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Sorry for the sporadic updates of late but back home on leave now so will hopefully get this one done over the next couple of weeks.

 

Anyways -

 

A few other details from this build. 

 

First is the pylons - sparrow launchers are hasegawa, more detail than the hobbyboss parts, plus I mastered them with eduard etch to make them more interesting when empty. 

Also is the winder rails, was hboss one mastered with eduard etch too to depict empty rails - have long since been detail painted and panel lines washed with airframe, these pics are a few months old. A rail was painted ghost grey to make the scheme more varied, along with one of the drop tanks which is a bit of artistic license and expanding on the ghost grey bits already visible on the real plane. 

 

5_F248_F99-668_C-4_A89-_B915-_CC44_BC607

 

911462_E9-785_E-48_F3-_B026-36_F9_E02_E5

 

A608_C8_DE-6_C41-472_D-_B606-_A8_B9502_F

 

AE9_A06_FF-5_C0_D-4_D4_B-_B7_E5-_AA097_A

 

Too add some colour I have made a ‘blue tube’ captive training winder, by cutting and/or leaving the fins off of a brassin aim-9d. 

These are visible in alot of NAS pics from the 80’s and then I think in the 90’s they got paired up with the red tacts pod. 

This was painted in mission basic blue then had some different tones mixed up to add variety, same detail with the metal shades. 

 

8_F645120-8_CE2-4_C9_B-87_BA-62997375_F3

 

More recently (boxing day) the plane had varnishes to seal in the washes before the next round of streaking and fading with oilbrushers. 

I started off with a flat all over to level it off, then went back over with a bit of satin on the lowers and sides to represent the gloss gull grey that wouldn’t be as bleached as the top. 

 

Blurry pic of flat coat - 

 

841_B8_B81-1608-4_A97-_A873-_D026498583_

 

Bye for now

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Ok some of the little fiddly bits done past few evenings at the end of the build which always seem to take ages. 

Not got around yet to fading and streaking airframe yet as prefer to do that in natural light/daytime. 

Also done but not shown is all the nav lights were painted with a silver base first for their respective clear shades to go on at the end, and the U/C legs had some chips added using a 0.3mm dark brown gundam marker. 

 

Seats and bits were done in black stynylrez, then drybrushed and detail painted in various mission shades in keeping with this builds theme....

 

pics (why we are all here) -

 

Formation lights done in akan Russian lemon grey primer. Used on the last few builds as its an ideal dirty yellow with a slight green tinge :)  

5529_EEC7-62_CF-484_B-_A03_E-9_DF1_BD160

 

66_DA09_EE-_C345-4126-_ABBD-745615_C1_E2

 

D0_C8_EC2_F-22_D3-4204-_B304-_A41_A92374

 

Canopy bits. Wedge is resin cast. Joined together as one so will be in perfect alignment with a closed canopy, rather than putting the wedge on the shelf behind seat and frame inside rear of canopy. 

367_D2745-_D802-400_A-_A1_A1-869672_DE9_

 

Modern hobbies resin seats from Canada. A bit too wide for the hboss tub, but fit hasegawa fine. Had to sand sides lower down like when I put stock hase seats in the vf21 bird. Wont be seen with a closed pit though. 

Replaced the ejection handles with some airwaves etch as the resin handles that came with the seats were quite crude and you could blatantly see they were mastered from a piece of wire in a figure of 8 loop. The placards were painted rather than using decals as the little raised plates were present. 

 

Left. 

E277_E1_AB-_D7_BC-48_AD-_A435-41_D76_D4_

 

Right. 

5_FA82143-746_A-47_A9-9_CAC-32501_D4629_

 

IP’s/coamings. 

Instrument side shown before I think, but canvas parts detailed now. Again these are resin parts I mastered combining hboss and hase parts. For the hud projecter I used some bmf like I did on the other A builds with stock hboss coamings, but as this hase part is deeper to take a clear plastic disc, I filled it with pva to make a ‘lens’. 

30064_B74-_D9_E8-4_CF1-_AE34-9133_D5_CF7

 

27655342-20_A4-4_D22-_A512-052211_E82160

 

90742_B62-_AAE0-4_E69-9_C2_A-38444_B449_

 

Thanks for looking! 

 

Any comments/queries/questions please ask :) 

 

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A few more last details and weathering being done. 

 

U/C legs that were mentioned in previous post. Nose gear at a jaunty angle to add interest. Only second time I have cut one of these in nine builds! 

