Booty003 Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 Looks fantastic. I've not built 48 scale in a long time and have forgotten about all the extra goodies that can be added for that extra sense of realism if one so desires....!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parabat Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 I can't beleive not many have commented on this! That nosegear bay looks incredible! Fantastic work, keep up the good work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 That's how you're supposed to do it! Great stuff! Keep it coming, I got one of these kittens om my radar, so all tips and tricks are welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonT Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 Only just noticed this, masterclass on that wheel bay, definitely keep up the good work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janremco Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 Wow great detailing on the nose wheel bay Don. Jan Remco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Crusty one Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Must get me one of these kits,lovely work so far and a few new tips from you to have a go at! Popcorn is in hand cheers👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Looking good! Keep it up mate 🤘🏿 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James G Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Great job on the gear bay, will be watching with interest as well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 18 hours ago, BillyB said: Great job so far. Watching with interest. Regards, Bill.. Thanks Bill. There's a long way to go and I don't think I've gotten up to speed yet. I'll do my best to keep it coming. 18 hours ago, Booty003 said: Looks fantastic. I've not built 48 scale in a long time and have forgotten about all the extra goodies that can be added for that extra sense of realism if one so desires....!! Thanks, Booty, Indeed, that's the attraction of 1:48 to me. I remember my first kit in this scale - Monogram P-61. I couldn't understand why there was so much more 'stuff' in the cockpit than the Airfix kits I was used to. At the time I had neither noticed nor understood that the scale was different. (I was only about twelve.) 1:48 is half as big again as 1:72 but thats just in one dimension, you have to cube it to get the true size difference. So 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 = 3.375 times bigger! Big enough for me to pretend it's real! 17 hours ago, Parabat said: I can't beleive not many have commented on this! That nosegear bay looks incredible! Fantastic work, keep up the good work. Hi Parabat, long time no see. I hope all's well with you. Yes I wondered what was happening. I thought I might have offended in some way. (This happens to me all the time because I'm somewhat autistic and haven't much of a clue socially.) I also wondered whether my efforts were a bit rubbish but thank goodness that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm a lot more confident now that I've had a bit of encouragement, thank you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 18 hours ago, Christer A said: That's how you're supposed to do it! Great stuff! Keep it coming, I got one of these kittens om my radar, so all tips and tricks are welcome! Thanks Christer. No doubt I'll make most of the mistakes possible. I'll keep you informed. 17 hours ago, SimonT said: Only just noticed this, masterclass on that wheel bay, definitely keep up the good work! Thank you Simon, you are very kind. I'm not sure it counts as a masterclass, but I'll accept the compliment. 17 hours ago, Janremco said: Wow great detailing on the nose wheel bay Don. Jan Remco Thanks Jan 2 hours ago, crustydude said: Must get me one of these kits,lovely work so far and a few new tips from you to have a go at! Popcorn is in hand cheers👍 Hi Dude, thanks for the appreciation. I'll include any tips that occur to me. Most of them were picked up from others anyway. It's good to share. 2 hours ago, Tony Oliver said: Looking good! Keep it up mate 🤘🏿 Thank you Tony, I will get back to the bench right after lunch. 1 hour ago, James G said: Great job on the gear bay, will be watching with interest as well! Thanks James. I'll do my best to keep up to the mark. Thanks to ALL of you for the encouragement. It's something that we all need I suppose in this often solitary hobby. I certainly do. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Hello Dere! I'm rapidly running out of discrete sub-assemblies and will soon have to start following the instructions, but not just yet. Today, I had a go at the jetpipes. They are quite prominent, as you see. What strange colours inside. Remember the days when we would have just painted them black? Right then, first thing I realised was the distinct possibility of doing a Murphy and getting the nozzles on the wrong way round. Tamiya provide two open and two closed nozzlez, so the choice is up to you, but I have noticed that the USN tended to shut them down with one open and one closed. Why? I've no idea, but I wanted the variety. The usual way round is this: And had I not marked them I'd certainly have got them the wrong way round. By the way, If you know exactly why they did this I'd love to know. I