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Freester

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Everything posted by Freester

  1. Well another session of putting grey decals onto a grey aircraft so I can barely see them 🤣 Treated myself with a flourish of colour (forward port and starboard lights). Looks awful with the gloss and the light glare but...
  2. Thank you - means alot. I know we had some discussions early on about the 'iron cross' on a US aircraft however in retrospect I think I would have chosen that one as it's slightly less lower vis - a bit more colourful. The 'Golden Dragons' is probably the least colourful of the 3 options in the kit. Thank you and I did smile at points 2 and 3 especially.
  3. Thank you. I am extremely hard on myself and my own hardest critic. I must stop comparing my noob work to some of the stuff on here that is just fantastic. I had another look at my build last night, objectively. There's a lot I've done good / well. And also plenty to improve. It's when I dwell on the latter I get down about it.
  4. An update but no pictures. A gloss coat was applied - I used Humbrol gloss in a can. It wasn't too bad. I started applying the decals. A few things have occurred to me during this process. The top of half of the aircraft - the Dark Ghost Grey approximation I used with Revell paints (I think I used Gunship Grey) is too dark. Applying lo-vis decals, grey decals to grey bodies is difficult when you can't see the decals on the body. I forgot to put the radome tan colour on the end of the nose. I'm in a bit of a downer on this one at the moment. I'll walk away and come back in a day or two.
  5. No photos but some progress... I took myself away from the model for a night or two. Came back. Decided it didn't look two bad after the last rub down and coat of paint. So I put a gloss coat on all surfaces and bombs ready for decals. A LOT of decals I reckon that's going to be a few sittings to get most of them on...
  6. Thankyou - So far 5 or so thin coats. The last one I let dry and inspected last night. It's actually better and looks a little weathered and better than the picture. I think I'm happy enough with it to think about a gloss coat in advance of decals...
  7. Just replying to say I relate to the 'ups and downs' of the build process. For what it's worth looks OK to me... Edit: PS in my timezone the monday at work isn't even half way through but feels very ragged!!!!
  8. @perdu Sorry re-reading my reply it may have come across as a bit short not my intention in the slightest. Battle damage lol. I wish. Not even transport damage. Different sprues. This is the upper from the original kit. They just sent me one part last time. I have suggested they might want to replace the kit this time.
  9. Not battle damage you can see the plastic didn't reach all parts of the mould. They only replaced the part last time I've said I'd prefer a new kit this time in case there are any other problems.
  10. Well the part got replaced pretty quickly - just over a week for a part to arrive from service in Germany. We got back on this build today. Only to notice... A hole in the upper fuselage as well
  11. I'm really struggling with brush strokes on the 'top' grey. I don't know if my paint is too thick, too thin. Big wide brush I've had good results with different colours on previous builds but this is crap. I'm tempted to send this one to the shelf of doom.
  12. I don't think there's a chance of being 100% accurate. With photographs you are subject to the vagaries of light, white balance, exposure. If your reference pics were originally shot on film then scanned there is no real standard and the colour could look very different in real life. In digital photography the only way you get what you see on the screen is by calibrating the screen and calibrating the print process using the same calibration techniques. I'm sure this model is going to come out looking 100% great! Edit: Which having just looked at your Flickr feed you must know some about so I'll stop teaching you how to suck eggs!!!
  13. Looking very good. Loving the detail on the pylons and that blue - gorgeous.
  14. 🤣👍 Thank you. I was feeling a bit down on this build last night. Comparing my self too much to some of the excellent work on here. Update with pics later 👍
  15. I fitted mine last night. My goodness that was stressful the carpet (or in my case the 'gap between the floorboards') monster was circling licking it's lips. No scraps for it this time. 👍
  16. Slowly chugging away an hour or two every evening. A few coats of paint to do with some detail on the fuselage. Pylons and one of the pods (NightHawk I think) fitted. Noob question - how do I stop the paint wearing when I'm handling it? It's worst just on the edges of the LERX I'm going to have to do a bit of touching up. Is this just a fact of life? Are oily hands helping this along? The underside is looking pretty worn too so I think I'll have to give that a light touch up again. After that I'll be close to slapping a gloss coat on in preparation for decals...
  17. Thanks - phew I assembled and painted the right bits, more luck than judgement!!!
  18. Slowly plugging away got a 4th coat of the top dark grey on today. Bear in mind this is most likely my 3rd completion since I got back into this hobby after a 40 year lay off!!! I've been trying to get the 'pre-shaded' look with handpainting / hairy stick. There are plenty who claim you can't, there are YouTube videos that claim you can. My previous 2 builds I was unsuccessful. However I think this time I got a little success. Paint still wet but you get the general idea... Soft wide / blunt pencil over the panel lines, smudge them with a wet cotton bud. Final coat very thinned, probably a 'stronger' wash than a coat if that makes sense. Just noticed that canopy fit is crap. Good job I'm having the canopy up.
  19. Some great progress a lot quicker than me you've done a great job with the cockpit and instrument panels.
  20. I've been focussing on my F-18C group build recently. I've been putting a bit of paint on this model when I've got the right colours out for the F-18 as well. But I decided to focus on the Tomcat today. Made some nice progress actually. Glued the forward cockpit together, did a bit of dry fitting on the main fuselage and wings, and scratched out the other glove vane (I did read somewhere in the old F-14 group build it was unnecessary to do this but I'd done one side so it was too late!). Glove vane cutout - dry fits OK with 2 hands but obviously I needed a hand to take the photo! Cockpit glued and rear fuselage / wings dry fitted. Dry fit of forward and rear fuselage This model appears to come together quite well. Quite a rewarding afternoon. I want to get all coats on the wings before I glue the rear up. I'll start thinking about masking the canopy and ensuring everything else that needs painting before assembly has been done...
  21. 4 coats on the underside done. Fixed canopy and masked for the darker top half - Revell #74. First coat on the top. Grey may be a boring colour but oh it hairy brushes on nice. 2 or 3 this coats should be enough...
  22. No idea how you managed to mod those actuators the small one especially is tiny it was all I could do to protect them from the carpet monster let alone risk a 'ping' trying to mod them 🤣
  23. My only suggestion is mount the small part in a clip, stand or on some blu tac. Rest your painting hand in your other hand...
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