.

[fewr9fkr9595]

Sundowners last stages before final assembly!

 

Some weathering with oil brushers. Looks a bit intense due to harsh lighting. Its a bit more subdued under normal viewing conditions 👍🏿

 

Dark mud used for type of streaks seen on engine lowers, then removed from areas of 'fresh' paint. 

 

 

Uppers had these three colours used:

 

Some dark brown stippled for crew dirt near walkway. 

 

Thinned white dotted on to get a salt stained look. 

 

General overview. Note wing glove panel line decal. Did a dark grey this time. Better look than the black one I made for the Tophatter. 

Dark brown ones was stippled on random panels to dirty them up too. Also visible are the 'starship filth' grime streaks. 

 

The dried salt staining/bleaching. 

 

Faded and made the tail logos patchy with some white. 

 

More bleaching and streaking on panels. 

 

All thats left is the nav lights/clear colours really now before pouring some glue over all the parts and giving it a good shake in a box. 

 

Thanks for looking! 

[Squibby]

Cheers for the tip on the Maskol, so best used while model is glossed then.

I heard that Maskol can attack acrylics though, hopefully your experience suggests otherwise...

 

Your weathering is absolutely top notch there, I'm intrigued at those oil paint pen things you have. Is what we're seeing here a direct application or are you rubbing / feathering it with a cotton bud / paper towel?

 

Worth picking up you reckon? assuming these are much easier to use than standard oils from a tube and a brush?

 

[fewr9fkr9595]

13 minutes ago, Squibby said:

I heard that Maskol can attack acrylics though, hopefully your experience suggests otherwise...

 

Your weathering is absolutely top notch there, I'm intrigued at those oil paint pen things you have. Is what we're seeing here a direct application or are you rubbing / feathering it with a cotton bud / paper towel?

 

Hi Squib,

 

Maskol may attack acrylics, but I reckon that would take several days to react with paint? Not experienced that before. 

In this technique its on and off in a few hours depending on how fast you work when postshading. 

 

The bottles are mig ammo oilbrushers. Ready to use oil paint. 

I put some on a pallete, then use a toothpick to put tiny dots where I want a streak. (Grain of sugar size or smaller) The brushes are fine but best for perhaps 1/48 upwards? 

 

Leave to dry for 5/10 min or so as they are quite thin. (The time elapsed from putting dots all over airframe is normally enough that when finished you can go back to where you started dotting and streak them in order of application)

 

The way I do it for streaks is to sweep back with a moist brush (odourless thinner) or stipple and stab it around for grimy areas. I suppose you could use paper towels but that may be a bit coarse. 

 

Hope that helps. Tony. 

[Squibby]

Thanks,

 

I might pick up a few and give them a try. I'm thinking they may be useful for drybrushing as well?

[matteo44]

Fantastic work!! 

I like the weathering very much!

[fewr9fkr9595]

Oooh la la, ils sont arrivés!!' 

 

Well, (disappointed tone) in a nutshell the quest for a bland low viz gull grey line bird continues, as the vf11 and 31 are both light ghost grey... The 31 looks cool with its gunship nose though ('the pencil scheme' was the nickname for black radomed cats I believe - looks like a sharpened pencil, especially when in the gull grey - like a light creamy wood colour I guess) 

I researched loads before hand but couldn't confirm if either tomcat was a low viz gull scheme. Nice to have some A model tps line birds in the stash now however. 

 

On a different note, the sheet does make me want to build a tps prowler or sea-king  

 

I bought two sheets, to try and recover some cost because the fees of the bank transfer for the purchase was as much as the sheets themselves!  Anyone want to buy one?  

 

Here's a 'small world' fact - My Dad reminded that we went aboard the Forrestal when she was in the Marseilles area in 1989 (I was too young to remember - we were visiting family in france). This sheet was developed by Carpena decals from that visit back then when they were based in Marseilles too! 

 

I should build all the options as a homage 😂

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking

 

[Gekko_1]

On ‎9‎/‎5‎/‎2017 at 3:32 AM, Tony Oliver said:

 

Faded and made the tail logos patchy with some white. 

 

 

She's looking very nice Tony! Looking forward to seeing her finnished (and I bet you are too!)

[Fritag]

Great finishing Tony.  Really instructive.  The oil brusher technique looks really controllable.