believe something to do with the hydraulic systems? Turbine and afterburner thingies. A bit crude but they will be ok in the depths of the jetpipe. I mounted them on sprue sticks for convenience. Very handy things, sprue sticks. I started making them for stirring paint with. No splinters, unlike cocktail sticks, to clog up the airbrush. Now I use them for loads of little jobs, including mounting small parts for comfortable spraying. And speaking of spraying, say hello to my little friend! My recently built, portable, self-contained, spray booth. The frame is from a charity shop and was originally a kind of Zimmer frame for unsteady persons to wheel themselves and their lunch around on. The tray underneath the actual booth holds the compressor and the power suplies to the two spotlights - one directly illuminating so that I can see the shine of properly wet paint and one diffused through the box. The fan is a kitchen extractor so quite powerful but not too noisy. It exhausts through yards of convoluted ducting which means that no filter is required. The paint particles are dry long before they reach the end, and drop harmlessly into the convolutions as dust. Vapours, which no filter would stop anyway, are exhausted through the window (or up the bathroom extractor if it's raining). With acrylics, I don't even bother with that. Vallejo smells nice anyway and is so non-toxic that its practically edible. Spirit based paints and lacquers obviously require the full treatment. The whole thing can be wheeled into the loo if I really have to be tidy (a rare thing, as I live alone) Primed with Vallejo white primer, dried with a hairdrier, painted with Vallejo ACRYLIC metalics. Five minutes tops. The paint is a bit granular but for little jobs like this, excellent. I want to wash it to pop out the detail and the acrylic aluminium paint is unaffected by the enamel wash, saving the need for a protective varnish coat. Same range, different shades. I mixed several in the airbrush to get a slight variation between the nozzle inside and out. There's a slight tone change for the different parts of the outside too but I made it too subtle, I think. Oh well... That's the stuff I'm using. Its ok for NMF but I have had some adhesion problems. On the other hand, it touches up amazingly well when you put a finger into the wet paint (Not that I did that today. No sir. Never happened. And certainly not twice!) Spraying the ceramic jetpipe was easy enough. Curiously, it was the open end that I accidentally left poorly covered, the far end was fine. Now, that lot had to dry for a while so I started, and finished assembling the cockpit. It's beautifully made. So much so that I got a little bored. I took my time and plodded through the job. everything fitted perfectly. Nothing creative to do. I couldn't even create a mess. There's little to add, just the seatbelts and they are ridiculously easy as most of the harness travelled with the aircrew who simply clipped themselves on (more or less). I'm looking forward to the painting though, the crisp details are begging for it. Incidentally, the separate panels seem designed with production of other marks of Tomcat in mind. There is a separate part for the gun vent panel too, and this was redesigned after the -14A. Similarly the beaver tail etc etc. Look out for an F-14D next Christmas, folks! The crew figures are good but I'm not using them this time. Their poses are a bit dull. I am using their heads, or rather, their helmets, for a little conversation piece. I'll leave them on the coaming or somewhere. I've hollowed out the inside just enough and will add new and longer O2 tubes later. Look what I did to the nose when carelessly sanding off the sprue attachment points. What a dum dum. Back to the aft end. Here's the effect of a Humbrol black wash. Still a bit bright, methinks. Even installed, they look far too clean and shiny. I'll tone them down in the morning before i fit them. The jetpipes, I decided to dry-brush in shades of brown. I find acrylics useless for this as they dry so fast so I was delighted to get the old Humbrol enamels out for a sniff. Here's a tip. Use a spoon to lever the tops off tinlets, you will avoid a lot of distorted and poorly sealing lids. Stir well with a sawn off coffee frother from Ikea. I believe they are still a pound each. Three shades applied and I'm fairly pleased. As we used to say, it will do a trip. I'm busy tomorrow so don't know if I can manage an update, but I will do what I can. Evening all. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 It's funny but looking at those jetpipes this morning (on my phone) I'm very unimpressed. I think I'd better think it out again. Maybe another go with a softer brush? I'm also going to try to differentiate the nozzle petals with washes. I've been looking forward to retirement for years so that I can spend more time making beautiful models. The bitter irony is that I'm not as good at this as I used to be. I can't get new techniques into my head for one thing. Well, I can get them in but they fall out of my memory while I'm making a cup of tea! And of course, my hands and eyes are definitely wearing out so the old stuff, like dry brushing enamel, is also degraded. Oh well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davmarx Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 