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Agreed.

Felix is done and has his RFI: Vf-2 bird soon. Cheers, Tony

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Here is a gratuitous shot of the pair. No progress on the reaper since its flat coat as this week has been all about the felix bird. It has now had its gloss coat and is ready for markings. Thanks for looking.

Yes the mr hobby stuff is the aqueous one - aqua = water and all that. Mr Colour is the ‘strong’ one and will not mix in water. The mr hobby is the similar one of the two gunze paints to tamiya acrylics, as in an acrylic that thins both with water and thinners. Also can use lacquer type thinners with them (both mr H & tam) to achieve finer detail work but for lefties defeats the object of using a water soluble paint in the first place.

Really? I assumed that they were decals from looking at some of the other completed builds I have seen of this... learn something every day

Update - TPS bird has been painted. So there are a few things that could be better on this build (worst affected one by glue gate at the start) so didn’t want to waste any lovely VF decals on it. Decided to go with the plan from the start and do the commemorative Grumman ‘navy’s last fighter’ scheme. The hasegawa decals for this aren’t perfect/ are incomplete and will require a bit of artistic licence which I won’t bore you with now. Anyways so the aim is to get a grubby tps finish with freshly painted tails and canopy (crew names, felix and the AJ were removed) The hasegawa decals seem bit lighter than normally expected so perhaps wouldn’t look correct over straight TPS paint. From pictures 102 does seem quite faded. So I referred back to the swatches I made when trying to get paint that would work with the light dxm vf101 decals. Now the darkest shade on here (which the brush is pointing at) is dense/full saturation MRP 36375 light ghost grey. The rest around it are lighter mixes, with a flash of light arctic grey on there too. (There are still some of the those dxm decals on there) So this bird was painted in lighter than normal shades to get the contrast correct with the decals. Also an interesting side effect with a black base and lighter shades it allows you to build up the strength/concentration of the colours more. As in the more you add the lighter they become so you can add fading too all with one paint. So in a nutshell this plane was painted as so: Lowers in lieu of 36375 - Light arctic grey. Sides of nose & tails in lieu of 36320 - A 50:50 mix of 36375 and white. Uppers in lieu of 35237 - straight 36375. Here it is: Also tried this out - random highlights. Then when you apply thin layers to build up the colour these bits look like fresh touch ups. Something else different I have done this time - washes straight onto the paint. The MRP is tough and smooth enough to allow this with its hard satin sheen. Would never try this with say rough matt tamiya which would clog and soak up the wash. I had some loss of definition of some petite finemolds panel lines with the reaper bird, mainly because the washes went over an extra two layers of paint (pre and post decal gloss), so doing the wash now should prevent this. It should also darken the finish a bit more towards where I want it to be. Quite pleased how it turned out. Normally when I do washes they are over the post decal sealing gloss, so when rubbed off they only define panel lines and don’t add weathering too. This way on the satin paint there is a nice staining and grimy effect left over. Always learning. Left side bits still has it on and right side bits cleaned up. Here are the uppers - showing the straight clean paint, the ‘wash on’ and the ‘wash off’ in the centre where it has been rubbed off but also rubbed in a bit and grimed up. The tails however were rubbed back with turps damp tissue so there was only panel lines left defined and no grime on them (fresh paint for the commemoration scheme) Here it is with the decals - the tone and ‘darkness’ of the scheme looks good to work with these now, as in the shade of then uppers matches the stencils. Still quite ‘light’ overall though compared to other tps paint jobs I have done. Next is a gloss to seal in the washes and make it ready for decals. Once they are on I may do some of the maskol post shading to add some more grime and ‘touch ups’ here and there. Thanks for looking. Tony.

Actually quite clever. Typical Deutsche efficiency. Makes them easier to stack and store. And to identify in a drawer from the top. However the best bit from a modellers perspective is the low centre of gravity so you’re not likely knock them over. Even more so when you clip the upturned lid onto the container and use it as a built in mixing/thinning palette.

Watch this space...

That is a million times better looking than using the decals mate. Nice subtle variation in them compared to a solid colour decal. Good effort! Tony

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Update: Reaper has had its final sealing coat and canopy masks off. It is now ready for some staining and scuffs and then the long journey to final assembly and all those little jobs that still need doing. Exhausts had a wash too when they were being used to detail airframe (these had deep brown inside) and then a matt coat dusting to seal it in. A bit of pigment soot perhaps and they will be about there. A reminder of how its exhausts looked. Note the patchiness & fresh repainted bits above the tailplane and inside the starboard taifin, the inspiration for doing the finish as it is. Also in this pic you can see that the two blade antennas and arresting hook weren’t repainted from the tps scheme which 160 used to wear before this special decommissioning retro paintjob. https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/5620176 Thats all for now. Ps the tps one has started to get some primer on, beloved stynylrez.

