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“Tornado with Stripes!” - completed


trickyrich

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ok I really promised that I wouldn't join another GB this year....but I guess I had to this time so as to complete this build.

 

here's the link to the start of the build.

 

 

Ok after 2 months I’m finally back to her.

 

I just needed to finish up cleaning her up and fixing some panel lines as well as fitting the front canopy. 

 

I really should have bought some cockpit masks as well! Though none of the ones available supply ones for the insides, they all have you paint everything from the outside.

 

Anyway a undercoat of Tamiya XF-20 and it all actually looks really good.

 

i-g68gvGm-L.jpg

 

I just have a couple of small spots to correct then it’s proper painting time, I’ll be using AK Interactive’s Real Color paints for this. They turn out a set just right for what I need, and It’ll be a first time using these. Will be interested to see how they go.

 

Some of the other bits primed.

 

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The ECM stuff is done and ready for fine detailing and decals.

 

 

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For painting, there are 2 ways to go about it;

 

1, either paint her in Norm 95 V2 scheme then mask out the areas to be painted “orange”, though I may get some variation in the orange due to the base camo colours, plus it might throw the orange off.

 

2, paint the orange first then mask off and paint the norm 95 scheme, this may be the better way to go.

 

The hardest part will be the demarcation line for the orange, I need to be almost perfect in the positioning as the decals that go on top don’t allow for any errors!

 

To help with this I’ve made copies of the decals and will cut these up to make masks so I can draw out the pattern, then I can mask it out.

 

A reasonably complex task but with luck it’ll work……..just gotta hope the decals are still ok!

 

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yeah 1/32nd, ~550mm long and ~330mm wide with wings swept (and for those in Ye old England 23" x 13"), so she's a big sucker, though strangely around the same size of my soon to be received Saab Viggen! :wub:

 

Well after pretty much a fill day on her I pretty much have SFA to show for it except extreme frustration  :angry: , all caused by trying to mask her.

 

The only sensible thing I’ve done so far is to do all the masking on the under coat, a very wise decision as it turns out as I would have damaged any top coats.

 

So, the plan is to mask out the orange sections and paint them first, then re-mask over them and do the Norm 95 camo scheme. A fairly straightforward and simple task huh…………. nup!

 

The only guide to the masking Revell gives you is these views for masking, instructions like this always worry me.......

 

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..... so I photocopied the decals and cut-out the ones I needed and taped them in place, like here on one of the tanks (oh the first tank took a hour to mask!!!).

 

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Plus to make life a bit harder, the black strips are seperate to the shredded bits and do have to line up correctly as well! These "shedded" decals will cover the demarcation between the orange and camo bits, and of course they're not a straight line!

 

Shortly thereafter placing the first mask on I realized I needed to be almost mm prefect in the placement of these masks. Due to the feather black on most of the decals I can’t hide or correct a miss-matched line, so hence the hours it took to do this. I still have one pylon and drop tank to go (I needed to re-copy the decals for this one).

 

So here’s pretty much a day’s worth of work…. not much to show for it!

 

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With luck I’ll get the while base coat on today and hopefully the orange. The re-masking and camo scheme are the easy parts.

 

If it all turns out ok, she'll look amazing......

 

……and if it all turns to :poop:  she’ll just be a normal dirty grey ECR, actually photos of this real aircraft showed the grey scheme to be very grubby and patchy with only the oranges bits being cleanish!

 

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Paintings started!

 

I finished off the final couple of bits of demarcation masking then roughly masked the rest of the bits up, I’m not too worried about over spray at the moment.

 

First colour on is some white to help keep the orange nice and orange and give it a nice strong base. For this I decided to try out some of Tamiya’s new Lacquer paint. 

 

i-GkcQg2M-L.jpg

 

And gee it goes on nicely and give you a superb finish, super smooth and nice and glossy. It behaves very much like the MRP stuff (my fav), though dries just a wee bit slower.

 

i-d9TMtR2-L.jpg

 

Right next the main colour, Revell’s Lufthansa-Gelb (Yellow). First off, I’ve never used any of Revell’s paints before, they’re quite hard to find here, and this colour especially. Revell in the instructions will have you mix up this colour…. eeek!!!  Luckily some nice folks on the net have built this model before and all agree that the Lufthansa Yellow is the right colour.

