A Persian cat... (IRIAF F-14A Tomcat, Tamiya #61114 1:48)

[nasosrr]

Yeap, that's right...

 

Good evening, fellow modellers. (I'm pretty sure I've stolen this greeting from somewhere or someone...)

 

I'm back after the little Buckeye, with something slightly bigger but just as colourful.

 

I mean, sure. The USN cats are lovely and most of us, if not all, have watched Tom Cruise "flying" them countless times. But honestly, why aren't more people building the Iranian version of this amazing machine? Well, I am!

 

You all know the kit, so I won't bother you with details about it, I'll get straight to the point:

 

I've built and painted (or rather painted and built) the cockpit:

As you can see, the fit is simply impeccable!

 

I decided to complement it with two Martin-Baker GRU Mk.7A by Aires (AIRE4143) which can be seen here, although it's a generally worse photo than the one above:

 

I've painted (and weathered a bit) the "legs", but this picture is taken prior to the weathering:

 

As you have probably noticed, these photographs are somewhat better than those of the Buckeye. The reason is that I borrowed a camera from my partner (she's a photographer) and I hope that the photographs will keep getting better, the more accustomed I get to the new hardware. 

 

I'll try to post more updates, soon.

 

Have a great evening and take care of yourselves.

 

Best,

 

Nasos 

Edited May 24, 2020 by nasosrr

[nasosrr]

Good morning everyone.

 

I wanted to ask a question, but I forgot it yesterday, I guess I was a bit too tired.

 

My ambition about this kit was to open up some panels and show the gismos that lay underneath. Tamiya is thoughtful enough to provide the cover for the gun as a separate piece. But what about the interior? I remember that Verlinden used to produce a set for the tomcat, which, IF I remember correctly, included avionics and stuff.

Is there anything in 1/48 on the market today? Gun/avionics bays, ideally including the panels that I inevitably will massacre?

 

Thanks in advance for all the info/tips.

[nasosrr]

Good evening.

 

I did a bit of work on the Tomcat tonight. I have to admit that this is one of the easiest and simplest kits I've built.

 

So, the two halves of the nose section are glued together now. I carefully sanded and then "filled" with Gunze MrSurface  and then sanded a bit more. Prior to MrSurface I rubbed the sanded areas with Wenol, that red tube you see over there. This is a product I bought i Greece, around than 15 years ago. It's brass-polishing compound but it's very efficient for canopies and other plastic parts as well. It removes the paint though, so don't try it on painted surfaces.

 

I've painted (or started to paint - they are not ready) some smaller bits and pieces here and there too. 

 

For today's paintwork I used a very old and forgotten Badger 200NH. I didn't remember why I had given up on it, I thought there was something wrong. But there wasn't, I realised that I simply gave up on it because I bought my Iwata HP-CH. But it works fine and it allows me to spare my expensive tools for the really demanding work.

It's much harder to clean though, both than the Iwata and the H&S.

 

 

 

And a photo of the now weathered landing gear, which I owed you from the other day.

 

Thank you for stopping by and watching.

 

Good night and take care of yourselves.

[Parabat]

Nice progress, keep it up.

[nasosrr]

Hello everyone.

Second day in a row, I'm on fire! 🤪

 

Here comes a new update:

 

I know it doesn't look like much, but there's lots of sanding lying behind these photos. 😜 Lots of careful sanding though, with 1200 grades sandpaper, in order to not alter the shape of the aircraft.

 

I repainted the canvas in front of the cockpit shading covers as well, as the first colour looked too yellow.

Then I painted the turbine blades with buffable  Testors stainless steel (this jar of paint was bought maybe more than 20 years ago and it's still perfect!!!) and with the paint that was left in the airbrush I tested my sanding on the nose and fuselage. I think I am satisfied now. I can go to bed.

 

Before I do though, could I please remind you of my question, 3 posts above?

Quote

My ambition about this kit was to open up some panels and show the gismos that lay underneath. Tamiya is thoughtful enough to provide the cover for the gun as a separate piece. But what about the interior? I remember that Verlinden used to produce a set for the tomcat, which, IF I remember correctly, included avionics and stuff.

Is there anything in 1/48 on the market today? Gun/avionics bays, ideally including the panels that I inevitably will massacre?

It's too late for this cat now, but I have another one (a -D version, Tamiya also) in stock. One can never have too many Tomcats, right?

