A Tomcat for Big John

[Grunhertz 17,460]

It's looking the biz if I was interested in an f 14 I would consider it 

[Madhatter Mk2 706]

Nice work so far - it's good to know the reviews aren't just good because it's a Tamiya

I'd prefer an F-14D though - but that's a personal choice and more because I like engine nozzles more. I know - I'm weird like that

At least it won't be yet another Jolly Roger scheme - as cool as it is, it is a little over saturated in it's representation online

[Muttley 2,312]

Looking rather good3 

I like the idea of how to make own masks

[David Hansen 31]

Hi Everyone,

 

Hi, everyone.

Just a minor update for today, as i'm about halfway through my 11-day deployment.

A few of the glitches on the Tomcat seemed to work their way out with some minor sanding. Areas around the intake lips and forward wing glove area will take a little bit more work, but as i said before, nothing unexpected or too difficult to fix. Think it might even be fixable with just some white glue and a q-tip.

The port side vertical fin and tail plane have been primed, inspected for defects, cleaned up, and wet-sanded back down to bare plastic in preparation for painting. The starboard side vertical fin, tail plane, and both wings still await cleanup.

Some areas of the white underside will require more paint; others will not. The battle plan moving forward is to mask along those panels delineating areas that need more coverage and we will re-shoot those. The desired end result being a subtle "two tone" effect on the aircraft undersurfaces. Given that the majority of the plane is in light gull gray, the end result should not be too overpowering or distracting once the paint work is finished.

One thing i'm noticing that should be attributed to impatience more than anything else, is that the Tamiya White Surface primer is sensitive to to thinning. In this case, it was not thinned enough. The final finish was rougher and grainier than previous iterations, and i think its because i was trying to "Stretch" my remaining supply of Tamiya Lacquer thinner. Not certain, but it might also have something to do with differences between Mr Color Leveling Thinner and the Tamiya stuff. The Tamiya stuff smells a lot better, but my suspicion is the Mr Color stuff has a longer "flash time" and its allowing the paint to lay down more smoothly. I don't know which case it is.

One thing i have to keep reminding myself of though, is lacquer paints require a LOT more thinning than a comparable enamel, and it just takes longer to build up the requisite coverage on the model. Two collateral effects of this are 1) Massive clouds of airborne dust when spraying (unless you have some kind of fan extraction system) 2) a much higher occurrence of paint "sloshing" out of the colour cup and running down along your fingers, onto the workbench, onto your jeans, onto your shoes, etc. I come from a bottom-feed airbrush background so i may be especially susceptible.

Everything about this kit has gone smoothly, with no shocking surprises or major disappointments per se. The windscreen frames will definitely need to be repainted with a contrasting colour to make the framework "light tight", but that comes with the territory.

Aside form that..... i got nothin.

-d-

[David Hansen 31]

Hi Everyone,

Another update on Gypsy 203. Painting has begun, but in a sort of cautious, halting manner...

 

 

I hope to have another update soon. We're selling Mum's house and i've had to store away a lot of my stuff to get it out of the way. But that doesn't prevent me from painting at my friends' house.

 

-d-

[Grunhertz 17,460]

Nice work sir 

[USAAF 1,227]

Looking fantastic !! Cant wait to see the upper colors on and mask on tail end removed