551_DCB29-_F41_D-47_D8-9_C1_E-1193_D32_F

 

DA1_EFB21-_C1_D5-4775-_BDDC-_C9_AADDAC34

 

I used the oilbrushers diluted down to get the salt stained look. 

 

BD742_E33-_C32_A-4742-93_A1-_AC7_A55_C1_

 

This is what it looks like going on. Titled to light to catch it while wet. Don’t try and get even coverage like a filter, here we want the tide mark look. So the whole area does get covered, but by lots of dots that flow into each other and overlap. 

 

B51_F3_B6_F-2_E2_E-4_A5_B-969_F-691_AD05

 

Here’s a finished area of that effect. The flat part between fins. Also visible are the little dots which were applied and then streaked back with a moist brush for grime. 

 

6_F047_EFD-8479-4_B6_D-_BEF5-_C5_DE467_C

 

The gull grey was faded and stained with ‘yellow bone’ and then starship filth for grime on uppers, and dark mud for dirt streaks and leaks on lowers/engine nacelles. 

Light Flesh to fade radome. 

 

CCF5_F67_B-2_FE6-497_D-_BA41-53_D58_F551

 

Seats and coamings going in. Probes and pitots etc on now too. 

 

6_F5_E448_B-_FBDC-416_C-80_B8-2833_A7_BE

 

Thanks for looking. 

 

Hopefully next post will be a link to the RFI! 

 

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This Sluggers jet looks excellent, and the finished article will be a joy to behold - well done!

 

I appreciate the extra effort you've made to document and share your techniques, Tony; thanks very much. I'm keen to try your masking and oil patch/wash techniques on my next Tomcat build (just possibly the new Fine Molds kit!) or indeed any naval build...

 

Happy New Year and I look forward to your next update.

 

Andrew.

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11 hours ago, Andrew said:

This Sluggers jet looks excellent, and the finished article will be a joy to behold - well done!

 

I appreciate the extra effort you've made to document and share your techniques, Tony; thanks very much. I'm keen to try your masking and oil patch/wash techniques on my next Tomcat build (just possibly the new Fine Molds kit!) or indeed any naval build...

 

Happy New Year and I look forward to your next update.

 

Andrew.

 

Thanks Andy.

Gonna try and do one more Hboss cat to make it a round 10 for this project then have a break from it. Can return in the future as loads more hboss cats still in the stash...

For a change perhaps do some finemolds or hasegawa tomcats :D 

 

Here’s a couple more pics for now as probably won’t get to photograph it properly until end of the month now... Also note I added a blue band captive training white 54A to go with the blue tube winder, as all the Phoenix missiles I’ve done so far on these builds are grey 54C’s 

 

Just canopy and tailplanes that needed attaching after this... 

 

39_A0_A7_BA-5003-4_DFD-_ADB7-46076_C065_


BF4_A54_D1-61_FE-4_DDD-_BD61-_FCAF8_E190

 

Cheers! 

 

It might be standing on the box of the ‘break’ project...

 

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You have done a really good job there. It still does not look 1/72 !

 

I received my Finemolds F-14A the other day and it is possible to make other block F-14As.

 

Robert

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1 hour ago, Robert said:

You have done a really good job there. It still does not look 1/72 !

 

I received my Finemolds F-14A the other day and it is possible to make other block F-14As.

 

Robert

 

Yeah looking forward to getting hands on one of those. Mine still haven’t turned up yet. Glad to hear that as it seems certain parts like the gun vents and tails with stiffners are still present on the main sprues to make a later A :) 

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More old obscure decals, this time from france via ebay. 

 

It was bought for the vf32 scheme with the twin tailed cat musketeer tail logo that was worn for a year or so around 83/84. Then they went back to the big sword only. 

 

Build spec very similar to the sluggers bird just finished. 

 

So the sheet says the low viz option was all gull as well as the high viz, but only found the low viz markings one in tps.

 

If it were then it could be the holy grail of an all gull with all low viz subdued markings, apart from the white in the bands. 

A few variations about in the colour version of though, mainly with style and location of the stars and bars. Seem to have a black with possibly yellow as well edge to the ventral stakes too? Not mentioned on sheet though... 

 

Sheet-

BD655_E5_B-_CFC3-49_A3-_B934-_FA1_A1_C81

 

Pictures below are public on flicr. 

 

211 with small colour stars and bars:

VF-32 F-14A Tomcat AE-211

 

207 Higher and grey

VF-32  F-14A  160927  NAS Oceana, VA  Jun 1983

 

212 as per the decal sheet- 

VF-32  F-14A  161159  NAS Oceana, VA  May 1983

 

205 but tps not gull with the low viz markings. 