 

Thank you all for dropping by.

 

Good night.

[Tiger331]

Nasos,

 

With regard to your question, there is nothing specific to the Tamiya kit on the market right now. Aires, Eduard and others have done a load of their 'standard' resin/photoetched parts for the cockpit, airbrakes, undercarriage, exhaust nozzles etc but nothing specific with regard to avionics bays etc. As I am sure you already know, Aires and Quickboost quite often do small sets for the avionics bays (as they have done for the Academy and Zoukei-Mura F-4 Phantom series) but the company to probably watch out for is Black Dog. I suspect if any company will produce the type of sets you are looking for, it will be them. They have done some extensive sets for the F-4 Phantom, F-16 and soon, the Great Wall Hobby F-15, including the avionics bays, gun bay, radar and upper spine panels.

 

As a near neighbour (I'm in Estonia) we also have this project in common. I am also part way through using this superb Tamiya kit for an IRIAF F-14A and my experiences so far mirror yours. I am doing the three-colour blue-grey camouflage scheme. 

 

Anyway, great work so far and I will (obviously) follow your build with some interest !

 

Mark       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Parabat]

Nice update, have you used the silver as a primer or to check the seams? Just a thought if you are planning on using it to weather (salt, chipping etc) that the nose cone was fibreglass or composite material.

[nasosrr]

Good morning guys!

Thank you all for your comments.

 

@Tiger331

Cheers Mark. Thanks for the info. I checked Black Dog's site. They have a set for the Tomcat, in 1/72. https://blackdog-model.com/a72070-1-72-f-14-a-electronics-1/ If only they could scale it up a bit...

 

Great model you're building there. And really exciting camo scheme. I'm opting for the desert camo this time. I was going to write that I might consider building a blue-grey one some time, but I'm already facing storage issues. Where do you keep your models??? Hahaha!

I also notice that your cockpit is more weathered than mine. I didn't dare weather mine more, although I wanted to.

 

I'll find your build now and see more photos. 👌

 

Hey @Parabat, thank you for you comment and the info. The silver was used to check the seams and it's already been removed. I prime with Gunze MrSurface, I've the impression that it's stronger and I love the surface it creates. And the way it smells. Haha!

 

Can I trouble you with another colour discussion?

According to this post the colour for the lower surfaces of the Iranian tomcat is Grey FS 36622: Humbrol Hu.28, Testors-Modelmaster 1733, Xtracolor X140, Lifecolor UA021, Xtracrylix XA1140, Gunze H311

Amazing post by the way, thanks @Giorgio N

 

In IPMS Stockholm's page there's a colour reference guide, according to which FS 36622 corresponds to H311 or XF:19. That's great, I have both colours in my drawer, the only problem is..... they look NOTHING alike. 😂

 

Anyhow, my impression is that AS-16, that Tamiya recommends, is a tad darker than H311. I hate mixing paints though, I never get it right. So I'm thinking... If I prime with black, what are the chances of achieving a rather convincing shade of this grey by spraying H311 carefully and unevenly? I mean, we're talking about an old a/c, small (or bigger) variations could be justified?

 

In other news, I primed the top surfaces of the air intakes last night (they are to be painted with the fuselage colours, which I need to do before I glue the intakes in place). In lack of a better white primer (it was too close to the gear bays and I couldn't bother masking) I used Model master's acrylic white primer. Funny stuff... The bottle says "water wash-up" but... well, just NO! Water doesn't do anything to it. I managed to thin it with Levelling thinner (Gunze of course) but unfortunately needed to use the same (expensive) thinner to clean the airbrush, because NOTHING else on my bench would work.

Has anyone used this primer? Any ideas what other thinner I can use?

 

More updates follow, but maybe not today, I need to study for a course.

 

Have a nice weekend and stay safe!

[nasosrr]

Good evening ladies and gentlemen.

I hope you are all well, healthy, happy, inspired!

 

The last couple of days I have spent some time with the cat's belly.

 

 

Primed with MrSurface 1500 black and then sprayed some mottle with Gunze H311, followed by the actual paintwork afterwards. The result is as you see it.

Do you think it needs another coat, or will it do? I'm a bit torn here, I know the USN aircraft are subject to a lot of wear, coming from the sea, but what about the Iranian ones? I mean, the desert can't be very loving and gentle either, can it?

 

Anyhow, I've got another issue which troubles me and I am not sure I know how I could avoid it.

