fewr9fkr9595 Posted October 23, 2017 Author Share Posted October 23, 2017 9 shades of tps grey! As sprayed and now named. They weren’t done in any particular order just as they were available on the bench or which I was working with at the time. A couple are very light - ak and ammo. Must be their ‘scale approach’ to colour. However the ak is warm/creamy and the mig is cooler/blueish. Another stand out is how dark the dark ghost grey of hataka is. The same as most of the blue greys. Cut and arranged in natural light using the top row. Starting with the warmish/creamy light ghost greys, then going to the blueish/cool ones from darker to the lightest one which is from mig ammo. Hope this helps someone! Thanks for looking. Made as a stand alone topic in the paint forum for the non tomcat lovers to discuss (if they exist hey @Andrew) 5 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted October 23, 2017 Share Posted October 23, 2017 It will Definitely help me match colors from other brands too. Thanks for the work you've put into this. So far excellent work on all the Tomcats. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted October 23, 2017 Author Share Posted October 23, 2017 Slugger time. Canopy masked and on. Black stynylrez first for inner frame. One drop tank primed in black too for something different... Full grey stynylrez, one or two areas needed attention but mostly sound due to the mr surfacer spot treatment first. Solid mission gull grey 16440. Not bothering with any pre shading or black basing (apart from one drop tank) as this will be all post shaded with maskol for the ‘touch up’ paint job effect. Then a coat of ak gauzy to protect it and to make the maskol easier to remove later on. Learnt that from experience as thin tiny bits of maskol are tough to get off of rough matt delicate acrylic paint surfaces without damage... So it was sealed. Shiny slug. Thats all troops! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted October 23, 2017 Share Posted October 23, 2017 9 hours ago, Tony Oliver said: ...Made as a stand alone topic in the paint forum for the non tomcat lovers to discuss (if they exist hey @Andrew) Good move and it speaks to your generous spirit and inclusive nature, Tony. I have heard tell of a clique of four sad, lonely individuals who barely acknowledge each other's existence and when forced to converse constantly argue over what should fill the void, but I can't find evidence that any of this is true; for my part, if there is truth to that rumour, I wish them all the best - I'm sure they will benefit from all your hard work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gekko_1 Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 On 14/10/2017 at 3:21 AM, Tony Oliver said: Yep nice one mate, got that sheet as started building the 1000 vf-114 CAG from that, which then was cancelled and became the basis for the vf-111 low viz as decided I had enough CAG/CO’s in the cabinet back then. Yes that is a good one, and works as I already have a TPS B from 101. I have that filed away for future use, as want to represent a few more difficult squadrons before I start doubling up on them. Think I’ve decided on this vf-103 bird. Pretty bland and fits the paint job I’d like to do. Plus no crew names to try and source. I like the general tattiness of the paint, with a mixture of fresh and old gull paint - especially on the tails. Also the odd repairs/spares on this plane: Note the ghost grey front u/c door and ghost grey patch on ventral fin where the vf103 is 👍🏿 https://www.flickr.com/photos/65364952@N06/21827780001/in/photostream Edit - looking at the shapes of the tail repaint it could be over some vf-143 markings? The triangle for the griffin on the tail and the full rudder to cover the codes and ‘ike’ ??? Which would explain the patch behind the vf-103 too, but not why its a different colour as presumably would’ve been done at the same time as covering the tail markings? Either way still gonna have fun replicating this with two shades of gull... (and some ghost) Hi Tony, I've agonised over this for a while now. Bottom line, I think this jet may be in FS. 36495 too like the VF-111 bird. The starboard front main undercarriage door looks like FS. 36375 (from another Tomcat in the TPS scheme) and that patch on the ventral fin looks like fresh FS. 36495 over old and dirty FS. 36495 (which can tend to give it a faded Gull Grey look). Here's a pic of another VF-103 Tomcat in what looks like the same colours, dated 1985.http://www.cloud9photography.us/US-Squadrons-USN/US-Navy-Fighter-Squadrons/VF-103-JOLLY-ROGERS-pictures/i-V5j43bF/A The nose looks like FS. 36375 or faded FS. 36320? I'm tending to wonder if a lot of aviation buffs/journalists have confused FS. 36495 with faded Light Gull Grey? I'm hoping to come across two Tomcats side by side or near each other, one in Light Gull Grey all over and the other in FS. 36495 all over to get a really good comparison, but haven't found one yet. Anyway there's my thoughts, now you can agonise over it too! