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Tophatters loadout being done.

 

General view of the light ghost grey being sprayed. 

Sparrows are brassin, sidewinders are tamiya (from their block 50 f-16cj) and the bombs are hasegawa. 

 

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The hasegawa mk83 bombs were quite crude so they had some work over several days.

 

First they were cleaned up and the raised ridges removed and pin marks filled. 

 

The real things seem to be a cast bomb at the front and a sheet/pressed metal rear fin section. So I masked them off and stippled mr surfacer 500 on them which was then sanded back a touch. Then they were sprayed in grey, then the grey masked off and the green parts done in a shade mixed up from the mig ammo greens I have. Fuses will be some spare brassin ones I have. Sidewinders may have some RBF caps and tags added yet, not sure.

 

Grey on, to be masked for green still. Very pleased with how these mig ammo paints are working for me now :) 

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50/50 mix turned out about right as one is too dark and the other too light. 

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Cheers,

decal update next. 

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Decal experience for the Tophatter was disappointing... 

Not only was it an old hasegawa sheet that was all cracked, they seemed wrong as well as misprinted. 

They were all covered in microscale decal film to stop them breaking up, which meant they all had to be cut out individualy as well. 

Once they were off the sheet is when the misprint became apparent. The grey not being aligned with the white base, giving a drop shadow on some of the larger ones eg numbers, but all the small stencils and the like were unuseable as about impossible to try and trim all the white away. Plus even if they weren't misprinted, the style of modex numbers doesn't match period pics. More on that in a bit. 

 

In the end the only ones I used were the stars and bars, tail logos, jfk's, hats for droptanks and the build number. 

 

Fortunately in my spares I had some spare vf14's and AC tail codes in black (which needed to be dark grey) And then generic stencils in various greys, which all needed to be medium grey though. 

 

In terms of accuracy, the decals provided on the hasegawa sheet seem to be a composite of the 1991-1993 period, with some parts matching different photos. I can't find one picture that matches all what they have provided (I suppose there may be one out there?) In the several real pics of 100 and 103 from that time frame there are variations in the placement of the carrier name, vf 14 position and the contrast of the stencils, as well as some other things I won't bore you with...

 

In the end I picked one of the photos only and tried to match her as close to that as possible. Its the 9th one down, with the helicopter hovering in front of it.

 

http://www.seaforces.org/usnair/VF/Fighter-Squadron-14.htm

 

Pictures of the problems and solutions. 

 

White shadow to the numbers. And they're not slanted either. 

 

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I added some dark grey tips to the wings and stabs, another common tophat feature. Note initial 103's on flaps with the white shadow. Subsequently Removed. 

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103's being made up from 101's

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Decals applied that mostly are too dark in shade. 

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New slanted 103's. Insignia too dark though. Tanks and ordnance decalled too. Trying to get brown decal stripes to photo well is a challenge. They look purple black in this pic?

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Decals turned to grey from black using the relevant background base color it was applied on mixed with Transparator. Note stars and bars now the same tone as the rescue data as per the ref pic in link, and the now subduded intake warning, navy and AC (was black) 

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Decals made for the glove vane panel lines. So much easier than trying to trim out the kit parts then fit the wedge in with an even gap all around it... Might put these on ebay as a shortcut for all tomcat kits? 

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Thats all for now with the Tophatter bird...

 

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So an update on the low viz vf 111 line bird. 

I wanted to try out and perfect this maskol technique for replicating the corrosion control paint touch ups. 

I went for a more dirty look this time compared to the vf14 plane. 

Also found a safer way to remove the maskol, details below...

 

1st plane is coated overall in solid gull grey (akan) and then after a couple days the maskol is applied with a fine brush. 

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A thinned dirty brown grey (mixed from akan and mig ammo Transparator) is post shaded all over the jet. 

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Last time I tried removing with tweezers to try and pick the bits off, which resulted in scratches, or used tape to cover surfaces and pull off multiple sections of maskol, but this made some paint lift too. 

This time I just rubbed blue tac across to remove the maskol. Much safer and quicker!