If you take a close look at the area between the engines, and generally everywhere there's narrow, tight places with weird shapes, you'll see that the paintwork is "dirty". The surface is horrible, it looks like lots of dust and spiderweb had gathered there and I sprayed paint on top of that. The model was obviously clean before I painted, this effect is from the painting. I am guessing that the airflow gets disrupted somehow and it creates this effect? I usually build aircraft with simpler shapes and I hadn't noticed this phenomenon before. Is it usual? Am I doing something wrong? Can I avoid it somehow in the future?

 

Thank you all for your time.

Next up is the priming of the upper surfaces, masking the cockpit etc and then painting. I'll keep you posted.

[exdraken]

Very nice work so far!!

[Tiger331]

It looks fine to me.......I'm not sure that I can actually see the issue that you refer to but a light brush over with a fine wet n'dry should take away ony of the roughness. The shading on the under surfaces looks good too......not too overstated from what I can make out and I think a light wash for the panel lines later on will seal it

[nasosrr]

2 hours ago, exdraken said:

Very nice work so far!!

 

48 minutes ago, Tiger331 said:

It looks fine to me.......I'm not sure that I can actually see the issue that you refer to but a light brush over with a fine wet n'dry should take away ony of the roughness. The shading on the under surfaces looks good too......not too overstated from what I can make out and I think a light wash for the panel lines later on will seal it

Thanks a lot guys, both of you.

 

The phenomenon is there Mark, unfortunately. It's not so easy to capture it with a mobile phone camera and the one I borrowed from my partner... well, let's just say that I'm not skilled enough to take good photos with it. I tried with 2000 grades sandpaper and it became slightly better, but not good. The problem is that the same roughness appeared when I sprayed the black primer, which together with light sanding reveals the black primer underneath the paint. So, I let it as it is. It's the underside, it won't be so visible, but it's there and it bugs me.

 

Other than that, the build is going quite fine actually, with my own, low standards, of course. At least I haven't had any severe accidents, yet. 😂

I just finished spraying a tamiya gloss coat on the undersides in order to seal the paint.

I removed the seam line from the canopy too. Have no pictures of that though, they are coming at a later stage. My plan was to mask and prime the upper surfaces tonight, but I'm a bit too tired for that and the gloss varnish needs to cure as well. So, I am saving the fun part for a new post.

 

Have a good night all and stay healthy and happy.

[nasosrr]

Hello all.

 

I have a question which I could use some help with. Or consulting.

 

As you've seen I applied the "black basing" technique. I felt confident doing it, because the colour that would follow was grey.

Now I am about to prime the upper surfaces of the model and I wonder if I want to prime with black or with the regular grey instead, and go for the pre-shading alternative. The reason why I wonder is because it seems to me that my T-2 (see photo below) turned out to be  a bit darker than I had hoped for.

Here's what it looks like:

 

As you can see, I ended up post-shading as well, in order to make some panel lines stick out a bit more. I am sure it's not a realistic effect, but I kind of like it.

 

The question here is simple: Is black basing suitable for all colour schemes, or would you advise me to use grey primer and pre-shading instead, given that the camouflage colours in this case are a bit darker AND lighter at the same time? The "sand" is pretty light while the brown and green are darker.

 

Thank you very much in advance!

Edited June 4, 2020 by nasosrr

[bushande]

On 5/30/2020 at 9:05 AM, nasosrr said:

Good morning guys!

Thank you all for your comments.

 

@Tiger331

Cheers Mark. Thanks for the info. I checked Black Dog's site. They have a set for the Tomcat, in 1/72. https://blackdog-model.com/a72070-1-72-f-14-a-electronics-1/ If only they could scale it up a bit...

 

Great model you're building there. And really exciting camo scheme. I'm opting for the desert camo this time. I was going to write that I might consider building a blue-grey one some time, but I'm already facing storage issues. Where do you keep your models??? Hahaha!

I also notice that your cockpit is more weathered than mine. I didn't dare weather mine more, although I wanted to.

 

I'll find your build now and see more photos. 👌

 

Hey @Parabat, thank you for you comment and the info. The silver was used to check the seams and it's already been removed. I prime with Gunze MrSurface, I've the impression that it's stronger and I love the surface it creates. And the way it smells. Haha!

 

Can I trouble you with another colour discussion?