Great job in the NWB, I like it very much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 1 hour ago, davmarx said: Great job in the NWB, I like it very much. Aw, thanks Dav. There's an update due later tonight about the ejection seats, which have taken up most of my day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 (edited) On 30/03/2017 at 6:44 AM, per ardua ad ostentationem said: Hello Dere! I'm rapidly running out of discrete sub-assemblies and will soon have to start following the instructions, but not just yet. Today, I had a go at the jetpipes. They are quite prominent, as you see. What strange colours inside. Remember the days when we would have just painted them black? Right then, first thing I realised was the distinct possibility of doing a Murphy and getting the nozzles on the wrong way round. Tamiya provide two open and two closed nozzlez, so the choice is up to you, but I have noticed that the USN tended to shut them down with one open and one closed. Why? I've no idea, but I wanted the variety. The usual way round is this: G'day Don, I am not 100% sure but the early F-14's used a very similar version of the TF-30 engine that the F-111 used. I am extrapolating from F-111's now, but the TF-30 used fuel pressure to actuate the variable exhaust nozzles (VENs). A similar thing happened on F-111's, when the jet approached the parking area, usually the right engine would be shut down (ie VEN closed) and the jet would taxi in on the left engine. Because one engine was still operating, the right VEN would remain shut, however, when the left engine was shut down, since there was no longer fuel pressure, when it was shut down, the VEN relaxed into the fully open position - omne open one closed. I am no F-14 expert, but I think something similar is happening there. Edited April 6, 2017 by Pappy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 Er, Pappy, I think you forgot to add your bit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 Hello dere! Vallejo acrylic metallic paint. As seen above, twice (lol). I thought I'd show you what it looks like when used on the outside of an aeroplane. Not too shabby, I reckon, and fume free and easily overpaintable. The shark mouth here was an afterthought and applied directly over the NMF. Right, back to the business of the day, and it certainly has been a busy day, there has been baking too bbut I'm not sharing my cookies with you lot. I know what model makers are like when it comes to biscuits. You will remember that the cockpit had all gone together very easily. It's generally accurate and well detailed too. I really don't think there's much that I want to add - except to the seats. Tamiya supply pilot and RIO figures and, expecting them to cover a lot of the seats, don't even supply one of their weird harness transfers. Plenty of scope then. Martin Baker's finest lounge furniture (please visit the current WIP about building one of these out of junk. Real Blue Peter engineering. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235019248-no-wings-just-the-seat/ It's lead foil from Verlinden. Also useful for tarpaulins and other fabric applications. For harness straps I just slice a sliver at a time and stick it down with superglue. Step one. I apply the superglue (thin) with a special tool made from a sewing needle with the eye filed down into a 'Y' shape: It's mounted in a sprue stick for convenience in handling. The forked end picks up a tiny amount of glue and delivers it exactly where required.. I charge it from a small pool of the stuff on a plastic food container, changing the fluid from time to time as it seems to lose its effectiveness when exposed to the air for a while. Eventually the glue sets in the fork. No problem, I burn it off above a lighter flame, doubtless releasing carcinogens into the area in front of my face. Well, I don't smoke so I've got to get my cancer from somewhere. Step Two: I just work along the webbing according to the reference photo, tacking it down as necessary. And checking against the reference again... I'm sure that you get the idea so here's the end product: And then I noticed the pipes at the crewman's (crewperson's) left hip. G-suit connections, I think. They are big enough to include so this time I'll use fine lead solder which I bought from China (where lead is still allowed) via Amazon. I'll make the connectors on the pipes from thick paint, with a bit of luck. You'll see that I had a stab at making the more conspicuous of the buckles from stretched sprue (red) and Slater's Plasticard strip (white). The red part was a challenge to shaking hands, let me tell you! This is IMPORTANT. Check to make sure that the modifications don't prevent the model from going together! Oh the number of times I've made that mistake and had to cut it all off again. This is what disinclined me from doing anything on the headbox tops - I might want to close the canopy, at least loosely, to keep the dust out. But just look at that! The black 'rope' passing through the guillotine is fairly inconspicuous but the white one that leads to the drogue gun is too good to miss. It will give a splendid highlight when it's all painted. [more to come in a minute but laptop battery low so posting now.] 