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Yet another 1/48 Tamiya F-14A


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  • 4 weeks later...
On ‎10‎/‎22‎/‎2017 at 11:34 AM, Falconxlvi said:

Semi-gloss from the looks of the pics - although I’m not 100% sure 😬

Thanks Falcon.

It is so hard to tell from pics.

Which is why I'll hedge my bets and go halfway between semi-gloss and matt.
"semi-gloss-matt" :rolleyes:

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Time for an update.
I was working on the pilot and seat combo is from Aerobonus when I read somewhere that the two heads were different in size.
So I had a look and behold!

ITH9IIG.jpg

 

Now that I can't unsee it, I had to dig through the stash for another head.
Fortunately I had one. Don't you just love stashes for occasions like this?

 

Bsalwha.jpg

 

One problem solved and another one to come.
The overhead ejection rings that came with the resin seats were so fragile they broke if you looked at them wrong.
I have never been satisfied painting the black and yellow stripes with either a brush or paint markers.
I just couldn't make them neat enough. So I thought I'd try wrapping black vinyl tape around the kit's rings previously painted yellow.
This proved difficult and my clumsy fingers broke them too.

After taking a few beers to calm down, I hatched a new plan.
I took the thinnest yellow electrical wire that I could find and wrapped that. (The wire was from the "that may be useful one day" stash)

I stuck one end of the vinyl tape to the cutting mat and slowly rolled the wire to the tape.

 

ym09j4P.jpg

 

Wrap that around 2 cocktail sticks and you get something like this.

SVKYSAq.jpg

 

After cutting off the excess, I super glued the ends together and painted the red portion with a brush.
Et viola!

 

yYsAwOh.jpg

 

I'm pretty happy with how the ejection rings turned out.

 

XivFSWd.jpg

 

Not too keen about my figure painting skills though.

 

oCmolwp.jpg

 

YbwzFjD.jpg


Good enough from 3 feet away and time to move onto the next task.

 

Painting completed on the bottom half.

blnjQqi.jpg

 

d8X9wbt.jpg

 

Top half of the fuselage still to be done.

 

HRXQBcc.jpg

 

The wings are done though.

 

BndPPMS.jpg

 

Thanks for dropping by everyone!

 

 

 

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Excellent progress so far, things are starting to take shape. Nice fix for the ejection rings, maybe just a tad too big for the scale but, they look awesome. Looking forward to the next update.

 

Steve

 

"TOMCAT'S FOREVER, BABY!"

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Captain Obvious,

  Now that's progress with a capital P for sure.  Your Black Basing really looks quite good as I'm finding out the hard way that it works well with light colors but poorly with dark colors, and that's over the last two builds. 

 

  I've also struggled with those ejection pull handles, and even in 1/32 scale they're a real bad girl to get right. Your method is just what the doctor ordered, and I'm going to officially adopt it on all of my Jet builds moving forward.  

 

Joel

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On ‎11‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 11:34 PM, A-10 LOADER said:

Excellent progress so far, things are starting to take shape. Nice fix for the ejection rings, maybe just a tad too big for the scale but, they look awesome. Looking forward to the next update.

 

Steve

 

"TOMCAT'S FOREVER, BABY!"

 

Thanks Steve.
I agree on the rings being out of scale. Need to find thinner yellow wire!

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On ‎11‎/‎14‎/‎2017 at 12:42 AM, Falconxlvi said:

I like the ejection handles too!  Thanks for sharing that little “how too”.  I think your figures look fine BTW.  

 

Steve


Thanks for your kind comments Steve.
I've learnt so much from these forums that I'm always happy to contribute my small part (punny).

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On ‎11‎/‎14‎/‎2017 at 2:54 AM, Joel_W said:

Captain Obvious,

  Now that's progress with a capital P for sure.  Your Black Basing really looks quite good as I'm finding out the hard way that it works well with light colors but poorly with dark colors, and that's over the last two builds. 

 

  I've also struggled with those ejection pull handles, and even in 1/32 scale they're a real bad girl to get right. Your method is just what the doctor ordered, and I'm going to officially adopt it on all of my Jet builds moving forward.  

 

Joel


Hi Joel,

 

This is my first time trying black basing and I'm trying to find that balance between letting the underlying effect show or too little color saturation. Gotta learn by doing I guess.

I can see how it can be trickier with darker colors but you seem to be managing it really well with your hellcat. 

 

Thanks for your kind comments about the handles. Coming from you, it is high praise indeed!

 

 

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  While Steve pointed out that the grab handles are a little out of scale, it's a small price to pay for having them look that good. Not sure where to find thinner wire then I have from old computer equipment I still have laying around.

 

Joel

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Great work on the Tomcat, @CaptainObvious

 

What color did you use for the mottling? It looks like either a light ghost grey, or flat white? Man, my eyes aren't what they used to be. 

 

 I'm building a 1/72 Hase F-14A, as a late 70's Sundowners bird. I'm planning on using the same AeroBonus figures too. 

 

Keep up the good work!

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On 11/16/2017 at 5:50 AM, Joel_W said:

  While Steve pointed out that the grab handles are a little out of scale, it's a small price to pay for having them look that good. Not sure where to find thinner wire then I have from old computer equipment I still have laying around.