According to this post the colour for the lower surfaces of the Iranian tomcat is Grey FS 36622: Humbrol Hu.28, Testors-Modelmaster 1733, Xtracolor X140, Lifecolor UA021, Xtracrylix XA1140, Gunze H311

Amazing post by the way, thanks @Giorgio N

 

In IPMS Stockholm's page there's a colour reference guide, according to which FS 36622 corresponds to H311 or XF:19. That's great, I have both colours in my drawer, the only problem is..... they look NOTHING alike. 😂

 

Anyhow, my impression is that AS-16, that Tamiya recommends, is a tad darker than H311. I hate mixing paints though, I never get it right. So I'm thinking... If I prime with black, what are the chances of achieving a rather convincing shade of this grey by spraying H311 carefully and unevenly? I mean, we're talking about an old a/c, small (or bigger) variations could be justified?

 

In other news, I primed the top surfaces of the air intakes last night (they are to be painted with the fuselage colours, which I need to do before I glue the intakes in place). In lack of a better white primer (it was too close to the gear bays and I couldn't bother masking) I used Model master's acrylic white primer. Funny stuff... The bottle says "water wash-up" but... well, just NO! Water doesn't do anything to it. I managed to thin it with Levelling thinner (Gunze of course) but unfortunately needed to use the same (expensive) thinner to clean the airbrush, because NOTHING else on my bench would work.

Has anyone used this primer? Any ideas what other thinner I can use?

 

More updates follow, but maybe not today, I need to study for a course.

 

Have a nice weekend and stay safe!

Excellent choice altogether! I wouldn't be too strict about the color codes though.

As I wrote elsewhere in this forum. I saw several of them just a short while ago and each of them had a different color tone so you are pretty free to roam on that end.

Just scroll down a bit for reference pics:

 

Happy modelling!

 

 

[nasosrr]

@bushande

Hello Alex and thank you for your encouragement.

Very beautiful pictures, you've a lucky man for having seen this beauty live.  Looking at your pictures I can't help thinking that she'd look amazing in the Aegean blue, flying over the Greek islands...

 

This grey-blue camo scheme is really lovely. I definitely need to consider building one of these too.

 

Would you happen to know if the same situation with the colours is the case with the standard Asia Minor camouflage scheme?

 

Thanks again!

[nasosrr]

I've done a bit of work on the Tomcat.

 

First of all, I bathed the clear parts in future and they were left to dry. I allowed future 2 days to fully dry before I masked.

 

Strange thing, Tamiya's masks weren't pre-cut. I mean, lovely that they include the masks of course, but couldn't they cut them as well? It reminds me of the pizzerias here in Sweden, they don't slice the pizzas unless you request it (and pay extra for it)....... Like there's a chance that people will WANT to cut them themselves, if they can skip it?

 

I often have problems after I remove the mask, I hope it won't be the case this time.

 

Next task was to mask the grey surfaces, spray the tan, a mix of XF-59 and XF-2 in a 1-1 ratio.

About 10 hours later, I masked again and sprayed the brown, again a mix of XF-64 and XF-2 in 3-1 ratio according to tamiya, although I thought it was too light and I may have mixed closer to 4-1.

 

I've let the model to dry again now and hopefully it will have cured by tonight, because I want to spray the green (GS H309) tonight. After that, I will make small corrections, they are often required.

 

Have a great weekend and take care of yourselves.

 

Nasos

Edited June 6, 2020 by nasosrr

[nasosrr]

Good evening.

 

I hope you've all had a great Saturday.

 

Here I am, boring you to death with my uninteresting build. 🤪

I've painted the green as well. And revealed the fruits of my efforts... Well, these fruits were rotten. 😂

 

First of all, let me apologise for the horrible white balance of my photos. I'll improve this one, I know it's a weakness.

A general view of the model as it is right now:

 

 

 

Since I like to be my own hardest judge, here are all the problems that I've identified and will attempt to correct:

 

1. This was all my mistake! I primed the model in two stages, first the underside, I painted and masked and right before I painted the upper side I primed the rest. This resulted in this horrible black line between the grey and the camo colours. So, more masking tomorrow, more painting. To make my life relatively easier, I will mask the camo and paint grey. Otherwise I will need to mix the tan and the brown again and... Well, we all know how that will go.

