How to Build an F-2a and lose your mancard

[georgeusa]

Normally, I am asked for freebies given my occupation. Imagine my surprise when my favorite niece has asked me to build her a model. Normally, she scoffs at my hobby. So, I was very excited to help her out. Little did I know what she wanted me to build. She purchased the kit from a Japanese vendor not knowing it was not assembled. So, without further ado, here is the box top.

I am planning on building this OOB as she cares little for accuracy and is more interested in the decals, which are extensive and below. The sheet is approximately 8 1/2 x 14 inches. I bought a new bottle of micro set and sol and fully expect to use both bottles to finish this.

I hope this will be a quick build and am going to try and do the basic build in a weekend. The colour of the plastic is awful as you will see in the next picture where I have started the wheel wells.

and

Edited September 29, 2014 by georgeusa

[Mozzy19]

The colour of the plastic looks like Pac-Man puked all over it!

Still, looks to be an interesting project.

Sean

[noeyedears]

that is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

[georgeusa]

Still more progress as I have been building all weekend and am at stopping point now. Next up was the cockpit. So far the fit of the model and ease of assembly is fine. I normally do WWII aircraft, so this is a bit of a stretch for me. Not used to non-propeller aircraft.

The colour of the plastic in the picture really does not do justice as to how awful it is. In reality it is a mustard colour, but that is the colour of the aircraft I am modeling. Anime is not my strong subject, but apparently this is from either a video game or a manga series or both. And, there are 9 more different aircraft in this series. Can't wait. More cockpit after the two halves have been joined.

Did encounter a bit of a problem, and I don't know if it was me (probable conclusion) or the kit. When I tried to join the halves, the instrument panel stood too high and also interfered with the cowling. Now the instructions are entirely in Japanese so I am just following pictures and could have missed a step I should have done. The easiest solution was to cut down the instrument panel and glue it back in place. Don't think my niece will know the difference or mind.

My figure painting skills are deplorable. Besides, I think there should be a girl figure similar to those you find in eggplanes as the pilot. Once the canopy is on, do not think much will show anyway.

It has a separate tailplane that seems to fit quite well. I am hoping to leave it off through the decal process and be able to attach it afterwards with little problems. At least that is the plan. Anything to make decaling easier on this beast.

Does anyone else absolutely abhor masking canopies? Modern jets are easier than my normal WWII stuff, but this is one part of modeling that is not at all fun for me. Is there anyone out there that likes doing this?

Wings are on and getting ready for sanding and painting.

Well that is about it for now. Overall the fit of this kit is exceptional. I can never get away without filling seams so have a bit of fill and sand work to do. My niece has previewed my work and doesn't like the colour, go figure. She wants something brighter and shinier. I am wondering if spraying it with a car metallic would help. I have a lime gold spray can of Testor's paint from a very bad car build. I am going to see how that works. It should be close to this colour, but with a bit more sparkle. We shall see.

[Michaelvk]

Nice work on Big Bird! Definitely not something you see every day..

I, too, hate masking canopies.

[georgeusa]

Well I shot a coat of the lime gold spray. It does look a little better although the picture doesn't quite capture the colour. I've included an unpainted fuel tank half to show the original colour. My niece is happy with this new colour. Now have to let it cure for the next day so I can decide on a panel wash or not.

Then it may take a couple of days to figure out the decal sheet and the order to put the decals on. There are approximately 820 separate decals of those about 692 of them are different size stars that go over the entire body of the aircraft. And, it seems as if the decals are layered so have to figure out the right order to place them on the plane. All I have is the drawings to go by. At least they are in colour and are fairly large. Decaling will take a few weeks as each layer will have to dry and cure before the other can be put down. Got to love my niece. Well time to grab some sleep before work.

[Dazzio]

Was wondering when one of these was going to turn up, only took a year and a bit. . if I remember correctly the character is called Ami Futami, and her plane was the F-2A Viper Zero (least it was in ACE6). The whole franchise started out as a game and now has spinoff stuffs, including an anime (TV show) and manga (graphic novels). If I remember correctly, her plane had a metallic-gold colour about it anyways. So you are more or less on the right lines, bear in mind Im going by the Ace Combat examples. The monotone Typhoon is cool

I hate masking canopies also, but will be watching this build

Kind Regards

Dazz

[tank152]

I can't say that masking canopies is one of my favourite jobs either. Thats one major decal job you've got on your hands, all the work you put in applying them will be worth it in the end though as it should look stunning.

Will follow you along with this.

[georgeusa]

I have started the, what looks to be arduous task, of putting on the decals. I am starting small with the fins and working up to the body.