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted October 24, 2017 Author Share Posted October 24, 2017 4 hours ago, Gekko_1 said: Hi Tony, I've agonised over this for a while now. Bottom line, I think this jet may be in FS. 36495 too like the VF-111 bird. The starboard front main undercarriage door looks like FS. 36375 (from another Tomcat in the TPS scheme) and that patch on the ventral fin looks like fresh FS. 36495 over old and dirty FS. 36495 (which can tend to give it a faded Gull Grey look). Here's a pic of another VF-103 Tomcat in what looks like the same colours, dated 1985.http://www.cloud9photography.us/US-Squadrons-USN/US-Navy-Fighter-Squadrons/VF-103-JOLLY-ROGERS-pictures/i-V5j43bF/A The nose looks like FS. 36375 or faded FS. 36320? I'm tending to wonder if a lot of aviation buffs/journalists have confused FS. 36495 with faded Light Gull Grey? You know what, we may be onto something here and as you say common knowledge may have been wrong all this time. Going back over pics there does seem to be a lot of ‘cold’ looking all over gull grey planes from this mid 80’s period before tps was the norm that don’t seem to be creamy enough to be gull, faded or not. That 211 sluggers bird link pic of yours definitely looks like 36495, its too even and consistent all over to be faded gull. If it was faded gull (on top and fins) then the lowers like where the ‘navy’ is etc should still be very warm and creamy in tone like gull grey is. The whole plane does seem to have a more cooler and neutral hue to it. Anyhows back to my 212 slugger / ex pukin dog, I am happy with the tone of it currently as the mission gull is quite bright and pale, not very warm at all compared to the creamy gull greys by mr hobby or akan say. So its working for me for the time being. Done the post shading/weathering already (pics wil be up tonight) and its looking good. Cheers, Tony 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted October 24, 2017 Author Share Posted October 24, 2017 Digressing slightly, More old kit purchases over the last few weeks for their decals. (Cue whining about them later on in thread) 1st is this old esci one, (Greece) boxtop is similar to the recently purchased super scale sheet (belgium) with its full low viz vf2. This however has colour data & warnings. More pertinent is the second option. The bu. no is correct for the slugger I am doing, but its in a later tps scheme and has a thicker arrow yellow infill. I have found below a patchy 212 tps, but with a black modex not light grey. Be nice to see the pic they based this on. Second is this old minicraft (from USA) kit. For the vf142 option. Early spec cat. Low grey over white demarcation, corroguard on all leading edges, 7 vent gun panel, no tailfin top stiffeners. No alpha probe on tip of nose. Tiniest bit of yellow on fins with black stripe. I’ve not seen done in model form yet. Anyone else? This one has been released as part of a new decal sheet in 1/48 by furball ‘colours and markings part 3’. Wish they would downsize it to 1/72. Will have to make do with these then. Hopefully they will though before I get around to this one. Cheers. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted October 24, 2017 Author Share Posted October 24, 2017 Hi Guys, well what I suspected regards the tail repaint on the slugger and correlated by @Andrew with the Bu.No via that site is true. Below here is the same plane 2 or so years earlier, different wheel hubs but same insignia and warning/rescue data. So the squadron markings/rudder & modex were overpainted and then 104 of vf143 becomes 212 of vf103. This pic helped confirm gun gas vents and curve of antiglare. Looks in semi storage with its taped up vents. Perhaps even waiting to be handed over to the sluggers cause it looks fairly tatty like its done a cruise already... Anyways, out with the maskol and a paintbrush... Postshaded... followed the panel lines on top carefully, whereas the undersides were more of an overall filter of the greyish brown mix. Maskol being Rubbed off - effect quite strong initially and given it a brownish hue... So the post shade was blended with some straight gull grey misted overall to reduce the contrast and knock back some of the brownish tinge. Much better now, Compare with above. The money shot... seems to have worked? Thanks for looking... 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted October 25, 2017 Author Share Posted October 25, 2017 Details being done, mission paints again in theme with the gull grey. In no particular order: Light ghost on the door and fin as per the reference pic. Also did some soft edged spot touch ups here and there with the 36375 (not shown) as well to add some interest. The black primed drop tank done in 36375 to add some more interest too. One of the sidewinder rails also in ghost grey so it will be a proper mix and match bird. Bladders done in dark gull. Enough contrast as I think gunship would have been too dark. Radome. Main wheel wells. Black anti glare will be done tomorrow when I feel its safe to mask off over the radome tan and itd dried enough. Thanks for looking! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted October 28, 2017 Author Share Posted October 28, 2017 Sluggers anti glare done! Masked off front windshield then did two bits of tape forward keeping the taper between them nice and gradual. Then I added a semi circle bit on top. The black was sprayed neat to prevent any bleed through. Its very dark and straight black but I will fade it and add some weathering/interest to it at the end with some oils. Happy Halloween weekend! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted November 2, 2017 Author Share Posted November 2, 2017 Next is some mission metals on some slugger parts so you can get an idea of how the shades look... 1st is a finless captive training sidewinder as seen during this period. Mission blue and then cold steel for the forward part. This is the body of a brassin aim-9D, with the rear fins cut off and the front etch fins not added. Results in more detail where the fins have been left off than I would be able to represent with a plastic missile that I’d cut the front fins off of. I chose a D instead of an M/L body as those have the recessed dots that are the target detection bits that the captive ones didn’t have/need. More detail painting to come for this yet. Next is the stock afterburner faces, straight burnt iron over black stynylrez. Will be drybrushed silver later. Now the previous mission painted bird, the freelancer, had its cowls and nozzles done in the above two colours respectively, and then some sections and panels picked out in some light mixed tones. For the slugger I have done the opposite, painting the parts in the lighter mixes, then will detail with some the above darker original shade paints later. All in the name of variety in the destruction of cats (collective noun for ferral types) Quite pleased with the way this looks. Decals will be done for the slugger over the weekend hopefully, still sorting through the decal stash and weighing up the best options (read as which sheets to cut up and potentially sacrifice) to make up what I need for this plane as per the reference pics of 212/104. Cheers. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NontasB Posted November 3, 2017 Share Posted November 3, 2017 Great progress Tony! I really like your painting technique using the mascol for fadings! Also great choice of subjects in the Tomcat family. As a huge Tomcat fan that I am (I plan to build all 30 USN F-14 squadron planes in the future) , I like to see on models more rare squadron schemes than the usual ones. Sluggers is one of them...you don't see any models of VF-103 before they became Jolly Rogers... Keep it up! (My love is a VF-202 F-14A Block 140...) Regards, Nontas 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paramedic Posted November 3, 2017 Share Posted November 3, 2017 Yay, more - keep ´em coming! It never gets old, such nice aircraft and you make them really, really good..! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted November 7, 2017 Author Share Posted November 7, 2017 Sluggers decals made up and done! Sourced as follows - From superscale sheet 72-480: Tail arrow, ventral ‘vf 103’, flap top ‘212’, tailfin ‘12’ From the old esci kit shown above on this page - Bu. Number and inner rudder ‘AA’ codes. From two lots of hasegawa Atlantic fleet sheets the 2 of the 207 was cut off & used for to make the 212. Same for the otherside which slopes the other way. Also, the 1 in the 212 came from the 100 off the hasegawa a plus boxing sheet. The majority of the rescue and warning data came from a hasegawa pacific fleet sheet, the ones intended for the vf21 high viz as the layout of the rescue boxes is the same awell as the style of the ejection triangles etc. But intake warnings had bits cut off or repositioned (eg no ‘danger’ or ‘jet’ on the port, & the angle of the ‘danger’ in the starboard one) to match the reference pics of 104/212 Stars and bars came off of a microscale sheet that was for a6 intruders. Without further a-due: A few points I am not happy with looking back at the reference pics I posted of the real 104/212 last page: 1: Arrows (and assume AA’s too) need to be darker/more contrast, almost black not grey. Which is frustrating as I checked the contrast of this ‘dark’ grey using some that was spare on the decal sheet against some gull grey and it looked fine which convinced me to build this plane as any other 1/72 (black) decals for slugger tomcats are non existent!!! 2: Stars and bars need to be darker too as well as a touch bigger. 3: The ‘12’ on the tailfins need to be slanted to the rear on both sides. Checked and checked the decal stash again but no joy.. Oh well. Don’t think it will be this way for long though, not clear coated them yet... Cheers, Tony 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Posted November 8, 2017 Share Posted November 8, 2017 Hi, some information about VF-103 decals which you might find useful http://www.hyperscale.com/2011/reviews/decals/afterburner48071reviewrk_1.htm Robert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted November 8, 2017 Author Share Posted November 8, 2017 32 minutes ago, Robert said: Hi, some information about VF-103 decals which you might find useful http://www.hyperscale.com/2011/reviews/decals/afterburner48071reviewrk_1.htm Robert Cheers Robert yes I had seen those when I was deciding on which slugger to do. Almost to the point of