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Kinetic 1/48 F/A-18C VFA-151 In-Progress


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That CAG scheme is on the Two Bobs sheet as well. I wanted a low viz scheme for this one. I’m trying to decide for the 1/32 bird. USMC has been a thought. Plenty of good hi-viz schemed too. I just don’t know.

 

What kit is that for the Vigilantes CAG bird?

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13 hours ago, ESzczesniak said:

I also started to work a bit more on the pilot.  I am not good at figures, but trying to get better so they don't detract from the final product.  First and foremost, I have realized that no "flesh" paint I have seen every seams even close.  They are too pale and pink.  Guess paint color makers must not go out in the sun very much.  So I stripped off the old Vallejo "flesh" and sprayed Tamiya Buff. 

 

This is where he stands currently.  Unfortunately a bit out of focus, but it's starting to be acceptable I think.  Won't win any awards, but since a lot of the tutorials I'm reading for 1/35 figures have advocated for flesh color, dry brush, wash and done...this may not be bad.

 

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ES,

At this scale, I just use the Tamiya dry pastels (black or brown) your choice. I use

a brush dipped in water and apply it to the face. The excess is removed with a dry

Q-Tip and it just highlights the facial features. Give it a try and see what you think.

If you don't like the results, it comes off with just water. If you do, seal it and you're

done!

 

Here's a 1/48 Corsair and pilot I did using the same technique described.

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48498887712_ab5c70067a_b.jpg

Edited by The Underdog
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16 hours ago, speedlimit said:

ES, 

You can still carefully sand it, prime and paint that area. Also check the jet you are making. Might not have the IFF bird slicer in front.

 

Well, I did it!  I hope I don't regret it.  I certainly have learned sometimes in the past that the enemy of good is better.  But I hate knowing there are errors in a build as well (I'm sure there still will be, but as long as everything I know is correct). 

 

I'm finding most without, but some with, the bird slicer.  So I'm going to leave that one.  I can't find a specific airframe clearing showing the nose on this one, so I'm going with similar time period VFA-151 photos in general. 

Edited by ESzczesniak
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Love the Hornet. Great paintjob. I admire people who take their time to paint the model. I tired black basing and mottling once, it was fun, but took like 3 or 4 painting sessions to finish.

Neat idea with painting the grilles on the intakes. I use decals in 1/72 scale. Would probably work in 1/48 too.

One question though. You plan on doing the lo-vis version. But You applied the tail decals temporarily. I never tried it that way, as I thought I could not re-apply them on a model. Are they usable again?

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16 minutes ago, Thadeus said:

...One question though. You plan on doing the lo-vis version. But You applied the tail decals temporarily. I never tried it that way, as I thought I could not re-apply them on a model. Are they usable again?

 

No, they're definitely not usable again.  The sheet were $3.00 on clearance at Two Bobs, so I have 3 sets.  This means I had some decals to spare for testing.

Edited by ESzczesniak
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It looks like the bird slicers are coming off too.  The more I look, for period appropriate pictures, I'm not sure I'm seeing any bird slicers.  In their later markings on a later cruise, I can find some (but not many).  But it looks like these birds at this time may not have had them.

 

As for painting sessions...3-4 sounds great!  I was on 16 "shades of gray" for the basic colors (a couple repeat colors due to the split bottom, then top work), spread over 20+ airbrushing sessions.  Now I'm patching a couple areas, although I expect this to be much more efficient since I can work on both at the same time, and there's minimal panel lines for preshading.  Perhaps I can get this done in 3ish sessions once primed. 

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1 hour ago, ESzczesniak said:

 

No, they're definitely not usable again.  The sheet were $3.00 on clearance at Two Bobs, so I have 3 sets.  This means I had some decals to spare for testing.

Ah, shame. I was hoping it was my ignorance. Would be great if I could just reapply them after quick test application. Got that very same sheet. Still don't know if I'll go for Hi-viz or Lo-vis. Depends if that color bird was used in combat.

 

 

1 hour ago, ESzczesniak said:

It looks like the bird slicers are coming off too.  The more I look, for period appropriate pictures, I'm not sure I'm seeing any bird slicers.  In their later markings on a later cruise, I can find some (but not many).  But it looks like these birds at this time may not have had them.

 

As for painting sessions...3-4 sounds great!  I was on 16 "shades of gray" for the basic colors (a couple repeat colors due to the split bottom, then top work), spread over 20+ airbrushing sessions.  Now I'm patching a couple areas, although I expect this to be much more efficient since I can work on both at the same time, and there's minimal panel lines for preshading.  Perhaps I can get this done in 3ish sessions once primed. 

The way it is with me, whenever I decide to either not check a detail, or just plain ignore it, just after I finish the build I find out. And then it starts to bug me. So I say good decision on both the intake ecm blisters and bird slicers.

 

The way I paint is I try to spray everything in one go. My painting sessions last  3-4 hours max - for the mottling, during night time, when family sleeps. No primer. Gloss coat on totally different sessions. So with black base it acts like a primer to me. Then mottling with lightened 36375, top and bottom on a second go. after that, all that was left was to just spray top and bottom with proper colors. I don't usually do highlights with paint. Mostly just use filters. Gotta try this once more I guess. Last time it took me 55 hours from start to finish. No aftermarket, save for decals.

 

Again, great work! Can't wait to see it finished.

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A smaller update today.  The gloss is now 48 hours of dry time.  The canopy came off.  The window cement will take some paint with it, but if you were careful applying it, it will all be on the black sills.  I use a knife to "score" the area to minimize any paint chipping before prying the canopy off.  I think used a hobby knife to remove the rest of the glue and lightly sanded the area.

 

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I then masked the cockpit area off and again using a card stock to protect the cockpit, sprayed the black back on...

 

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The rest of the work today centered on the bird slicers and ALR-67 antennas.  After it was pointed out that they may or should not be there, I mused overnight.  And knowing there was an error didn't well.  So with much trepidation, off they came.  My switch to Tamiya paints is relatively new and started to shine here.  I previously have used Vallejo and they, typical of many acrylics, stay a little soft even when fully dried.  So sanding through a paint layer often left a noticeable "ridge".  The Tamiya goes on in thinner layers, and dries harder.  As such, it sands much better tapering back in to the paint.  Sorry for the bad picture on the bird slicers.

 

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The ALR-67 blisters had been glued on, so there was some "glue bubbles" under them.  I coated the area in Mr. Surfacer 500 to fill these in. 

 

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And all sanded down...

 

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I then reprimed with Mr. Surfacer 1200.  I put a heavier layer on as a first coat.  The edges of the paint didn't look very visible at all, but I lightly sanded with some 2400 grit sanding mesh to blend then and then put a very thin layer of Mr. Surfacer 1200 again. 

 

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It's ready for the new color coats.  I'm hoping to be able to make it through the full patch painting up until the gloss coat tomorrow.  I'm eager to start decaling and put one of the decals on the tail already. 

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Relatively small update today.  I completed the patch painting after removing the bird slicers and ALR-67 antennas.  Luckily it looks like no harm done in the end.

 

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And I've moved on to decaling...

 

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I suspect there may not be a lot in the way of updates for a while.  I expect have have the better part of a week at least in decalling.  And so far this has seemed straightforward.  We'll see if I hit any road blocks, but not much to show if all goes according to plan.  After that I'll start a panel line and wheel well wash, then some assembly of the undercarriage, etc. 

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Not a bit update in terms of pictures, but the decals are done!

 

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Almost every decal is from the Two Bobs sheet.  As expected, they behaved very well.  I have two problem areas I'm dealing with to truly finish the decals.  The tail art near the top by the antenna fairings, and a little around the curve of the intakes.  The intakes will probably be a single application of Micro-Sol and done.  There may need to be a little bit of work with some Micro-Sol and maybe a heat gun on the tails.