So far have only run into one misnumbered decal. As far as planning the layers, it looks like the best attack is to pick an area to do, cut out all the decals and then figure out the order they go down in. With the small fins, put the larger decal down first and then, progressively, stars largest to smallest. There are 3 different sizes of stars. So far I have laid down 8 of about 600. For the tail fin, I am laying down the white layers first and then the decals that go over the white base. The decals fit remarkably well given the complexity of how you put them on. For the white area on the tail there are 5 different white decals that butt together to form the white outline. So far they are reacting quite well to micro set/sol. There was some initial silvering after the first layer of microsol, but a gentle dry, smoothing with a 1/2 inch wide camel hair brush seemed to smooth out the surfaces. It will probably need another layer of micro sol as there are some complex curves and bumps the decals cover. So far so good, but progress will be slow. The first 17 decals took about 30 to 45 minutes to configure. I think I estimated the total number of decals at around 820. Going to let these rest for the night and see how they fared in the morning. Will do a section a night as I think patience is the key for this. If I try to hurry it, I believe it will overwhelm and end up flying into the wall. So the niece will have to wait. She expected me to have it all together, painted and decaled Saturday afternoon and was a little put out when I told her I could start the main decaling on Monday. She is of the instant gratification generation.

[georgeusa]

Dazzio,

Thanks for giving me a bit of background on this model. I had a basic idea of its origins, but your information helped. I just am not up to starting research on an anime aircraft so I can stress over colors, accuracy, etc. I am just going by what the instructions indicate in pictures (hoping the Japanese only instructions are not telling me to ignore an illustration or do something in addition to the pictures) and going with what my niece wants. I do think it is a rather novel approach to use existing types of aircraft for each character rather than a fictional hybrid. I believe there is an F117, F-4, A-10, F-15, F-16, F-18, and F-22 also in the series. Each plane is in a different color scheme, some sort of pastel or metallic color. I wonder if Hasegawa molded each plane in the base color as this one came in. Imagine the plastic for a baby blue, pink or orange version.

[Learstang]

Nice job, George, on a rather unusual subject. The mind does reel a little bit at the idea of a baby blue (or pink, or orange) A-10!

Regards,

Jason

[paganpete]

Good on you sir, rather you than me - looking good so far, nice sharp lines!

[Madhatter]

Interesting scheme I must say. Don't think you'll loose your mancard on this build seeing as it is for someone else. However, if it was for yourself, then maybe...

How well do the decals perform?

[Dazzio]

Georgeusa,

You are welcome on the info, I've never seen the anime myself, which wouldn't matter any how as the aircraft aren't in it. I can't remember if these are their own spin off, or because you can buy them in the Ace Combat Series of games (I have Miki's Su-35 dark green it is). The A-10 is a dark green, the Nighthawk is grey, F-15 is blue, F-22 is blue but I have seen pink, F-16 is yellow, F-18 is green, the F-4 is black and gold. In addition to those ones there is also a Mirage 2000 that's orange, Eurofighter Typhoon that's black an SU-37 "Berkut" that's green also an Rafael that's pink (makes sense ). Also you can get an F-14 that's Purple or white in the colours of Skull One from Macross. There is also monotone versions of them too, which I think looks better. I think you are going the right way with the decals. I know the sprues for the F-14 are purple. But the rest I haven't seen, sorry.

The build is coming along nicely, good luck with the decals if you need anymore info, drop me a pm, ill try to find it out for you.

Kind Regards

Dazz

[georgeusa]

Madhatter,

I looked at the first layer of white decals this morning and they have laid down quite well after a heavy coating of micro sol. The decals are not that tricky as you might expect. So far they behave well, are thick enough to be slightly manhandled, but not so thick they do not react to setting solutions. Of course I have just started on the small portions. There are some quite large decals (5" x 3") that I have not decided if I will cut them up to a more manageable size or will attempt to put them on in one piece. I put another coat of micro sol this morning, hope it isn't overkill. Tonight I begin layering the other decals on top of the white background.

Dazzio,

Thanks for the further update. I will probably get bored waiting for decals to set and end up researching on the computer and learning way more than I need about this series of planes. My niece wants to do the A-10 now. Good grief!!

[Dazzio]

Oh god... Sounds like your niece is an Otaku (hhmm... Basically a really big fan, it's not a bad thing as we are Aircraft Otaku). I'm pretty sure there was an Halloween A-10. It had a massive Pumking across its wings. Was pretty cool. There was also an F-14 called Zip-Zang that had a Sakura tree and blossoms on it. That was a cool one but I can't find it no more really wanted that one.

