Andrew

Great update, Tony. Thanks for your excellent description and illustration of the build. Thanks also for thinking of me with the skewered foam pic - it's an elegant solution that's even better than my 'foam stuck on with double-sided tape' idea... Finally, /unlurk the Freelancer. I need the fix apparently, because there's certainly no progress on Tomcats at my place. It's all 'Mirages, Mirages, other delta derivatives' with me currently (not in itself a bad thing, it's just that it's been going on for some time now, and I really want to have at a FineMolds F-14D). Keep up the great work.

Great group shot Tony, what a marvellous collection. I wonder sometimes as to how much I really need to worry about the accuracy of the colours I apply, given that I seldom model in direct sunlight and am therefore not really 'seeing' the colour as it might be photographed on the real thing... Andrew.

I'm getting closer and closer to applying some primer to this baby... Elevons, pitch dampers and their actuators are on, as are the canards and the numerous auxiliary intakes (many of which consist of two pieces, just to achieve a particular feature of the inlets - great attention to detail by AMK!), as well as other detail bits. I've also assembled the centreline supersonic tank (what I think is known as the RP825) which AMK thoughtfully provide and I've worked on the centreline pylon to which the tank will attach - the assumption is that the builder will add Israeli chaff / flare dispensers to this pylon, but these are not relevant to the ATAC jets, so I've had to fill the mounting slots. No problem. Nearly time to add the canopy and mask in preparation for primification. Mmmmm, priming. Does it show that I'm keen to apply paint?

After many days of intermittent periods of decalling, I've now collected the following pile of discarded backing sheet...: Oh, and I think I've left the decals behind in more-or-less the right spots on the two kits...: Decals are a combination of the Special Hobby kit markings (esp. the F1CR boxing) and Berna decals sheets for the F1CR and F1CT, plus a sheet by Berna of generic numbers/codes (nicely printed, very thin and very useful when it became obvious that the numerals on their F1CR sheet were too big...). About time to get another gloss coat on and start the weathering. Thanks for looking in.

Not much to show in this update, but the radome is on, as is the aft end of the rear underside fairing. I think I've taken care of the worst gaps around the airframe (not that there was anything of major concern) and I'm just left with a smattering of painted Tamiya putty soup to clean up. Overall, I continue to be pleased with the kit's detail and fit. cheers for now, Andrew.

I decided that there was insufficient contrast between the radome and the rest of the airframe on the CT, so applied a significantly lighter version of the green - I may have gone too far... Anyway, not willing to finesse the colours any further, I let things be and the pair (with a forest of bits and pieces) have now been gloss coated, in readiness for some decalification... That's all for this update, thanks as ever though for stopping by and for your encouraging words. Andrew.

I've recently finished applying the upper surface colours, starting with the blue grey. For both colours I've used enamels (mixtures of Humbrol, Revell and Xtracolour) so I've been letting them dry in their own good time. Masking was achieved with the Blu-Tac sausage method, with swathes of Silly Putty filling the bits between the Blu-Tac. Not many pictures of the process, unfortunately. The blue grey applied: Followed by the green: F1CR - F1CT - And yes, I did bump the refuelling probe on the CT during de-masking and dislodged the tip (how we laughed), but it's safely back on as of this evening. Although it feels as though I've been hammering away at these for an eternity quite a while now, there's plenty more painting to do yet - hopefully I'll be finishing all of that this weekend. cheers, Andrew.

I'm making progress with the Kfir in fits and starts, and it's an enjoyable kit to work on. The cockpit was painted and installed in the cockpit (some removal of material was neccesary - the fit is definitely of the 'no tolerance' variety); the cockpit/nosewheel insert locates quite positively with the help of spacers and recesses in the fuselage halves. I also glued the upper wings to the lower wing piece, having first separated the elevons and pitch dampers from the lower wing at the hinge line. This meant that I had to re-establish lost plastic on those pieces with some fairly substantial stock (old flat sprue mainly) and then fill and clean same. I'll reattach the flying surfaces at a drooped angle in the near future. The wings and intakes have gone on with minimal fuss; the only real area of concern was the interaction of the forward part of the lower wing surface with the corresponding point of the fuselage (especially where the reverse side of the gun troughs meet the inner wall of the intakes). I ignored my instincts and followed the instructions to add the outer portion of the intakes last; this was the correct decision and I'm happy with the result: Since that last photo was taken I've glued the radome halves together, as well as the centreline tank and some small sundry bits and pieces. Of course, because I was enjoying the process of gluing bits together so much, I forgot to add any weight to the radome cavity before joining the halves. Just tonight I've made a generous opening in the back of the radome and filled it with a mixture of epoxy glue and lead shot, which should be more than ample. No photos of that latest faux pas though, I'm sorry. Thanks for looking.

