Si B’s- Revell 1/72 F-14D Super Tomcat

[Wouter]

Happy birthday to your son indeed. And nice update.
You are making me curious though chap: which game did you play during those three hours? :tongue-out:

[Si Benson]

Morning folks,

Finally managed to make significant progress after more filling and sanding :smiling4: . The whole lot was primed, using Mr surfacer. Went down very smoothly and I couldn’t find any rough spots from the filling.







Painted the after burners painted gloss black then gave them a coat of AK xtreme gun metal...






I thought I’d taken a picture of the pre-shading I’d done, but when I came to crop my pictures this morning turns out I didn’t :smiling5: Anyway..... the pre shading was done with Tamiya nato black and then a base coat of Tamiya Xf-20 and
XF-18.


Never done the pre-shade thing before but I’m pleased with the results. Still got lots to do paint wise, hopefully get some more done today :smiling4:

Thanks for looking

[Guest]

Very nice pre shading Si:smiling3:.

[Jim R]

Hi Si
Seem to have missed a bit. You're making a very neat job of this. The care taken early on with the dry fitting and the taping has paid off. I have tried masking areas when filling to avoid panel lines getting clogged but even then some rescribing is needed. I hate scribing - all going well and then a slip :anguished:. Paint job is really good and you have certainly mastered that preshade. Folding wings - that's cool.
Jim

[Wouter]

Oh that looks very very good Si. That preshade is subtle, as I like it. Great base for further work, keep it up chap!

Cheers

[Si Benson]

Thanks for the input chaps, much appreciated :thumb2:


Managed to get to the bench for a few hours today and got the tail wings and canopy areas masked and sprayed also the underside painted up.
It’s had a clear coat and I’ll get on with the decals once it dried.


Quite pleased with it currently.....I really hope the decals play nicely :thinking:

Thanks for looking

[yak face]

Looking excellent si , the pre shading worked lovely , perfect for the tomcat too ad the later darker grey aircraft ( as opposed to the light gull grey and white hi viz early ones) seemed to get very stained and dirty looking in service, cheers tony

[Mickc1440]

That looks really nice Si, looking forward to seeing it marked up.

[Fernando N]

Very nice work of the pre-shade and the paintjob Si.:thumb2:

Looking forward to see the markings on.

[Jim R]

Hi Si
Lovely paint job. Decals will really bring it to life.
Jim

[rtfoe]

Ooh...missed this Si. Really nice paint job pre-shade and all. I always shudder when it comes to decaling.

Cheers,
Richard

[Si Benson]

Morning folks,
Thanks for looking in and for the approval of the painting so far:smiling4:

Moving onto decals.......now be prepared for a distinct drop in standards, F14 fans look away now:sad:

I made some mistakes with the decals, probably compounded by my choice to put them on late on Friday night.
My biggest problem was accidental touching previously laid decals.
The American flag thingy on the left wing got damaged beyond use (stuck to my finger and folded into ball) so had to use one meant for the underside:upside:
Two large blue strips either side of the cockpit crumbled when I put the Microsol on and had to be picked off, the paint underneath was damaged and I had to respray both sides.



The two yellow stripped things on the wing tips went on ok but I knocked one out of place without realising!
I’ve since scrapped them both off and painted them on instead.



The ones I feared most on the tail went on nicely to my amazement :smiling4: . The red piece on the tail tip needed a lot of decal softener and fiddling to get it placed....should of just painted them on!
And a huge light grey one underneath the folding wing...again could of been painted on?.




The front decals went on. I had the plane upside down when I put them on and the yellow arrow marked ‘rescue’ got put on upside down on both sides as a consequence :flushed:



On the opposite side..... the large number got dislodged and was later found stuck on the handle of a paintbrush, the microsol had softened it really well and it took about 25 minutes of swearing to get it uncurled and put back on....hence the distinct bendy application:smiling5:



The shark mouth on the nose creased and wrinkled and made more swearing happen. After a further 20 mins it gave in and it was on. Sadly it wasn’t until next day I realised my mistake....the two halves should of met underneath but now have a gap:sad:



The ‘Navy’ decals then proceeded to fold, twist, crease and generally aggravate me!


So a late night, to much wine and being way too tired are all things that don’t go with adding decals!
Excuses, excuses I know.....I’ll have to mark this up as a practice piece and try harder next time.

Still more decals to add once my nerves settle.
Thanks for looking folks, apologies for the disaster:flushed:

[Jim R]

Hi si
Sorry mate - a lesson for all of us. When its late and we're tired none of us are at our best. I'm sure that coming at the rest in a better frame of mind it will all be good.
Jim

[Si Benson]

Hi si
Sorry mate - a lesson for all of us. When its late and we're tired none of us are at our best. I'm sure that coming at the rest in a better frame of mind it will all be good.
Jim

Hi Jim,
A lesson indeed!.Hopefully I’ll learn from this:thinking::smiling5:
Decals have always been my nemesis. I don’t display or show my builds so once it’s done it’ll get stuffed in a box in the loft:smiling5:
Fingers crossed I won’t spoil too much more:upside:

[Guest]

I feel your pain. Decals have been by far the trickiest thing for me so far. Hopefully we'll both have better luck next time :thumb2: