dhdove

Hi everyone Here's my latest US Navy Cold War jets offering, built as an A-4F aircraft, US Navy VC-5 "Checktails". I believe this an Esci kit rebox and as such it went together well, OOB other than an Eduard colour etch cockpit . The only construction problem I had was at the end, when I came to fit the main canopy it wouldn't close over the seat....I know, I should have test fitted it....so I took the solution of having the canopy open which whilst there isn't a provision in the kit for this worked out OK I think. Following advice here on the paints section I tried Mr colour 325 for the upper surfaces, which went on beautifully, but I did purchase a 3M 06941 full face mask for spraying this paint which worked beautifully, not a whiff! The only other problem I had was with the location of a couple of decals which was down to me not paying close enough attention I think, do you find decal sheets difficult to read? I pre-shaded the panel lines and then after the gloss coat I dry brushed pastels in varying shades of grey, I technique that I am coming to like more and more. Next up the HobbyBoss 1/48 FJ-4B Fury...... As always, comments and advice are welcomed. Happy Modelling! TonyS

Micro Kristal Klear for me too.... TonyS

That's very nice! Good work. I've got the Revell 1/48 A6E in the stash waiting it's turn, I hope it turns out as nice as that. I think these older kits have a charm of their own. TonyS

Nice build, great work, I like that very much. Cockpit internals look great, is that OOB? Definately one for my US NavyCold War collection, I must get one! TonyS

Brilliant! We'd love to see the Blackbird fly on our annual pilgrimage to Mildenhall Air Fete, surely the best ever UK Airshow and sorely missed. There's only one faster sled pilot and he's on tour December 24th! TonyS

That's lovely! Well done. I've got the HobbyBoss 1/48 in the stash, hope it turns out as good as this. TonyS

That's lovely! I've got one of these in the stash, I only hope I can come half close to that result..... .....well done sir. TonyS

Lovely! Looking forward to getting one of these and hoping to be able to rise to the challenge. Nice work, well done. TonyS

That's a good point. I bought the levelling thinners to remove Tamiya filler immediately after application to save on rubbing down. It does smell quite "high". Time to buy a 3M vapour mask I think..... ....good advice, well taken, thank you. TonyS

Ah yes, sorry about that, have added a pic of the starboard side.......I found the decals came off their backing paper very quickly and if you got them right first time were great, however, if you wanted to manoeuvre them they had an annoying habit of folding up upon themselves. Sometimes dunking them back underwater and applying two brushes could straighten them out, but on one occasion the decal just rolled up and died........I left it off.The ""DANGER" part of the air intake decal on the starboard side also self destructed.....I'm sorry, I gave up on it! TonyS

Here's my latest, I tried some new techniques for panel lines, frankly with mixed success....... I preshaded, but then put too much paint on and lost most of it, I tried dry brushing pastel chalks, I liked this technique and I'll try it again, tho next time I'll use a darker colour and put more on but it was effective up to a point. I also tried a wash consisting of enamel and lighter fuel cleaned with oil paint thinners. Again this wasn't too successful but I think I had too much fluid to paint and too much oil paint thinners on my cotton bud, but I'll try this again too. Built out of the box with the addition of an Eduard self adhesive cockpit etch set. The kit doesn't offer the option of canopy open but I couldn't resist..... I must admit I struggled a bit with the undercarriage, but did my best to get it all to fit.... I love the colourful scheme from the maiden voyage of USS Nimitz to Europe, 1975. I took advice from other members about the weapons load and eventually selected what I thought would be a reasonable "peacetime" training load of ordnance. There was a very pronounced mould line along the centre line on top of the cockpit which I took on with some trepidation but a light touch of of 1500 sponge sander and a polish with gs27 car Polish on a cotton bud took it out wonderfully, another first for me and I was pleased with the result. Overall I'm pleased and some new techniques tried which maybe not quite successful but I'll try again next time which will be the Italeri A-4 E/F/G Skyhawk. The kit fit was very good, but I found the kit decals thin and fragile and TBH I wrote off one completely (can you spot it?), I'm coming to the conclusion that Revell Decal Soft may not be the best decal application medium and am thinking of trying Micro Sol/Set. EDIT Just realised I missed out painting the nav. lights! Another OOPS, oh well all my kits seem to have one.......must go back and sort that....... As ever comments and especially advice are welcome. BestWishes TonyS

Thanks Giorgio Interesting info. I'll go with the Gunze/Mr Color on my next kit and well see how it turns out. I do have MrColor levelling thinners and apparently it works beautifully together thru an airbrush, so we'll see. (Next up 1/48 Italeri Skyhawk.) TonyS