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Then it looked like this. 

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Undersides Showing state after maskol removed. Plastic card T shape in sparrow fin slot works with foam wedge (masks prepainting too) in nose gear bay to keep the model off of surfaces and protect paint, especially the ventral fins. Skewers have packing foam rolled around them (brassin packets) to aid as handles when holding. Avoiding damage and fingerprints. 

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Next is the blending coat. Gull grey again, thinned with aquagloss so the postshade isn't  complete obliterated, but also to toughen up the paint and help it stick to itself as the first gull coat was very smooth and satin.

(In contrast to the vf -14, where I managed to get a more matt finish with the mig ammo paints on that build so it gave the later thin blending coats something more to grip) 

These akan paints sprayed lovely over the stynylrez, which was almost a decal ready surface with the base coat. Seeing as acrylics normally don't stick well to smooth surfaces, so I was worried about the thinned gull coat sticking well enough, considering there is masking to be done for wheel wells, wing bladders, leading edges etc. Last thing you'd want is to pull the top layer blending coat off when demasking from doing these areas. So aswell as adding transparency and toughness to the blending layer, it also increased the gloss so it's definitely ready for decals ;) 

I tried to get a more swirly blotchy effect when adding the blending coat too. 

Here is the finished work in general and then in detail. 

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So thats where it stands at the minute...

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Ps some akan metallics are on the way for this build too... Looking forward to trying them out. 

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Few details been done on the vf-111, bays and bladders. Just used a dark grey akan from my stash. 

 

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Also tested out some hataka red line paints for the vf21 - tps with a gunship grey skunk stripe. 

These are new stock so none of the grittiness. 

 

I also added neutral grey to go with the gunship to see what a F16 future build will look like with these paints. Then added the light grey aswell for interest. 

 

So colours are as per the jars are laid out - in the centre left to right - neutral, medium/bluegrey, dark ghost, light ghost. Gunship along top and then light grey 36495 along the bottom.  Sprayed straight from the bottle. 0.3mm needle at 20psi. 

 

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cheers!

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Couple vf 14 bits from weekend:

 

Brassin sidewinder nose caps:

 

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Panel line washes - meduim grey on the dark ghost and deep grey on the blue grey. 

 

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In keeping with the mig ammo theme for this build - trying out these new varnishes that I bought last week. Satin and ultra matt. Used them both straight and a mix of the two to get a variety of sheens on the plane. Went satin on ordnance, u/c legs bays and doors etc. Ultra matt on top then the matt mix on the lowers... 

 

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Need to spray the ultra matt very lightly and several coats and not let it build up and be a wet coat otherwise it dries chalky. 

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So more decal woes, this time based around colour. 

 

The low viz vf 111 turns out as also low contrast...

 

I emailed FCM about the 'ghost greyish-ness' of the decals as opposed to the medium grey they need to be - 

 

https://photos.smugmug.com/US-Squadrons-USN/US-Navy-Fighter-Squadrons/VF-111-SUNDOWNERS-pictures/i-m478ccc/2/e19385bd/S/F-14USN-VF-111 0045 A taxing Grumman F-14 Tomcat USN 160668 VF-111 SUNDOWNERS USS Carl Vinson 3-1984 NAS Fallon%2C by Michael Grove%2C Sr DONEwt copy-S.jpg

 

So he sent back a pic that he used for reference when making this sheet - the problem is that it's overexposed & washed out and/or old. So the decals may match the picture, but you'd need to paint your tomcat in a white grey like FS36495 or something to get the contrast correct. Bit of a schoolboy error? 

 

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They decals look rubbish on the gull grey. Anyways I persevered with the build as just want to get on with it.  Just take heed if you plan on using these you'll need to adjust your paint. 

 

The decals performance was excellent though, can't fault that. 

I had to trim and adjust the tail markings though, which was expected and forewarned because they are suited to a hasegawa kit. 