 

Joel

 

Hey Joel,

 

I did find the wire from computer equipment! If I recall correctly, this was take from the optical head in a DVD reader.

I measured the wire and it's 0.5mm  diameter. So you're probably right in that it would be difficult to find thinner gauge wires.

So along those lines, i was thinking any thin flexible yellow item may work. For example, strands from a yellow brush. 
Needs further investigation.

 

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On 11/18/2017 at 12:16 AM, shake zula the mic rula said:

Great work on the Tomcat, @CaptainObvious

 

What color did you use for the mottling? It looks like either a light ghost grey, or flat white? Man, my eyes aren't what they used to be. 

 

 I'm building a 1/72 Hase F-14A, as a late 70's Sundowners bird. I'm planning on using the same AeroBonus figures too. 

 

Keep up the good work!

 

Thank you shake zula,

 

I used flat white over flat black. But the white was pretty thinned down (>50%) and thus the opacity wasn't there. 
You could probably get away with using any light color as long as you get the desired contrast.

HTH.

I ended up totally crossed eyed from painting the 48th scale figures. I can't imagine doing them in 72nd! :worship:

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12 hours ago, CaptainObvious said:

 

Thank you shake zula,

 

I used flat white over flat black. But the white was pretty thinned down (>50%) and thus the opacity wasn't there. 
You could probably get away with using any light color as long as you get the desired contrast.

HTH.

I ended up totally crossed eyed from painting the 48th scale figures. I can't imagine doing them in 72nd! :worship:

 

Thinned down white, gah now I wish I was further along so I can try that out. Thanks. 

 

Ha, fortunately my work has an Opti-Visor that they won't mind if I borrow over the weekend. That and my worklamp with a built in magnifier should make fairly simple. Key word being should. 

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Co

Terrific progress on the Tomcat - some mighty impressive AB work and the pull curtain rings look fantastic. Sure wish I was building my Tamiya kit rather then the HB version as there is so much to test fit, tinker with and not to mention putty and sanding - which is where I'm at.

Keep 'em coming:thumbsup:

Peter

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Hey Peter,

The Tamiya kit is a great fit all over.

Progress is slow due to some color issues.
If I wanted the black / white mottling to show well, the light gull gray coat comes out a bit brownish and that looks off to me.
Subsequent coats would increase the opacity and the resulting light gull gray looks more accurate to my eye.
However, now the mottling becomes faint. Nonetheless, if I had to choose one over the other, I would prefer color accuracy.

She is a big plane and trying to match opacity levels over the whole fuselage is proving tricky. 

I am pretty new at airbrushing tonal variations and am trying to get a handle on it all. 
I'm having fun learning though, and my confidence levels with the airbrush is improving bit by bit.

Cheers,

co

 

   
 

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  • CaptainObvious changed the title to Yet another 1/48 Tamiya F-14A (updated 05 Dec)

Hey all,

Just a quick update.

Painting up the topside.
hP8Gklr.jpg

 

Noticed that I lost the short antenna. Had to scratch one.

T4VFDh2.jpg

 

Finished the paintjob and gloss coated.

tiXTwIT.jpg

 

The gloss coat wasn't very glossy and I thought I'd give the X-22 a flash coat of Mr Color leveling thinner.

First time I had tried that and I was careful to just flash coat (not wet).

This is how it turned out.
8mJPFSh.jpg

 

Real glossy and shiny! In some places, the flash coat kinda blended the gull gray into the mottle giving it a dirty weathered look.
I didn't expect that but I think I will live with it and move on.

Decaling next.

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On 12/5/2017 at 6:20 AM, CaptainObvious said:

The gloss coat wasn't very glossy and I thought I'd give the X-22 a flash coat of Mr Color leveling thinner.

First time I had tried that and I was careful to just flash coat (not wet).

This is how it turned out.

Real glossy and shiny! In some places, the flash coat kinda blended the gull gray into the mottle giving it a dirty weathered look.
I didn't expect that but I think I will live with it and move on.
 

 

Would you be willing to explain how you do a flash coat?  I am not quite grasping what you are describing.

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On ‎12‎/‎6‎/‎2017 at 10:05 AM, Bravosierra001 said:

Looking really good. I like the way the ejection seat rings came out. Great idea!

 

 

 

 

Brandon

 

22 hours ago, delayar said:

This is looking great!

 

Cheers,

Markus

 

Thanks guys!

This project is more work than I had planned on and your kind comments certainly gives me motivation. 

 

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4 hours ago, Joel_W said:

   I really have to give that flash coat a try rather then just a really thinned out final wet coat. the paint really looks great.

Joel

 

Hey Joel,

 

It is so easy and quick to do that there is little reason not to give it a go.
You can do it in addition to your thinned out final wet coat.

 

I was working on the wings, trying out a light sanding over the final clear coat.

That left it a little dull and I was too lazy to try polishing. Which was why I thought of flash coating it with lacquer thinner.
When that turned out better than I had expected, I proceeded to do same to the fuselage which I had not sanded.

 

The results from both cases were similar enough.

While the results were better with sanding, I will probably skip the step and just flash coat next time.
 
 cheers!

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  • CaptainObvious changed the title to Yet another 1/48 Tamiya F-14A

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