 

I had to order this stuff from Hong Kong (actually the only place I could find that actually stocked this colour!) and why do I have 4 bottle (the entire stores stock)….. don’t ask! :doh:

 

This stuff is some of the thickest stuff I’ve ever used, so it needed to be thinned, by what?

 

My go to Tamiya Lacquer thinners, didn’t work very well, after trying all the stuff I had it came down to Tamiya X-20A (basically alcohol) or AK’s new Real Color thinner. I ended up going with the Tamiya stuff as I have heaps for it.

 

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Plus, a word of warning!!!!! Don’t try to clean you airbrush with paint thinner after using that Revell paint, it sort of turns to jelly, just use water!!! What a pain to clean-up.

 

 Surprisingly it actually went on quite nicely, I ended up thinning it back to 40:60 paint/X-20A and got a nice smooth finish. There may be a couple spots I need to correct.

 

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It went on a wee bit thicker than I wanted, so have some slight edges to smooth out, but at least I have a nice solid finish to work with, I’ll gently buff these edges out with micromesh. It did though unfortunately highlight some dodgy seems on the drop tanks I'll need to correct!

 

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The masking now for the camo scheme should be nice and simple and quick. As mention previously (I think) I’ll be trying out AK Inter. Real Color’s for the main scheme. From what I’ve read they perform very much the same as MRP paints (and ¼ the price here as well!), which unfortunately I couldn’t get the colours I needed for this build.

 

I may even complete the rest of the paint today....maybe.

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  • trickyrich changed the title to “Tornado with Stripes!”...... - Clockwork Orange?

Well the major painting is done and I’ve found a new Fav paint! :thumbsup:

 

All the orange bits were re-masked, much simpler this time, it only took 30mins to do the lot.

 

Next up some pre-shading and panel-lines, no need to be subtle here as it can easily be covered if I've gone too far.

 

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The paints I’m going to be trying are AK Interactives Real Colors, in this case the Luftwaffe set, 1990’s to 2000’s……. and I just love them!!

 

IMG_5290-L.jpg

 

They are a lacquer based paint and are quite thick in the bottle so need to be thinned. I’m thinning them with their own thinner (I will try later on thinning with Tamiya lacquer thinners), around 40:60 paint to thinners. It goes on a little bit different to other paints I’ve used, the droplets are a bit bigger than the fine mist you get from Mr. Paints lacquer, almost like Tamiya acrylics. It dries super quick, no clogging of the needle and the finish is super smooth. In my opinion it’s almost as good as the MRP stuff which I reckon is the best that’s out there……plus it’s cheap!

 

Ok back to the model….the underside and lightest colour first, Lt. Ghost Grey FS.36275, I got good coverage and the effect I was after….well thought I was!

 

IMG_5292-L.jpg

 

the pylons and tanks are done with the greys, so the masks came off. 

 

IMG_5291-L.jpg

 

That pointy ECM thingy needs to have the nose re-painted, gosh knows where Revell came up with that colour to used, it should be a pale grey!

 

Next more masking for the next 2 colour. The amazing thing was I could paint a colour, go back to my work bench and pretty much start masking again. From the first colour to removing the main masks as seen below, took less than a hours and no smudge marks on the paint anywhere!

 

IMG_5293-L.jpg

 

The difference between the colours was so subtle I was a bit worried. I checked against my F-14D which used the same FS colours (MRP paints in this case) and they looked the same, I then checked some reference photos, and the difference in the greys is quite subtle.

 

IMG_5294-L.jpg

 

IMG_5295-L.jpg

 

Ok I can’t remove the orange masks because I really have to dirty this aircraft up!! I found some great photos of the actual aircraft (the greys in these photo’s is way too dark when compared to others of the same aircraft), I’m only posting this photo as a reference and acknowledge the proper owner.

 

scan0164-L.jpg

 

As can be seen the main colours are very dirty and patchy while the orange and “torn metal” bits are nice and clean. So, I’ll have to spend a lot of time trying to get this look. Another thing I noticed is that small patch of white on the leading edge of the intake, there’s no mention of this in the instructions and it's not part of the decal!