 

Whilst on the topic of tail markings - I've noticed this with a few others, when planning and researching builds. The hobbyboss tails are smaller overall, and the proportions of the rudder and leading edge chord are smaller and larger respectively. So any aftermarket decals or those from hasegawa kits that feature rudder only portions - like the checkers of vf211 or the inner AB codes of vf33 will be too large to fit the smaller hobbyboss rudders...

 

So back to the sundowner - I cut off the top portion of the decal as was going to mask and spray these bits regardless. Also the '13' was removed to be put on later once the sunray was positioned. I aimed for the base semi circle to be half on the fin half on the rudder. 

 

Raw decal. 

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Trimmed. 

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Dry. 

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Next I trimmed back the finbase area decal to the nearby panel lines to spray that part, first to help with the colour match and second to avoid a 'step' in the paint from the decal underneath. 

 

Masked. 

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Sprayed. Was an 80/20 mix of dark and light ghost greys (akan)

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And done. Pre painted leading edges in akan light ghost grey didn't contrast enough because the decals are too light. 

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So a lighter ghost grey mixed and done on leading edges. 

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As it looks now with some other decals added. Note 13's have been added. 

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View of the nose area. Note yellow sundowners logo ( missing from FCM sheet, robbed from my hasegawa pacific fleet boxing)

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Edited by Tony Oliver
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Said it before and I'll say it again this thread just keeps on giving, absolutely superior workmanship. I've gotta hand it to you Tony, your patience for adjusting colour schemes and repairing/blending decals is mighty impressive. I'm already slightly envious of your collection of 'Cats and yet there's more to come!

 

Beautiful work,

 

Eng

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9 minutes ago, eng said:

Said it before and I'll say it again this thread just keeps on giving, absolutely superior workmanship. I've gotta hand it to you Tony, your patience for adjusting colour schemes and repairing/blending decals is mighty impressive. I'm already slightly envious of your collection of 'Cats and yet there's more to come!

 

Beautiful work,

 

Eng

 

Absolutely agree 100%. I thought I was doing well building 4 x Tomcats in 2014......who was I kidding....THIS thread is awesome.

 

Dermot

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6 minutes ago, eng said:

Said it before and I'll say it again this thread just keeps on giving, absolutely superior workmanship. I've gotta hand it to you Tony, your patience for adjusting colour schemes and repairing/blending decals is mighty impressive. I'm already slightly envious of your collection of 'Cats and yet there's more to come!

 

Beautiful work,

 

Eng

 

Thanks mate! 

 

Think I'm burning out though with this relentless quest for perfection...  

 

I'm doing my own head in so you guys must be really fed up of all my rambling! 

 

I very nearly pulled those vf111 sunrays off and was going to revert that build back to vf114! 

 

In other news, An old microscale sheet has arrived from America, with some low viz vf33 planes on from the mid/late 80's. There's some schemes you never see on a kit. Always the ones with the yellow stars on black fins. Watch this space...

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8 minutes ago, Dermo245 said:

 

Absolutely agree 100%. I thought I was doing well building 4 x Tomcats in 2014......who was I kidding....THIS thread is awesome.

 

Dermot

 

Thanks again to you too mate! 

 

This thread turned a year old last week...

Only 5 complete so far and three on the go at min so not that awesome for 12 months gone.

Would have been more had I not got sidetracked over Christmas and then done those F-16's in the stgb... 

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11 minutes ago, Tony Oliver said:

 

Thanks mate! 

 

Think I'm burning out though with this relentless quest for perfection...  

 

I'm doing my own head in so you guys must be really fed up of all my rambling! 

 

I very nearly pulled those vf111 sunrays off and was going to revert that build back to vf114! 

 

In other news, An old microscale sheet has arrived from America, with some low viz vf33 planes on from the mid/late 80's. There's some schemes you never see on a kit. Always the ones with the yellow stars on black fins. Watch this space...

 

Once this thread was underway I grabbed a HB 'Cat and guess what scheme took my fancy......Yeah, that VF-33 scheme on the old Microscale decal sheet! Unfortunately my progress is disgustingly slow in comparison to yours so there's a fair chance you may still complete that before I do.

