image of this area that showed the size of the gap, or if one exists so I've decided to fill it a bit with card.

Aires engines, nice as ever but no one will see it. I really only wanted the exhaust nozzles (maybe that an idea for some resin manufacturer) but since I've bought the whole set I may as well use them. I painted the inners Tamiya XF-2 and then ran a black wash through them. Probably a bit dirty compared to references but, like I said no one will see it.

Lovely PE flame holders, the resin engine rear was nice as well

The fit is pretty good, but not perfect. The resin is a little smaller in diameter than the kit parts so some sanding is required. I finally managed to get a nice join on the Beaver tail as well

I ensured the fit is best at the top with a bit of sanding to done at the bottom

I love this water based putty, especially for gaps like the one between the intake and fuselage

Apply liberally

And wipe of with a wet finger or cotton bud then let dry. Sometimes a repeat application is needed

Another issue with the Hasegawa kit is the length of the vertical stabiliser

But it's easily fixed with a few swipes of the sanding sticks

Edited July 21, 2013 by a4s4eva

[B2Blain]

You are making a difficult kit look easy. I failed on quite a few 1/48 Has Tomcats. I never could figure out the mid body-cockpit join, the intakes, or the engine shrouds. I'm learning a lot. But I am intrigued by the plastic putty. Can you scribe it?

Thanks!

[NavyPhantoms]

Who makes that putty and where is it available?

[brahio]

Who makes that putty and where is it available?

Deluxe Materials

[Kahunaminor]

Who makes that putty and where is it available?

Vallejo also makes a similar product. Have a look here:

http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/en_US/model-paints/auxiliary-products/3

Regards,

[a4s4eva]

Who makes that putty and where is it available?

I got it via ebay, search for perfect plastic putty

[a4s4eva]

You are making a difficult kit look easy. I failed on quite a few 1/48 Has Tomcats. I never could figure out the mid body-cockpit join, the intakes, or the engine shrouds. I'm learning a lot. But I am intrigued by the plastic putty. Can you scribe it?

Thanks!

With a little care and using a micro saw yes you can scribe it.

[a4s4eva]

Slowly getting towards the painting stage, first off Here's a shot staring down the exhaust

Primer on. I've used Mr Surfacer 1200 thinned with Lacquer thinners and sprayed through my airbrush

Another Hasegawa boo boo is the size of the camera pod. It should go all the back to the nose gear bay

The F-14 has a green tinge to the centre panel of the windscreen. I chose to simulate this by airbrushing light coats of Tamiya Clear Green/X 22 Gloss thinned with Mr Color Thinners. This was my first attempt, to many coats so it's to dark. To remove it just use Isopropal Alcohol. This will not damage the plastic.

I know some people have used Future and food colouring but to be honest I've never had any success with this method. Just spraying the clear paint on the canopies is easier and works just as well

Here is the second attempt. Maybe a bit light. The hardest part is not getting any dust on it. I painted it on the inside of the windscreen as it should be less likely to get damaged during the rest of the build.

Pre shading, I'm not usually a fan of this, but the F-14 did get quite dirty, and light grey overcoat should mean I can get a decent result.

[Brian P: Fightertown Decals]

Looks fantastic! Can't wait to see more. Have you decide on markings yet? I would love to see VF-102... But if you go with 103, I have to ask why you would go with the kit decals over Fightertown. The kit decals have some spelling errors and iirc don't have the lighter yellow victory stripe on one side. The Fightertown sheet contains every marking that was on the jet. Although, I would recommend using sheet 48040 over 48017. Can't remember if we still used the 2-part decals on 48017 but those are a pain. .

[jimz66]

I agree with Brian if you do 103 use his decals NOT Hasegawa's there no were near as nice... EXCELLENT JOB :jaw-dropping: :jaw-dropping: :jaw-dropping:

[a4s4eva]

I am going with 103 (wife's call). I fully intend to use the Fightertown set. The Hasegawa ones are for emergencies only

Edited July 30, 2013 by a4s4eva

[The_Animal]

Calum, great job on this Cat. Been watching the build intently. It may even give me some cojones to start working on the Hasegawa 1/48 Cat in my collection. Hase's have been renowned for their finickiness and fit from what I hear...and I'm not looking forward to the beavertail aft.

[jimz66]

YOu can use the stencil stuff from Hasegawa but use MOST of the stuff from FT. Great work...

[parche]

Awesome work, can't wait to see how it finishes up. Your work on the cockpit was beautiful.

Cheers,

Dave

[nimrod77]

As always, great work Calum :-)

[a4s4eva]

Been a while since I've updated this , so here goes

Happy enough the with finish that I can move onto the next stage. I've used the Mr Color and Mr Hobby Paints, called out in the instructions for the base coats. The other "50 Shades of Grey" are Mr Color, Mr Hobby and Tamiya from my extensive collection of grey paints.

Before I do the back I have to fill the windscreen. I used normal cement, applied carefully to secure the windscreen. I'll used Perfect Plastic Putty to fill the gaps

Hours of masking, for 2 mins spraying - Still what choice do you have, its the only way to get the a good finish.

The Black is Tamiya NATO Black decanted from the Aerosol can and sprayed though my airbrush.

A few touch ups were needed after the masking came off. Particularly the rear of the black , which wasn't symmetrical

Masked out the wheel wells, this took another 60 mins but worth it as I got a nice finish. After this dried I applied a black Wash. I couldn't be bothered going to town in there. Very little will be seen.

At the same time as masking the wheel wells I did the step wells.

[nimrod77]

Looking good Calum :-) Are you coming up to QMHE this year?

[a4s4eva]

Looking good Calum :-) Are you coming up to QMHE this year?

