Parabat Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 That is some awesome scratch work, looking good already. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermo245 Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 This is great work - love it! Dermot 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 Maybe a bit late bit I could send you some resin ventral fins pal if these don't turn out well enough for your liking? Or weapon and exhaust parts? Im the bloke doing the hobbyboss multi build thread. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxzinbox Posted September 13, 2016 Author Share Posted September 13, 2016 (edited) That is some awesome scratch work, looking good already. Thanks Parabat! This is great work - love it! Dermot Thanks Dermot! Maybe a bit late bit I could send you some resin ventral fins pal if these don't turn out well enough for your liking? Or weapon and exhaust parts? Im the bloke doing the hobbyboss multi build thread. Hi Tony! I've been following your build since you started it. I have been referencing it a lot during my build as well. The Tomcats are shaping up nicely! Quite a challenge you took up there with all six of them. I appreciate your very generous offer, but I'll probably have to take a rain check on it as I live in India, and the cost of shipping the parts over will cost a bomb, and might not be feasible for this current build. Cheers, Alex. Edited September 13, 2016 by alxzinbox 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 Yikes didn't realise you were that far away. Pm me an address or post code and I will look into it? If not no worries then... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxzinbox Posted September 23, 2016 Author Share Posted September 23, 2016 (edited) Cockpit So it's been a slow two weeks on the build. I did get around to completing the 2nd ejection seat (detailing, painting, decals and photoetch), and moved on to installing the cockpit PE. Started off by spraying NATO black over the IP hoods and the IPs themselves Stuck the small parts on a candy stick using BluTac. Used tissue paper and PVA glue to create the canvas covering on the IP hoods. Seems a little out of scale to be honest. Installing the PE took a little detailed work to cut out the screen transparencies from the acetate sheet and glue them into place on the IP. There were holes drilled for the dials, so the acetate sheet could be stuck on the backside of the PE. Not so lucky on the screens which were not etched out of the metal plate. I matte coated the PE before installing the acetate sheets for that extra contrast between the reflective and the matte. Hobby boss didn't provide any sidewall detail on the fuselage halves, and TBH, nothing much is seen at the scale esp with the closed canopy. I was initially planning on detailing the bulkhead behind the RIO, but maybe I'll get to they sometime in the future if ever. So here are the pictures of the completed cockpit,. Thanks for watching! As always, your critique and suggestions are welcome and appreciated. Cheers, Alex. Edited September 27, 2016 by alxzinbox 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted September 23, 2016 Share Posted September 23, 2016 Cockpit looks great Alex! I think your canvas coverings for the instrument panel coamings are quite nice, and definitely better than what most companies mould into their parts. Did Hobbyboss not mould the canvas coverings at all, or are they separate pieces? You might want to rethink adding the circuit breakers to the rear bulkhead - they're very prominent, even in 1:72. Cheers, Bill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted September 23, 2016 Share Posted September 23, 2016 (edited) Looking great Alex! A couple things that may help and save headaches later on, there are some pics of it in my thread: 1- The very front corners of the tub need trimming a touch so they don't interfere with windscreen panel. 2- The second problem i think is due to scale thickness... Basically the hud needs reducing in height to fit between the coaming and windshield. So you could take it off now and sand some of lower part of it off. Or the other option that I have discovered on my second 'D' build (and will be putting details/pics over the weekend in my thread) is to trim the top part of the instrument panel off. The small rectangular piece that there is no etch for in the dream set and where you have used the decal to compensate... Get rid of it. This allows the coaming once trimmed around its bottom edge to drop down/sit lower and make more room for the hud. Plus it then matches the contours of the IP better (the one IP on the general sprue not matching the three different coamings in the A/B/D kits) and gives the pilot a more realistic forward vision area. You might be able to prize yours off to do the necessary surgery? Tony. Edited September 23, 2016 by Tony Oliver 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxzinbox Posted September 24, 2016 Author Share Posted September 24, 2016 8 hours ago, Navy Bird said: Cockpit looks great Alex! I think your canvas coverings for the instrument panel coamings are quite nice, and definitely better than what most companies mould into their parts. Did Hobbyboss not mould the canvas coverings at all, or are they separate pieces? You might want to rethink adding the circuit breakers to the rear bulkhead - they're very prominent, even in 1:72. Cheers, Bill Thanks Bill! Hobbyboss has some moulded on detail to represent the canvas, but lacking much texture or the folding of canvas, I thought I could explore the tissue paper and PVA route Regarding the rear bulkheads, I'll have a pass on it this weekend. Doesn't make sense to detail up the cockpit and leave a gaping black hole in that area. Thanks for the extra nudge to push things along! 