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Top Gun 1986 F-14A (Tamiya 1/48 - in-flight twin build))


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Hehe...I follow Doog too 🙂

Brian always knows his stuff....I would be lost without his insights!

 

looks good, generic mottling is great to do free handed, the template is useful for salt stains in a post shade.

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Thanks, Aigore, he's a blessing to the modeling community.  Sernak, hi!  Yes painting sure is complicated.    And just when I feel like I'm getting a handle on it, it teaches me a lesson and screws something up.   The only thing I could do is keep at it and try harder.    I admire you guys on your painting skills.   I think I'm overthinking it at the moment but I hope to reach a point where I wouldn't have to worry everytime I sit down at the spraybooth.

 

My goal is to be able to recreate those subtle modulations in color, like what you see on the rear stabilizer.  Funny how this is what we as modelers, see.   I wonder if pilots even look at the colors.   I would like to imagine they occasionally look at them, decide they're not weathered enough and instruct the ground crew not to clean them too much, haha.

 

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Note the subtle color tones/variations on the fuse.  When viewed from afar and at 1/48 scale they do look like the effect Doog (or is it Doogs) is able to recreate with his marbling.  I'm just engrossed with being able to get the same effect, at this stage.  

 

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Seems like the modex numbers keep switching between the planes : )

 

Some before and afters:

 

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I just used Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 from the rattle can  because  I was trying to thin Mr. Surfacer 1500 -- the bottle version-- and was having a difficult time thinning it enough while preserving opaqueness.   I also read Mr. Surfacer putty is notorious for shrinkage.  So I repurposed the information -- if that's what it does then their primer should be good for preserving panel lines.   It does seem to preserve panel lines better than Tamiya primer.   I sometimes get orange peel from Tamiya primer but not with Mr. Surfacer 1500.   Coverage is nice and smooth and makes light work of black-basing.  It seems to stick to the plastic better, too, as I notice it's harder to strip using Tamiya lacquer thinner. 

 

Hope this second attempt goes better.   But if it doesn't go too well I'll settle for whatever results I get.  I'm sure they'll still look good, somehow.   I'll be happy as long as I've got two patchy F-14s.   If I can't paint,  I can't paint : ) 

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11 hours ago, crackerjazz said:

I think I'm overthinking it at the moment

 

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It is better known as "procrastination" AND believe me I am also full of it!!! Unfortunately, this can take you back on your progress even days!

 

By the way, I have never seen this photo before. Where did you get it? From the grain I can see that is probably from a magazine or a book.....?

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11 hours ago, crackerjazz said:

I also read Mr. Surfacer putty is notorious for shrinkage.

So, that's why I see "cracks" on the paint and in some cases on the decals. Man, I'm still learning !!!!!

 

So, what is it good for if it causes shrinkage? Only for dioramas?

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25 minutes ago, SERNAK said:

So, that's why I see "cracks" on the paint and in some cases on the decals. Man, I'm still learning !!!!!

Hmm, I never thought about it that way.  All I cared about was that it would hug the surface and details making for a smoother finish and not flood the panel lines.   But if it would continue to contract it makes sense that it would create cracks on the paint and decals.  I better let it sit for a couple of days then before doing any further work.   How long did you let yours dry?  I would've used the Gaianotes black I was using earlier but I couldn't seem to recreate the magic thinning ratio that worked for me initially so it's not covering right.

 

39 minutes ago, SERNAK said:

By the way, I have never seen this photo before. Where did you get it? From the grain I can see that is probably from a magazine or a book.....?

It's from this article about Top Gun production/cinematography.    By the way, one of the things I like about the original Top Gun movie is the colors.   Some movies have a bluish hue to them that can be tiring to watch but Top Gun's colors are nice and warm -- like pictures from an old Life magazine : )  

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Pretty much all putties used for modeling these days shrink, that's why you have to go back and add multiple coats later. This is one of the big reasons I use gel CA for all my gap filling. Plus, when you hit it with accelerator, you can sand right away.