Kind Regards

Dazz

[tank152]

Progressing well with the decalling, if you come to a stage where Micro Sol won't get the decals to comform, if you can get it over in the States then I can recommend Daco in the Red labelled bottle. There aren't many decals around that argue with that stuff, I used to use it all the time when I build car models and there were some interesting curves on those.

Tim.

[georgeusa]

Dazzio,

Can you imagine converting the Trumpeter A-10 to a scheme like this? Sorta boggles the imagination.

Tank,

So far the micro sol has been doing quite well on the initial layer of decals. In about 5 minutes, I am going to try the first batch of layering on top of the initial decals. We will see if the micro sol stops being effective. So far, so good.

[georgeusa]

Okay finished the other side of the small fins. That was easy. Then moved on to layering the decals on the tail fin. Was a bit more complex. The bottom decal of the figure (she is in two parts) had to fit around some complex curves and it took a few coats of micro sol to make it happen. I am a liitle nervous about putting too much and melt the decals. Will see how well it wrapped around the curves tomorrow morning before I head off to work.

Have a question. When I switch to the other side of the tail fin I am wondering if I should first coat the finished side with Future as a protectorant? The main issue is it's self leveling when initially put on, but how will it work if I put it on one side, let it dry and then put it on the other side? Will there be a ridge where the two sides meet? Or should I take a chance I won't scratch or mar one side's decals when I put the other side on? Any input would be helpful. Will have to sleep on it.

[Maverick231]

Wow what a task 820 decals!

Good job so far though!

Looking forward to seeing the completed model!

Me brother is into Anime, I think I might have to pick one of these up.

[Dazzio]

Dazzio,

Can you imagine converting the Trumpeter A-10 to a scheme like this? Sorta boggles the imagination.

Now that's just crazy talk... You'd be seeing the girls face in your sleep!! Although I think there was some 1/48 decals for these too. Remember seeing 1/144 too, but those where snap kits iirc. Isn't the Trumpeter A-10 supposed to be a mission to make anyhow?? I rarely go above 1/72, so ill never touch it.

As for the decals, I think it might be wise to have some kind of a coat on it. It'll be easier to sand down a ridge than to find a decal that's decided to come off... Or is that just me it happens too??!! You're doing well, are you going to arm it??

Kind Regards

Dazz

[georgeusa]

Dazzio,

I know I will at least put the wingtip AAM-3s on. Have those painted up a bit different to go with the scheme. As for the rest of the weaponry and tanks in the kit, the bottom of the aircraft has almost as much decal detail as the top. I did not open any of the attachment points in the lower wing as I hadn't decided on a full weapons load or not. It's easier to open holes than fill them. After I finish the decals, I will probably let my niece decide. But, if she wants to do the A-10, that for sure will have a full weapon assortment. I have the A-10 trumpy in the stash. I mainly build in 1/32 and 1/24. I might get distracted today as the new Tamiya Corsair 1/32 is supposed to arrive today. This is how I get multiple builds going without completing any!!

[tank152]

Hi George, from your pics its obvious that your Sol is preforming as it should on the decals, great job with them so far.

Tim.

[georgeusa]

Have you ever had one of those times where you feel you have entered the twilght zone and everything you expect to happen doesn't and everything that shouldn't happen does? I started on the other side of the tail fin and attempted to put down the white base decals. Same paint job, same decal sheet, same basic pattern of going down. I had been amazed at the ease at which the port side went on and how well they fit and behaved with the setting solutions. The starboard side seems possessed. None of the decals save the last one behaved at all. They did not fit as well. Once put down it was darn near impossible to adjust the position. One of the main ones became fragile and tore. And, the silver monster seems to have lodged a permanent home in these things. I cannot figure out what happened within the last 24 hours to change either the texture of the paint job or the properties of the decals. It is maddening. Have slathered on the micro sol in hopes I can reduce the silvering. I am going to be patient and see what they look like in the morning. What took only about 30 minutes on the port side took over an hour on the starboard side. And, tomorrow I have to put on the large figure decal. Looking forward to that. Frustrating..... Anyhow, here is the result of tonight's battle.

I hope tomorrow I wake up and the decal fairy has paid a visit to me and cured the faults. I was a good boy today, honest. I didn't turn down any of my crazy client's requests today and showed great patience. Oh well, good night.

[Jessica]

Try putting the larger decals down on a puddle of wet Future (Kleer/Klir or whatever it's called chez vous). This should eliminate the silvering and help the decal settle down over the detail.