7 hours ago, Tony Oliver said: Looking great Alex! A couple things that may help and save headaches later on, there are some pics of it in my thread: 1- The very front corners of the tub need trimming a touch so they don't interfere with windscreen panel. 2- The second problem i think is due to scale thickness... Basically the hud needs reducing in height to fit between the coaming and windshield. So you could take it off now and sand some of lower part of it off. Or the other option that I have discovered on my second 'D' build (and will be putting details/pics over the weekend in my thread) is to trim the top part of the instrument panel off. The small rectangular piece that there is no etch for in the dream set and where you have used the decal to compensate... Get rid of it. This allows the coaming once trimmed around its bottom edge to drop down/sit lower and make more room for the hud. Plus it then matches the contours of the IP better (the one IP on the general sprue not matching the three different coamings in the A/B/D kits) and gives the pilot a more realistic forward vision area. You might be able to prize yours off to do the necessary surgery? Tony. Those are some awesome pointers Tony!! Much appreciated. A dry fit confirmed it. I had flushed the entire HUD area with thin cement, so the HUD is pretty much a goner. Fortunately, HB has provided two, although it might be worth exploring the acetate option from the dreammodel set. I'll probably go with the 2nd option to fixing the HUD issue. From references it seems like the HUD is placed in an insert in the IP hood, so some surgery might be required (which I'm not really looking forward to). Another point to rectify is how low the seats fit in the cockpit. Should have been pretty obvious when the pilot's seat was lower than the RIO's IP hood. Oh well... The seats were the same size as the kit's offering, although in references I now notice that the seat is in line height-wise with the side consoles, while they are a little lower in the model. Fortunately I haven't glued them down yet, so that should be an easy fix, although they still won't be as high as in the real aircraft. Thanks again Bill and Tony for your inputs! Cheers, Alex. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxzinbox Posted September 27, 2016 Author Share Posted September 27, 2016 (edited) Cockpit Corrections: The three main issues with the cockpit were HUD too high displacing the windscreen Ejection seats sitting too low lack of detailing on the bulkhead behind the RIO Thanks to the inputs from Tony Oliver, I cut into the Pilot IP Hood and inserted the HUD. It fit quite well, matches reference, and the windscreen clear part sits perfectly. Raising the Ejection seats was a simple enough affair- I used 2mm styrene card underneath the seats boosting them up a bit.In references the cushion is level with the side consoles. Although I've raised them a tad higher, it won't be noticeable once the cockpit is closed in, and more importantly, the seats look correct in profile now. I added a representation of circuit breakers on the rear bulkhead behind the RIO. I scribed cross hatch lines into a 0.5mm styrene sheet, sanded it down to smooth the scores, cut out chunks and applied a black wash to it after cementing it on. Some detail better than none... I think that about wraps up the cockpit. The sidewalls on the fuselage will get some minimal treatment as nothing much is seen. I also realised that the cockpit is missing the cable that is connected to the unit on the RIO hood. I'm in two minds whether to join the halves together and continue with the build, or start detailing the Nose Gear Bay next as there is no detail on the side walls. It seems enticing to attempt it, but at the same time, the length of the project is going to increase given the rate I procrastinate at. Anyways, we'll know soon enough. Thanks for watching! Alex. Edited September 29, 2016 by alxzinbox 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxzinbox Posted October 2, 2016 Author Share Posted October 2, 2016 (edited) Nose Gear Bay Detailing: I was a little hesitant in detailing the nose-gear bay as it wouldn't be seen in the posed aircraft. The entire jumble of hydraulic lines and wires in the bays looked pretty intimidating. Nevertheless, after gazing at references and sleeping over it for a week, I was able to break down the seemingly complicated assembly into it's components. The kit features absolutely no detail on the sidewalls.In the finished build, the sidewalls would be seen more than the roof of the bay (which as some pretty accurate details incidentally) I sawed off the sidewalls, intending to build them entirely from scratch. Also, doing so would mean that I