As for the Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500, it's all I use for primer these days, a 1:1 mix with Mr. Color Leveling thinner yields excellent results.

Steve

"TOMCATS FOREVER, BABY...!"

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2 hours ago, crackerjazz said:

How long did you let yours dry?  I would've used the Gaianotes black I was using earlier but I couldn't seem to recreate the magic thinning ratio that worked for me initially so it's not covering right.

 

It's from this article about Top Gun production/cinematography.    By the way, one of the things I like about the original Top Gun movie is the colors.   Some movies have a bluish hue to them that can be tiring to watch but Top Gun's colors are nice and warm -- like pictures from an old Life magazine : )  

I had a Spitfire painted and applied the decals approximately 3 years ago, and last May when I finally decided to finish it I noticed that the paint underneath was full of cracks, including the decals. I remember that the paint was let to dry for two weeks before I applied the gloss varnish.

 

Somebody had told me that if I use the Levelling thinner to thin the Mr Surfacer 1500 I could get a smooth result and I thought this could work but apparently it didn't.

 

The same thing happened to another kit that had bigger decals, the Hasegawa's Fuji T-1. Decals and varnish: full of cracks. So, I guess I'm not going to be using anymore the Mr Surfacer as a primer but instead I will buy the Mr Finishing Surfacer rattle can.

 

Now, regarding the movie if I remember correctly they did use filters on the upper side of the cameras, but I think it was only for some scenes. 

 

The first (and the only) TOPGUN was a quality movie even with its hypothetical aspects about the school (marketing stuff!!). The one Tom is trying to make (well, its actually finished) and promote is a ...... well, I don't want to say, you get my drift. My main disagreement is that there cannot be a sequence (well, at least not now, perhaps twenty years ago,....) because simply the school with its former role does not exist anymore. It has adjusted to the current circumstances and it is also relocated (unfortunately). As for the heavy dependence on CGI.... Come on, really?. Anyhow, that's just my opinion, maybe it has to do with my age and my generation. 

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I did the gunship gray mottling...

 

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It's a combination of templates and freehand.   I wanted to do all freehand but it's taking too long and my freehand ones tend to become less random.  But where I used templates I still softened the edges as much as I could.  The work took about 16 hours and my neck and right shoulder are really sore.    And the strange thing about it is everytime I close my eyes now, my mind starts visualizing a black background being sprayed with gray mottling in real time.   I'm literally starting to dream about this!  : )

 

I'm wondering if the canopy seals worked.  I just used little snakes of blue tac.   I 'd be heartbroken if i see the flight crew covered in black and gray.  I hope, too, that the canopy masking did it's job right.    I stripped these things a good number of times I hope no paint or thinner seeped under the masks.   

 

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Can't wait to start spraying over these.   I need to try to finish soon because I do all my painting in the garage and I'm trying to get all the painting done before the cold sets in.    By the way, in regard to the walkway color they really seem sand-colored, don't they?  I wonder if they're unique to the movie F-14s?

 

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 In some movie stills they take on a cloudy edge (probably due to motion blur?)   But it seems they're really sharp-edged.   

Edited by crackerjazz
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5 hours ago, crackerjazz said:

By the way, in regard to the walkway color they really seem sand-colored, don't they?  I wonder if they're unique to the movie F-14s?

 

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Perhaps you could use Gunze's Off-White with some raw umber oil wash to replicate the effect?

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Those walkways are 36440 gull gray. It appears quite sandy when put next to the ghost greys. They are not the norm but also not uncommon on f14s. 

 

What is unusual for VF-111 jets which is were some of the movie jets came from, is the walkways are a lot wider than most squadrons and seperated into either 3 or 4 large squares. 

Edited by tomthegrom
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The walkways should be four separate sections with the breaks corresponding with the panels lines. The breaks are so the non-skid is not painted over the fasteners for the walkway relay panels. They will have hard edges since the area was masked off with masking tape and the non-skid applied with a roller.

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They look awesome. Great reference pics too. The cans are superb. You also had a Hasegawa version of a similar scene going on too IIRC. I hope you haven't given up on that. That was incredible also, and particularly all the tricks you had shared with the cans. 

