F-117A Grey Ghost. +++Finished +++

[amos brierley]

Hello everyone.                                   Sneaking this model in by stealth.   👻

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by amos brierley
Change of header.

[amos brierley]

Hello everyone.                            F-117A Det.1/53rd TEG AUG 2006.

 

My modelling year run’s November to November ie: Scale Model World 2021 to S.M.W 2022 , as such having just made a completion, next up should be another kit with pressing needs ( TSR2 ) 🤫 but as always what I should do and what actually happens is never an easy task. Madness in the logic and logic in the madness plays a part.

The logic is to re-start the very much despised 🤫 because it logically won’t be finished by SM.W 2022. I’ve promised myself never to put myself through the wringer to get a model finished for this event. So, in modelling terms I have to have a model completed will in advance of, or just afterwards , this is to make life easier for me.    
    
The madness is to date I’ll only have two new models for S.M.W2022 and I don’t think this is good enough for two years of work. A little more work ethic is needed, so, a quick look through my back catalogue of part builds reveals our P.M Boris Johnson lurking to whit he pointed out several kits in his opinion that are ‘oven ready’. 

Just to make matters worse my model club secretary made comment that I needed to crack on……. This comment both ground my gears and made me think…… For any model club they need a fresh supply of kits, not that I’m that way inclined at this moment in time.  In my last build I made a comment about continuity, by that I’m referring to this next kit having something in common with the last kit and that’s got me thinking…… Now having built two Airfix Shackleton’s back to back both took me 18 months to achieve my desired look, here’s proof that I made no gains. But two Shack’s in 36 months don’t reveal underlying problems, that problem was a Revell Shackleton was started and tossed into the bin along with one or two other bad kits. This period of low productivity has given me some bad modelling zen, and to mark matters worse each attempt to each next model just never came good.

 

Enter the ‘oven ready’ kit.  I’ve found no less than three kits to pic my interest, and the apparent easiest one is this rascal. It of course has in common with my just finished A-4M Skyhawk what I perceive to be continuities - same size - same time frame - similar modelling genres. Build and a lick of primer with just a bock’s of small parts make this kit look tempting, but like all this done in the past there’s never a note to self as what I was last thinking……

 

 

As always I do things differently and here I start at the end, and the end result will be this ‘gunship grey’ ‘wobblin goblin’. 
 

Thanks for looking.      😉

 

 

 

 

 

[Mark V]

I’ll be following along. I bought the Tamiya 1/48th kit several years ago and haven’t looked at it in years. The idea of building a black jet is less interesting than a gray one. Looking forward to seeing your progress. 

[amos brierley]

9 hours ago, Mark V said:

I’ll be following along. I bought the Tamiya 1/48th kit several years ago and haven’t looked at it in years. The idea of building a black jet is less interesting than a gray one. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

Hello Mark V. 
 

Black. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and can be hard to pull off. Thankfully there some very nice decals available to tempt modellers - nose art (bomb missions) , bomb bay art (strange place to put it, but very welcome) and of course some colourful squadron insignia. 
2019 saw me and my usual side kick doing some competition judging and in one our S.M.W 2019 category’s was a very nice Nighthawk. The model was on a base but not sat squarely on it, so I thought I’d do the honest thing and pritty it up. I gently pushed the model only to find out why the model was sat skewed as it was. The boarding ladder was some 3mm bigger than should have been, and this over size wasn’t apparent whilst it was over hanging the base.  🤪 totally bonkers, me thought. It was once said to me that to win on the comp table you have to aim to have a model that is 100% perfect. Scored points dropped……. 
I can’t remember exactly when the Tamiya kit cam out me thinks circa 1996/7 , but a good few years later a set of decals came out which picked my interest. By 1998 I’m now out of the RAF and am at Marshal Aerospace, which now places this older model build circa 2002/3 whilst I was a member of RAF Mildenhall model club. Back at this time books and references were scarce or slim pickings at best, but the Tamiya kit was superb. One debate of the time was the plethora of panel lines on this kit, the debate being it should have less, something I’ll touch on with my own build.

 

This iconic image is simply superb, what better way to frustrate modellers, until a set of decals came out. Could have done with this reference book back then, I’ve just bought it the other weekend at the RAF Cosford air show. 😃

 

The green lights atop the page explains ‘ Lordy-lordy I just saw an alien spaceship’  👽  . That’s Area 51.

 

This model is built as FSD 3 with its scorpion emblem. Now looking very tiered and a sign of the times, that Eduard etch looks poor and the varnish now has hints of yellow.   Also belying the kits age it the Verlinden cockpit. As for the Tamiya panel lines , so correct for this A/C.

 

Alan Brown Senior Trend’s program manager and low observability guru stated he could scientifically prove gray way the best colour for stealth, but General screetch TAC Air decreed black.          Old and new together. 