 

Now I need to go back through the thread and pick out some more gems.........,.

 

 

[fewr9fkr9595]

Decisions on the next build now that the sundowners is almost done. 

It may need hasegawa tail fins.

 

vf211 or vf33. 

 

If you've not seen, 

 

 

 

Cheers, Tony

 

 

[Vultures1]

Nice detail work on the helmets - impressive!

[fewr9fkr9595]

Here it goes then - Final assembly time! 

 

 

Thanks for looking! 

[woody37]

Some great tips on weathering here, this is a huge inspiration to dig a big cat out of the stash

[fewr9fkr9595]

Sundowners bird complete!!!

 

Thanks to all who joined in on this build and the saga of its different paintjob, especially @Gekko_1 for the colour overlays. 

 

Here's a few teaser shots, will take some proper pics tomorrow for its RFI. Just need to finish a finnish mig-15uti for the Russian GB so that can be snapped too when the kitchen gets turns into a photo booth... 

 

Looking at it in isolation it didn't seem that light in colour as I had become used to it.

Now its next to the gull grey vf 32 CAG its almost white in appearance!  

 

 

A few other poor close ups,

 

Pilots,

 

 

Dual winders and a view of the fins,

 

4 sparrow belly. 

 

 

All seven cats together now so far from this WIP in the cabinet, along with a few others you may recognise from RFI's this past 12 months or so. 

 

Top left - vf32, vf111. Centre row - vf102, vf31, vf213, vf101. Bottom right - vf14. 

 

 

Thanks for looking 👍🏿

 

[Gekko_1]

On ‎10‎/‎09‎/‎2017 at 7:42 AM, Tony Oliver said:

Sundowners bird complete!!!

 

Thanks to all who joined in on this build and the saga of its different paintjob, especially @Gekko_1 for the colour overlays. 

 

 

Thanks, glad I could help! Also happy you didn't give up on it. Well done!

[fewr9fkr9595]

 

Sundowners RFI done! 

 

 

A mini groupshot to show the colour comparison of this Light grey VF111 against Gull grey and TPS:

 

 

And a nice close up with the recent Tophatter. My favourite two so far. 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking as always. 

 

whats next  

 

 

[Gremlin]

really Superb VF-111 Bird as all others, fantastic job 

 

Cheers

[fewr9fkr9595]

Sundowners bird made it in the FCM gallery!

 

4th from the bottom here - 

 

http://www.fcm.eti.br/galery.html

 

 

Back to the WIP anyways, next one is on the bench (again) - This will have a proper update soon with recent pics, also on some resin bits I have mastered. 

 

So in terms of the build the next tomcat is the VF-21 CO's bird (late A) in tps. This has been neglected somewhat. It was started along as a trio back near June time, along with the recently finished tophatter and sundowner (initially aardvarks). 

The vf 21 was started in xtracrylics, (just cockpit so far) but will now switch to mission paints for the tps. And the markings have survived a cull too, it was almost going to be changed to vf-211 and an A plus spec. 

 

No current pictures but here is one from earlier in this wip as a reminder of where it was and still is pretty much since July time - the one in the foreground with the white putty bits still on it. The other two are now the finished vf-14 & 111 builds. 

 

 

I have been busy with this vf-21 over the weekend and hopefully will be getting some primer on it by the end of this week if I don't get distracted with a new airfix 1/72 me-262...

[fewr9fkr9595]

 

Proper vf 21 update later, but for now - some of my etch bits going on its nose. 400 grit paper over both surfaces, then fixed with mr cement S/extra thin. 

 

[fewr9fkr9595]

So a big update on the latest improvements for my hobbygawa tomcats. These are the resin updates I have been working on for the past month or so. Some of the parts can only be used on builds after the vf21, but the vf21 isn't too far ahead to benefit from some of these either. 

 

First off is the exhaust cowl/shroud & farings area. Completely smooth and plain on the hb kits. (On the 48th ones too!) Also comes as one part which makes painting the side farings a chore. 

On my first two hobbyboss A's (vf 32 & 14) I scribed some panel lines on the side fairings. On the last vf 111 it had the side farings and the cowls scribed. I had thought of mastering those but wanted separate side fairings for an easier paint process. 

 

So I decided to master some hasegawa parts to improve the HB kits. Firstly both the P&W and GE parts by hasegawa aren't a straight fit as they don't match the diameter of the HB rear fuselage, being smaller. 