Many thanks for your encouragement and kind words. Andrew.

So, where was I? That's right, getting back to where I was with the F1CR a couple of days ago... by re-attaching the wing and fin, filling the joins as appropriate and addling a plug of plastic to the nose in preparation for the new pitot - Profiling the nose plug and drilling a hole to locate and centre the pitot, and smoothing the joins at the wingroot and base of fin - Carefully attaching the new pitot and smoothing that join (plus getting the refuelling probe back together - I'd thoughtfully knocked the base off as I smoothed the pitot join) - Having repainted the radome, I could now reattach the refuelling probe and prime the seams. Not visible in this shot is the repainted wing underside. I had plenty of spare paint mixed up, so it was squiggled over the upper surface in readiness for finally applying the next colours - I really am back where I was a couple of nights ago; my next step will be to finish masking the underside. Barring any other cases of misadventure, I think the darker grey will be tomorrow's project. I haven't forgotten the F1CT either; it's also had some more pre-camouflage colours paint applied (all without breaking anything else on it!) - cheers, Andrew.

There's been slow and gradual progress on the two kits over the last few days, primarily painting and masking small areas on both, applying the underside colour to the F1CR and applying a precursor grey coat to the F1CT, all in preparation for the next colour, a dark blue grey. To wit, one F1CT: and the F1CR: Notice anything .... how do I say, peculiar? Of course, the F1CR needed the undersides masked off prior to applying the uppersurface colours and this masking was the task I set myself this evening. I assure you, dear reader, that I was not rushing this important job; on the whole, I'm happy to take my time when masking and I can even enjoy the process, as I know that a good masking job will serve the overall appearance (once painting is complete) very well. Despite that fine sentiment, while switching grip or something suitably commonplace, I dropped the kit, with the following hilarious result, in close-up: Actually, I was not amused. I very nearly threw said bent jet at the wall. I definitely said a rude word, possibly three of four times, very loudly. To my amazement, but possibly simply because I'm a stubborn git, I've reattached the wing and fin, and removed the pitot (it couldn't be saved - even when bent back to more-or-less fore and aft configuration, there was a dogleg in the middle segment so profound that my attempts to straighten it only broke the poor pathetic thing). In removing the base of the pitot I've actually taken plastic away as well, so I've had to clean the area and added some plastic stock back in preparation for re-profiling and a new Master pitot. Once that's done, I'll attempt (!) to re-attach the end of the refuelling probe. To those who were hoping for real progress worthy of a look, I apologise for my monumental clumsiness.

Very nicely done, Tony. As Richard says, it's a good thing that you persevered. Thanks also for the pointer/reminder about your holding apparati; I now remember being very impressed with your demonstration of the technique on the Spitfire builds, but failed to make the logical connection to its applicability to my current builds ... oh, the embarrassment.

Excellent, thanks very much. It's always reassuring to have confirmation that I'm not going crazy/crazier. There you go with your excellent practical suggestions... to my embarrassment, I hadn't considered doing that, so very much appreciated. Hopefully I'll spare you the need to offer any more top tips as this build progresses. No worries, I'm now home, so have checked my Cocardes book, which tells me that the lower surface colour is light grey, sorry, gris clair, which is equivalent to FS36628; this strikes me as a very light grey, sorry, gris tres clair... either way, I'm still happy with what I've sprayed.

Thanks to everyone for their kind words. Thanks very much, but I have to ask - are the undersides of the F1CR silver? I only ask because I thought I'd found the perfect grey to go on the undersides and duly applied it yesterday. I'm fairly certain the instructions refer to H/C308 as the underside colour - this is Gunze's colour for FS36375, a Compass Grey. I've used a different Gunze colour, possibly C35 IJN Grey (I'm not at my bench at the moment) because it looked okay when compared to photos and because it was, well, a light grey, but now I'm worried that I should have gone with a metallic colour. I'm clearly going to have to look a bit harder.

Concur. And a whole lot of other sheets...