 

Thanks for looking.     😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

[amos brierley]

Hello everyone.                       Six years ago here’s what I did.

 

The shooting down of an F-117A by Serbia brought about in some ways the end of this A/C . As the Americans re-assessed how to operate this weapon system this brought about trials of grey paints and new weapons. Enter the Gray Ghost.

 

Some six years ago this is what I did to this kit, it’s an unashamedly Smörgåsbord of resin replacement parts. The Academy kit is a relatively simple kit that’s been around for some time, like all model kits of stealth A/C the one piece upper and lower reduced the parts count. As seems now to be obligatory it comes with decals for a black colour scheme and laser guided bombs.

 

The replacement of the kit parts fall to CMK for most things, kicking things off the cockpit this is going to be one of two areas of interest, most cockpits are a focal point for a model. The second area if interest will be the low hanging weapons. CMK supply a relatively well appointed cockpit, lovely looking cockpit tub and nicely detailed cockpit sides. The canopy gets some much needed jazzing up with resin details and the instrument coaming if a brass and resin treat. But, as always, following on from my TSR2 build I have to use the words CMK nonsense….. Now, I don’t know what has gone wrong here, weather this cockpit set is sized for another kit it has shrunk but the photo shows it goes no where near the front of the cockpit. That ok as the cockpit coaming should fill in all gaps. Wrong. In a another quirk the same gauge plastic used to make up the short fall on my TSR2 bomb bay is being used here. Not the end of the world. Also missing from this detail set are the two very prominent canopy jacks. Whilst I’m thinking about it, of all the things not replaced by CMK is the FLIR , it’s missing the often seen red box in the fwd section of the FLIR bay.

CMK nonsense.

Repair in progress. 😒

 

The second of three task to do before the can be considered for paint are these tail feathers, these are from Q.B , I can’t recall why they’re better than the kit parts, better they may be but they’re fragile and here’s the start of the repair process. 

The Academy kit is nearly devoid of features, but with a little bit of research I’ve opted to open up a plethora of vents and ports, here I’ve drilled a hole then needle filled to the right shape and size then scraped back the thick plastic edges and finally covered it with a thin mesh. Just like the real thing. 

 

Everything here had to go and thankfully CMK bomb bay and wheel well sets have gone in lovely. Even the DLIR (downward looking FLIR) is from CMK.

 

The removal of the various bays was achieved using a razor saw, diamond impregnated needle files and some wet n dry.  I don’t think I’ve achieved a stellar fit of the bomb bay hence the stock plastic covering edges.

 

Five years of neglect of my bought products has need to be sorted. I need to find my weapons for this project. There’s a saying: keep your friends close and your enemies closer. But which of my goodies with lift my models and which of these with the ubiquitous tag lines ‘designed to fit….’ are villains? 

 

Found the final pieces for this build, small diameter bombs, showing both Eduard 1/72 and Armory 1/48.  I want a different look for this project. I’m hoping for a swift-er build and this small parts count’s goes some ways. 

 

Thanks for looking.     😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 22, 2022 by amos brierley
Pressed sum it button instead of add image.

[amos brierley]

Hello everyone.                                 Scribing panel lines. No my favourite job.   
 

STEALTH STUFF.   Whilst I was in the garage today giving it a tidy up I found something of interest to this project. Towards the end of the F-117A life I’d heard of proposed / testing of the small diameter bombs 💣 , so, twenty years on from cheap and cheerful we’ve no got Collaborative Small Diameter Bombs CSDB’s , collaborative now means A.I . What this means is the bombs now have a brain and when launched in numbers, over a 40 mile distance they have to decide which is the best target to prosecute. With the bombs jockeying for the prime spot to achieve a kill.

 

Now with two of the carryover things to do sorted, it’s time to get a grip of the third item - panel lines on a stealth A/C . So, it doesn’t come with many lines witch makes this a Curates Egg. Having only two weeks ago found a book to pic my interest it’s just 23 years old, it may well have many glorious photos to enjoy, but not a right lot of use for scribing. Which is the problem for modellers 1) wet film is of it’s age, and back in the 80’s wet film photos just aren’t going to give amazing results. 2) By the time we had digital cameras the F-117 Nighthawk had gone into the annals of time. As so things like books are now very old. 3) when it comes to press released photos these have to be viewed with some scepticism, after all ‘they’ don’t want you to see stuff.  For example early black colour Nighthawks are a blank canvas, where as from the 2000’s onwards photos are now showing much much more detail. And that’s what I’ve got to sort out, simplicity? Versus Simply stunning  / simply stupid. The final thoughts is simple as well, I have this set of decals for the Tamiya kit, and another colour scheme. Thankfully re scribing is just straight lines…….

 

Thanks for looking.       😉

 

 

[amos brierley]

Hello everyone.                               Detailing my Nighthawk. 
 