 

…and a quick look at her with some weapons fitted.

 

IMG_5296-L.jpg

 

So I need to repair the paint on the drop tanks, then gloss them and the pylons. These will be my test pieces for the decals, I’m still worried they’re a bit old and not in the best condition. If they fall apart or give me huge issues, then I’ll strip back all the orange and have just a plain grey ECR, if good I can continue as planned.

 

With luck I’ll have her done by the end of next weekend…..then I have to push on with the MiG-31!!!  No rest for the wicked.

 

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  • trickyrich changed the title to “Tornado with Stripes!” - it's painted!
On 12/28/2020 at 10:29 PM, Col. said:

This is looking rather splendid Rich. Hard work but well done. Now, about that poor neglected Rafale lurking in the background...

 

Well at least it's on the work bench and not hidden away! :D It is or will be in a Tiger Meet scheme eventually (Arctic Tiger meet scheme), it's not completed because it is a horrible model, heaps of fit issues around the intakes. Anyway.......

 

I didn’t spend quite as much time on her yesterday, but all the masks are off for the moment!

 

In the end I didn’t go really hard on the weathered finish, though I still managed o use pretty well my entire select of Grey MRP paints in the process (10 I think).

 

I think being a larger scale I don’t have to take weathering quite so hard. Panel-lining and pigments (maybe try some oils) and a flat finish should bring it even more to life.

 

IMG_5301-L.jpg

 

With the “Tiger” striping I wanted it to look nice and new, it was applied straight over the original paint finish, from what I can gather the whole aircraft wasn’t re-sprayed beforehand.

 

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Next up I need to micromesh the orange demarcation lines on the fuselage and re-mask for a wee bit of touching up required, same with the drop tanks. Plus complete the painting side of the detailing then a gloss coat tomorrow, Maybe the test decaling of the pylons as well.

 

And interesting side note I had mixed the AK Real Color paint & X20A in small plastic containers and had some left over. Found these containers yesterday, the X20A had sort of separated and was floating on the top, but a quick mix and it was nice and thin and already to use again!!! Strange!

 

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  • trickyrich changed the title to “Tornado with Stripes!” - 30/12 update

thanks.

 

On 12/31/2020 at 10:12 AM, Dansk said:

Looks ace👌
That stand it’s sitting on would make me nervous.

that glass has seen many a model perched upon it, they actually balance quite nicely, the Tornado does because it has a flat bottom. For a change the contents of the said glass are quite clear, it's my decal dunking glass, and then turns into a Petri dish as the contents start to evaporate..... but it's ok the contents only ever makes it to the second stage of evolution.

 

Sorry no updates from yesterday as one of my wife's friends came over and bought her 2 demon-spawn!!!!  So I had to stand guard the whole time at the entrance to my model room behind layers of razor wire and electrified barriers!! 

 

Maybe more will occur today before lots of alcohol is partaken! :yahoo: :drink: 

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.............. nah it didn't!! :D

 

I do have to admit I've been a bit slack these past few days, had other things to do but did some work to her yesterday….and today I started decaling!!!! :thumbsup:

 

Ok before that, some further tiding up and masking and painting other details. I don’t think I’ve done so much masking before, have gone through so much tape!

 

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Still a little bit more to do but that can wait.

 

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Plus I did some panel-line work on these bits. I'm going to use the dark wash will give the grey finish it's dirty look, so instead of applying it over a gloss surface I'll apply it of the final matt finish. It'll be a lot harder to remove but will give the surface that nice grimy dirty look I'm after.

 

IMG_5323-L.jpg

 

Today….well it nearly started in disaster! I gave her a quick clear coat, which proceeded to start to eat the Orange paint!!! :yikes:  It appears my MRP clear lacquer doesn’t like Revell Acrylic paint, it’s the only acrylic I’ve used that reacts with the MRP clear. Luckily I spotted it early so no real damage done, I quickly went over it again with Tamiya clear.

 

Now was the part I was dreading, how would these decals go? They are nearly 18 year old and the backing paper looks quite musty. 

 

 So the pylons and then drop tanks were the test items.

