stoohoo

Lovely build and paintwork mate and glad to see this over the line, really makes me want to get started on my one and now i can see what extras are worth adding, though will def give the Aires tub a miss Would be great if airfix could achieve the same level of finesse on the details with thier more recent spitfires!

Thanks for all the kind comments and likes 🙂 Have a great long Easter Bank Holiday weekend!

Hi all 😀 Finally finished this after about a year of on and off work on it. I'm not the quickest modeller and this is my first jet in 1:48, the F-14 is a big plane so I took my time with it as I can't see me getting many of these on the shelf at the moment 🙂 This is the Hobbyboss F-14B in 1:48, bought for the bargain price of around £30 off a well known auction site a couple of years ago. Being a lifelong fan of the F-14 and Top Gun meant a man scale version needed adding to the collection. Its not a bad kit all in all, a lot of plastic in the box for the money, loads of weapons options and nice general detail, including a small sheet of PE for the seat belts and canopy rails (and radar if you want to leave the nose open). The general fit isn't too bad and a lot of dry fitting meant minimal filler was needed in the end. I closed up the gun access panels as I prefer the clean lines of what has to be the most beautiful airplane ever. I left the access ladder open, though with hindsight I think I would close it up or look for a PE replacement as it's a bit clunky. I did look at the great tips on here by @Parabat and dealt with a few of the areas that could be easily improved, like filling the wing rivets, shortening the arrestor hook. One of the main issues I head read about the kit was the intakes being too thick and parallel to the ground and dealt with this by sanding them thinner but also cutting a thin wedge out of the outside faces and clamping and glueing it all back up. I also used a thin strip of foil tape to create the ring that's missing before the intake petals which I found quite a noticeable omission. Paints used were Gunze numbers as per the instruction callouts for the TPS scheme grays, thinned with Tamiya thinners, sealed with Alclad aqua gloss and then an oil wash and Xtracrylics Matt to finish. Photos were taken from my phone as I am lacking any decent setup so hoping they come out OK. I realised when taking them the the old light blue pillow case I had used previously as a back drop is both far too small for a plane of this size and also in dire need of replacement 😂 Anyway, hope you like and on with the pics, hoping that they work as this is the first post I have attempted entirely from my mobile... Cheers for looking, Stu 🙂

Cracking build and paintwork mate, the fading looks just right, one sleek beautiful machine

Looking very nice mate, pulling up a seat and will enjoy seeing this one come together

Superb work mate, been watching your group build thread and enjoyed seeing this one come together. That scheme must have been an absolute headache to mask to match the decal demarcations but well worth it, that and the twin seat configuration really suits her! Love the asymmetrical rocket pods too

Lovely build and the weathering on the NMF looks superb. Brilliant suggestion by your wife, I look forward to seeing your second one!

Agree with the other comments here, a superb trio and so well detailed its hard to believe they are 1:72, smashing work!

Thanks for the kind comments Guys and sorry for my pitifully slow reply!! I can definitely recommend the kit for anyone wanting to give it a go, its the usual Tamiya great fit and whilst some of the decals are large they really did work well and had enough thickness in them to correct their positioning before the microsol took hold, it was quite satisfying seeing the whole kit come to life as the decals went on the plain white shell I look forwards to seeing yours in RFI Kevlar The Zero paints are really nice to work with and coverage is the best of any white I have tried yet. I usually spray in the kitchen with a dust mask on and the back door open which seems to work OK for Tamiya etc acrylics. With the Zero paints I managed to stick out the kitchen and add a white highlight to my nose hair so probably not the brightest idea, will definitely need more thought before I commit to spraying the MP4/4! Are you doing a WIP thread for the MP4/4 as that would be great to follow. I'm not sure I could budget £150 plus for the detail set but the results do look amazing! Dont need carbon templates for the Porsche but if you do any for the MP4/4 that would be useful as I bought some carbon decal sheet to try on this one. Cheers, Stu

Thanks guys The decalling was definitely the bit I was dreading on this as some of them are quite large and tricky to get in position before they grab and don't want to move further, particularly the big gold splash on the rear as theres quite a few thin bits of splash that make the whole thing harder to position. But thankfully they werent too bad in the end so well done Tamiya for that! Cheers, Stu

Amazing build mate, the conversion looks flawless and both your choice of wraparound camo and doing the twin seater are spot on, she is one beautiful looking machine. If you can get a result like this from the old Airfix kit I can't see why anyone would want to attempt the KH one, Cheers, Stu