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Thanks, Janissary!  Oh, that was an abandoned project -- they're gone : )    They were pretty much built, actually.   But when I glued on the canopy and started seeing specks of dust clinging to the glass from the inside and couldn't do anything about them I had to throw my hands up and learned my lesson never to glue canopies again.   The advent of the Tamiya kit sealed the deal for me and I just washed my hands of the Hasegawa Tomcat.  But looking back I do regret tossing them.

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Worked on Iceman's tomcat:

 

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Love these stabs with polycaps you can just swap them around.

 

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Now I have two patchy Tomcats : )     Onto the top painting again -- which I found a bit tricky.    I may have to make some stencils to make it easier to do the touched-up panels as my initial free-hand attempt didn't work out too well. 

Edited by crackerjazz
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Hi Aigore, yes, I'm gonna stick to it till the very end  : )  I was fighting the urge to pause the build  -- and you know me.  A pause for me is like taking a sabbatical leave.  Mr. Brush Brutalizer, thanks!   We've got the black-basing fans to thank for that  -- they influenced me to give it a try.

 

The wife has warned me not to install the paintbooth in the house,  even in the basement.  It's her nose -- it's like a CO2 detector.  She complains about the smell even if I can't detect anything.   Or maybe it's because my sense of smell is shot : )    I was planning to install a wooden panel on the window with a pipe for attaching the spraybooth hose to but she got wind of it.  It's a no-go so I'll have to continue painting in the cold garage.  That was the reason I wanted to put this on the backburmer but knowing myself, doing that will put the build on hold forever : )  

 

I've started copying the panel touchups from the movie stills.   Just wanted to see how the painted Tomcats look mounted, but there's lots more to do as far as panel touchups and weathering.  My F-14s are like chameleons.   They change color depending on the background.   Sometimes they're gray, but against a warm background color they're decidedly blue  : )   Or is it my S6 canera that does that.

 

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There's a spot of dark ghost gray on the floor.  This morning I was trying to compare MRP and Mr Color ghost gray shades when I tipped the bottle of Mr Color and emptied it onto my clothing.   So it's gonna be MRP all the way.

Edited by crackerjazz
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Great work so far! Looking really cool,

I feel your pain with the paint spill, did the same when I was young! Only, it was flat green on my parents beige carpet 😲

And as we creep closer to Christmas get togethers, that little story will make its usual appearance around the table!😁

Andy

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4 hours ago, crackerjazz said:

The wife has warned me not to install the paintbooth in the house,  even in the basement.  It's her nose -- it's like a CO2 detector.  She complains about the smell even if I can't detect anything.   Or maybe it's because my sense of smell is shot : ) 

I thought I was alone with that problem 🙂

Your progress is looking great. I can't wait to see the end result, this is going to be awesome. So don't you dare stop 🙂

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On 10/24/2021 at 2:08 AM, ExchefAndy said:

..Only, it was flat green on my parents beige carpet 😲...

Ok that's a little bit harder for Tamiya lacquer thinner to erase  : )   Hey, how's your F-14 build coming along?

 

On 10/24/2021 at 4:00 AM, Red Dog said:

I thought I was alone with that problem 🙂

 

Thanks, Red Dog! I'm looking for a sealed paint booth that will leak zero VOC paint fumes and will make it a joy to paint in wintertime inside the warm cozy confines of the house : )  Another solution is moving to acrylic paints but I still love my lacquer :(

 

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Amen to MRP for silky-smooth finishes : )   Wives don't care about nice painting results, don't they?   She saw the touched-up panels on the F-14s and said something about how awful my work was.  I told her they're supposed to look like that -- like a scrap-merchant's prized find.   That paintjob is a head-turner for F-14 enthusiasts -- and she walked away.

 

Do you think something like these would work?  Maybe I can attach a high-CFM Dayton squirrel cage fan on one of these things?  

Headquake's Bronco build

Sandblasting cabinet

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