 

The same is everywhere, unfortunately:

 

2. This one is also my mistake. When I sprayed the tan, I tried to follow the camouflage pattern. The idea was to not cover the black, because I thought it would make the other colours look different, if they would partly be sprayed over black and partly over tan. The result was that I needed to correct the camouflage pattern when masking and there are gaps right now where the black basing is visible. More masking, more painting tomorrow:

 

3. Here is the same colour, GS H311, painted over white primer and then over black primer. I'm stupid, I know... But I won't do anything about this one, I'll have to live with it:

 

4. Did I say that I hate mixing paints??? This is what happens when you can't get the mixing right the second time:

 

5. This is where I sanded with wet sandpaper. No worries, this shouldn't be too hard to fix. Oh, wait... This paint was also a mix!🤪🤣 Oh, this is going to be interesting:

 

6: What do you think happened here?

 

🤣 I masked the wrong side and obviously painted the wrong side as well. The green should be brown and the brown-black should be green... Oh well, more maskning, more painting... Modelling is fun, right?

 

I'll take a pause from posting and get back when I have done some real work on the model, i.e. when I have something NICE to show.

 

Thank you all for viewing my post, I hope I didn't cause too much pain in your eyes. I am still optimistic that this will be an ok model, despite the setbacks. These things happen, right?

One thing I've learned from this build is that I will probably save my black primer for grey airplanes. I'm not satisfied with how the colours look with black basing. I'm confident that I like pre-shading better.

 

Have a nice Saturday night and an even better Sunday.

Take care.

 

/Nasos

Edited June 6, 2020 by nasosrr

[nasosrr]

Good evening ladies and gentlemen.

 

Here I am again, with an update:

 

I am mostly done with the major paintwork. Only the wheel wells need to be repainted now. There are flaws, but this is as long as I am willing to take this. I am confident that some of these flaws will be mitigated once I apply varnishes, decals and weathering. Or at least I hope so.

 

Oh, and I tried to take photos with correct white balance this time. Comments are always welcome.

 

 

Have a lovely evening!

[SAT69]

That you are open and honest about difficulties and errors is most commendable. I really like your work and like the way you go about correcting it. Yes, some errors are best left alone. And I'm confident when the model is finished and the varnishes, decals and weathering are applied, no one will see the flaws you mention. They will see a beautifully done Tomcat and, like them, I'm looking forward to seeing it!

[SaminCam]

You're getting there Nasos and she's going to look great!

[nasosrr]

On 09/06/2020 at 22:57, SAT69 said:

That you are open and honest about difficulties and errors is most commendable. I really like your work and like the way you go about correcting it. Yes, some errors are best left alone. And I'm confident when the model is finished and the varnishes, decals and weathering are applied, no one will see the flaws you mention. They will see a beautifully done Tomcat and, like them, I'm looking forward to seeing it!

 

On 10/06/2020 at 00:01, SaminCam said:

You're getting there Nasos and she's going to look great!

Thank you so much guys. I really appreciate your comments.

 

I know it's been a while since I posted something here, either in my own thread or in other exciting builds, but life gets in the way of one's plans sometimes.

 

I've managed to come a bit further along the way with the cat. I've applied the decals and I am 95% happy with how they went, apart from 2 out of 8 of the position lights. I don't want to think about what happened with them though because it makes me really mad and sad. So, I know you'll notice it, but this time I am asking you to please ignore it.

 

 

 

Now, before I move on to the next step, which is weathering, I'd like to ask you for some advice.

 

My thought now is to do a wash with black and after that, use a mix of tamiya clear gloss and tamiya buff in order to do some "fading" on the inside of the panels, while at the same time toning down the decals a bit. I am thinking buff, because I believe I can use it on all three colours of the camouflage and maybe even on the radome cone. Not on the anti-glare surfaces in front of the cockpit though, these I will fade with grey. On top of that, I plan on using smoke with clear gloss for some post-shading along the panel lines. Or at least some panel lines. Lastly, I would like to "repaint" a couple of panels, with the initial mix, in order to represent newly painted panels, after some maintenance, or something similar.

 

While I am having these thoughts, I must admit that I have only found one single photo that shows a very badly weathered Iranian F-14. Most of the available photos online show that the Iranians actually take good care of their aircraft. So, is it a good idea to try to represent a weathered a/c, or should I be happy with how it's going to look like after the wash?

