alxzinbox

Thanks Victory-is-in-the-Kitchen! There's always your next build that will provide plenty scope for detailing I'll be building the Hi-viz CAG scheme. Thank you Mirageiv Kit pics are my pleasure! -------------- A small update in the detailing on the left MLG. Continued adding hydraulic lines and additional details on the main strut. As further details are added, the probability of breaking off work on the opposite side is dramatically increasing. It's pretty fiddly work- this little detailing took around two hours along with plenty redos due to uncooperative bits refusing to cement properly. The stillness and quiet of late night is perfect for this kind of work. Nevertheless, when compared to the kit piece, it seems to be time well spent. The macro-lens does highlight the blemishes, but I dare say it looks pretty decent at scale. Will be using microfiller/ primer to fill in the gaps between the lines and the terminators.The primer coat will also hopefully smooth out the results that look pretty rough right now. It's almost unthinkable to take sanding sticks to the part. Will probably take it to paint and decal application in the next update as some hydraulic lines might run over the decal and make it's application much more difficult later on. As always, critique, suggestions and tips are welcome and appreciated. Thanks for watching! Cheers, Alex.

The masking with blu-tac turned out awesome! Came here for the rigging and wasn't disappointed. Great model.

Great results so far. That's plenty lot of effort you're putting into the kit. Your little tip of the masking tape over areas not to be painted was pretty creative. Stashed that away for later use. Great work on the figure painting too. This was my second model as well, although my results were a fraction of what you've achieved so far. Cheers, Alex.

Beautiful model Daniel! The paint job and weathering is amazing. I like the nice touch on the presentation as well. It's pretty unique.

Amazing work Parabat. The paint job on the Instrument panel is fantastic. Also very notable is the refinement done on the arrestor hook. The finished model looks spectacular!

Thanks Parabat! My main reason for doing the WiP is to not work in isolation. More eyes are better than two. You have a much more in-depth knowledge about the aircraft than I, and I would highly appreciate any inputs for improvement from all of you Far from being an expert, I'm just studying references and moving along one step at a time. Thanks Gene! That's what I mean in part by calling it a balanced kit. It has sufficient detail to create a decent looking Tomcat OOB, yet offers opportunity to the modeller to add their personal detailing touches if they so please. My only other experience with Hobby Boss was their Sea Hawk FGA6, which was a joy to build. I'm hoping that this kit will live up to the expectations I have of it. Thank you Daniel! The inbox review was my small token of giving back to the community. Thank you Matt! It's all the little things that bring the model to life, so the time spent on doing them are absolutely worth the effort. Cheers, Alex.

Straight out of the box, the MLG looks pretty basic. It also misses some pretty obvious bits like hydraulic lines, the actuator spring connecting the MLG to the fuselage and some other parts. I managed to achieve some pretty amazing results scratch building the Martin Baker Mk-10 Ejection seat and nose gear on my Sea Harrier build. Stretched sprue and plasticard worked wonders. I started off with the actuator spring, using 0.3mm styrene card and stretched sprue of various diameters. Stretched sprue is pretty maleable like copper wire, with the additional bonus of welding perfectly with the plastic. The spring was made by wrapping copper wire around a stretched sprue core for easy installation. For the hydraulic lines, I glued one end first. After it had dried completely, I used thin cement to attach the other end and intermediate points. The finished result (back half) v/s the original: The next update will be the detailing of the front facing half of the MLG, which has the bulk of the hydraulic lines, as well as the PE tie-down handles. As always your suggestions for improvement are always welcome and appreciated. Cheers, Alex.

Both points duly noted Parabat Thank you for the tips! Since the brass pitot has much smaller diameter than the nose tip, your suggestion seems most logical. ----------- Breaking with tradition, I decided to start the build by detailing up the Main Landing gear. One of the first minor niggles of the kit is the awkward placement of the very thick attachment points. I found it pretty challenging to do especially on the cylindrical parts. The MLG has very basic detailing. My first port of call was to replicate the weight-reduction in the support arm. The kit offers no surface detail on this part. scooping out the plastic accurately would be beyond my technical capabilities. So I decided to create the detail using 0.3mm plastic card. I first removed excess plastic to make space for the new insert. I then measured drew and cut out the shape while still attached to the main sheet so that the fine edges didn't deform It fit snugly to a reasonable error, and looked fine after a bit of filler and sanding. The black marking was to determine which side faced up. Still not too happy with the result, I decided to redo the part entirely by creating two sheets of the cutout, and sandwich a 1mm piece in the middle. The bonus is that I am also now able to replicate the depression on the side of the strut as well. The smaller parts are for the suspension which is again lacking any details. With the new parts installed. A little thick on the borders, but it'll get covered up with the hydraulic lines later on. Cheers, Alex.