A book? Hmmmm thats a massive undertaking. Perhaps when I’m retired 😂 Yes got that haynes book from The Works too the other week. Good buy agreed! Tony. PS: UMP - ultimate modelling products. UK company. They do their airbrush thinner and cleaner. Some sanding sticks and clay based washes. They also re-bottle stynylrez as ‘ultimate primer’. Which it is. I love the stuff whose ever bottle it is in. Mig ammo one shot is the same product too.

Take the tape off! Take the tape off! C’mon thats just teasing! Lets see the finished result 🤤

Hi pal. Hope you’re well! Might see you at the September meet if dates work out ok. Anyways, thanks for your continued interest and support. To answer your questions - the akan paints I used were the short plastic dumpy white screw top acrylics. As seen in the first page of the RFI below. Akan do make other formula paints so not sure which ones you have? The below tomcat was originally in Akan light gull grey, but when the decals didn’t work (contrast) she was stripped back and repainted in Mr Color Lacquer FS36495 light grey. The remaining paints used on the build like metallics, primarys and cockpit/pilots were all still Akan. When spraying them I used UMP universal thinner which made them go down silky smooth. Can’t remember exact ratios. I’m a bit lazy like that - I mix in the Airbrush cup till it sprays correctly for what I need it for at that time (coverage vs detail etc.) Hope that helps. Here she is: As for the ‘bits for sale’ That will most likely be in the spring now as have a deployment coming up. Still able to work on getting some decals sheets made as that is all via email liaison. So at least that way then I will have an ebay shop with several things available for sale from the outset to make as wide an impact as possible. Tony

Vf-2 completed teaser. Well nothing exciting or teasing really about this ‘dull gull’ bird. Thats only relevant if you prefer the gaudy types... I myself however am really into these simple schemes at the minute. Purposeful. @Jon Freeman is now also an expert in drab tomcats too... Mit Felix! RFI’s for both to follow soon over next few days. These two along with myself are currently 250miles away from the rest of the ‘pounce’ Will be all together in a couple weeks time when back home.

Thanks Nikolay! Glad you like it. Had two years practicing on hobbyboss ones so no excuse really... Here is the thread of those, links to the individual Finished builds in the first post

Because I don’t get distracted easily, some time ended up on the tps plane of the pair. Probably a renewed interest because I used it to start posing the crew for the Reaper as mentioned in the last post. Anyways it had all those final little jobs done that you always put off and is ready for primer now. Hoping it will talk to me as say what scheme it wants to be. Only a choice of a few for a D anyways and even less when taking into account some of the late/bombcat features. Answers/suggestions on a postcard please. Bye for now!

Amk box art? Seems Mig-31’s are very photogenic on take off...

Would that be the ‘dipping into a 5L tin of emulsion’ technique? 😂

Can you add Mr Color acrylic lacquer to the airbrush poll please? Mr hobby is the aqueous one. Mission models paint also for both please - currently one of my favourites for both airbrushing and hairy sticking 👍🏿

Pretty sure its 1/48 and the model seen in the final book of the mig ammo aircraft encyclopaedia series. Named something like ‘finishing touches’?

Progress on the weathering - Here is what the nose area and a wing looks like after the medium grey overall base wash has been removed. The nose was fairly clean in the pics but the wings and uppers very patchy and dirty. So glad that the black basing is still quite visible on the wings. On the back you can just see where I have started to apply a darker wash to areas to increase the contrast with the maskol post shade ‘touch ups’ and add dirt. Here is a close up of the darker wash being applied as mentioned above, concentrating on the back. Also things like sparrow belly slots and grills/vents were darkened too to add depth. And here it is removed. Wings on for overall effect. Needs a satin coat now. The wing sweeps need more work but they are most likely going to be swept back in the vignette I have planned for it. And the real thing : https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/5615347 Also U\C bits been done - a light grey overall, then a darker grey on the bolts of the legs and for the doors - black on the red to add depth/ dirt and also a cheat to tidy up the borders between the white and red. Also the still undecided tps finemolds hull is being used to start posing the crew. No advance on the RIO since he was used as a master to make more, but the pilot (a recast) has now had his left arm on the sill as best as I could get to match the pic where the RIO is waving the flag. The shoulder was cut back and the forearm/hand had some hot water to manipulate it. It’s drying now then his armpit needs packing out tomorrow. Bye for now and thanks for looking.

Yeah good Dave. Been using them for a few years now. As with all washes - a good shake, apply over a gloss surface then remove excess when dry. Also being enamel you can blend and feather too with a white spirit dampened brush when removing the excess. Tony

Thread revival - wash on!