 

In terms of some specifics, the slime lights from the Kinetic kit are bass ackwards in size.  They fit the nose, well, but not the fuselage.  So I used the Two Bobs.  These have a small black line box around them to represent the slime light assembly.  However, since there's already raised details in this area, I trimmed these down to just the slime lights. 

 

I also elected to use the kit decals for the anti-skid walkways.  They're a very stark black, so will need to be faded later.  But that, or painting all the fine lines, led me to use the decals.  They performed well, but take about 4.7432 years to release from the backing paper. Warm water really helped here.  The kit decals also include almost a dozen decals for the landing gear, which were applied. 

 

There is a kit decal for the gun door chalk markings, but these seam mostly gibberish compared to those seen on actual reference photos, so I'm going to try and make these with a white pencil. I already did some experimenting with a spare drop tank, and all seems well.

 

Meanwhile, George has made some good progress.  I think all the colors are good for painting.  I might try a little oil shading.  Then it sits on the side until I pull out clear gloss for some other reason, getting ready for the stencils.

 

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The next notable step will be a splotchy panel line wash.  And then, I might actually get her up on her own three feet!

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I've finished the major panel line wash.  I like to use enamel washes.  I use to be a an oil paint and turpenoid wash, but I've found two major advantages to enamels.  They dry much quicker and they "re-wet" easier.  I wound find with oils, after 2-3 days I'd have a hard time getting any errant drops, blobs, etc I might find.  I know I can mix these on my own, but these Tamiya enamel washes are virtually a lifetime supply for $4 a bottle, so I use these.

 

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For the landing gear bays, I mix equal parts of dark gray, black, and brown to yield a dark grimy black that's not actually black.  In the wheel wells and landing gear struts, there's usually so much detail, that I slather this on, then soak up any puddles.  Once this is done, I wipe down any surface I can get to with a cotton swab soaked in mineral spirits.  For any problem areas that need to be toned down, but aren't accessible by the cotton swabs, I use a brush with mineral spirits.  This photo is a bit over exposed and washes out the full effect, but here are the MLG wells.

 

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I mix a different batch for the airframe using equal parts dark gray, gray, and brown.  This lightens up the mix a bit so it is not as harsh and contrasting.  I then apply this as a panel line wash.  I used to back in a day do a "sludge" wash as I've seen it called sometimes, painting the whole airframe.  But I've found this is very hard to clean up.  I also work in sections, as I find the clean up can be a bit tedious at times.

 

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Once this is dry, I use a cotton swab with the smallest bit of mineral spirits necessary (less than a drop type of small), to wipe this all away.  This can quickly wash all the wash away from the panel lines, hence the minimal amount of thinner.  But because of this, it ends up with a very patchy fill where some rivets and panel lines have some dirt, whereas a little further away there's nothing.  Which I find to be a positive effect.  Usually the wash will look a bit more apparent once the flat coat is one.

 

49810250751_bf2f448575_c.jpg

 

I've started a little work on assembling the undercarriage.  And am starting to work on the wheels and finishing George up.

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Most progress now has been working on the landing gear.  No real issues were encountered, but these are also not a "modern" kit where manufacturers have been making sturdier and more positive connects.  The on piece I had to work on was the forward nose gear door actuators.  This was partly because of the added thickness to the gear bay walls from the Eduard photoetch walls, but I'm not sure I really believe this fit either way.  I had to thin both dimensions with the picture below showing the area thinned.

 

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The wheels are from Reskit.  They're very nice and advertised as "no mask", with separate tires and hubs.  However, the fit was so tight, I went ahead and assembled them first, then painted with Tamiya XF-85 rubber black for the tires.  Then finished with the standard wash.

 

The rest of the nose gear assembly was fairly uneventful, but refer to reference pictures for the open angle of the nose gear doors.  The actuators in the kit what to push the doors further open than they should be.  Some quick setting CA, gentle pushing, and reference pictures make this pretty easy to take care of.

 

49818226687_554420aa00_c.jpg

 

The main landing gear were assembled without anything particular to note.  It seems like the Hornets landing gear were developed by a drunk engineer...they seem very complex.  But that's not Kinetic's fault and they did a pretty nice job recreating them. 

