Phantome Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 (edited) Second in my double build, this will be my entry using the older ghost gray scheme. I had already done a Gulf War F-15 about a year ago and did not feel like repeating. Instead, I had in my stash this wonderful and colorful F-15J from Tac Meet 2013. Lots of lightning bolts. Awesome cartoon bear in the fins. This is Japanese creativity at its best! The kit will be built entirely OOP. First steps were the cockpit. I read somewhere that some of the JASDF Eagles kept their avionics bay in the original metallic emerald color so I will keep them as such. There is sadly, no equivalent in acrylic so I used the instructions' recommended Gunze metallic blue-green which is a bit too blue compared to the real thing. Not a big issue frankly. Edited August 20, 2017 by Phantome 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantome Posted August 18, 2017 Author Share Posted August 18, 2017 Btw, I'm happy that Japanese decal makers have understood that ivory is not white: the decals are very well printed, with nice bright whites. I have noticed that Hasegawa and Tamiya decals from kits I have bought new in the last 5 years have bright whites and don't yellow with time; I suppose they changed their formula at some point recently. They are, of course, still on the thick side but I learned to use hot water to remove them and nuke them with Mr Mark softer (imported Japanese version, not the "Neo" version that you get here). This leaves them silver-free and they snuggle into panel lines perfectly, even if they still appear a bit compared to non-Japanese decals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantome Posted August 20, 2017 Author Share Posted August 20, 2017 Weekend update: fuselage mostly built. The fuselage goes together like a charm. The fit between the nose and the fuselage, however, has issues. It's hard to get it perfectly straight and almost inevitably leaves a noticeable "step" just below the canopy piece. Unfortunately there's no way to add some tabs with plasticard because of the avionics bay :/ This is the kit's only serious flaw. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhantomBigStu Posted August 20, 2017 Share Posted August 20, 2017 Nice work on the pit, good to see a JASDF entry, though not the most colourful option, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helium Posted August 20, 2017 Share Posted August 20, 2017 Your speed of building is amazing Phantome, considering the quality of both of your builds! 👍 Cheers Holger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantome Posted August 20, 2017 Author Share Posted August 20, 2017 3 hours ago, helium said: Your speed of building is amazing Phantome, considering the quality of both of your builds! 👍 Cheers Holger This is one of the quickest builds of a big plane... there's not that many pieces and the fit is really good. You can basically build the entire fuselage in less than half an hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantome Posted August 21, 2017 Author Share Posted August 21, 2017 Puttied and ready for priming. Can't remember if it's the JASDF or USAF plane I'm simultaneously building 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantome Posted August 31, 2017 Author Share Posted August 31, 2017 Long-delayed update. Model near-finished but I only have some pics from the post-painting and decalling stage. Will hopefully finish up tomorrow I used Gunze for both the light and dark ghost greys. I realized that my only bottle of dark ghost grey was nearly gone and also nearly dried out. Seems old Gunze paints tend to get darker than a fresh bottle so the contrast was quite noticeable when in reality the difference between the two greys is relatively minor. Despite that, I liked it. The dark grey was sprayed freehand, as I typically do with Eagles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantome Posted August 31, 2017 Author Share Posted August 31, 2017 The decalling was time consuming but not as annoying as it might appear. Hasegawa could have perhaps merged some of the small yellow stencils from the upper fuselage together to make it easier. I also had two mini-disasters at this stage. The first was that I had erroneously included the wrong starboard fin: the JASDF birds do not have the fat fin antenna at the top that the USAF ones do, they have the same thinner ones on both fins. Rather than remove and repaint, I decided simply to saw off and swap the antennas. Disaster averted. The other problem was that, because I used Mr Mark Softer for the decals (you pretty much need to for the thicker Japanese decals), it burned some of the paint on the wings near the roundels. Thankfully it was not near any of the other decals so it was simply a matter of repainting. Disaster reverted. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhantomBigStu Posted August 31, 2017 Share Posted August 31, 2017 looking good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantome Posted September 1, 2017 Author Share Posted September 1, 2017 Ok, done! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted September 3, 2017 Share Posted September 3, 2017 Good stuff - can I ask what paint you used for the metal areas at the rear? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted September 3, 2017 Share Posted September 3, 2017 Another quick build, with a great finish. Lie the tail markings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vultures1 Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 Lovely JASDF Eagle! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Dot Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 A lovely model of one of the best colour schemes. Only the lightning bolts spoil it for me, but what do i know? Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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