With myself convalescing from Covid the week at home has seen this model progressing nicely nicely. Work wise my shift pattern is back to back on, this weeks We’d, Thur, Fri now leading to a month of Sun, Mon, Tue. So this will be my last post for a few days. 
 

Starting things off, some scribing, my favourite tools used being ‘speed tape’  and a set of dividers. For this model I’ve kept the level of re-working to a moderate level, having been bogged down with my last model I’m not willing to make myself look foolish by adding or removing errors. 

 

These replacement Q.B rudder-ons have been less than stellar, having glued them on six years ago their bases have needed to be blended into the fuselage. In this photo the leading edge of the starboard base has been repaired. As for the moving part of the rudders Q.B give just small nodules for mounting them, small nodules and big receiving holes are not good. So I’ve re-worked them , nodules cut off, and male and female areas drilled deeper and tighter. Now brass rods have been cut, a much much better fit. Also the angles have been adjusted as their alignment was poor.

 

This photo is showing quite a bit of work that’s been undertaken. 1) Some filling and sanding, nothing too serious. 2) The protection for the nose probe’s has gone and that area has been re-worked, the kit mostly fits well, but the nose section around the probes is out of kilter, some very careful filling and filler is needed. 3) The intakes have a recessed divider and photos shows they should be a little more pronounced, so, stock plastic has been added. 4) Visible, the top of the cockpit has a visible hole, I think this has been caused by the replacement resin cockpit. ………

 

The resin glare shield has been modified with a plastic extension. But, it’s fitment has left big gaps and has had to be sorted, I’m opting for plastic stock to cover the lot, it’s got to be the fastest route. Now, I’ve got several conundrum’s to sort out, this being the first to be knocked down.  This has left me to detailing the instrument panel at a later date……..

 

This photo shows shows my scribing efforts -restrained, the rudder-ons are now very tight in their placement - no slack whatsoever. Also the tip of the starboard rudder had snapped off, a real pain. 😬 In a strange move I made the rudder missing piece bigger, simply because it made its replacement bigger to make. The background photo shows more work I’ve got to do , the prominent canopy jack’s…….

 

Now looking scruffy, but at the same time satisfying as the work done. 1) The hole atop the cockpit is now filled. 2) The cockpit sill’s have had plastic stock added, because it’s need. 3) The surround’s of the FLIR are supposed to have raised sections, the very week kit depiction was sanded off and replaced with stock plastic. Not accurate but better than what was there. 4) Having extended the I.P the resin details were removed, now with the I.P boxed in the removed details were reinstated.

 

Having made my recovery from Covid , this has made a fast and fantastic start to the project as it stands. 
 

Now, several other conundrums have to be decided. The remaining lower parts count is now at the significant point, how’s best to get paint and parts in place and best practices. How to get the parts in place, and a layer of white. Then how to mask and get the exterior grey onboard. Or is it the other way around? The bomb bay has the faceted surfaces, lots of little triangles…..

 

Thanks for looking.    😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[amos brierley]

Hello everyone.                           Model going good, Amos not so good.

 

Having picked myself up from catching Covid, I’ve now gone and broken a finger 😬.

You play around with live aircraft for a living and sometimes they bite, with the big boss of BAE Systems wanting a reduction in work related accidents, this and what it entails is not good news…………don’t want to say any more.

 

Starting things off back when my index finger was in much better shape…….

I’ve been busy modelling but just not finding that last bit of the week for doing a post, so, here’s my opportunity to get on top of that. The nose U/C door has had the push out pin marks filled and sanded back, the camera shows that some polishing of the plastic will be needed.

The rod in the center of the door is supposed to be the actuating jack and not just a stump. So work to do later on. The two forward lugs should be four lugs, back when I started this model it seems I knocked/accidentally removed them.  Gotta sort these out another day.  
Looking at reference photos shows that the door is lacking in details, the block needs some wiring adding.

The bang seat appears to be a little too small for my liking, both sitting too low in the cockpit tub and having a 1mm gap either side, this means it rattles around too much for me. Firstly the base of the seat has had plastic stock card added, this has now raised the seat up to or above the cockpit side panels, and the excessively long seat rails now look better. I’ve also drilled and pinned the seat ( not shown ). When the seat gets finally fitted it goes in exactly where I want it to be.  A new arrival last week is a set of pilots, a nice addition to the build.

 

Having made the decision to glue things in place first, the bomb carriers swing arms have been added.  The square is a good way to get everything lined up true and square. The swing arms don’t sit fully flat against the bomb bay roof, they sit on a set of rails, featuring in this build is Araldite, even using this, all four arms are still very flexible. Onto the swing arms CMK give a set of extension/retraction jacks, another day……

 

Totally blurry but with the bandaged up finger out of the way, this is the best I’ve managed to do. CMK give replacement Bomb carrier parts, these come in the form of I/B and O/B pieces,but, this isn’t very good. The swing arms have a U shaped pick up points on the real thing but not depicted here. The real carrier is like this but at 1/72 this set up is too small for the scale. Between the two sides of carrier is a crutching unit , here scale wins out. So for me I’ve filled the gap with pieces of stock plastic and used filler to make the carrier look solid.  One consideration further down the line is how to attach the carrier for the Small Diameter Bombs.