 

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Another painting point that I see on a lot of kits is for the sway braces on the pylons.  May kit manufacturers suggest to paint the whole brace a dark steel color.  I think I've seen a few reference pics like this (3 color euro camoflage like early A-10's).  But most recent aircraft, they are the color of the pylon with only the bolt being a steel color.  So the sway braces

 

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At this point all the AOA sensors and pitot tubes have been added.  And she's standing on her own...

 

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I plan to attach the pylons and do a little early weathering while she's still gloss coated.  And then I'll spray the flat to continue weathering.

 

There's also a bit of a resurgence back to construciton, priming, etc, as I start to get the last bits ready.  These are principally the exhaust nozzles and weapons/pods.  Partly there's an end in sight, partly there's still a lot to do. 

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2 hours ago, Thadeus said:

Nice progress.You are very quick. I'm curious how will that tail look after final coat.


I am not usually very quick, but all the stay at home orders are helping speed things along. Unfortunately, I have always been suspicious of this gray on the sheet. I think it’s too light and too blue. But the other option would have been painting it all by hand. Not totally unreasonable itself, but since it’s supposed to be the same gray as as a lot of other markings, that would have started a chain reaction. I may try to shade it a bit with some darker oils in the weathering process. And there’s always hope the flat coat will make it a bit better, but I’m not sure a lot. 

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No pictures with the update today.  I had a small tragedy...that's really an overstatement.  But while flat coating, one of the horizontal stabilizers fell out of the holder while the flat coat was still wet and picked up a lot of dirt.  I tried patching, but it just didn't look right.  So I've stripped the stabilizer.  Luckily it's a very small piece, so easy to strip and repaint.  On top of that, most of the munitions (short of the GBU-12's, didn't realize I was out of those) are ready for paint.  So I will be using a lot of the same colors, which should make this not seem quite so tedious.

 

I'm eager to get started on the undersurface staining very prevalent on Hornets, but will pause for a minute to get this stabilizer caught back up. 

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A fair bit of time was spent on some basic part prep and painting for the sidewinders, Nighthawk pod, etc.  So not a lot of visible progress, but that's picking up again now.  A big portion is going to be weathering the airframe.  Before the flat coat, I worked on a little bit of streaking by the horizontal stabilizers.  A lot of grime forms between the stabilizer and fuselage in the "at rest" position, and on some birds, evidently starts to streak back once the bird gets moving. 

 

I find individual "streaks" with oil paints are easier for me to form on a gloss surface, so I did this now.  I try to use a variety of colors, but I find Ammo's "starship filth" to be a heavy hitter.  I started this process by making some dots along the line where the stabilizer rests.

 

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I blotted some of the excess off and then used a brush to draw each dot along the streaking line.  This was mostly in the direction of the airflow, but photos show this curve up a little due to the high pressure above the airfoil here. 

 

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I then used a larger brush to blend these, with an occasional small brush damp with mineral spirits to define the streaks if they started becoming too blended.

 

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And with the stabilizer in place...

 

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I'll add a bit more grime along the actual "joint" between the stabilizer and fuselage once a flat coat is on, but the streaking part is done.  So the aircraft got it's first flat coat with Alclad Klear Flat.  As noted, there was a fair bit of munitions assembly and painting.  I'm still missing the GBU-12.  I thought I had these in the stash, but didn't.  So they're with USPS on the way right now.  The Maverick was just painted plain and simple.  The AAS-38 and Maverick pylon were painted the same way as the fuselage.  And the Sidewinders were black based first to give a little wear, but not much.  This was all studying reference pictures to get an idea how worn each of these looked.  The Sidewinder seeker heads are a treat, already with 3 different metallic shades before the smoked clear tip added.  Here's everything ready for a gloss coat...

 

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As seen above, I also have the exhausts in progress.  I painted the insides white, then applied a yellow ochre filter to try and match the shades I've seen in pictures.  The outside was painted Alclad Jet Exhaust and then shaded with Burnt Iron along the areas the collect soot, primarily the forward and after ends. 