Hello everyone! My next build is the F-14D. Easily one of my favorite aircraft, it's been on the build radar for a while now. I settled on the hobby boss offering as the I already own a die-cast F-18F in the VF-2 CAG scheme. The Hobby Boss kit is a pretty well balanced kit. There's a reasonable amount of well defined surface detail which stands up pretty well to reference photos. Despite this, it has a relatively low part count (as compared to the Hasegawa offering) and hopefully should come together with minimal fuss. The kit is lacking or could use some sprucing up in a few key areas. I see this as a +plus as it offers a good opportunity to scratch build. Armed with a healthy bunch of stretched sprue, thin cement (chloroform) and styrene card, my intent is to detail the aircraft to as close to the real thing as possible. I have added links below to the various build milestones crossed so far for your quick reference. Main Landing Gear: Part 1: Torsion Link weight reduction depressions Part 2: Hydraulic Lines and adding missing elements Part 3: Hydraulic Lines (contd) Part 4: Paint, decaling and weathering (Coming soon....) Ejection Seat: Upgrading the stock Ejection seat Ventral Fin upgrade: Scratch building the Ventral fins with the NACA ducts Cockpit: Part 1: Console Hood Canvas using tissue paper, and installation of the DreamModel cockpit PhotoEtch Part 2: Cockpit errors Part 3: Cockpit corrections Nose Gear Bay: Detailing the side walls on the Nose Gear Bay Weathering Test Painting and weathering test on styrene card using Vallejo paints, acrylics and oils Nose Gear: Hydraulic lines and details added using stretched sprue and styrene card New! Kit sprues and close-ups: Since a review of the kit is missing here on Britmodeller, I took the liberty of posting sprue shots and close-ups for anyone interested. (Pic heavy) Box Art: My choice of livery for this build. The kit also comes with two other options including the low-vis version of the same livery. Upper fuselage: Fine recessed lines and riveting detail. The airbrake is moulded in the closed position, but for this build, it isn't a concern. Lower fuselage: Sprue A: Front Back LHS front fuselage RHS Front fuselage Nose gear bay and MLG bay door detailing Nose gear (RHS) with option of catapult bar raised and lowered Nose gear LHS MLG detail MLG Wheels Nose gear wheels Lower hull surface below cockpit area Sprue B: Control surfaces. The great advantage of the kit is the possibility to pose the wings extended or withdrawn. Unfortunately, there's no option for dropped flaps. Upper wing detail Lower wing detail Vertical stabilizers Elevators Sprue C: Sparrow Missiles and fuel tanks Sprue D: Phoenix and Sidewinders Sprue G: Exhausts etc Sprue J: Pretty detailed Ejection Seats. Will spruce them up a bit nevertheless. Sprue E: Clear parts Decals: Pretty comprehensive with almost all stencils provided. Weapons stencils: Dream-Model PE for the cockpit: DreamModel Brass Pitot: That wraps up the introduction to the kit. In the next post I plan to start detailing the Main Landing Gear. Your feedback, suggestions and comments are much appreciated. Thanks for watching! Cheers, Alex.

Very nice composition!

Museum quality workmanship! Love it!

Great little build! The photo of the model on your palm drives home the amount of detailed work gone into the build.

An F4F-4... I'm already sold! To top it off great color variation and fading plus the detailing on the engine.

Modèle incroyable ! L' écaillage de la peinture est super. Tres bien!!

The NMF is outstanding! So much variation, yet so restrained. The upper wings especially. Fantastic build!

I'm in awe!! My wrists ache just looking at your accomplishment What scale is this?

Superb stuff Stix! The action shot with the turrent is awesome, as is the weathering and the ground foliage.

Thank you Cookenbacher, Steve, STix and Antoine!

That's a good looking model! The paint-job is top notch. I like how you've picked off all those additional details. Cheers, Alex.

The mud-splatters and the restrained weathering are very convincing. Great job! Looking forward to seeing your vignettes. Cheers, Alex.

"Mooooo shall not Pass!!!" Revell, 1/72 T-90S, Indian Army A stereotypical scene in India, our nation's First Citizens hold their rightful place of pride on our roads. A lethal tank with it's immense firepower, capable of vaporizing armored vehicles 6kms away can be stopped dead in it's tracks with her gentle stubbornness. It's time for us mortals in our relatively flimsy cars to resign to our destiny. Cheers! Alex.

Hey everyone! My submission for the Vignette Group Build here on Britmodeller. A common sight on the streets of India, our nation's First Citizens hold their rightful place of pride on our roads. A lethal tank with it's immense firepower, capable of vaporizing armored vehicles 6kms away can be stopped dead in it's tracks with her gentle stubbornness. It's time for us mortals in our relatively flimsy cars to resign to our destiny. Weathering details: Reworked the rigid suspension to conform to the terrain more closely Converted an Airfix WW2 Pilot to a modern Tank Gunner Box Art: Thanks for watching! Cheers, Alex.

Still in school! You've got quite some talent. I'm sure there's going to be some pretty amazing builds from you in the coming months. The tracks were a point of concern for me, especially I kept it till the last stage of the build. Fortunately, they are thin enough to bend quite easily using a brush and steady gentle pressure. I didn't use hot water or hot air. I would recommend joining the two tracks into one long track, allowing it to cure completely and then super-gluing it to the wheels one by one, bending as required. This way it's easy to adjust the correct amount of tension. I think the link system is more tedious, but will make better results (although I've personally not used it yet- It's there on the Revell 1/72 T-72 kit I purchased recently)

Thank you Levin! You do have some really keen insight. Do you have a background in the arts by any chance? Thanks Tony! The cows are at 1/87 scale. It would've been great if they were proper 72, so I could get by using just a couple. Thanks Rob! ------ Will be posting the final batch of photos over the weekend. Cheers and happy modeling everyone! Alex.

Nice work on the cockpit! The parts that got pulled away from the base actually adds a bit of randomness to the edges. Looking forward to more progress pics. Cheers, Alex.