 

W.I.P

 

The undercarriage legs are true CMK nonsense, once you’ve fitted the CMK wheel bays your tied into using the replacement legs. As always it seems the 1/48 CMK stuff has far superior details ( I have the CMK 48th detail set for the Tamiya kit for another day). The nose leg is first to be assembled! Yes assembled, the leg is ok but then comes the separate extension/retraction arm being separate and this is all to fragile for me. The extension arm was glued in place whilst all of the nose leg was in place, after this the joint was reinforced with some Araldite. 
For some time I was a little bit confused, this was cleared up when I realised that CMK don’t give replacement parts and so I’ve been forced to use the kit parts. Whilst CMK do give the nose wheel steering unit whilst between my tweezers it shot off ….. never to be seen again. Using my razor saw the scissors link was removed from the Academy leg. Also used from Academy was the steering unit and the light. The nose leg is now complete until it’s fit to the model.

 

Work done and work to do.    

 

Thanks for looking.  Until next time.      😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[amos brierley]

Hello everyone.                                   Pressing on, a quick update.

With a choice of three figures to chose from, the left hand one with the helmet in his hand was my choice, but to no avail. His arm is separate at the elbow with his elbow, but, as to be expected it doesn’t fit in any way shape or form. So, I gave up and went to option two , but I didn’t fancy his pose so I’ve adjusted his arm to my liking.

 

 

The TwoBobs decals have the paint as FS36118 Gunship Grey, but out of the bottles seem to be extremely dark, verging on scale black. So I’ve done some blending, getting to the paint at the green arrows being closer to various photos of the real grey ghost and some recently published photos of American AV Harriers.

 

 

Thanks for looking.       😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[amos brierley]

Hello everyone.                              Final building steps. 
 

Having broken my index finger the other week this hasn’t slowed my modelling down, but as only to be expected the very hot temperatures has. 
 

I was expecting to have this model and it’s build process to have been done some time ago, but most of the additional work this time around is CMK’s doing. 
Extra time spent modelling has gone into cutting, shaping and trialing lots of actuating jacks, the bomb bay doors needed four jack assembly’s, the nose bay door needed one making too. CMK only give these details as very thin sticks of resin, whilst mine are better they won’t win any beauty competition’s, they will look nice once the model is finished.

 

The last two items to be made, the prominent canopy jacks should have been at least depicted by CMK , here I’ve done my best to make them to be scale accurate. Secondly the upper FLIR s missing some form of sensor, the photo shows a red box, in another quirk CMK have failed to supply a replacement item, as they have just about replaced everything else. The Academy kit FLIR turret isn’t as good as at could have been and the red box is missing. …….. one of the other problems moving fwd is a lesser known fact, the upper FLIR wasn’t covered with per-sey glass as Academy would have it. But, it did have some form of very fine mesh, not readily visible in published photos, sadly though many modellers have pondered this problem and none have found a solution.  So, the upper FLIR unit will be posed less the Academy’s tinted plastic cover.  Now finally finished so far, a fresh lick of grey primer is going to be applied to proof check everything. 

 

Thanks for looking.      😉

 

 

 

 

 

[amos brierley]

Hello everyone.                                 A lick of grey primer today.   😁

 

This week now see’s me o my shift pattern change, so I’ve now got seven days off work. With the need to crack on overwhelming me,  I also need the reassurance that all was well.    …… only to be expected a couple of flaws, nothing too serious, gonna take some time to sort out.

 

I couldn’t resist giving a few areas a lick of the final colour……..

 

 

Thanks for looking.      😉

 

 

 

 

[amos brierley]

Hello everyone.                          A bump. 😒

 

It’s been a little while…… well , actually too long. Today is what I’ve seen some fellow BritModellers call a ‘bump’ .  As I seem to do, and say so often in my posts is to discuss my private life and maybe problems, so here’s my high’s and lows preventing me from modelling.

 

I always see summer as a hindrance to modelling, my last post date of 27th July is by 

no coincidence of Mrs B teaching end of year and my six week hiatus.   Summer started with a holiday, then that turned into a heat wave and that just ‘kipper’s’ me , then came the big push at work to get our products ready for delivery. This push has been both mentally draining in the levels of concentration and physical in  additional days at work with overtime.  Thirdly it’s been that time of my shift pattern that is the ‘sad seven’ seven days at work.