 

I've also started on the under surface grime.  Hornets get pretty dirty hear.  All hornets that fly at all seem to have a lot of streaking aft of the main gear.  This may be some dirt that kicks up from the MLG, but primarily appears to come from two engine access panels on each side.  Additionally, some have a fair bit of soot from the chaff/flare dispensers.  This seems to be heavily along the forward MLG door, tapering off in the little angled part between the forward and aft MLG doors.  Since I am depicting a deployed bird, I am working on the concept that they would be expending flares and worked on both.   To start, I mixed some XF-10 flat brown and XF-69 NATO black heavily thinned and sprayed this along these areas in a streaking patter.  Sprayed paints don't "streak" well, but the concept was to create an under layer of older "streaks" before using oils later for fresher streaks.  Post-it notes were used along panel lines to accentuate these areas, as it seems the panel line grabs some of this grease as it flies back and makes it a bit darker. 

 

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After the first, shade, I darkend the mix and repeated the same thing, but working in the center of the areas already stained. 

 

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I seem to have lost a couple photos in the upload process, so I'll have to take some new ones an post them later.  In brief from here, I then misted heavily thinned X-19 clear smoke over the entire area to blend these effects.  This area was then flat coated again (because of the gloss of X-19), and will get some oil streaking next.  I'm not a big fan of pastel powders because they're hard to seal and fix in place.  But there are some effects where these are hard to beat and for the soot from the flares, I did use some soot colored pastel (Mig powders), blending in with a Q-tip.  I then fixed these in place in a two step process that I have found dulls the effects the least.  I mist, then spray a little heavier, some "pigment fixer" (basically a pigmentless paint binder), followed by a clear flat. 

 

I'll add some pictures of this part later.  Otherwise, my upcoming work is focused heavily on finishing the undersurface weathering.  Doing so will allow me to start to fix in place some of the munitions and drop tanks, shrinking the number of parts on the bench.  In the down time from this, I am working on decaling the munitions...no small feat. 

 

 

 

 

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This might be a bit of a bigger update.  Weathering of the underside I think is complete.  Certainly in terms of streaks, grime, etc.  Parts look a little clean, so I might mist some grimy gray color over the portions of the underside that are closer to the flight deck.  But a good start, and the specifics are good I think. 

 

I'm using these two photos for a fair bit of reference.  Of note, the first one has notable stains coming from the CMS dispensors from flare release.  The second one, in addition to the after fuselage streaking, shows a fair bit of the streaking between the intakes and the aft edge of the nose gear door. 

 

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I've found some aircraft with only light streaking on the after under fuselage, but most seem to be pretty dirty in this area.  So on the dirt came!  The streaking in the aft fuselage was finished up with a handful of oil colors streaked with a brush, and blended with Q-tips and/or white spirits as needed.  At some point when this is more dry, I will pain the bottom of those forward wells a dark gray/black for depth.  These are the finished effects...

 

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This shot shows the combined effects for the underside.  The other main ting are the stains on the MLG doors that would sit just aft the CMS dispensors, but there has also been some soiling of the center line drop tank that sits just above the deck and some streaking after of the nose landing gear. 

 

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Around the after fuselage, these are a couple reference shots I was looking at.  The first one shows the grime that accumulates around the fuselage-stabilizer "joint" in the parked position.  The second one shows where maintainers wipe some of the grime away while on the horizontal stabilizer (presumeably with their clothes while kneeling here to work on the vertical stabilizer/rudder).

 

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So the joining area of the stabilizer was painted with grimy colored oils and used as a stamp.  This was them blended in to the fuselage with a brush and Q-tip-.  The stain itself looks very stark, but will mostly be covered by the eleveron.  So all that really matter was the little feather edge that shows just outside this area.  I also blended some oils in to the stabilier itself, then swiped a bit haphazardly with a brush wet with mineral spirits to recreate the grim wiped away by maintainers clothers, but that's not seen in this view. 