 

Top notch work Sir, we're loving it, dig deep and keep these beauties coming.

 

Eng

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2 hours ago, Tony Oliver said:

...Only 5 complete so far and three on the go at min so not that awesome for 12 months gone...

 

I disagree with your assessment of the awesomeness, by about 180o. Your amazingly awesome project has yielded many fine, finished kits that have demonstrated mastery of numerous techniques, provided a rich resource of photos and discussion to return to over and again, and kept me entertained with your experiments and trials, reversals and successes for a year. The F-16 distraction was an added bonus!!!

 

It's your project, so proceed at your own pace; you can be very proud of what you've achieved thus far.

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Having an interesting email conversation and picture exchange with FCM decals. 

They agree that the decals look too light on the model, however, they look correct/darker on the sheets. (Of course they will because of the light backing paper) That's all that matters then. 

Seem to not understand the concept of contrast. That's what made the decals too light in the first place when matching the grey for the decals to a washed out picture :rage:

 

I'm really tempted to remove all these as not clear coated them yet... 

Do another plane instead. 

 

Opinions? 

 

 

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On 28 July 2017 at 07:41, matteo44 said:

I'm a new member of this forum but I saw that you are a very great modeler... 

So I think... Remove the decals from the tails and paint by mask? ^_^

 

Thanks mate but never seen any masks for these. Plus would have to be all the markings, not just the tails. 

 

Anyways clear coated them now so the decision is 'sealed' so to speak! 

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A bit of an exhausting post... 

 

Ha ha ha I know don't quit my day job...

 

So the stock plastic nozzles for the Tophatters were shown a page or so back being done in ammo color gunmetal with burnt iron misted over them (straight burnt iron was too dark)

 

However she has had an upgrade in the form of some lovely aires resin ones.

 

These were first attempted in the mig metal 'bluish titanium' to see what the colour is like, and then weathered with washes and pigments to try and simulate how new titanium exhausts finish up - all dirty and burnt brown. They looked rather gash so that was all stripped off. No picture of the weathered titanium though, sorry. 

 

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So that was stripped...

 

Round 2!

 

After stripping, it was time for a repaint. Remembering last time with the plastic ones that straight burnt iron was too dark I went for a 50/50 ish mix with gold, much better:

 

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Patchwork next. I used 5 or so mixed shades to range from fresh new metal to old burnt stuff, using the above sprayed 'base' colour as the middle of the pallete so to speak. 

 

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So this is how they looked after brushing the individual panels with lighter and darker shades:

 

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They were then glossed to protect them and then had a nato dark wash all over. Cleaned off on the outside but left heavy inside. Then some light grey washes in the tiny dimples to simulate the screws holding them together. 

Lastly was some matt varnish inside to make them look 'sooty' 

The wash has toned down the contrast between them but they are still interesting enough. 

A pet hate of mine is when you see the same overall colour inside & out and on the cowl, especially in the larger scales. Where's that thread...? 

 

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The real deal: 

 

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Thanks for looking! 

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So hopefully the last update for the Tophatter before the RFI.

She had some grime and streaks added using those oilbrushers. 

Next was all the small little jobs at the end which seem to take the longest but are just as important and don't want to rush.

In no particular order, again all ammo stuff - the quickboost seats were primed in black then detail painted. Took two coats or so, decals added then had a matt varnish to knock the satin sheen back, next they had the details washed. Coamings were done in a similar fashion, and the front one has some foil for the hud projecter lens thingy. Also the clear green tint was added with the ammo crystal paints. Whilst those were out all the nav lights were done too.

The bombs had a dark wash to bring out the texture then had those spare brassin fuses fitted. The u/c was chipped as seen in reference pics by tie down chains. The canopy lifting strut was made from some telescoping brass tube (still needs trimming and painting)

The sidewinders had the little target detector dots added with a black 0.3mm gundam marker. 

 

Etc etc etc...

 

End up with a box full of bits ready for final assembly over the weekend I reckon. 

 

Raw paint. 

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Varnished and washed. 

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Thanks for looking. 

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