trickyrich Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 I like what you've done a lot!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted September 9, 2022 Author Share Posted September 9, 2022 On 9/8/2022 at 7:03 PM, Corsairfoxfouruncle said: Impressive work on the cans snd FOD covers. Are the decals included with the set for the covers or did you make them ? Thanks Dennis. The decals are included on the Caracal sheet, along with a set for the 492nd FS, which will come in handy for a later build. 11 hours ago, trickyrich said: I like what you've done a lot!!! Thanks Rich, a lot more work than I'd anticipated, as you've found! I, like many, am still feeling shocked and saddened at the loss of the HM Queen Elizabeth II but I was able to get a few hours at the bench. Firstly, the undercarriage was finished: I painted up the missiles but needed some decals for them. Luckily I've had this decal sheet in the stash for years: They went on well. The SDBs were also finished. These are nicely detailed from GWH: Will try and get the rest of the GBUs finished next week. Rest in peace Ma'am. Long live the King. Dave. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FortyEighter Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 Those weapons look really smart, must check if that decal sheet is still available. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted September 11, 2022 Author Share Posted September 11, 2022 23 hours ago, FortyEighter said: Those weapons look really smart, must check if that decal sheet is still available. Mike Thanks Mike. You might get the sheet on ebay, where I found mine, but the it's long out of production with Afterburner shutting up shop a few years ago. A shame as they produced some very nice decal sheets. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted September 16, 2022 Author Share Posted September 16, 2022 Work has been busy so progress has been slow on this one. Only managed to finish the GBUs this week: Forgot how much of a pain those -31s are to paint! Anyway, here's all the ordnance together: Hoping to get the pods and fuel tanks done over the weekend then I'm away to Valencia for a week from early Monday morning so any further progress will be stalled, not that I'm complaining! More soon and stay safe Dave 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted September 18, 2022 Author Share Posted September 18, 2022 A little more done. Fuel tanks were painted and weathered. From my references, these don't seem to get as grubby as the likes of the F/A-18E/F (perhaps the colour affects this) but some pictures have shown a little staining here and there so this was added from a mixture of oils. Some light chipping added to the tip of each tank also. Pylons were finished and I couldn't help but add the SDBs to their mount: Finally, the targeting pods. I resorted to the Afterburner stencil sheet again as GWH don't provide the correct stencils for the AN/AAQ-13 pod: You can also see, just about, some chipping to the upper front part of the AAQ-13 pod - plenty of the pictures in the Reid Air book have shown this sort of weathering to the leading edge so thought it would add a little (ok, a very little!) colour to the all grey of the jet. Exciting stuff . Off to sunny Valencia tomorrow so won't be back at the bench until the weekend when I hope to get the model primed and pre-shaded. More soon and stay safe Dave 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted September 18, 2022 Share Posted September 18, 2022 Looks like some cool ordnance cant wait to see it hung under the wings/fuselage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted September 18, 2022 Author Share Posted September 18, 2022 25 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said: Looks like some cool ordnance cant wait to see it hung under the wings/fuselage. Thanks Dennis. There's certainly plenty to hang, and this isn't even a full load! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted September 25, 2022 Author Share Posted September 25, 2022 Priming and a pre-shade now on. I had to rework the filler at the cockpit join as it looked fairly poor under a squirt of primer. Once it had all dried, I polished it back with a Tamiya 3000 grit sanding sponge. Just want to get this finished now. Turning into a bit of a slog. Will get some grey on during the week. More soon and stay safe Dave 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted September 25, 2022 Share Posted September 25, 2022 Looking great, Dave. Interesting that, with the exception that the CFTs are integral to the lower fuselage, the 1/72 GWH kit is engineered pretty much exactly the same, but the fit on my 1/72 does seem a touch better. Some good tips for my build here too that I might borrow, like tinting the HUD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted September 28, 2022 Author Share Posted September 28, 2022 On 9/25/2022 at 9:50 PM, Wings unlevel said: Looking great, Dave. Interesting that, with the exception that the CFTs are integral to the lower fuselage, the 1/72 GWH kit is engineered pretty much exactly the same, but the fit on my 1/72 does seem a touch better. Some good tips for my build here too that I might borrow, like tinting the HUD. Glad to hear it fits better mate! Some areas on this are poor at best. Anyway, I've spent the last couple of days painting the model. The airframe was given a few light coats of MRP Gunship Grey. Sprayed beautifully as always. A lot of reference pictures show the nose being a different shade to the rest of the airframe - being a composite material that is not painted. I went with MRP Extra Dark Sea Grey here as it's not too much of a difference but does show a contrast. Once that was done, details were added across the airframe - Light Ghost Grey for the EW warning system antenna on either side and top of the fuselage just aft of nose along with the GPS dome on the upper fuselage, white for