TheRealMrEd

I recommend the Alclad II clear coat products. Given that I paint with all enamels, I first topcoat the painted, decal-ed model with Aqua Glass KlearKote, which is a water base crystal clear product, followed by my choice(s) of the rest of the line, ranging from Gloss, semi gloss, semi-matte, matte, flat. I find that these are problem free for me. BTW, very nice work on this model! Ed

I agree, a very nice build on an older, "go-to" kit. Built a few of these back in the day. What got me all enthused was buying the Profile series pub on the A-7, which talked about the then-new "bomb-nav" computing system, which, compared to the F-84F and F-100's, was astounding. Thanks for the blast from the past. I like your pictured F-14 oldie, as well! Ed

Sorry, they came with the Muroc Models conversion, I think. Not sure if they were included or a separate purchase from them. An internet search suggests that they may still have a presence on Facebook, but I don't do social media at all, so you'd have to check for yourself... just can't see any reason to tell 50,000 of my "c;losest" friends that I'll be out of town all next week, if you get my drift! Other than that. perhaps a custom decal maker? Good luck, Ed

Beautiful model!

Most wonderful thread, Bill! First class work. Ed

A beautiful job! I've stood next to these things, in their earliest paint job, and i swear, they seem to change while you're looking AT them! Ed

Always good to see a Fighting Shamrocks build! Ed

Not sure, still thinking about it... Ed

I' ve just found the salt method to be a little more reliable and controllable, at least for me... Ed

As promised over on the build thread HERE.. here are a few additional pics: Thanks for looking, Ed

Hello again, Next the model was given an all-over coat of Alclad2 Grey Primer, the the cowl was masked with Parafilm "M" (and the paper engine cone mask!), and the cowl was given a coat of Insignia Yellow: Above right, the only shop of the aircraft that I'm modeling that I could find. The kit says the cowl was white, but I thought I read somewhere that the color was yellow -- not at all sure, but there you go! Next, the yellow parts of the cowl were re-masked with Parafilm "M" , then the underside of the aircraft was painted FS# 36270 Neutral Gray. Then, masks were added to the sides, made of torn paper strips, held in place with a tiny ribbon of white glue place near, but not on, the torn edges. When the glue is dried the torn edges are pried very slightly away from the model, to allow for a small over-spray effect: Above right, after the masks are prepared, a little Alclad2 Aluminum is sprayed here and there on the model, where sever weathering will be desired, such as leading edges, fuselage size, top of wing, etc:. Then water containing a drop of Dawn Dish-washing detergent is lightly brushed onto the desired areas. The soap drop helps he water adhere to the model, rather than just running off. Then my favorite salt varieties are dropped onto the watered areas, and then allowed to dry, after which time excess salt can be removed, leaving only the areas that you wish to weather remain. Note that salt is readily able to be refined to your desired size/scale, using a mortar and pestle. Next, the upper parts of the model are spray-painted with the top color (in this case O.D. 41, which Colourcoats nicely provides). When dry, the wing walkways are masked off with Parafilm "M" and then painted flat black. When the black paint has dried, the salt is gently rubbed off the model with a finger or soft cloth, revealing the paint chipping: Above right, the model is then placed in a shallow plastic tray with a little warm water. The nose is propped up a bit, to keep excess water out of the cockpit area. When softened, the paper strips can be removed, and any white glue residue scrubbed away with a soft brush. A more patient modeler could really get an accurate weathering job here, but at my age, I don't have a whole lot of time left for too much fiddlin' ... Eventually, all the masking (except the cockpit glazing) is removed and the results may be seen. The next step will be a coat of Alclad2 Aqua Gloss water-based clear glossy topcoat, in the area where the decals will be applied: Above right, after the decals have dried, the whole model gets a coat of Alclad2 slightly matt finish to seal everything for final handling. Then the canopy masking can be removed, and all the last fiddly bits added, like prop, guns, pitot tube, lights and the last of the PE parts, on the landing gear (arrow). The lights are just drops of white painted added to the kit-molded bumps, which are then covered with transparent reg, green and on the tail, clear paint. And so, she is done: More pics to be added over on RFI HERE. As always, thanks for looking in, and the comments. Ed

Absolutely a BRILLIANT Job!! One favor, could you do another in 1/144 scale? 😊😁😉 Ed

Next up, adding some glass. On these "razorback" fuselage types, where there are no specific locator holes to help align the canopy parts, I like to start at the rear, and install the clear parts, one at a time, using my now-favorite G-S watch cement. When the rearmost part is set up a little, I either install the second part, or in this case, just hold it in place while locating the windscreen. My original intent was to have the sliding section of the canopy open: In that case, I would later just tack the center section into place with white glue during the painting process, which could later be removed from the aircraft with a few drops of water. Once I got to this point however, I discovered that the canopy plastic was a bit too thick to allow this,. As I was too lazy to vacuform a new center section, I just decided to also glue it in place using the G-S cement. After all that dried, I rubbed down the G-S cement a little with alcohol, then added a few bits of tape to protect the canopy front and rear while checking the join lines to see if further filling was required: Above center, the join lines look pretty good. However, as mentioned earlier, the tape mask at the passenger door was a bit off (arrow). This was later corrected with a bit of Microscale Masking liquid, a bit hard to see, above right. Next the canopy and landing light were masked with Bare Metal Foil. Note that the L.G. lens foil has not yet been trimmed to shape: Next up, in one of the funniest things I've ever heard, the kit asks you to cut out the PE aileron hinges, fold in half, and glue to the wings in the marked location. HA..Ha..Ha..! They are shown below, next to a mm scale: Above right, I said to heck with THAT noise, and instead, cut out a thin plastic strip and chopped out some triangles from that ( 5 thou plastic, I think). This gave me the added ease of using the Easy-Flow glue dropper to put a single drop where needed for each hinge (6 in all), and add the plastic part, using tiny tweezers. This was also a lot easier on my eighty-year-old fingers, but provides a much stronger bond that using CA on a PE fret part would have done. (Fumble fingers while handling, you know...). Also, the bent-up PE tail wheel doors WERE added, with CA, as they are far less vulnerable. Next the last remaining parts were partially or completely removed from their sprues, and mounted in various holding clamps for painting: The arrow in the above photo points out where I added the resin prop balance, for which the hole in the prop needed to be drilled out a bit. It was glued on with CA, necessary because of differing materials being joined. Now, she's off to the paint booth! Later, Ed

Didn't mean the whole interior of the cockpit in red, just the drop-down center portion of the flaps in red. Ed

I should have added that for those who can get access to the Colourcoats paint line, their ACUS06 WW2 USN Aircraft Blue-Gray (FS# 25189), has this color ready to use in enamels... Ed