Whilst all of the above is just a little bit of life, there’s been the high’s to take the edges off things. The end of my hols saw me going from north Wales to home dropping the kids off and then trundling to Bristol for the Avon model show. A night away from the kid’s….nice, the Avon show nicely nicely, and I had some time to socialise with friends. Superb.
In between, I’ve had the usual problems of house maintenance, it’s been nice to have found someone with the skills to rectify bathroom problems, shame they were fixing a few problems that my last lot of idiots did only 10 months ago 😬 and those when the house was built.

Sadly for the past couple of weeks, when I’ve come to sit and pen posts but just couldn’t find the time nor the energy, no great shakes but I wanted some balance to life.  Mrs B knew that when I got home last night, end of shift pattern that I was desperate to pen a post, but at least I could crack on with some modelling today and this week……..best laid plan’s…..

And I’d be on the path of back to normal………

Not so my friends, sadly my Mum has had another fall and is now in hospital having had some surgery.  The fall yesterday and the surgery today. 😬  As Wigan health service don’t have me down as next of kin then I’m left struggling for answers. All of the problems are with my 87yr old Mum being my mentally unstable sisters carers and my sister being my mums carers.  This is my Mum’s third fall in 4-5 years each time my Mum’s fallen my sister was no where to be seen .   The first fall I got a letter on a scrap of paper 5” wide just saying mum had fallen on a coach trip and she was some where in North Wales!!  I had to do the detective work….. and the letter was 2nd class!!!!!!!!!! Then when they were out shopping she fell again, my sister didn’t even know mum had fallen and just walked off leaving my mum to be helped by a passing taxi  ( a big thank you for unknown taxi driver 👍)  after two journeys to two hospitals when I got mum home at 23.30 hrs and got my sister out of bed she thought I was the police knocking to tell her of my mum’s passing……. This time around my sister again made no effort to stay with my injured mum nor to even ask where the ambulance was going.  Ggggrrrrrrr. More detective work from me again. 
 

So, Mrs B is back at school, the youngest child too, and the eldest child is working now at Mc Donald’s , my broken index finger is back to normal and I’ll get to see mum tonight, and the pace of work will slow down at least for a few weeks.  When the equilibrium is better balanced I’ll be on it……

 

Thanks for looking.      😐

 

 

 

 

 

 

[amos brierley]

Hello everyone.                            Paint time. 🖌️

 

Today has seen me realise that S.M.W 22 is not a million miles off, and with my deadline of having this model easy finished by next month now looking decidedly shaky. So, time to focus. 🥴  As always just because I want it to be done by then doesn’t mean I’ll be rushing …..

 

With mum now out of hospital, I now have a little bit more time for modelling. 
 

A few problems have now popped up in this build. One and it’s still on going is the colour of this machine, the problem is the photos of this plane just don’t match the description of the paint colour. I like to be super accurate in my build’s, whilst that said I always sure someone will drive a horse and carriage through it. 
I’ve been a little stressed out lately and some errors have been creeping into my post’s, so here I’d like to say that whilst errors are blatantly obvious to the other people reading my posts, they’ve not been obvious to me, sadly I just couldn’t get RLM 62,63,64 to my fingers, and an magazine article about Mirage 2000’s and MICA missle’s got me confused about IRST T’s……
 

With an overall coating of GUNZI surfacer 500 I was sure that all I had to do was lay down the top coat.  The final colour should be FS36118 gunship grey, but looking at no end of photos I can only conclude that I should only consider the photos of this plane as my basis for my paint. Having mixed up a brew some months ago I just couldn’t be happy with it, and in a fit of pik I mixed up a new brew, Gunzi H305 (36118) as the base with H307 (38320) added to knock down the dark grey and H322 (Phthalocyanine Cyanine blue) added for the blue hue. As you can see I’m working in a strange order - paint the exterior then work inwards……… And one wing always left as something to hold.

 

Whilst I was happy with the primer, now with the top colour going on no end of problems are surfacing , scratches and a rough bottom finish having rubbed my rhubarb. The above photo shows the model having had to be completely polished back. At least I’ve got some idea of what the finished model colour will look like. 
My last model the A-4 Skyhawk bomb truck had a problem I didn’t pay attention to , the very same rough primer texture, this rough finish making the corners of that model look bad even though I was using Xtracolour paints - famous for being glossy. So after some 8-9 years of owning the same bottle of primer/primer’s I’ve come to the conclusion they’ve gotta go. Time for some fresh.

 

With my top colour having gone a step back, I thought about the tricky exhaust. Back in the day when I built my first F-117 I didn’t have the ease of modern living, deliciously analog, now with books and the internet you’d think I’d have all the answers to all my problems. My first attempt saw the model finished with just a lick of silver paint, now I’m more discerning about accurate models. Some photos on the ‘inter web’  show F-117’s with an Ablation material of a dark brick colour exhaust, the bottom left colour being rust looks wrong.

 

Base layer applied. 