So they needed spacing out with some plastic card so the sizes match. Two strips of white 0.25mm card were used. This does 'ovalize' them slightly but some careful sanding at the nozzle area restored the shape. Shown below is the GE shrouds and farings being mastered. The vf21 airframe was the test mule for both p&w and GE parts. 

 

 

The hasegawa GE shroud parts have panel lines all over them which don't appear on the full size carbon sheet laminated parts. So they were filled and smoothed. Also added was the missing row of rivets behind the edge lip panel line. (both details missing from HB parts)

 

And here is the hasegawa P&W cowl, shimmed, joins cleaned and primed to check. The panel lines were redefined so they cast better. Casting stub added from plastic sheet. 

 

Underside of P&W cowl had its panel lines improved as they were soft/inconsistent and not very defined. 

 

Here's an aires nozzle, not a bad fit, slightly small.  (size intended for HB kit - here painted before it went on the vf111 bird) 

 

And here is a plastic stock HB nozzle which is a perfect fit on the modded Hasegawa P&W cowl master. 

 

Next is an all in one cockpit/nose gear bay/ballast part for a one drop solution. Master here about complete in primer with some resin offcasts to make the pour stub. 

 

So the reasoning behind this is mainly for closed canopy builds. Seeing as most HB kits lack a full set a console decals (only D kit as these) and I don't really have anymore hasegawa kits to raid for their decals I made this. It hase the hasegawa etch parts on it to give me something to paint. The IP's were used too with HB coamings, the late A/B/D PTID screen scratched from strip. (This part will come in handy for future hasegawa builds as they lack the PTID too.)

Also the RIO's hand hold was undercut to make it look more like a handle. Masters had 'blind reservoirs' added to add support or ensure full casting. 

 

PTID

 

Regular fishbowl RIO IP

 

'All in one' - noseweight is resin scrap and mr surfacer built up. 

 

 

Nose gear bay had some etch bits and plastic strip/sprue details added too. Also main obvious improvements are the box and bottle from a finemolds D kit. 

The nose gear bay has been cast on its own as a separate part so I can use it to improve a build that will have a stock plastic cockpit and open canopy to have an aftermarket colour etch set on display for example. 

 

Here are some of the first castings of shrouds/farings and the 'all in one'

 

All in one fitted. No trimming necessary. A proper drop fit  

nose cone/radome fits over perfectly too. 

 

Overall underside view, showing ballast chunk at rear. The whole all in one resin piece casting weighs around 15 grams. Should keep the nose down with the wings back. 

 

Close up of gear bay details. 

 

And with some of the IP's loosely fitted. Plenty to paint and drybrush under a closed canopy  

 

 

Back to the vf21 - first batch of cast cowls and farings being primed/tested. Had a few bubbles but nothing major. A fairly 'drop in' fit too. Bonus is that the side fairings can be fixed in place so they get the same paint treatment as the rest of the airframe and then the metal cowls dropped in at the end with their tubes and nozzles

 

 

 

Ventral fin area being cleaned up/sanded for hasegawa ones with the naca vents. 

 

These are now truly hobbygawa tomcats!

 

As always, thanks for looking. 

 

 

[Nigel Heath]

Some great models there, impressive weathering skills.

[Cookenbacher]

Dang Tony, that's impressive casting.

[fewr9fkr9595]

6 hours ago, Nigel Heath said:

Some great models there, impressive weathering skills.

 

2 hours ago, Cookenbacher said:

Dang Tony, that's impressive casting.

 

Thanks guys, much appreciated 👍🏿

[Andrew]

Your Hobbygawa Tomcat pieces are a joy to behold; well done to have adapted all the Hasegawa bits that the Hobbyboss kit needs. The all-in-one cockpit tub and nosegear bay with its own ballast though - sheer genius!

 

I'm really looking forward to seeing the VF-21 kit's progress in the short term, and anything else that follows....

[fewr9fkr9595]

25 minutes ago, Andrew said:

The all-in-one cockpit tub and nosegear bay with its own ballast 

 

I can send you one with a few other choice bits if you like mate? 

[Andrew]

22 hours ago, Tony Oliver said:

 

I can send you one with a few other choice bits if you like mate? 

Ooooh, yes please!