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 Drogue 'rope' Hmm, that will need a pair of mounting holes drilling. Just like that! Easy as pie! Well, it's easy if you have a creative genius for a son. My lad made me this: Low powered so that the micro drills don't snap but with enough inertia in the chuck to keep it cutting. I don't even need to centre punch the plastic when the holes are this small. (or larger sizes and when using a hand drill, I centre pop with a needle mounted in guess what? ... A sprue stick! He made the whole thing inside a piece of waste pipe, manufacturing the insides from low melting point plastic. Someone should be selling these... A real proper chuck, not a collett nuisance so I can use burrs for grinding as well as drills. And there you have it. I'll squash it down a bit when it's painted. Speaking of painting, I'll be starting that next week so I wanted the primer on ready. This time it's Alclad cellulose lacquer primer which sticks like stuff to blankets and covers all of the different materials brilliantly. It stinks though and due to a headwind, overcame my extractor and filled the house with nasty pong. More toxins! I'm really looking forward to painting that, but unfortunately I have to be at the girlfriend's place all weekend, drinking beer, eating great food, kissing and stuff. Someone has to do it, I suppose. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 Oh, nearly forgot. I went back to the jetpipes. I dirtied up the turbines: ...added more layers of drybrushed enamels (six colours in there now plus white primer): ... and the result? Time to stick a fork in it and move on. Maybe some weaponeering next??? And finally, I've been splashing paint all over that pesky Boston III. It's all good practice even if it currently looks dreadful. I post shaded this time in a strangely exuberant fashion. The browns go on next week. (Yes, the green is far too dark. Darned thing!) So, goodnight and have a great weekend, especially thse lucky enough to be going to the Cosford Show. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 On 01/04/2017 at 6:31 AM, per ardua ad ostentationem said: Er, Pappy, I think you forgot to add your bit? Sorry Don, fat fingers on a small keypad, the previous post has been corrected, cheers, Pappy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 On 31/03/2017 at 9:07 PM, Pappy said: G'day Don, I am not 100% sure but the early F-14's used a very similar version of the TF-30 engine that the F-111 used. I am extrapolating from F-111's now, but the TF-30 used fuel pressure to actuate the variable exhaust nozzles (VENs). A similar thing happened on F-111's, when the jet approached the parking area, usually the right engine would be shut down (ie VEN closed) and the jet would taxi in on the left engine. Because one engine was still operating, the right VEN would remain shut, however, when the left engine was shut down, since there was no longer fuel pressure, when it was shut down, the VEN relaxed into the fully open position - omne open one closed. I am no F-14 expert, but I think something similar is happening there. That makes a lot of sense to me. Thanks Pappy! No updates to Tomcat this week as I've been distracted by a couple of other projects. There's been a Hobby Boss Wildcat on the bench as a sort of commission and that Boston, being a testbed for a new kind of paint,has come up lovely and just demands attention! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booty003 Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 This is a great thread. A cracking subject matter, fantastic photos with lots of tips and tricks and a very witty writing style. Can't wait for more!! Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 Great work Don, I wish I had the skills to add the detail to the landing gear bay like you have! As for the exhaust, as Pappy has stated, the way the hydraulic pressure bleeds off as the engines shut down, the nozzle of the first engine shut down will open fully, while the nozzle of the second engine to be shut down will close. Don't think there was any set way to shut down but seems always to the the right nozzle (as you look at the jet from the rear) that is opened fully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 7, 2017 Share Posted April 7, 2017 On 06/04/2017 at 1:00 PM, Booty003 said: This is a great thread. A cracking subject matter, fantastic photos with lots of tips and tricks and a very witty writing style. Can't wait for more!! Phil Thanks, I'm glad you like it. (And your reply got me back to work, so thanks for that too!) On 06/04/2017 at 1:51 PM, DaveJL said: Great work Don, I wish I had the skills to add the detail to the landing gear bay like you have! As for the exhaust, as Pappy has stated, the way the hydraulic pressure bleeds off as the engines shut down, the nozzle of the first engine shut down will open fully, while the nozzle of the second engine to be shut down will close. Don't think there was any set way to shut down but seems always to the the right nozzle (as you look at the jet from the rear) that is opened fully. Thanks Dave, It's mostly practice you know. And reading techniques books. And YouTube. It's all out there somewhere. Yes, starboard nozzle open is the Tamiya recommendation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 7, 2017 Share Posted April 7, 2017 Here's my latest modelling aid: The plan being to stand up and walk