CaptainObvious Posted October 21, 2017 Author Share Posted October 21, 2017 Hey guys, I'll be doing the standard box scheme; VF-84 Jolly Rogers 1979. What would be an appropriate finish for the missiles? Matt or semi gloss? I'll be adding all 3 (sidewinders, sparrow and phoenixes) to the build. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Falconxlvi Posted October 22, 2017 Share Posted October 22, 2017 (edited) Semi-gloss from the looks of the pics - although I’m not 100% sure 😬 Edited October 22, 2017 by Falconxlvi Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CaptainObvious Posted November 13, 2017 Author Share Posted November 13, 2017 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" Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CaptainObvious Posted November 13, 2017 Author Share Posted November 13, 2017 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! 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? 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. Wrap that around 2 cocktail sticks and you get something like this. After cutting off the excess, I super glued the ends together and painted the red portion with a brush. Et viola! I'm pretty happy with how the ejection rings turned out. Not too keen about my figure painting skills though. Good enough from 3 feet away and time to move onto the next task. Painting completed on the bottom half. Top half of the fuselage still to be done. The wings are done though. Thanks for dropping by everyone! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
A-10 LOADER Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 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!" Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Falconxlvi Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 I like the ejection handles too! Thanks for sharing that little “how too”. I think your figures look fine BTW. Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Joel_W Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 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 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CaptainObvious Posted November 15, 2017 Author Share Posted November 15, 2017 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! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CaptainObvious Posted November 15, 2017 Author Share Posted November 15, 2017 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). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CaptainObvious Posted November 15, 2017 Author Share Posted November 15, 2017 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! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crackerjazz Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 Excellent aircrew work, CaptainObvious! Looking forward to more progress shots! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Joel_W Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 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 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shake zula the mic rula Posted November 17, 2017 Share Posted November 17, 2017 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! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CaptainObvious Posted November 18, 2017 Author Share Posted November 18, 2017 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CaptainObvious Posted November 18, 2017 Author Share Posted November 18, 2017 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! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shake zula the mic rula Posted November 19, 2017 Share Posted November 19, 2017 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! 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Peterpools Posted November 24, 2017 Share Posted November 24, 2017 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 Peter Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CaptainObvious Posted November 26, 2017 Author Share Posted November 26, 2017 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 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CaptainObvious Posted December 5, 2017 Author Share Posted December 5, 2017 Hey all, Just a quick update. Painting up the topside. Noticed that I lost the short antenna. Had to scratch one. Finished the paintjob and gloss coated. 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. Decaling next. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bravosierra001 Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 Looking really good. I like the way the ejection seat rings came out. Great idea! Brandon Quote Link to post Share on other sites
delayar Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 This is looking great! Cheers, Markus Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Joel_W Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 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 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JesusNut Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CaptainObvious Posted December 7, 2017 Author Share Posted December 7, 2017 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CaptainObvious Posted December 7, 2017 Author Share Posted December 7, 2017 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! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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