UPDATE - Swatch...... Hi all Well my Mr colour 325 arrived and just for fun I thought I'd do a comparison, of course it's impossible for me to show you the colours accurately as white balance problems will prevent me from showing you any true colours and who knows what colour balance your screen is set to! My own pictures varied a lot dependent upon whether they were taken indoors/outdoors, overcast sunny artificial light etc. etc. etc (no I don't intend to take any grey card balanced, kelvin calibrated DSLR pics, these were shot on the IPad......) So, just for fun, of the pics I took here's the one which seems to represent the colours most accurately as I see them, taken outdoors in warm sunshine, all hand painted onto Tamiya Fine surface grey primer on the back of my palette, the surface curves (convex) give an idea of colour change as the light falls on them. Whilst I realise they won't be true colours on your screen I think there are clear differences in light/dark and shading which should be apparent....... Here's the colour code..... US Navy Light Gull Grey 1 Vellejo 154 (70.989) Sky grey (the colour I have been using to date) 2 Mr colour 325 gray FS26440 3 Revell Aqua colour 76 light grey Matt 4 Revell Aqua colour 371 light grey Silk 5 Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey 6 Tamiya XF-20 Medium Grey The differences are very apparent. The Vallejo is a grey colour, ie black plus white, the Mr colour 325 has a very distinct green/brown tint - almost looking duck egg green in some lights, the Revell 76 light grey is very similar to the Vallejo but certainly a couple of shades darker and is LOVELY paint, TBH I might go with that! The two Tamiyas are in there for reference, XF-19 is'nt too far off? Though XF-20 isn't close, way too brown? but you may recognise them and be able to get an idea of the tint on your screen? I'm very surprised at the huge difference between the Vallejo and the Mr colour which I thought were both thought to represent US Navy Light Gull Grey. .....without having an aeroplane in front of me painted in the genuine US colour who knows??? And that not accounting for weathering, paint production variations etc. etc. etc........ Anyway I hope you enjoyed that bit of fun, any thoughts? TonyS

Another vote for Rosemary and Co. from me...... Nice brushes, good value. TonyS

Thanks everyone. I've ordered a couple of bottles of the Gunze Sangyo 325. TonyS

That's very nice, I've always had a love of the Gannet, such an ugly duckling yet perfectly formed! TonyS

Great pix! TonyS

Hi PigstyAll noted and you're right, but I thought Humbrol returned paint production to the UK some time ago due to quality control problems? In fact received wisdom is that the Chinese/Indian? paints were nearly unusable, so production returned to the UK? Thay even put a nice Union Flag on the tins so you could tell the difference :-) I guess what I am saying is that contemporary Humbrol enamels are a shadow of their former selves...... ....maybe I'm just too old.... TonyS

I'm sorry, I'm a bit out of my depth here, I'm not a modelling paint expert. But in the 1:1 scale world, celly was nice, two pac even better, lustrous, hard wearing and resistant to damage. The EU has banned both of them and we now have water based car paints that chip if you look at them. I think something similar is going on with model paints produced within the EU, no doubt someone knows better than me. TonyS

Black KnightI hear what you say and it's a valid point..... .....but from my point of view Humbrol has been a brand that I grew up with a long time ago and could always trust, always reliable. I guess 21st Century health and safety scaremongering combined with EU craziness has overtaken them, their paints now are poor, unreliable, thin, and inconsistent. This despite returning production from China (boy were those paints terrible), and promising that normal service would be resumed...... Thankfully I kept my Humbrol enamels from the eighties/nineties and returning to this hobby, with a few exceptions which had turned to cake I'm using them now as good as ever. There is no comparison and unfortunately I'm running out...... Shame really isn't it? TonyS

Graham I've reviewed Xtracolour acrylics on line and there seem to be complaints about "geological" drying times? Have you had any problems? Bonhoff Gunze sangyo sounds good......sprays better than Tamiya.....really? I'm impressed. Any further thoughts anyone? Thanks so much TonyS

Hi Graham Xtracolour is enamel isn't it? I spray indoors and only spray acrylics......thanks anyway :-) TonyS

Hi All I'm just coming to the end of a pot of Vallejo 70.989 Sky Grey which I have been using on my Cold War US Navy jet builds. I initially researched this as the best match? However I find this paint tends to spit and blotch from my spray gun and is not as easy to work with as Tamiya (brilliant) and Revell Aqua Color (very impressed). NB the blotching is probably due to my ignorance re thinning (too little?) and spray pressure (I'm a novice airbrush user) but..... ....I'm keen to find an alternative. My short list is:- Revell 76 light grey Matt Revell 371 light grey silk Tamiya XF20 medium grey (too dark?) Tamiya XF19 sky grey I really don't want to mix colours, just decant, thin and spray! I was so impressed with my first pot of Revell Aqua Color I hope one of these may do the job? Any advice please? Thanks in advance guys. TonyS

Thank you all so much for your replies, they have been both illuminating and a little confusing at the same time, but then I'm on a steep learning curve. TBH I can live with any discrepancies in the accuracy of the shape of the ordnance, I'm not that experienced or knowledgable to notice the difference yet. Also I do not intend to buy additional ordnance for this kit, rather I'm exploring a range of weathering techniques for the first time, we'll see how it works out! So with relation to the ordnance load I've decided to go for drop tanks, Mk82 and Mk20. On a maiden voyage, friendly tour any suggestions as to what would have been a "training sortie" load? Drop tanks inboard or outboard? Would there just have been one weapon per pylon or the full six? My gut instinct says just one but I don't know..... ... My intended load, sidewinders on the fuse side stations, drop tanks (outboard?), and just one Mk82 and Mk20 on each of the other pylons???? BTW airframe now complete, gloss coated and awaiting decals. After that alighting gear, weapons and canopy etc. and my first SLUF is done! Thanks again.... TonyS