 

The finished result, I started with Alclad ALC-104 pale burnt metal, trying to spray lines of it to impart the direction of the exhaust gasses, being a left hand person the spraying of the right hand side was easier, but tackling the left hand exhaust was a little more difficult. This paint imparted a silver ish finish.

 

Then came Alclad ALC-123 engine manifold this paint imparted a darker grubby look. I’ve was trying to do less first, then add to if needed, but I’ve got to the finish line first time me thinks. Oups. 

 

The journey I’m taking. Maybe a little bit of silver dry brushing later on….. And I’ve not even though about how to weather this blue-grey canvas…….

 

That’s all for now, thanks for looking.         😉

 

 

[Pappy]

 G'day Amos,

 

Hang in there mate. I am enjoying watching you fight the good fight to ' accurise' the kit. It is really coming along, 

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

[Silenoz]

Looking great so far and an interesting camo.

 

the joys of trying to finish something with a deathline...

[amos brierley]

Hello everyone.                     Top coat now done, for now.
 

I’ve had a good couple of days, 9 days off work, my ‘super seven’ shift change over has done much to lift my mood. Tomorrow will see my shift pattern of Wed, Thur, Fri start, and back to playing around with live aircraft for a living.   😄

 

Having polished back the existing paint and hopefully removing all blemishes with micro mesh starting with the very coarse 1800, it seemed judicious to finish the job of blocking in the rest. As the exhaust’s had been previously painted masking occurred and so the route of making some rods for holding the model was denied. As well as the painting of the left hand wing I’ve over sprayed the whole of the left hand side of the model. Happy days as this has confirmed the polishing has come good. I’ll let this paint dry whilst I’m working as some of the left wing needs a little bit more polishing. I say this as I like to see my models glossy and so any further further layers of paint with likely has gloss thrown in. Weathering is likely to come in the form of darker grey patches and lighter gray in block areas. The aim will be some how accentuate the various flat panels without the model looking just like I’ve done just that. I’ve thought about just spraying the very ridges a lighter grey but the chances of me doing that super accurate are slim to non.  As modellers we all like those symbolic moments of the journey, and, this feels like one of those, the movement of going fwd and the solid colour giving a sign that the model is closer to being finished than to the start. 

 

This too is giving me good vibes. Bombs painted, bomb carrier’s and some white on as well. I’ve never fully become enthused about Gunzi white, it has to be thinned far too much to give a solid colour quickly, but many many thin coats later and things don’t look too bad. Whilst not being enthusiastic about Gunzi white it’s now what I used and wholeheartedly recommend.  The bits on the resin pour stubs are the canopy bits that need to be black……..

 

Stopping me dead in my tracks is the canopy. Black paint and a big hole in the side of the glass to be precise. The hole is simply an impact damage from something unbeknownst to me, but micro mesh and polishing sticks have sorted this problem out.  One thing that I’d like all model companies to do is to really over accentuate the canopy frame from the glass, give modellers some real definition. Sadly this model comes with very little definition and no clear canopy just in case anyone takes um bridge with the tinted one as I do. 
The problem. As we all know, stealth aircraft have serrated panels to draw in the radar waves, but when it comes to masking this kit it’s just a pain. 🤪  Firstly this is the only canopy available, and no replacement available, ggggrrrrr. I don’t like the gold tinted glass effects, too dark for me. The canopy would be in all , quite good on a black model, but I’m not sure about this grey model. Masking any part of this model has got me vexed, but the canopy more so. Firstly I applied some wide Tamiya masking tape to one side then used my 0.3 m clicker pencil to try and outline the window area. Not a chance. No definition at all.  I need some black paint to go on then to finish off the basic exterior colour, but masking the windows without a clearly defined line will be difficult. And to make matters worse, no aftermarket masking sets available for this model. I have two ideas in mind, well, three in fact, 1) use small pieces of masking tape all cut to size, every single facets one by one, 2) re-scribing the window  😬 that’s got accidents written all over it, 3) the canopy doesn’t fit in the closed position, no problem I only ever have them open. So , why not go full crack-pot and buy another kit form another manufacturer and hope it looks ok in the open position and doesn’t have the gold tint.  Madness in the logic and logic in the madness……. 

 

That’s me done for this week. Thanks for looking.     😉

          

[Silenoz]

Or make the outer shell in thin plasticard/paper (you can reinforce this by adding thin superglue to the surface), using the original as a template, and glue some transparent sheet in it?

 

Nice progress by the way...

[Silenoz]

How is this one coming along?

[amos brierley]

Hello everyone.                      Trying some weathering techniques.

 

4 hours ago, Silenoz said:

How is this one coming along?

Well slowly is the quick answer.   Thanks for asking.    🙂

 

Life as usual has been busy again and modelling a little slower, add to this for this build I’ve decided to post the build a little less just to take the pressure off me. Which is a mixed blessing, as it happens this feels true. So, with two weeks off work it’s time to chat.