 

My questions to you are:

1. Black wash or something more towards the brown earthy tones of the camouflage?

2. The process that I described above with fading and post-shading, do you think it should be done after or before the wash? Should it be done at all? Do you see any risks with it (apart from the obvious risk of me messing up).

3. Very weathered or less weathered cat?

 

Your input is much appreciated!

 

Thank you in advance.

 

Best

 

/Nasos

[nasosrr]

Hello again, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you've all had a wonderful weekend, with plenty of modelling.

 

I got a bit restless and went on doing some panel line wash on the cat. It's all gone pretty well actually, which is more than I usually can say about this stage. Haha.

 

 

 

 

So now I am really torn... I like this model the way it is. A bit of post shading will highlight the panels and will certainly give it some more depth and with it, character. But I'm still keen on trying that fading technique. It's a desert bird, it certainly can use some fading, don't you think?

 

But what about my proposed method? I'm still very uncertain about the possible outcome and I'm worried it will end up in a disaster. What would you, who are more experienced and much more skilled than I am, would recommend?

 

The other solution is to sacrifice an older model and test the technique on it. I have no other "Guinea pigs", other than my latest project, whatever that might be. So, it's either the tomcat, or I pick up an older model from the shelf.

 

[nasosrr]

Good evening.

 

I hope you're all doing well and happily modelling.

 

I'm still trying to find the best way (if there even is a good way) to fade the colours of the tomcat together with the decals.

 

I sacrificed a very old model for this purpose. Mind you, this is the very first time in my entire life that I test a technique on an old model, up until now I've just tested my ideas on my latest project, often with very controversial results. And this is what happened:

 

 

I used similar tones as the tomcat camouflage.

On the left side I used a very thinned mix of buff and clear gloss. I thought it was too yellow and too strong, so I took the dremel and polished it with a soft brush. It went surprisingly well, all things considered.

On the right side I used an equally thin mix of white and matt clear. This time I sprayed half of the wing (near the fuselage) starting with the inside of the panels and moving outward. In order to "tone down" the whole thing, I "misted" that part of the wing with the same mixture as well.

 

On both sides I did post-shading with tamiya smoke. It's rather rough because I was too lazy to change the nozzle on the airbrush, so I shot it with 0,4 mm instead of 0,15, which I would use on the tomcat, if I chose to go with this method.

 

So......... what do you think? Could that work, or am I going to regret it?

 

I look at the model as it is today, and I'm actually very hesitant to continue weathering it, because I am well aware that my chances of ruining it are much better than improving it.

 

I was thinking about something like that: http://www.hobimaket.com/topic/8221-148-f-14a-tomcat-iran-hava-kuvvetleri-hasegawa-uğur-kenel/ but I begin to realise that it's too late to go for such a battered look. Perhaps I should leave it alone...

 

What do you think?

 

In the meanwhile, I've glued the PE-parts on the seats:

 

, primed them and began to prime the weapons. Mode photos will follow.

 

Take care of yourselves and thanks in advance for your replies.

[fewr9fkr9595]

@nasosrr 

 

If you want to fade it a bit use some oils mate. 
More control than using an airbrush and kinda removable. 
Dots of white, sand/buff, light grey applied with a toothpick. 
Like the size of a fullstop you make with a pen when writing.
Then work them in and blend with a dampened brush of odourless type thinner. 
Mixing it up and using the 502 Abteilung matt effect thinners too will give it a nice chalky finish in areas so you can get lots of variety and make it interesting to look at. 

 

Practice first on some scrap like you have been of course. It can look very different between wet and dry when working with oils, the effect develops when dry and then you can see it more. When a panel is wet/damp from the thinners the sheen hides your work so it’s too easy to add more then when it dries it can be far too much. Less is definitely more. 
Also white can be really strong and will ‘bleach’ the colours it’s applied over but I guess thats good for a desert look! 
 

Tony

[nasosrr]

@Tony Oliver

 

Hello Tony and thank you for your answer.

 

The technique you describe sounds very promising, but rather complicated as well. Seems that I'd need some months of practice on several models before I have mastered it and before I dare apply it on a model like this. I'm a coward.

It really does sound interesting though. I think I'll get myself a simple-to-build tank and test on it. Or perhaps grab another model from the display shelf and practice.

 

One question though, if you feel like explaining a bit more: Does one work the oils on a matt or gloss/satin surface? I'm guessing the underlying colours need some protection from the thinner, so perhaps some GUNZE clear gloss after the paintjob and before the oils?