 

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The ordnance (again short of the GBU-12) has also been completed.  These Brassin thingies are a kit in themselves, but beautiful once completed.  And it's always disappointing to see a good model spoiled by by looking things hanging under the wings.  So the time is well spent. 

 

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Additonally, the tail markings were weather and darkened with some dark gray oils blended in, and then a clean brush with thinner used to remove these oils from the edges of the decal...effectively mottling and darkening the marking without affecting affecting the painted staibizer. 

 

In similar manner, the walkways were blended with a light gray oil to fade them.  The engine nozzles and eleverons have been glued in place, as have the drop tanks and AAS-38 pod.  I'm eager to add the ordnance, but until weathering is at least nearly complete, am holding off.  They have clear seeker heads and I want to keep the sealing flat coats out of trouble. 

 

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And a picture of the rear end...

 

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Next major thing will be the grime/weathering from the ECS vents on the top aft fuselage and some grime commonly seen around/from the slat hinges.  Beyond that, I need to get the chalk arming notes on the gun door, perhaps some general grime on the belly, "fill" the chaff/flare, and that pesky slow GBU-12.  After that will be a quick round with the clear lights, and then done I think!

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5 hours ago, ESzczesniak said:

So the joining area of the stabilizer was painted with grimy colored oils and used as a stamp.  This was them blended in to the fuselage with a brush and Q-tip-.  The stain itself looks very stark, but will mostly be covered by the eleveron.  So all that really matter was the little feather edge that shows just outside this area.  I also blended some oils in to the stabilier itself, then swiped a bit haphazardly with a brush wet with mineral spirits to recreate the grim wiped away by maintainers clothers, but that's not seen in this view. 

 

49847259593_7c832922a0_c.jpg

 

 

 Nice progress. Love the underside weathering and the slight patchy and weathered overal look.

 

If I may, shouldn't the fin be painted Light Ghost Gray on the outside? I always thought this was standard TPS on all Hornets. I tried to find a picture to prove it one way or another, but the best one I found are these:

 

NE 302 from flickr

 

NE 305 from Wikipedia

 

NE 307 from Wikipedia

 

Obviously, as is the case with Hornet pics, You can;t distunguish the Light from Dark gray. But the contrast between the tail flash and tail color on these pics seem much starker.

I still don't think Twobobs color matches these pictures - frankly, right now I'm having slight trouble deciding, wheter the VFA-151 tail flash is darker or lighter than the base gray. I suppose it's the same color as the tail hook and exhaust warning stencil.

 

I'm sorry I didn't post it sooner.

 

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7 hours ago, Thadeus said:

 Nice progress. Love the underside weathering and the slight patchy and weathered overal look.

 

If I may, shouldn't the fin be painted Light Ghost Gray on the outside? I always thought this was standard TPS on all Hornets. I tried to find a picture to prove it one way or another, but the best one I found are these:

 

NE 302 from flickr

 

NE 305 from Wikipedia

 

NE 307 from Wikipedia

 

Obviously, as is the case with Hornet pics, You can;t distunguish the Light from Dark gray. But the contrast between the tail flash and tail color on these pics seem much starker.

I still don't think Twobobs color matches these pictures - frankly, right now I'm having slight trouble deciding, wheter the VFA-151 tail flash is darker or lighter than the base gray. I suppose it's the same color as the tail hook and exhaust warning stencil.

 

I'm sorry I didn't post it sooner.

 

 

Obviously I can be lead astray by instructions.  However, the Two Bobs sheet indicate dark ghost gray for both sides of the vertical stabilizer.  The Kinetic instructions for the low-viz schemes (not many) show the same.  Additionally, this picture I have of VFA-151 right around this time would appear to confirm the same, dark ghost gray.  As you noted, it can often be hard to see the difference, but the contrast seems pretty clear in this photo.