Hi all, Latest build for me and first completed of this year. I'm normally a builder of winged things but this is my third Tamiya car kit (1:24 DTM Calibra and 1:20 F189 previously) and they are quite addictive This is actually the second build of a kit for a colleague who likes the finished product but isn't yet ready to cross the line into the world of building and painting so hoping maybe third time lucky for him! The kit itself was a joy to build, with a nicely detailed engine bay out of the box, this took about half the build time itself and does look lovely at 1:1 scale, though sure more detail could be scratched to take it up a level! The kit also provides masks for the windows which was a bonus. Painting was mostly Tamiya colours with Mig metallics and Zero paints for the white, the latter of which was amazing to use, with great coverage which is something I usually hate about white (i bought it as a twin pack with Mclaren Red to complete an MP4/4 i have in the stash so looking forward to that now). The decals performed far better than I feared and went down without any mishaps, all finished with either Xtracylics matt or Alclad aqua gloss and rubbed with Carnauba wax on the shell. Hope you like and any questions/C&CC always welcomed, Thanks, Stu

Looking really nice mate, love the wraparound camo and the conversion is looking seamless. Good job on scratching the decals together, they certainly all look the part!

Stunning build, paint and weathering mate, very realistic - looks like you could jump right in and fly her! Interesting to read up a bit on the ASAT as well, I had never heard of this before, that must have been one hell of a flight to launch it

Cracking build mate, lovely paint job and restrained in scale weathering 😀 Always liked the look of Foxy Killer and its on my to do list, if it turns out half as well as yours I'll be well happy!

Thanks for all the kind comments guys, glad I finally got it finished and posted Thanks Joachim - I know the matchbox boxing.artwork you mention I'm glad you noticed the front opening on the exhaust sheaths, I completely forgot to add that to the list of tweaky bits in my main post! Thanks again all and have a great weekend!

Hi all, This is my latest completion, finally off the bench and gotten some photos taken to share here This is the newish mould Airfix kit, picked up for a bargain £8 a few years back after a stop in at a Toymaster shop I saw on a drive through Blackpool. Loved the box art and always wanted to have a go at a Jg.27 E-7 with desert blotchy camouflage. There's nothing I can add about the kit that hasn't already been said here but it was a nice easy stress free build. I decided to correct a few of the weaker parts of the kit, replaced the gun barrels with some master ones I had in the stash, wheels with ultracast resin and the prop blades with Quickboost ones designed for the Eduard kit. The last item was a bit of a pain as i had to Dremel out the inside of the spinner a lot to get the hubs far enough through to allow it to sit against the back plate, retrospectively i would have gone for the complete Ultracast prop and spinner! Did a little bit of scratch work to shorten the legs by a couple of mm on the oleos, hollowed the exhaust tips, added a spring to the canopy opening section, cut out the radiator flaps and replaced with some metal from a can of cider ( thatchers cloudy apple I believe ) and finally added a set of belts I had in the stash and smash moulded a couple of the conical (isolators?) at each end of the aerial wire. Paint was mostly Tamiya though I had some humbrol 118 US tan which the instructions call out for the RLM79. I was too tight and impatient to order a Tamiya or Gunze equivalent so went with it but had forgotten what a pain Humbrol acrylics are to spray, they are so gritty and have to be thinned so much not to clog the airbrush immediately. Decals weren't the best and couldn't manage to get them to settle down well despite lots of microsol/set and still ended up with a little silvering, funny as I didn't remember them being so bad when I built the Galland E-4 boxing of this kit a few years back? Anyway, on with the pics, all C&CC appreciated as always, Thanks, Stu

That does look beautiful and thanks for the heads up on the Mr Paint Silver, definitely going to have to try that. Really like the shading you have got along the panel lines as well, its a lovely subtly worn look, what did you use, oils? Cheers, Stu

Both look absolutely stunning Duncan, not yet got a 1:48 Mustang in the stash and wasn't sure whose kit to go for with so many decent offerings but I think you have just made up my mind, Mr Eduard should give you a commission 😉

Thanks for the heads up I will definitely look out for that documentary 👍 I grew up in Melbourn in the 80s and 90s so Royston was my local town and Bassingbourn just a couple of villages away. Always keen to do something with a local connection, got a Fowlmere based 19 sqn spitfire on the to do list for the same reason 😀 Sorry Woody, not meaning to hijack your brilliant thread!

Great work Werdna, love these late war schemes and need to get one of these in my collection

Thats the difficulty with weathering, when to stop 😀 Sure the real things were caked in mud but I think less is more just to create the illusion of wear, tear and muck without overpowering the model and I think you have nailed it! It certainly makes me want to have a go at a 48 scale fort, always been tempted by a YB-40, though something from Bassingbourn feels fitting as its only a couple of villages away from where I grew up. So whats next?

Amazing work Woody, loved watching this one come together. The weathering looks absolutely in scale and really adds depth to a superb model. Hats off to you!

Thanks again for the kind comments guys and sorry for the late response back!

Wow that is one hell of a scheme, very reminiscent of minecraft 😀 Lovely job!