Progress
Comments
1 7 February 2018, 08:28
Patrick HagelsteinLet me get this straight; you're building TWO Hasegawa Tomcats at the same time??? Respect!!! That's though! Good luck! 👍
12 February 2018, 15:33
Patrick HagelsteinOne remark though: You're planning on building one Cat with the full load of 6 Phoenix missiles? You have to know that that load was only for actual war scenarios. The six missiles would be too heavy to land with on a carrier. And the Navy wasn't that fond of ditching 1 million dollar missiles just to get the plane cleared to land aboard the carrier.
12 February 2018, 15:36
Spanjaardi intend to build the same cat eventually, and also double too. so i am certainly in!
12 February 2018, 21:02
Martin von Schreckensteinthanks for the words of encouragement. I am building two as they do come in pairs after all🙂
I consider them both as a one build and it is interesting to see the connections between two seemingly separate objects.
As for the narrative, I am kinda rationalizing the 6x phoenix as the Ocean Safari exercise gone bad so the cats are actually going up to hunt some arctic bears. I even have Inuit names for them🙂
13 February 2018, 13:19
Martin von SchreckensteinI have joined all the albums into one🙂
After some surface hijinks, I have started working on the paintjob. Working with the surfacer and airbrush has proven to be a serious step forward even despite my beginner clumsiness. The result may not be 100% but it is by far the best I have ever managed. Please see the comments on the pictures for some more info. As this is my first attempt at painting a model with airbrush, i have no reference to compare the result with so i do not actually know whether the result is bad or good. there is a slight grain in places and i am not sure if adding another layer will help. the glossiness of the surface sure varies but i will try to improve that with gloss varnish.
23 February 2018, 15:53
Spanjaardthey look quite good 🙂 if you have some very small imperfections, it is possible to remove with polishing pads (6000/8000/12000 for example). but try first first in some piece of spare plastic before you do it in the model. and make sure that is fully cured before any sanding (a day at lest to be absolutely sure)
23 February 2018, 17:10
Patrick HagelsteinNice progress! I like the rough anti slip panels on the intakes! How did you make those?
23 February 2018, 18:38
Martin von Schreckensteinthanks. it is drying putty on a brush applied on a masked area. curious if it still looks good after the decals are applied
23 February 2018, 19:32
Patrick HagelsteinThe color is spot on! The anti skid patches worked out well. 👍
26 February 2018, 16:06
Martin von Schreckensteinplaying with the wash. As you might have noticed i am not big on preshading and redoing panel lining at this scale would make it too apparent IMO. I have left the lines as they were and the wash is mostly not showing at all🙂 there are some details now and then and when compared with the photos, I'd say the results are mostly consistent. I will now continue with decals and the last layers of wash (+other weathering) will be done after that. I plan to have the underside of AB101 quite messy so fingers crossed for that.
28 February 2018, 08:26
Martin von Schreckensteinmost of the decals are now on the kits. all that remains is the squadron markings, landing gear and the weapons. the anti skid patches will receive some matte finish.
6 March 2018, 08:49
Martin von SchreckensteinThe underside is smoked nicely, with the engine hatch locks cleaned by maintenance crews (gotta mess with those TF30s all the time).
The weaponry is added as well, along with the landing gear. A lot of detail was added to much frustration in a specific "add some/break some/fix some" fashion.
Remaining work is painting and installing the tailhooks, speedbrakes, AB101 canopy and the custom decals.
I have masked the radar cover of AB101 to give it a differing, clean look from the rest of the fuselage and the masking tape has destroyed some decals so I will have to print those as well🙁 and some more varnish at the very end.
To properly display the kits I will also have to finally get to finishing my display case but the end is near🙂
All in all I have to say that after building so many 144 kits, I have forgotten how much work 72s are. There are many lessons learned but I am going back to 144 or even 350 for the forseeable future🙂 Even despite a pair of Finemolds F-14A 1/72s being enroute to my stash.
21 March 2018, 08:46
Maciej BellosVery nice models Martin! I like the one that is armed to the teeth! And, please, don't go back to 144, you are doing nicely in 72, and maybe an occational 48 would be nice.
21 March 2018, 20:03
Martin von SchreckensteinAdded a few photos in actual daylight plus a cliffhanger for the next season🙂 after the custom decals are printed and applied, I will get a camera and make a proper finished models gallery.
26 March 2018, 21:05
Album info
I was really unhappy with the surface of the wings so I cleaned all the priming and filled a lot of the inconsistencies with putty to have the panel lining redone once the surface is smooth. The wings look quite scary now but the surface is a lot better now. I have painted the landing gear wells and the fuselage interior with white color to be able to put the big parts together. The fuselage would be ready for surfacer now were it not for me gluing in the wrong speedbrake housing part to a wrong airframe (gonna have to take those out and exchange them). I want the first cat to have the canopy and speedbrakes open and the second one to be closed. Its funny how so much work has been done but the model somehow still looks more or less the same. Looking forward to spraying the surfacer, hope nothing goes wrong..
