1/48 F-14A BuNo 160656 VF-111 Sundowners, 1983

[Wings unlevel]

The Tomcat can show that Sea Harrier what a real carrier-based fighter looks like!

[Christer A]

Yeah, and the 35-ish age difference in plastic kit design shows as well!

[Col.]

On 12/29/2021 at 7:06 PM, Christer A said:

Yeah, and the 35-ish age difference in plastic kit design shows as well!

Sadly yes but at least Kinetic has seen us Harrier and SHAR fans right.

[Christer A]

Well, I missed the end of the GB, but I won't put the Tomcat back in it's box. I'll plod along, hopeful that I can get it done eventually 😇

 

For todays update, I'll focus on the cockpit. I started with playing "match the color to whatever Eduard used" and came to the conclusion that Tamiya XF-53 was a decent match to the SPACE decals.

 

It was a good idea until I laid down a clear coat, and the whole thing took on a darker shade. Oh well.

I did replace the rudder pedals with the provided etch though, so that was a plus in my book.

 

Then I started to attach the SPACE decals.

I decided to follow the instructions to the letter, and only let the decal soak in warm water for a few seconds.

Eduard specifically calls for the use of Mr Mark Setter to wet the surface before sliding the piece there.

That was an interesting effect!

I also read that white glue could be used, so with a little bit of that and lots of Mr Mark Setter I managed to get all the decals in place.

So, what can I say about the SPACE line? To me, they have a better 3D effect than Eduards usual etch but the print quality (sharpness mainly) itself is below what normal flat decals can bring. So I'd say that it's better than normal etch at least.

I have not seen Quintas stuff in the flesh so I can't compare to that, but that would be very interesting!

 

I've also painted the IP shrouds in various shades of khaki, so there's that.

 

[Col.]

Good to see you continuing this one Chris

[Christer A]

Thanks Col!

We're encouraged to work from home as much as possible now so I might sneak in a bit of modelling in the middle of the working day going forward.

[Christer A]

I threw caution to the wind and stuck the cockpit in place and glued the nose together.

I was afraid that I had made a mistake by not painting the cockpit sides any better (and had horrible flashbacks to my puny attempts to fit a Aires cockpit into a Academy F-4C)

But then I remembered the turtle deck part:

With that one in place, it comes together beautifully.  Whew!

 

I did have to use a little bit of filler around the wing gloves and beaver tail

Probably my own fault for not clamping them together better.

 

Another self-inflicted hiccup occurred at the rear:

I can't get the engines in place since I didn't remove any plastic on the bottom part. It was a bit hidden in the instructions so I didn't see that when I prepared the top part!

Fortunately, it was fairly easy to correct.

Time to look for a few engine pictures to determine exactly how to paint it!

[Christer A]

Everything is much more fun with a bit of paint, isn't it?

Since all the wingsy bits are possible to finish before the main fuselage I decided to start with those in advance.

The good thing is that I can experiment a bit, without causing too much harm.

First, a good coat of primer to check for spots and bad seam handling

Yes, I'm one of those "handy" people that needs filler on this kit 🙄

 

Fortunately, that little filler episode was swiftly dealt with!

Then I started with some marbling, using a pre cut stencil and both brown and black like so

Using thin thin coats of Real Colors Light Gull Grey I then tried to build up the desired look.

Something like this perhaps?

Real colors LGG looks a bit pale perhaps, and from what I can see from picture on the net this scheme didn't weather as much as the later TPS but I still like the look that I achieved.

By the way, here is a comparison between Real colors and Gunze LGG (Gunze to the right)

Leaving out all talk about scale effect, monitor calibration and so on, one can just state that there is a noticable difference between them!

Anyway, since I liked the finish I got, i added the Corrogard leading edges as well.

Shiny!

Now, back to the fuselage!

[trickyrich]

You can't complain about that finish, very nice job!!    Great to see this one is still progressing! 

 

Yeah there is I've found quite a bit of variation in a specific colour from manufacture to manufacture and I don't know why. Would have thought they all worked form the same FS. standard...... anyway. Just do a search for FS.36375 in google and look at the images, that colour is allover the place, that said Grey is a painful colour to work with as it changes very easily, great as a base coat, painful as a top coat!

 

I've used Real Colours on my Growler (36320 over 36375) and to be honest there is very little difference, last time I used MRP paint, same colours and you could se the difference. A wee bit annoying, but figured after 6mths at sea they'll probably no long look anything like the original colours!

 

To me that Gunze looks a bit on the greenish side, but when on the model it would have probably looks different again.

[Roberto]

Good progress, very nice painting 👍

[Christer A]

Thanks Rich and Roberto!

Well, it's 3 months later and here's another update, but it's a wee bit important!

I was dreading to work on the outer side of the canopy. There is a tiny tiny mold parting line there that needs to be erased somehow, but no mount of sanding with ever produced a suitable result even when using 10000 grit.

I couldn't dip it in Johnson either since the inside was painted and masked up (Eduard T-Face masks are interesting)

What to do? Well, I tried to brush some AK Gauzy agent on top of it, bot no matter how careful I brushed that, some pesky bubbles and pools still formed.

It was a nightmare to remove even!

 

So the poor F-14 was resting while I tackled a F-16 and a Shackleton but it glared at me whenever I went to the spray booth. 

But one day I saw someone use some polishing paste, which was duly ordered. What could possible go wrong?

Before:

After:

Yay, success!

 

Quick, shoot some primer on it:

A few rounds of sanding, filling and restoring panellines ensued (I know I know, this is a wunderkit, but I cannot get nice joint lines now matter how I try)

 

Too bad that the gardening season has started (and there are a lot to do when you don't even have a garden, but just gravel everywhere! The perks of building a house I guess) and there is precious little time available. 

so progress is kind of slow, but that didn't stop some progress of the preshade variaty.


That spatter mask surely had a lot of work to do!

Yesterday I also managed to sneak some painting time in, and started on the bottom layer.

Unfortunately my spray booth seems to be inadequate for the task of sucking air which left the room in a fog that the SWMBO did not appreciate.

Time to make a few calls to some ventilation experts!

 

[Col.]

Glad to see this one is still getting some attention

[Christer A]

I blame @Aigore!

He's really nagging me to finish this one, so who am I to argue?

I got the decals from him after all...

 

[Aigore]

It needs tenderar love and care!

[Christer A]

Well, I did spray the topside yesterday, but the pictures are still in the camera, so it'll have to wait a bit more....

But that means that I could add some more detail painting bits as well 😇

[Christer A]

 

 

The top layer turned out more or less as I wanted it, so that's a relief. Quite pleased with it too!

I'm probably using a bit too high pressure when spraying since I get some orange peel effects on it. AK Real Colors are not as resilient as Tamiya or Gunze it seems.

A light sanding solved most of the issues though, and I plan to hide the rest with some weathering.

Time for a clear coat before more detail painting can commence.