perhaps trying to get hold of a sheet (oop now and only 1/48), scanning it and then reprinting (black stuff only like crew names and bu. numbers) in 1/72. - Very nearly was going to try and do the gull 211 as on that sheet. But all of those are later (86 < ) than what I settled for as they use the double A with the lightning bolt through them. The patchwork paint of 212 due to the transfer from 143 to 103 makes a more interesting model Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted November 11, 2017 Author Share Posted November 11, 2017 Well decided I couldn’t leave the arrows like that. So out with some tamiya enamels, a fine brush and calm nerves. I chose enamels because of their adhesion properties, good coverage, longer drying time to work with/avoid brush marks but to name a few. Plus any mistakes can be cut back with a moist turps laden brush. Trying to do this with acrylics would be masochistic to say the least with them streaking/beading up on the decals etc... Anyways an almost black was mixed up and applied. A bit wobbly! Fully done and cleaned up, much better! Another view which reveals another problem - the AA codes, so... They were done too! Alot happier with it now, matches the reference picture of 212 much better. Stars and bars are going to get reworked/replaced next. Thanks for looking 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 I for one, am diggin it. I'm in the painting phase on my 48th scale VF-32 Tomcat. In discussions with John Lawler, the guy who flew it, he said a plane would go thru a corrosion inspection and re-paint event every 42 days, rain or shine, shore based or deployed. Which means a freshly painted plane did not stay pristine for very long. 42 days.... i always figured it was a bit longer than that, but..... -d- 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackfordhibby Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 Tony You're a braver man than I am Gunga Din. I can't imagine attacking that with a fine brush and paint. I'd still be faffing around with masking tape and or decal cut into strips. You certainly have the courage of one's convictions, and I doff my cap to you. You have done it, mine would still be in the pending tray. Will come to you for advice when I start my Vietnam era VF-1 Wolfpack Tomcat as used in operation Frequent Wind. Assuming I can get hold of the decals nowadays, failing that it'll be stuck in the cupboard for ever more. Cheers Peter 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 I believe that calls for the rare Cooke emoji use: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted November 12, 2017 Author Share Posted November 12, 2017 Thanks lads. Next installment - insignia improvements. Soaked with microset to aid in removal. Then I managed to find some darker (pretty much black) and a tiny bit larger ones. These were placed a touch higher too. Also put on some of my home made glove vane panel line decals. So now here she is in a similar aspect to the reference shots - as like 212: when it was still 104 of vf143: Much better now. One thing stopping it from being 100% is still the straight ‘12’ on the tailfins, dont have any slanted ones. But I can live with that. Next is just a general view, including a wing to see replaced insignia and flap modex (not shown before. So its all had a good gloss coat for some panel line washes, hopefully next weekend. Bye for now! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted November 22, 2017 Share Posted November 22, 2017 How goes this latest addition to your grand feline opus, Tony? Hope you're keeping well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted November 23, 2017 Author Share Posted November 23, 2017 On 22/11/2017 at 02:21, Andrew said: How goes this latest addition to your grand feline opus, Tony? Hope you're keeping well. Hi Andy mate thanks for the nudge. I did manage to get a touch done (general panel line washes) a while ago. Not had a chance to crop and then upload pics yet. Back in the real world now working away from home during the week so very minimal bench time only on the weekends if I manage to get back at all. Cheers, Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted November 24, 2017 Share Posted November 24, 2017 Hi Tony, Great to hear that your build progresses... an update, whenever it comes, will be worth the wait. Take it easy, and don't try to squeeze too much into your weekends - from personal experience of some years ago, it just doesn't pay. Best, Andrew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted November 24, 2017 Author Share Posted November 24, 2017 As mentioned here is an update from last weekends work. Not much progress to show, just some panel washes. Ranging from: light grey on white bits, medium grey overall, deep grey along hinge lines and lastly black in the deepest vents and hole. So a picture which isn’t really anything to shout about - the overall mid grey wash has been done, and a few selected areas have the deep grey & black in them, waiting to dry off a bit before it was cleaned up. Cheers, Tony 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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