I wish I could, but no. To busy with other stuff

[a4s4eva]

Looking OK . Time to do the yellow (I hate painting yellow) and fit the clear anti col's

Yellow on. I used Mr Hobby RLM 04 as an undercoat with Mr Color FS13538 over the top. The anti Col lights are red resin super glued in and sanded to fit. The Hasegawa clear parts didn't fit

More grey shades and a test fit of the wings

Fitted the upper and lower position lights and painted with Tamiya Clear enamels. I've used enamels because as the base coat is lacquer/ acrylics I can easily wipe them off with white sprits if I stuff it up.

Painted the EW antennas with a mixture of Tan and flesh (on the wing leading edge) The underside ones were brush painted with Vallejo Iraqi Sand. These vary in colour depending on the age so I didn't sweat the colour. In fact these look a little to uniform. I may mess them up a bit later.

I need to paint a silver ring on the rear of the exhaust shrouds.. Not looking forward to this masking attempt. I may attempt to brush paint it with model master enamel paint. The Fuel dump tube was brush painted with Vallejo flat red

Fitted the Arrestor hook assembly, however I've managed to break it on the line where I'd cut it it to shorten it.

Another shot of the underside

And finally, the finished, for now, Aires exhaust Nozzles. These were painted with Alclad Pale burnt metal mixed with some Duralumin to try and reduce gold colour of the pale burnt metal. Then there was a marathon masking sessions to mask out the black paints with were painted with Tamiya Nato Black. The white ceramic is Tamiya XF2 flat white (is there a better white paint? If so I haven't found it) and a thin black wash was applied.

[a4s4eva]

Bit of a catch up here

Decals complete, this took about 8 hours spread over 5 to 6 evenings

All decals went down well, except the 2 big diagonals on each side , which wrinkled badly. No amount of decal softener has helped. Ive never ever experienced this from Fightertown / Mircoscale before. Unfortunately you cant see how bad it is in this photo

This side is just as bad. I'm not getting a warm and fuzzy about this

The same wrinkling affected the 2 drop tanks. These and the diagonals on the fuselage were the first decals I applied, And I used Microset/softener of those, but I used The Gunze Mr Sol/set and Tamiya Mark Fit on the others

I painted the silver ring with Model Master Chrome Silver

Edited September 27, 2013 by a4s4eva

[a4s4eva]

Here's some better photos after a clear coat. I was hoping (foolishly) the clear coat, which was Gaianotes Lacquer, was going to 'smooth things out. Unfortunately it made it worse.

The Drop tanks are OK, I managed to smooth the worst of wrinkles out, plus the worst bits are on the so they won't be seen.

[a4s4eva]

The repair commences. First a little sanding to smooth things out

Same on this side. But then I thought , why not try and scrape the decal off.

Bad move. Now I have a trench to fill. This photo shows the first application of Alclad Spray Primer. I like this stuff for filling gaps when doing repairs like this. It dries fast, sands easily and spraying it makes it easier to flare in.

After what happened on the other side, I decided to just sand this side. I did scrape the stars and bars off earlier when attempting to replace the black section with a black parts from the kit decal sheet. But this wasn't successful.

Here we are after a careful sanding session> I used a Flory Models sanding sponge, I really like these for sanding as they take off a decent bit of material but leave a a nice smooth finish.

I think I'll need another thin primer coat, just to fill those last few depressions and then I can touch up the paint. I couldn't find either of the 2 Fightertown decal sheets that depict this jet so I've ordered a Jasime Models Sheet with this jet on it from eBay. I wonder if maybe they are knock offs of the Fightertown sheets, but I'm not prepared to strip the aircraft right back and do another jet at this late stage. They do appear to have each of the diagonals in different yellows which is correct. So I'm hoping they are usable.

[a4s4eva]

Whilst waiting for the decals to arrive I progressed the repair to a point where it's ready for re-decalling

Here it is prior to another gloss coat

Now gloss coated

I fixed the Arrestor Hook and added some Chaff and Flares to the CDS

I applied a light grey wash to the blacj parts

I received some replacement decals from a member here (thanks Bill) But unfortunately these, like my original set, are way out of the registration. I did notice it on my original set but figured I'd just got a bad run. But as you can see below this one is pretty bad, perhaps this is why I had troubles. The other side is not as bad, but still not really what I've come to expect from Fightertown.

I've tried to trim this one up to fix it, but I don't think it'll work out.

I'm going to wait for the Jasime Models sets to come and see what they are like

Edited September 29, 2013 by a4s4eva

[Rodney]

Nice recovery on the decal issue. Otherwise, your F-14 is coming along great!

Rodney

[a4s4eva]

Whilst waiting for the replacement decals there was time to do the weapons

Sidewinder is from the Tamiya F-16, the Snurf (yellow cap) is from Dr Pepper. Decals are from the Tamiya kit as well. The Lightning pod is from the Wolfpack set as is the LAU

The GBU-12 is from the Tamiya kit. The Weapons from the Tamiya F-16 are the best available in 1/48 IMHO

I did break the seeker heads and droop them slightly, Plus using some stippled Mr Surfacer to add the USN Ablative costing. The coating on the more modern bombs doesn't seem to be as rough as the earlier 1990's ones.

These the Royale Resin Wheels. Always my first choice for Jet wheels

These are kit legs, I was going to to use the SAC white metal ones but the detail on them was rubbish, plus I broke the nose gear. Hopefully they'll hold the kit without bowing.

I added some hydraulic lines and electrical looms. Not accurate but they add some interest to the legs

The silver parts of the oleo's are Chrome self adhesive bare metal silver

Here are the assemblies. The wheels aren't glued in as yet. I'll wait until the legs are in the aircraft before gluing .