Jasonb13

So, a quick question about this. Does the aircraft also have to be in a US scheme, or is just being a US design be enough?. So, for example, would an Iranian F-14 be eligible?

Kit: HobbyBoss MiG-31M Foxhound Scale: 1:48 Paint & Weathering: MRP, Tamiya and Revell paints, Oil Washes. Extras: Katran Resin Exhausts, Master Metal Pitot Tube, Kav Canopy Masks Build Log: Here

Thanks a lot @Col. I finally got around to taking more pictures. I couldn't use my usual portable photo booth thingy as the MiG is just too big! So I made do with the kitchen table, though the lighting isn't brilliant. Anyhow, it is all done, and it's great to have it finished. It took just less than the three months, and it actually went together ok. The exhausts were very fiddly, but also worth it I think. The decals took ages, so many stencils. So many areas I'm not happy with (the varnish, some of the detail painting, and I still can't make a model without seams) but I also like how the paint and oil wash turned out, nicely adding some tonal variation to what is essentially a fairly plain grey scheme! Thanks for all the help and kind comments on here, it was much appreciated, and thanks to @trickyrich for running this GB, and giving me an excuse to finally build this kit! Here are the pics I took, I will put a few of them into the Gallery as well. Thanks!

Thanks for your kind comments! So, I basically have this done, but I need to try to get some good pictures, which will be interesting considering the size of it! Thankfully sticking on all the various bits and pieces went pretty well, even the complicated undercarriage. I also tried to represent the seal around the canopies by painting some red paint on them. So far I haven't knocked off any of the aerials and pitots etc. but we'll see how long that lasts! Here's a quick pic of it finished, and I'll post up more pics here and in the gallery when I get them done.

Basically on the home stretch now. I did what I could with the bad gloss coat, and then got the oil panel wash done... Then once that was all tidied up I got the matt coat done, and got everything unmasked. Some touch-ups are needed, especially around the cockpit, but nothing too bad. Am thinking of hand-painting the red seal around the canopies themselves. As always, it's hard to get a decent picture of the whole aircraft! Next up was those exhausts, and I was hoping they would fit ok. As it happened, with a little bit of a push, in they went, and tight enough that I didn't need to add glue! And I am very happy with how they turned out... The resin exhausts have altered the CoG a little, and it's now threatening to be a tail sitter, but hopefully when everything is attached it will work out ok. So what I have left is some little bits of paint touch-ups and lots of bits to stick on (undercarriage, doors, pylons, missiles, aerials, canopies etc.). I will definitely have it done by the deadline!

Hi all... I normally use Aqua Gloss, but I have run out, so for my latest build I've moved on to Gauzy Intermediate Agent. I have two bottles of it, one half used, and one never opened. The Aqua Gloss specifically says "do not shake" but the Gauzy doesn't have any instructions about shaking. I shook the half-used bottle, and ended up with a bottle full of small bubbles! So, I went back to my knowledge of Aqua Gloss and opened the new bottle, without shaking at all, and used it, spraying it at about 15psi. And this was the result... Any idea why this happened? I never had this with Aqua Gloss. And more importantly, any idea how to fix it? I have sections like this all over the model (though this is probably the worst one). As you can see, the decals are down, so I can't go back to respraying paint. Would brushing some on (as it's meant to be brushable as well) help? Or respraying some thin coats? Does anyone know if Guazy needs to be shaken first or not? Thanks in advance!

Sigh... So my second gloss coat didn't work out, and I now have sections like this on various parts of the aircraft... I really don't know what's caused this, and am currently trying to figure out how to improve it!

More work done! It took a few days, but the decals are all done. They behaved themselves thankfully, there was just a lot of them (easily over 200). Once again, not easy to get pics, but here's an idea. Another gloss coat is next, and I have also collected a couple of aerials etc. that I missed originally, and I'll spray them while I have the airbrush out. Once the gloss coat is done, it's time for a panel wash, which will take a little while due to the size of her! The a matt coat, unmask everything, and start sticking all the various bits and pieces on!

Thanks Dermot, it's getting there! Some more pictures to share! Firstly, I finally got the aircraft painted! Am fairly happy with the tonal variation on the main grey, though I wish the nose cone contrast was more obvious. It's an awkward git to paint due to the size of the airframe. I got the first gloss coat done too, but unfortunately went a bit too heavy in places, and I have some gloss runs to deal with... Some googling suggest very careful sanding should help with it. Back to the exhausts, I finally was happy with the painting and weathering and started putting it all together. Afterburner rings first... Then adding the main "length" of the exhaust... The two semi-circular halves that join together (along with the tiny "petals" on one of the halves) gave me all sorts of hassle, and I must have knocked off and reattached 15 or so of those little petals. You can even see one of them is unpainted after I had lost the original. But they finally took shape... Then I added them to the top of the main exhaust (for the second time, the first time I tried to fit the bottom of them *just* inside the rim of the main exhaust, and then realised they're meant to just sit *on* the rim, not inside it... And finally, some dry fitting of the external exhaust that sits on the end, showing how it all looks together. It's very hard to get a good pic of the whole sub-assembly, really you need a video to see it properly... So, three and a half weeks to go. I need to do all the decals/stencils, another gloss coat, a panel wash, a matt coat, and then stick all the various pieces on the airframe. I should be fine I think, as long as I keep tipping away at it!

