Started 07 January 2012 - Completed 06 February 2012
Intended Livery using FCM #72-040.
Box and decals
8 January 2012
Removal of parts from sprues (where needed) completed. The parts were then cleaned of any mould seams and attachment residue. Canopy had the mould seams removed and polished, dipped in Klear and will now sit in its tub until needed.
Although not mentioned in the instructions, I am adding 5 grams into the nose, as I was half way through CAing the shot into the radome, before I realised and checked - habit I guess.
There are no overhead ejection handles provided - either plastic or PE, so I tried to find my old jig to no avail, so rigged a new one using telephone cable holder nails and half a wooden clothes peg.
I have modified the wing pivots so I can add the wings after I have finished painting and weathering.
Spraying coming next.
10 January 2012
Starting with AlcladII White Primer, I have started spraying bits and pieces.
Here we have the exhaust nozzles and shrouds. I have initially sprayed them with a base coat of AlcladII Aluminium and then faded in AlcladII Jet Exhaust on the nozzles. After double checking my references, I realised what had been bugging me - there are no lines on the shrouds. So I shall scribe some in before finishing with the AlcladII colour blending.
The wheels were initially sprayed with AlcladII White Primer and then hand painted with Citadel Chaos Black. The nose wheels have a great wheel rim where you can wick thinned paint up to, but the main wheel are not that defined as can be seen by my not so hot painting. Weathering and washes should hide some of it.
The Cockpit, out of the box, is very simple. There are decals (not very accurate and out of register) for the instrument panels, but none for the side consoles.
I have painted side panels with Citadel Chaos Black and added some knobs.
I will seal with a flat varnish later then dry brush before joining the front fuselage halves.
I initially sprayed the insides of the intakes with AlcladII White Primer and have now masked off, primed with AlcladII Grey Primer, ready for the first coat of FS16440, before joining them up.
21 January 2012
Finally there was a break in the weather a few days ago so I managed to get the airbrush going and managed the spray the FS16440 using Xtracrylix #XA1137 (Lt. Gull Grey) in the intakes.
I then closed up the forward fuselage, adding the nose, and removing the TACAN antenna to aid in the seam cleanup.
After cleaning up that seam, I then rapidly built up the remainder of the intakes, main fuselage and added the front fuselage. After masking the canopies, I glued on the windscreen and blutac'd the main canopy in place. I stuffed sponge down the intakes and sprayed all components with AlcladII Grey Primer.
The primer highlighted a few areas where I need some extra work doing. These are mainly around the windscreen and the fuselage join on the spine. Hopefully the Tamiya putty I have applied will be suffice.
The other area in need of attention is on the underside of the beavertail.
Also I had scribed some lines into the engine cans.
23 January 2012
The high winds changed direction this afternoon, allowing me to open the window for airbrushing, so I resprayed AlcladII Primer over my repairs, and then sprayed the FS16440 using Xtracrylix #XA1137 (Lt. Gull Grey) overall.
Next step will be a Klear coat (or AlcladII #ALC600 Aqua Gloss), before masking ready for the metallics.
Windscreen repair
Spine repair
Beavertail repair
26 January 2012
Using a combination of the AlcladII paints shown I finished off the engines, wing and tail leading edges, gun muzzle and the air intakes. While I was masking for the metallics I also masked up for the antiglare black and the wing bladders.
Engines - using a combination of AlcladII Aluminium, Pale Burnt Metal, Jet Exhaust and Transparent Smoke.
Air Intakes - AlcladII Aluminium. Gun Muzzle - AlcladII Gunmetal and Transparent Smoke.
29 January 2012
Decalling completed. Two days work using a combination of the FCM decals (Microscale printed) and the kit decals.
The FCM decals went on OK except for the No Step and the Red Turbine warning stripes. The No Step decals wanted to fold up on themselves whilst transferring to the wings, and the turbine stripes cracked but held together, just, until I could lay on some Micro Sol.
The remainder of the FCM decals were up to the usual Microscale standard, with only the sharksmouth taking the full two days and numerous applications of Micro Sol to get it to lay flat.
The missiles and the "slime lights" were from the kits sheets, and unlike the cockpit decals were great with hardly any extra clear carrier.
And to finish off tonights work I added a 1mm lens from little-cars for the nose light, poked 3 holes in the approach indexer, and dropped in green, orange and red paints.
02 February 2012
I managed to spray a few coats of Klear over all parts to seal in the decals and ready for a panel wash with Flory Models Dark Brown Wash. Once I was happy with the panel line wash, I set about the wing sweep area that gets grimy and dirty.
First off, I mask the area roughly where the wing meets the sealing plates on top, and the airbags underneath when swept back. Also I tend to protect any decals in the area by placing scrap paper over them before applying any masking tape.
Then using a pen or pencil, I draw in the contours on top...
and below.
I then use a new #10 blade to cut away the profiles, and then mask up the remaining wing.
Next tape down the wing to the workbench...
and using a mix of Flory Models Dark Brown and Dark Grey washes, apply to the exposed wing.
Giving it a short time to dry out slightly, using a sponge with a pin in it, rotate around the pin, using the centre of the wing pivot for the pin location, giving a streaked effect.
Once dried completely, remove the masking tape, show the outlines of the upper lower wear areas.
All I need now is for the temperature to pick up a bit so I can spray a Matt varnish to seal everything, ready for final assembly.
On Sunday, the sun poked his head out enough to raise the temperature over freezing, and allowing me to open my window for spraying. First up I applied a coat of Xtracrylix Flat Varnish.
Once dried, I removed the canopy masking and blu-tac to reveal a crack along side the RIO's moulded-in lightning strip. The crack is not that noticeable, but I summise from this, that the clear plastic is more flexible than the Hasegawa, and needs to be treated more carefully.
I then started to add the langing gear, tails and Phoenix pallets. After removing the Phoenix from their pins the back ends looked a bit blank, so I checked out the Daco book and drilled out the back end and inserted a short length of styrene tube with a disc, to represent the back shown in the photos. A quick brush with Citadel Chainmail finished them off.
The remainder of items were glued on, and finally the wings were snapped into place with the horizontal stabs pushed in their pivot holes.
Completed photos.
Conclusion:- A very nice build, but lacking in some minor details, in the cockpit (side panels mainly). Overall, I would place this as #3, inbetween the Fujimi and Revell, on my list of the best 1/72 scale F-14 Tomcat kits.