now HAD to complete the sub-project I started off with riveting the walls. The simplest part of the process. Drew the lines out on a piece of 0.5mm styrene card After riveting and adding some supporting braces The shielded hydraulic lines were made from wrapping copper wire in masking tape And wire bundles made from fishing line. This was the most frustrating part as the near transparent line kept tangling and going all over the place. The minor hydraulic lines on the sidewalls were added with stretched sprue and thin cement. I painted everything black, then airbrushed white directionally from below to recreate shadows. I used a marker to paint the clamps on the insulated lines and wire bundles. In retrospect, I should have painted the spacing evenly across all the wires. Joined the sidewalls before installing the primary lines and wire bundles. And here's the end result. I'm quite satisfied with how it turned out. Not 100% accurate to the real thing, and missing a few actuators and lines (which I'll add later) but definitely a big improvement from the bare walls of the kit part. The fit of the bay was also perfect in the fuselage. So that's an added bonus I'm glad I took up the challenge. Although it won't be seen in the final posed model, it's good to know it's there, and more importantly, it was a great learning experience for future builds. As always, your feedback and suggestions are appreciated. Thanks for watching. Cheers, Alex. Edited October 2, 2016 by alxzinbox 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 Thats some serious commitment! Great job mate 👍🏻 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parabat Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 Awesome work! Nicely done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxzinbox Posted October 3, 2016 Author Share Posted October 3, 2016 On 2/10/2016 at 8:38 PM, Tony Oliver said: Thats some serious commitment! Great job mate 👍🏻 On 2/10/2016 at 9:09 PM, Parabat said: Awesome work! Nicely done. Thanks Tony and Parabat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxzinbox Posted November 6, 2016 Author Share Posted November 6, 2016 (edited) Wow, its been more than a month since I updated this thread! Life had gotten in the way the last couple of weeks, but work on the build has been slowly crawling along in a very non-linear fashion, which makes it difficult to make a coherent post of progress. Anyways, here's the first complete "dry-fit" of the aircraft. It feels awesome seeing the build come together for the first time after months of working on sub-assemblies. The wings are detachable to help with the painting and weathering. Completed/ Almost complete milestones include Additional riveting on the fuselage. Re-scribing and riveting the fuselage joint behind the wings pending. the Chin Pod has been detailed (riveting and the TCS), pending painting and adding of the clear navigation lights. The plumbing on the landing gear is almost complete. Awaiting paint and final assembly. The sub-sonic air intake ramps have been scratch built. Intakes painted and awaiting masking before assembly. The main landing gear bay plumbing is currently in progress. The mass of tubing has eroded my patience and sanity. Inner Exhausts painted and assembled. Additionally, the paints finally arrived via surface mail- 2 months after ordering them, but still in time nevertheless That's the quick update for today. Will be posting detailed photos and updates next week. Cheers, Alex. Edited November 6, 2016 by alxzinbox Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 Great thread & awesome modelling. I'll try to remember these great tips for when I do mine, no way near ready to tackle something like this but one day hopefully. Steve. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 Good to see some progress Alex 👍🏿 On a side note, be aware that I found the Vallejo colors are quite dark when I sprayed them out on some scrap. Documented on page one of my WIP thread. I used them all one place to the left if that makes sense. Darkest colour I used was the dark ghost grey as the blue/medium grey on the uppers. It was on the vf31 bird, the first one I completed in my thread that I used these model air on. But your results may vary, and I am going to use these again on another build (recommend shades this time) but over a white primer to lighten them overall a bit. Tony. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eng Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 Lovely work going on here! Looking forward to the next instalment. Eng 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James G Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 Super work, very nice! Looks like a nice kit and you are doing a great job with it. The VF-2 markings are a personal favourite as well! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxzinbox Posted November 14, 2016 Author Share Posted November 14, 2016 Weathering Test: Thanks to Tony Oliver's suggestion to try out the Vallejo paint on spares before moving onto the model, I scribed out some surface detail on a styrene card to test out the paints. I first painted on Vallejo USN Light Ghost Grey tinted with Dark Ghost Grey in a 4:1 ratio. My first surprise came when cleaning out the airbrush with Isopropyl alcohol, the paints curdled inside the airbrush making for a tedious clean-up. Lesson learnt- use only water for dilution and cleaning. I salted the surface and misted on Dark Ghost grey lightened up with some Light Ghost Grey and diluted with water in a 4:1:2 ratio (Pic taken before painting) The contrast was still quite strong, so I blended it in with the same Dark Ghost Grey mix. Unfortunately I overlooked taking a photograph at this time. Next I mixed up a batch of burnt umber, burnt sienna, black and white (no exact ratio) and diluted it with IP alcohol. I used a foam mask made from a thin slice of dish scrubber glued on to a styrene frame It's crude, but serves the purpose. This is like a reverse salt-weathering, creating mottles of dirt and grime on the surface. I also did post shading on a few panels. I am still not able to do fine lines with my airbrush- some combination of pressure, viscosity that I'm not able to wrap my head around. This was the result. The black marks on the paint was carelessness on my part. The grey, black and white pallets on the left are for color-balancing purposes. Finally I dry-brushed over the panel lines using oil paints with a custom mix that closely matches a 60:40 mix of LGhostGrey and DGhostGrey. I feel the dirt and grime is too overpowering, although the reference photos do suggest a highly dirty bird. Will definitely tone it down quite a bit on the final model. All in all, the combination of the salt-weathering, the dirt and grime and the weatherproofing touchups created an encouraging finish to the weathering. More importantly, it feels awesome not having to custom mix paints and eff up the model with a color that looks way off. Your critiques and suggestions are welcome and appreciated. Cheers, Alex. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marevic1 Posted November 14, 2016 Share Posted November 14, 2016 I've got a HB F-14b ready for the bench next and seeing this is really making me look forward to it. Awesome scratch detailing you've done. Going to look great with some colour added. Impressive stuff! Jurgen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxzinbox Posted November 16, 2016 Author Share Posted November 16, 2016 (edited) Nose Gear Detailing: Finally completed the wiring on the nose gear! I started out on the sub-project 26th of October, and feel euphoric about finally completing the hydraulics today. Ofcourse, all this time I've spent more time imagining the finished product than actually working on it. This was the kit offering. Pretty accurate with all the main components represented faithfully for the scale. I drilled out the weight reduction holes near the top, and carved out the correct shape using the hobby knife. Stretched sprue and thin cement was then used to add the lines and accessories. This is what it looks painted, along with extra black piping. I'm not a big fan of how the glide path indicators turned out. PE for that area would have been awesome. The headlamp is some ladies decorative accessory. Looks the part at the scale. Rust chipping was done with a fine brush and oil paints. The landing gear was given an oil wash in dark grey. I still have to figure out a way to mask the whole wheel assembly without damaging it to spraypaint chrome on the suspension. That's the lot for now. Thanks for watching! Cheers, Alex. Edited November 16, 2016 by alxzinbox 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmashedGlass Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 I think that's an awesome weathering technique for US Navy jets, Alex. Perhaps cut it back with a very thin mix of the base color, misted on, like a filter? As to cleaning Vallejo from the airbrush, nothing beats their own cleaner or Medea airbrush cleaner. After using that I usually run a few drops of lacquer thinner through just to be sure. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fewr9fkr9595 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Hi @alxzinbox, anymore progress with this? Been quiet for a couple months... hope all is ok 👍🏿 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxzinbox Posted January 30, 2017 Author Share Posted January 30, 2017 1 hour ago, Tony Oliver said: Hi @alxzinbox, anymore progress with this? Been quiet for a couple months... hope all is ok 👍🏿 Hi Oliver, Thanks for checking in! All's well, though I've not been a regular on britmodeller of late. The build has been crawling along slowly as Christmas and everyone's birthdays followed in quick succession. It's almost complete now, pending some final work on the tie-down chains. Here's a teaser I shot during a beautiful sunset recently I also scratch built a carrier base (with some creative liberties on the dimentions of the deck markings) I used a 1.3mm styrene card and drilled out 3mm holes on a 20mm x 20 mm grid. I've used the infini model USN carrier tie-down photoetch (Link) Scribing and priming Paint and weathering (didn't use sand-paper as it's pretty difficult to work with) Demarcation Stripes (un-weathered in the photograph) Should do the final photoshoot in a week or two as I have since moved on to other projects. Cheers, Alex. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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