around a bit after an hour at the bench. Maybe even to eat or drink or visit the bathroom (I've had 13 baths today...) (Oh, I just thought, maybe that's why that guy at Cosford smelled like a long dead dog? No kitchen timer!) Seriously, I can get so very involved that I wreck my neck, back and shoulders through tense inaction. No fun! So far it has worked with just a few teething problems. Forgetting to start it is a good one, despite it being the simplest 'twist and go' timer I could find. The other thing is anticipating the thing going off and NOT being engaged in tiny detail painting when it does so. Aaaaaagh! Those photos have nothing much to do with the Tomcat except to prove that I've been model making this week. I've not wandered off completely. This is a Wildcat that I bought at Cosford on Sunday. My girl liked it best of all those I brought home so I decided to do a blitz build, totally OOB. Of course, I couldnt help myself and added harnesses. I painted them in the manner of a figure modeller, shadows and highlights, and I think I like the effect. The headrest is similarly treated with the imagined light off to the starboard. I fly in the face of classic aircraft painting. Make it interesting first, then worry about accuracy. Or not... And look at that!!!! The bestest decalling ever! NO SILVERING. Applying the transfers has always been a weakness in my techniques but this was fabbo. Its those Mr Men paints (and decal solutions). What the heck is that? Oh yes, the Tomcat. I forgot. Base coat applied to the cockpit. I chose Hellblau because i wanted the blueness of the Grumman paint. Then I went over it in a patchy fashion with a more neutral grey. I'm very keen on modulating colours. It seems to me that nothing in real life is just one colour and that makes life a lot more interesting. Glory be to God for dappled things – For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings; Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough; And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim. All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise him. I'm not a religious man but I do like that poem. I was going to quote a bit of it but, well, I like it all. (Try reciting it after a half dozen pints if you want a laugh.) It's by Gerard (my-father-couldn't-spell-Gerald) Manly Hopkins. A cleric, I believe. Well, he believed. LOL. Hairdrier. Saves hours. Enables me to splash on acrylics, enamels, oils, egg tempera, one on top of the other in double quick time. (OK Not egg tempera) The hairdrier enabled me to varnish the cockpit prior to an enamel wash just seconds after base coating. Honestly, there was hardly time to take a photo, it was that fast. I hope that's shiny enough? I put the wash on. Its a bottle of AK grey panel line wash. I shook it well and it foamed up making itself useless.So I hoovered out some unfoamed liquid from the bottom of the jar with a pipette. You should see the old lumpy crap that was down there. This five quid a bottle wash is little more (IMHO) than old enamel paint watered down with dirty thinners and then packaged and hyped to the max. I shall be making my own with my trusty old Humbrol and odourless thinners in the future. Speaking of thinners, there was a lot of talk at Cosford about the sensational self levelling thinners about to hit the shops. Not available on Sunday though. Well, "self levelling" in the context of thinners surely just means that it flows well without forming droplets.... Also known as detergent... So, with most of the wash washed off, I started painting the black bits. Except that they aren't really black, but varying shades of dark grey (like my 'black' jeans) so I painted them individually in slightly different tones and shades. The wash helped me see where the individual panels began and ended. Looks awful, doesn't it? Enlarged like this, it does look a mess but life size it's ok. Next step is to dry-brush the angles of the structure and the equipment. The first 'special technique' we all learn. It also made the knobbery and switchcraft stick out a bit so I had a better than even chance of finding it with a paintbrush... There are a lot of white highlights in this cockpit. Each one with a little speck of white paint, applied individually and with bated breath when THE BLOODY KITCHEN TIMER WENT OFF! So after a brandy to calm me down, I was at this stage. Note the analogue instruments are also painted in white. Then on with the red and yellow (randomly - sorry!) and then the black bits of the instruments in Indian Ink. I also did some of the switches in a yellow/black pattern using the ink. I'm not totally happy with it but it's an interesting thing to play with (Oooh Matron!). It will be more useful on the seats next week. It was all getting a bit messy by this point so I tidied up. I can't think in an organised way if the bench is in chaos. How do you like those little circuit breaker panels down by the pilot's knees? Decals, obviously. I hope they will be obvious when it's all glued together... And finally, as I was editing the photos, I realised that I'd missed a bit. Some of those circuit breakers are not to be operated in flight. The red ones. Oh. So out with the red paint again! That'll do. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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