the RWR receivers on the leading edges of the wings and trailing edges of the vertical stabilisers, red & green lights, gun metal vent aft of the cockpit and around the cannon muzzle along with some zinc chromate chipping on the leading edges of wings, pylons, intakes and stabilisers. I also added some aluminium chipping to the IFR door, which appears to be quite a common thing. Finally, I polished it all back with some 12000 micromesh. I'm hoping to get the metallic areas around the exhausts painted then it'll be ready for some gloss. More soon and stay safe Dave 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted September 29, 2022 Share Posted September 29, 2022 Looking great Dave, extra dark sea grey for the radome is genius. I read somewhere the radome is painted the same gunship grey colour as the rest of the airframe, it just fades at a different rate due the radome’s different construction material. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted September 29, 2022 Author Share Posted September 29, 2022 5 hours ago, Wings unlevel said: Looking great Dave, extra dark sea grey for the radome is genius. I read somewhere the radome is painted the same gunship grey colour as the rest of the airframe, it just fades at a different rate due the radome’s different construction material. Thanks mate, it breaks up the Gunship grey nicely and looks to be the closest shade, to my eye anyway! You're quite right about the nose cones - they're painted the same shade as the airframe during assembly but weather differently over the years. They're not repainted with the rest of the airframe during maintenance periods, only being painted/replaced during deep maintenance or over-hall. Managed to get the metallic areas sprayed today. 30 minutes of masking, 3 minutes of spraying. Safety first! Once dry and masking removed, I put down an initial layer of Alclad gloss. The metallic areas will be broken up when I get to the weathering stage. Will try and get another couple of coats of gloss on over the weekend before cracking on with the decals. More soon and stay safe Dave 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted September 29, 2022 Share Posted September 29, 2022 Very good finish on the paint, I like the different color approach. Normally my go to would be to add a few drops of white or lt. grey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted September 29, 2022 Author Share Posted September 29, 2022 13 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said: Very good finish on the paint, I like the different color approach. Normally my go to would be to add a few drops of white or lt. grey. Cheers Dennis. I would mix paints too for odd jobs but the EDSG worked well in this case! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coneheadff Posted October 1, 2022 Share Posted October 1, 2022 Looking great Dave! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted October 2, 2022 Author Share Posted October 2, 2022 18 hours ago, coneheadff said: Looking great Dave! Cheers Alex! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dansk Posted October 2, 2022 Share Posted October 2, 2022 You’re getting there Dave. Loving the weapons work, wow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted October 3, 2022 Author Share Posted October 3, 2022 On 10/2/2022 at 2:30 PM, Dansk said: You’re getting there Dave. Loving the weapons work, wow. Cheers Paul! I've managed to get the decals on since the last update. Generally they are very good, though I found them to be almost too glossy, silvering a touch, despite me having 3 coats of gloss on the model. Hopefully a flat coat will sort them out. Chaff (white) and flares (red) had to be added to the panels under the fuselage as GWH just have these blank as they would be for training etc. The decals came from the trusty Afterburner stencil sheet: Nose art is pretty cool, though I think the 'Gears of War' and bomb tally is a little wonky. Can't be helped now! Hoping to get a panel wash on tomorrow and maybe some weathering depending on time. More soon and stay safe Dave 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 Pretty interesting nose art on this, I like it ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted October 3, 2022 Author Share Posted October 3, 2022 24 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said: Pretty interesting nose art on this, I like it ! Thanks Dennis! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted October 4, 2022 Author Share Posted October 4, 2022 Spent today adding the panel wash. I had a bit of a mare and started removing the excess....along with all the rest in the panel lines. The wash just wouldn't stick. Then I remembered it was a fresh bottle and I hadn't added any washing up liquid to help it adhere to the super glossy surface. D'oh!!! Anyway, I quickly got back on track: You may notice a Zinc Chromate panel on the upper fuselage and some 'paste' on the the port tail fin. I saw an image of the former on a Facebook spotters group and the latter was an idea taken from the Reid Air book. Adds a little colour if anything. Horizontal stabilisers are just set in for now. Not looking too bad but plenty more weathering to come. These jets seemed to get fairly worn on recent deployments: A 492nd FS jet, but you get the idea! More soon and stay safe Dave 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 Looking the part now - can I ask what wash you use ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted October 5, 2022 Author Share Posted October 5, 2022 11 hours ago, Tim Moff said: Looking the part now - can I ask what wash you use ? Cheers Tim. I use Flory 'Dark Dirt' wash. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 1 hour ago, DaveJL said: Cheers Tim. I use Flory 'Dark Dirt' wash. Thanks - yes I use the same to dirty things up and Tamiya panel line accentor for the lines Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now