 

For me masking canopies can either go very well or just cause me stress. Some weeks ago it took me just two days to mask the canopy!! I wouldn’t say that it was stressful in any way, but it was tedious. 
 

On 9/27/2022 at 10:19 PM, Silenoz said:

Or make the outer shell in thin plasticard/paper

As I’d said I had concerns about the details and my ability to use them. After discussing this, the next time I sat down at my model bench I seriously gave what

Silenoz has suggested some time ago, and decided it was too much for me. I gave the idea some credit as I had done something similar some time ago, I’d bought a vac-form canopy and the frame details were very shallow. Whilst it’s easy to skin a Bf-110 I felt that trying to create all the facets of a F-117 was too much for me.  Great idea.

 

My preferred method of masking canopies is to apply some wide Tamiya masking tape then burnish it into the canopy features, in this case the clicker pencil not only burnishes but also highlighted where to cut.

 

My earlier concerns about the details washing out were born out, so, out came a scribing tool and ‘speed tape’. On first glance I made just one mistake with a slip of the scriber. ……….

 

Two days later…… I felt I pleased with my work. Just visible are some errors I’ve not noticed and have become apparent now a lick of paint has gone on.

 

Something a little off-pieste…….. gray lots of it….. I like doing mono colour aircraft, this subject being a Shackleton MR2C as she was last seen at RAF Cosford, it’s depicted as being end of life weathering, like so many model subjects I do end up receiving no less / usually five shades off…. I’m using this photo to discuss breaking up mono colour subjects.

 

This photo shows my first attempts at definition of the ‘faceted surfaces’. What I was saying earlier,but, maybe not very clearly, was my problem of the dexterity of using my airbrush, some of my first attempts at drawing a straight line along the ridges. This first attempt is far from impressive, my intention was to draw lines no wider than a 1/8” width. Evident is my failure and some wonky working. Nothing some re-over spraying with the original colour can’t remedy. 

 

Trying to gauge the effects I want , this first effects seem too blue, the airframe had received a fresh lick of paint and so the effects for this model should be to emphasise the details, where as for my Shack it was out and out aging.

 

This shot shows another process MRP-271 Clear Smoke. Whilst I couldn’t find what I’m looking for and needing to over spray the top colour I thought I’d in for a penny in for all in. I like MRP paints as you just pour them into the airbrush and let rip. The smoke has to a degree given me some direction, looks great along creases, not so along the width of the model. This won’t be the first model that has needed a little bit of trial and error.  One final thing I went for in the spur of the moment was to fill in the intakes with smoke, their really not clear in this photo. The intakes are a bit of another issue to deal with, firstly their solid and so paint has to depict the waffle texture. I was thinking black, but felt it was too stark, then again dry brushing the waffles in gray maybe just naff. So I emptied the airbrush into the intakes, in low light conditions the intakes has a nice deep dark look to them.

 

Some work done, some ideas tried, something else gotta be tried.     🙂
 

Thanks for looking.    😉

 

[Silenoz]

looking good so far, for the intakes like this, I tend to do a wash with dark grey, and then drybrush to highlight the grid structure.

[amos brierley]

Hello everyone.                   Perfecting the weathering - some progress.

 

First off , the count down to S.M.W. 22 has for me now become very real , with the show now less than three weeks away I’ve got some choices to make, or in all probability the answers to the choice has already been made. 
This year has seen me making a more concerted effort to get more models made and and to be a happier modeller, to that end, getting myself back into competition scene is still proving difficult. I had been hoping to be in S.M.W 22 this year with enough model’s to make it worth while, for example taking just one model isn’t worth it. One of the other things to consider is how the show competition ties you up, you’ve got to be in the show on the Saturday for judging then unless you’ve got really good mitigating circumstances you can’t take out your model/ s until 15.00 hrs on Sunday.  So, for this year to have had three models done would have seen me through my hat into the ring. But, also of note is that next year will be it’s 60th and so it is from a IPMS membership position is that a good show (should be put on) is required. 
All in all I’m thinking that any thoughts of having this model done for then should be quashed. So, I’m happy to say that I’m going to carry on with this model build without any pressure. 
For this year I’ m struggling to get my head around the sheer costs of attending the show for three days, with my rough figures coming in at £500 just for starters, with things like the hotel bill doubling to £90 a night.  My concerns about the show also relate to modellers spending power or probable lack of it, there maybe more traders in attendance this year, but reduced cash in pockets will hurt everyone.   🤨

 

Just as I was to photograph the model, Mrs B came home with shopping. Having started my weathering process, it’s back to the drawing board and to bring out the test piece so as to go off in a different direction. A quick gain has to be masking out the intakes, I’d only roughly filled them in and here there being done properly, MRP -271 smoke is giving a black-ish finish.