 

IMG_5328-L.jpg

 

As can be seen they worked! I found warm water was the best to soak them in else they started to split when in cold (warmish). They’re quite thin but not that flex-able so were inclined to split if I wasn’t careful.

 

I gave the surface a good coat of setting solution before applying then an equally good coat of softening solution after, they handled both really nicely. I was 95% accurate with my masking and the few wee errors I could hide quite easily.

 

So with that being all ok I started the fuselage!

 

Again a couple of slight demarcation issues, more split decals and lots of decals solution.

 

IMG_5329-L.jpg

 

I’m actually quiet happy with the results so far, still have the other side to do and some smaller stuff here, but have to let what I’ve done so far dry properly, I’ve already nearly had another mishap from working too quickly.

 

Position and layout I admit are not 100% accurate, not help by Revell’s instructions. For one they will have you place the rego and side marking on top of the tiger stripe/tear, this is wrong the marking needs to go one first then the striping on top.

 

I should be able to finish off the decaling tomorrow, I need to do some patching where decals have split (one can be seen at the top of the tail), a wee bit of black paint will sort this out.

 

 

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  • trickyrich changed the title to “Tornado with Stripes!” - Stripy!!

Great work on this Rich 👏👏👏

 

So sorry I was late to this build, I did the same kit a while back with a full WIP which might have been helpful 😔 but you've run into all the same issues with the kit and solved them all beautifully on your own!

 

Superb work with the decals and painting, it's an absolute pain but you've nailed it 👍

 

Alan

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4 hours ago, Alan P said:

Great work on this Rich 👏👏👏

 

So sorry I was late to this build, I did the same kit a while back with a full WIP which might have been helpful 😔 but you've run into all the same issues with the kit and solved them all beautifully on your own!

 

Superb work with the decals and painting, it's an absolute pain but you've nailed it 👍

 

Alan

Gosh I'm glad someone else was silly enough to attempt this one!!! 

 

Looking through your build and I'm having flash backs....even thought mine are much more recent!

 

You did a nice job, especially seeing as I know how much work is involved with doing this scheme!  :thumbsup:

 

I actually had to stop today with the decalling, was going slightly mad....(der), still have to do all the small stuff plus touch up all the bits where the decals split!

 

Will give the Tiger bits a clear coat with a Semi-Gloss tomorrow to help protect them before I continue on with all the smaller decals....plus I forgot to do the panel lines on the wings and elevators :doh: ....more masking!! 

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I’m still slaving away at this one! All the major decals are on and am slowly working away through all the smaller ones.

 

The RHS major decals did my head in big time :wall:  , as they proceeded to split. So it actually took 3 days to do the majority of the decals as I had to let them cue…..had a couple of accidents for not doing that.

 

I’ve now done most of the “patching” work on the decals, so am hoping to put a clear coat on soon.

 

Revell want you to do all the walkways by chopping up decals……well that was never going to happen with these decals, so even more masking was required!

 

IMG_5330-L.jpg

 

Because of the age and condition of the decals there is quite a bit of “silvering” to be corrected, this is a slow process with a needle and decal softening solution but I’m slowly getting there.

 

No sure if I’ll have her done by the end of this weekend…will have to see.

 

I sooo want to get back to the MiG-31 but know if I put this aside again it won’t get finished any time soon! 

 

 

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As long as we don't mention Borat's attire or lack thereof least we get banned! :D

 

Ok just time for a very quick update and then it’s my bedtime!

 

I think I may have finished doing all the decals! The stores and pylons are pretty much completed….maybe…. well at least they now have a flat clear coat on.

 

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Wheels are on.

 

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Did a test fit with the resin cans in place….and she’s almost a tail sitter!!!!  :wall:  Thankfully I listened to our beloved dear leader for once! :P And bought some tyre balance weights which just happen to fit almost nicely in to the engine intakes……..

 

IMG_5339-L.jpg

 

….. good thing I’ve made up some engine intake covers!

 

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Ok beddy-bye time….. so just a couple of wee photos, the canopy will be open on her, would be a shame to hide that cockpit, seeing I spent soooo much time on it!

 

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Sweet dreams!  :sleep_1:

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