 

https://www.aviationphotocompany.com/p934046062/h860769b9#h860769b9

 

I agree with you about the lack of contrast, but I think that comes to not the best color on the decals.  It looks that it should be a less blue and dark gray on the tail.  That's part of why i darkened this with some oils.  I considered painting by hand, but I have found a couple pictures where this appears to have faded a lot, such as below:

 

https://www.aviationphotocompany.com/p934046062/h86076717#h86076717

 

It's not perfect, but compared to hand painting the design, it's close.  The simple "streaks" wouldn't be so bad to paint, but then I was going to have to paint the NE code by hand as well. 

 

In short, I hear you about the poor contrast.  But I think that's because of poor decal color, not the wrong base color. 

 

P.S. Is this technically TPS camo? I thought that was the three color gray Tomcats wore briefly.  While similar, I didn't think this was quite TPS?

Edited by ESzczesniak
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I always thought TPS was just Tactical Pain Scheme. Toned down and such. Don't quote me on that one though. Might be just something I picked up on the web 😉

 

Well, You're right about TwoBobs instructions. I did not check that. Probably that came from people working the actual jet. I admit, on more than one occasion I painted the outside of tails LGG, despite some instruction saying otherwise. Besides, TwoBobs instructions show a picture of NE312 with what I'd say 36375 outer tails. Also, check the contrast on that pic. Paint diagram does'nt seem to affect this. Also, I've another sheet, VFA-87, 48-028 that uses the 36320 outer tails diagram. So my guess would be they did decals right, just not the paint diagram.

 

Regarding the Kinetic kit instructions, I guess they were done by Fightertown decals, which would support they were well researched. But on this pictures I found, the Finnish HN-457 outer fins look to me light ghost gray.

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/5759789

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/5763883

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/5763885

 

Wish it was so easy with the VFA-151 jet. Hey, I found one more recent pic of 164700.

http://www.demobbed.org.uk/images/1/164700.jpg?d=030520210609

But that was after a repaint. I guess.

 

Contrast is one thing. But I wonder, what color were the streaks, and tailcode. The color TwoBobs used looks pretty much like Model Master FS 35237 Medium Gray on the decal sheet. With 36375 outer tails it would contrast better. Like the camo pattern of Canadian Hornets. Which makes it slightly confusing. But that's gray Navy jets, huh?

 

The first picture You posted I've very little doubt the upper color of the fuselage and the outside of tails are the same color. One point I'm trying to reference is the side of the fuselage just above / next to the trailing edge flap, where the Dark ghost gray with the inscription NAVY is. It looks so much like the upper color. You can actually see the demarcation. If the tails were 36375, streaks 35237 the tail code might be 36231 for the 'N' and 36320 for the 'E'. But I admit, looking at the picture, that'd be at least slight stretch.

But it could be the outer tails are 36320. The streaks look darker though, like almost 36118. Unless it's the lighting.

 

The second picture seems to point more to 36375 for the outer tails. The outer tail is not in the direct sunlight, as is the inboard tail just behind it. I guess I see the minimal difference in colors - but I might just be getting gray crazy. But this pic also shows how stark the contrast is between the fresher (?) patch of paint under the elevator and the BuNo. I suppose it's more stark than contrast of the outer tails and streaks. And if the outer tails would be the 36375, the 'NE" tailcode would probably be 36320. The NE 302 in the background seems to be the same jet as in the first pic You posted. It also looks like the streaks and tailcode are a little darker shade of gray.

 

So You are right there's something off about the color of decals. The BuNo is clearly visible on the second picture. And the base color there is 100% 36375.

And I might be wrong about the outer tails color, but I'm still betting on 36375. Afterburner Decals on one sheet I recently saw also showed 36320 as the proper color for the outer tail on Hornets. Obviously, the pics of Vigilantes Hornets I've found didn't really help on the proper shade of ghost gray. The one on the TwoBobs instruction is small, but looks like NE312 had 36375 outer tails.

 

I guess if You wanted to do something about the tails You'd have to mask and paint the streaks. The Tailcode could be perhaps cut from sheet and applied as normal. Or I guess You could shoot a bit of plastic 36375 and put one of the decals from the extra sheet?

 

Sorry for being so a. about color... I really dig this scheme.

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