 

This is Accademy’s version of the waffle pattern for the intake.

This photo shows the differences with the old dark blue weathering on the left and now with the favourable MRP-94 U.S Medium MOD Grey. A look through my box of paints shows not many Gunzi, whereas my stash of MRP was plentiful. 

 

Now this photo is starting to show signs of promise and the future travel. One of my pet peeves is starting weathering then having to stop, so, the new approach being to lighten the paint is doable simply because all I have to do is open a bottle and pour. A photo I have of the real thing shows a very strong streaking from the top vent, the blunt-ish look of smoke will be re-visited with the airbrush then some oil’s being streaked. The top of the wing is looking good, creating the lighter highlights, I’m looking to spray all of the edges lighter.

 

After trying a good couple of paints on the test piece the airbrush is looking batter’d, any unused paint being tipped back into the container with the resultant spill’s. What stopped my weathering session on the model was the sticking needle. It stuck in the nozzle, having pulled the needle back, very fluidic paint was now free to exit the airbrush via the now open nozzle. Time was called on the session, better to strip down and clean and fix the issue.

 

Tools of the trade for scrupulously cleaning an airbrush. This airbrush is still my favourite and now approaching 25yrs old. It’s like ‘Trigger’s’ yard brush (Only Fools and Horses.) …….all original…….except three needles and nozzles……. 😄

 

Thanks for looking.     😉

 

[amos brierley]

Hello everyone.                             Tackling the bits and pieces.     
 

Whilst I just can’t get comfy doing big airbrush sessions of a night time, whilst watching a film last night I went down the road of tackling the surprisingly few bits and pieces.

 

Some weeks ago I’ve given some of the bit a base layer of paint. With the canopy masking done the canopy, resin canopy innards, wheels and bang seat received a coat of Gunzi 1200 black primer.  And wheels  Gunzi gloss white, now, the last time (A-4 Skyhawk) I weathered this white it just didn’t go well. I thought my favourite brown wash last time would just flow as a pin wash, but it didn’t, more of a case of stuck where it went on. So, this time I have , and from now on will use Gunzi gloss paint on top of what I’m intending to wash, having done this , this time around the brown pin wash onto the wheels has gone well. The only other process that I’ve done to the wheels is to dry brush  a light grey onto the wheel tread. Whilst I was dry brushing, the CMK canopy details also received some attention too. As always things like ejection seat’s always suck up hours of time, I’ve not found many photos of F-117 cockpit’s but what few I have seem to show the seat having grey straps. One of the peculiarities of American ejection seats is a very bright vivid green oxygen bottle, I wouldn’t normally have anything to do with Revell paints but #60 is a superb match especially at 1/72 scale.

 

The White Ensign bright silver is also superb, something I’ll be looking out for at this year’s S.M.W.  As always this iPad isn’t showing off my work, the seat is a little bit brighter and sharper in the flesh.  Talking about that , I’ve forgotten to photograph the pilot figure for the base, like many things, things are tied together, Humbrol #80 was also used on his flying gear…….

A thank you for helping me @SafetyDad
Short and sweet update today.

 

Thanks for looking.       😉

 

[SafetyDad]

1 hour ago, amos brierley said:

A thank you for helping me @SafetyDad
Short and sweet update today.

 

Thanks for looking.       😉

 

 

My pleasure Amos

 

SD

[amos brierley]

Hello everyone.                            More weathering - all smoke and mirrors.

 

Today see’s me shooting just MRP smoke.  Having tried it out I’ve now done everything I wanted to do, which was to shoot smoke along all of the models creases.

 

I’ve seen some photos of F-117’s showing heat / soot staining at the base of the rudderons, here the top of the skin has been highlighted with some lighter shading, and the creases have been given the smoke treatment. The base of the rudderon on the outside skin has received some heavy weathering, this additional sooting up is as a result of the exhaust gasses.

 

The front portion of the canopy has raised facets, so out comes some Humbrol Maskol, and smoke applied, I’m mostly ok with this…….

 

The creases of the model have been weathered the smoke creating dark shadows, the R/H side of the model better shows the shadow effects. And the edge of the wing skin to flapperons has been shadowed too looking just about right in this photo. Having gone down the route of masking bits of the model some of this has worked and some not so.  Visible is the auxiliary exhaust ports, I thought masking was a good idea but it’s given me some were straight lines of smoke, so thankfully these can be softened later on with the original colour.

 

Photos done out of sequence, masking the flapperons good call, masking the exhaust ports less than stellar.

 

So, I’ve got all of the shadow work done, most of the highlights are done too, I’ve covered over some of previous weathering that I wasn’t happy with. A little more creating highlights on the left hand side and it might be time to call the weathering done.

 

Thanks for looking.       😉

 

[Silenoz]

Looks good so far. In the last pictures, the weathering looks more flat