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HobbyBoss 1/48 F-14A Tomcat x 2!!


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  • 1 month later...

Just heading into the fiddly bits now, which means weapons and adding the gear doors, etc

As there are no decals provided for the weapons in the kit, I made use of a FighterTown Tomcat data sheet, which pretty much includes every thing, save enough stripes to do all Phoenix missiles should you want six on your kit. 

Even just using four, I found that I could only decal the side that would be visible as there were just not enough stripes.  The decals were also quite thick and it was a challenge wrapping them around the missiles

phoenix

I also painted and decalled two sparrows and two sidewinders

sparrows

Finally the doors were added to the fuselage after having the red edges outlined with a sharpie pen.  They are just dry fitted in the below shot

fuselage done

The pilots were painted up and insignia and seat stencilsadded from the Fightertown sheet. 

Helmet decals were taken from a tamiya Tomcat kitI'm certainly not a figure painter!!

pilots

We're just about there, with this one anyway!

just about done

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Great building...

 

Not a figure painter either but I've seen good results with a simple light drybrushing just to add a little volume...

Also don't forget other seatbelts as shoulder ones are the most visible when you look at pilots

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  • 2 weeks later...

So, with the VF84 one done

RFI

It was time to move onto the second one

The afterburner has some nice PE parts that require bending to make up the burner ring,   That star shaped piece requires bending before adding it to the part in the lower right .  This I eventually did, getting it all central.  And then promptly dropped the pliers that I had just used to bend it, onto the completed assembly:angry:

brass burner ring

So I decided to move on to the bigger pe pieces that didn't need bending! to use some of the larger P.E pieces, I added overlays to the phoenix pallets

 

phenix pallets pe

 Cockpit sills

cockpit sill PE

and the canopy interior

canopy interior

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The footsteps folded up from Eduard PE. I find a bending tool invaluable for forming these parts.

 Photo etch really comes into its own for details like these.  Look at those tiny perforations.  I'll soon fill those up with paint😀

footsteps

I pretty much had the airframe ready for painting, so a preshade was applied using squiggles of white, buff and light grey.  I really need to  concentrate on getting  these tighter though.

 Next Build!!

Fuselage.

preshaded sundowners

and wings

preshaded sundowners wings

I'll be doing "Miss Molly" from VF-111 Sundowners. (yeah, I know Calum, I changed my mind again!)

  This aircraft, and in fact all Sundowners CAG jets looked pretty clean, but I wanted to add a bit of tonal variation and wear to the paint.  These jets would have still have showed water on the top surfaces and around access panels despite the gloss Gull Grey paint.

Several thinned coats of Mr Color Light Gull Grey were then applied leaving some discolouration

blending coat undersides sundownersblending coat sundowners

To be honest, its probably a little grungy for Miss Molly, but I thought any more coats and it may  disappear with additional washes, weathering etc. Best to stop whilst its still a little 'Out There"  I can always dial it back if I change my mind

Thanks for looking

Bruce

Edited by pacificmustang
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VF111 is one of my favourite USN schemes so will be nice to see this one finished in their colours - very interesting to see your technique for those patchy weathered USN aircraft.

CJP

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VF-111s fin sunday's are provided as a one piece decal.  These never look that good, they dont always conform to all the detail and getting them to fit over the whole fin and fairing without wrinkles would be asking a lot I thought

So I set about creating my own masks.  First I photocopied the decal sheet, then lay frog tape over the top and traced out the design

taped markings

 

the fins were then painted white and the rays that were to remain white were carefully cut out with a new scalpel and placed on the fins

taped markings-2

then Gunze Red Madder sprayed on in two then coats

taped markings-3

before the masking was removed to reveal a result I was quite pleased with

taped markings-4

The complete airframe was then gloss-coated with Tamiya X22 cut with Mr Levelling Thinner ready for a wash

close up nose-2

 

Edited by pacificmustang
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Looks great 😁 ! Anyway I need to inform  you that I had few issue with canopy fitting in HB model. 

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11 hours ago, rudolf24 said:

Looks great 😁 ! Anyway I need to inform  you that I had few issue with canopy fitting in HB model. 

Rudolf.  The canopy certainly was not the best fit on my Jolly Rogers build, but this one will have an open canopy

 

Cheers

 

Bruce

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Pacificmustang,

 

That is some awesome work you have going there👀👍😎

 

I’m a sucker for the Sundowners livery and your paint 🎨 weathering job is very inspirational 😱:worthy:

 

You need to call Kenny Logins because your in the “Danger Zone ‘’ of kick butt Tomcats😎

 

Keep up the great work and we are looking forward to the next update 🙏👀

 

Cheer,

 

Mr.Happy (In name only)

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They both look fabulous , humming 'Danger Zone' and 'Great balls of Fire' reading this WIP,  

 

Tomcat has always been a favourite of mine since 1976 when I saw it at Farnborough , it looked much meaner than the Panavia Tornado  ( sorry ) also on its 1st appearance at the airshow 

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Thanks for all the comments people, and continuing to look in

Decalling started with cutting out the squadron codes from the tail decal and adding to my painted tail, although the decal white was a little brighter than my painted tails which I had toned down

I also added the yellow stripes from an xtradecal sheet which contained just yellow strips of varying width.  I have a few of these sheets in different colours and always find them useful

finished tail fins

decalling continued on using the Furball "Sundowners Anthology" sheet https://www.furballaero-design.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=48-060

although I used the sharkmouth decal from the kit as I thought the Furball one looked a little small.  I cut it in half and joined it under the nose to make it a bit easier for the decal to conform to the nose

dcalled

Probably the hardest job was cutting up Miss Molly around all the open bays, and to apply to the hatches.  I simply placed all the hatches in place and used a fresh scalpel blade

miss molly cut up

With the decalling complete, a sealing coat of X22 was applied, thinned with Mr SElf Levelling Thinner.  Ive done away with using Future due to too many inconsistent results

X22 always delivers.

 

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