More progress last night... For the exhausts, I got a screen grab from a video online. If I can get anything close to that I'll be very happy! I decided to at least try to replicate the stripes running down the exhausts. So that meant masking tape! And slowly adding them. It's not exact, but it might give a sense of it when painted... Doing between the petals was a lot harder, and some of them had to be reattached afterwards... But in the end I now have the exhausts ready for a spray of Burnt Iron, which should hopefully contrast a little with the Exhaust Metal already there. We'll see when I get to painting them! I then noticed a small crack in the tip of the nose that had to be dealt with, and realised I could also add the base of the Metal Pitot Tube I'd bought, especially as the base is the same colour as the aircraft. I needed to sand the nose a little to get the Pitot base to fit nicely and line up... And a little more dry fitting shows the Pitot Tube is looking good, and can easily be painted separately and added at the end... Finally, a lot more masking on the airframe, masking off the two sets of panels I'd painted with the two greys... And basically that's where I am now. The main airframe needs to have a bit of primer done on the repaired nose/pitot tube base, and then the nose can be resprayed the light grey, and the whole airframe can be sprayed the main grey. And the exhausts are ready for their coat of Burnt Iron. Just need to find the time to do that!

Yep, it always looks good in black! And I fixed the dead picture links as well...

I haven't been well recently, so have got very little done, and we're down to 5 weeks left! But I have managed to make some progress, mainly tonight. Firstly, I got some masking done, some sections that are going to stay black... Then I sprayed the nose cone and a couple of panels a light grey, and some other panels a darker grey... Once those panels/sections are masked, I'll be able to paint the rest of the airframe. I started work on painting the exhausts as well. I have a plan for this, I have no idea if it will work! Firstly, I sprayed the green on them but I was fairly light with it, and I wasn't trying to get a decent coat. Then I sprayed some exhaust metal over that, once again not trying to get full coverage. That's where it is now... It's really hard to see in the pic, but there are areas that are definitely still green-ish. Next for the exhausts is some very fine thin strips of masking tape, before I spray another light coat, this time of Burnt Iron. Once that's done and unmasked. I'm hoping a dark wash and some black and grey pastel chalks will blend it all together! We'll see how that all goes!

Progress continues... I am still slowly getting jobs done on this, with what, 6 weeks to go now? I finally got the petals done... 27 on each exhaust, it only took about an hour and a half in total actually, and was a little fiddly but not too bad thankfully. I didn't have to get them too uniform as pics of the real ones show that they aren't all perfectly lined up and at the same angle etc. And then I got the airframe masked for priming. I decided to use the canopies to mask the cockpit, it meant cutting off the attachment tabs (which are set at an angle for the canopies to be open) but the tabs didn't fit great anyhow, so I didn't mind doing it. I used cocktail sticks for the rear undercarriage so that the airframe can stand up after painting. Priming a model of this size, especially length, was very awkward. I was more spraying *towards* the spray booth than into it, and I kept on hitting various parts of the airframe off the booth, or the desk, or something else, as it's hard to deal with the size of it. And because these things never go smoothly, I was putting it down after finally finishing the primer when I hit it off one object too many... There's not much of an attachment point on the stabilator, as it's representing the real one that fully moves. So I knew I was going to have to try to add some strength when gluing it back on. A little bit of drilling and some brass tubing later... And I have a fully primed airframe! A great side-benefit of priming in black is that the models always just look so bloody cool at this stage! I also got all the exhaust parts primed as well, and thankfully (and surprisingly) none of the petals blew away from the airbrush going over them. I know I used superglue to attach them, but they are literally tiny attachment points, so I thought I might lose a couple of them. I'm still not sure how to actually paint these paints, they're the Russian green originally, but obviously a lot of that gets scorched away. A mix of that green, a metallic exhaust colour, and generally "sooty" black and greys seems to be what the pics look like, I just have to figure out how to recreate that! Anyhow, that's where I am now. Next steps (apart from the exhausts) are tidying up any issues the primer shows up (as best I can) and then painting some detail parts on the airframe and masking them off before doing the main colour.

I didn't get near this for a few days, and still haven't done the "petals", but I did tackle removing the fragile afterburner rings from their resin blocks. The first one didn't work out so well... But some careful application of superglue sorted it... With lessons learned from the first one, the second one went a bit smoother, and now they are both free... Finally, I test fitted the exhausts into the airframe, and they fit pretty decently, so I should be able to assemble/paint them separately, which means I can avoid having to mask them... So, next up are those petals, and once they are done, I'm gonna mask up the airframe and prime it and the exhausts at the same time, all going well!

Brave/stupid - there's a fine line...