VF-32  F-14A  159462  NAS Fallon, NV  Apr 1983

 

Too many options to build, not enough time and space! 

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Hi Troops, update time. 

 

I managed to take some pictures of the sluggers bird over the weekend. So I now need to compose an RFI for it...

 

In the meantime here are few teaser type comparison pics. Those that have seen some of the other RFI’s will know I like group shots to compare paint shades etc. 

 

So here is the mission gull flanked by so far the only other gull grey in my collection (mr hobby) vf32 cag and then the light grey FS36495 (mr color) sundowner for a tone comparison. 

All monitors & screens being equal: a point to note is that the mission gull has been darkened a bit by my postshade/maskol weathering. 

So in all its quite a pale and cold light gull grey, I do like the look of it and seems to match period photos of sun bleached cruise weary cats more compared to the mr hobby shade which is richer and browner. Opinions?

 

7_F2_D6109-_ECB6-4414-_B96_D-9_DA5671649

 

Next, here the vf32 has been replaced by the vf21 bird which was finished in mission paint tps colours, which allows us to see their naval shades together. The contrast is quite strong, as in my opinion their tps ones are a touch darker than other brands of hobby paint available. What with the gull being a light one it just seems to emphasise this? In isolation they look fine but together here the tps plane looks too dark - again opinions?

 

142_AB5_EA-02_A7-40_CE-8_B7_C-57_ED8_E2_

 

Cheers and thanks for looking! 

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2 hours ago, Tony Oliver said:

In the meantime here are few teaser type comparison pics. Those that have seen some of the other RFI’s will know I like group shots to compare paint shades etc.

I really enjoy color/paint comparison posts Tony. I have to say that the VF-32 Mr Hobby Gull grey looks more how I imagine that shade than the Mission Models version. But it (Mission) looks better in the second pic next to the TPS bird - funny how color perception works! I always see a yellow/brownish tinge in Gull grey, and the Mission Gull grey in the first pic seems bluish compared to the Mr Hobby, but then appears a proper yollowish in the second pic.

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I really like your 'Tomcat family' shots, Tony and the Sluggers jet looks right at home.

 

On 1/18/2018 at 9:56 AM, Tony Oliver said:

... the vf21 bird which was finished in mission paint tps colours, which allows us to see their naval shades together. The contrast is quite strong, as in my opinion their tps ones are a touch darker than other brands of hobby paint available. What with the gull being a light one it just seems to emphasise this? In isolation they look fine but together here the tps plane looks too dark - again opinions?

 

It's interesting to see these together and agree that the Mission TPS shades appear quite dark, but the Mission Gull Grey is very much what I would expect for that colour. If the VF-21 jet was placed in the middle of that trio, would the apparent 'darkness' be the same though? (I'm not suggesting that you need to re-take the photo, just wondering aloud about how we see these things.) Another comment on the TPS shades - they don't seem to be 'blue' enough either... I'm going to have to look back through your thread at the VF-21 jet's painting stages to see if the effect is apparent in isolation.

 

I'm looking forward to the Swordsmen Tomcat making an appearance - more Gull Grey!

 

Andrew.

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Hmmm, what next for number ten. 

 

- Something flat gull grey to try out the mission models shade to contrast with the regular gull grey on the last one (slugger)... 

 

- Something line, not CAG/CO... 

 

- Preferably GE powered to make 5 of each so far... 

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/57646436@N06/34999802561/in/photostream

 

http://camdecals.com/milspecac72-f14-011vf-103f-14-2.aspx

 

Opinions? 

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On 2/3/2018 at 6:41 PM, Tony Oliver said:

Hmmm, what next for number ten. 

 

- Something flat gull grey to try out the mission models shade ... Opinions? 

Hi Tony,

 

It's great to see you preparing for another Tomcat, but I'm not sure that this jet (161428) is in overall gull grey.... I think that it is in at least some TPS shades; here are two photos of the jet around that time.

 

First, in May of '96 but without the black tails, and second in September of '97, with revised modexes and black tails. Both photos seem to indicate that it is not in gull grey, with TPS shades more likely. Fightertown decals covered a jet from this timeframe on their sheet 48-073 and although it isn't clear what the colours used are, the colours listed on the instruction sheet do not include gull grey.

 

Have I missed something? Are there other gull grey F-14B schemes you've seen?

 

cheers,

 

Andrew.

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