Peterpools

John Beautiful cammo work and nothing like shooting with enamels - sure wish they would make a comeback here in the states. Tamiya's fit: amazing. Fingers crossed the Aires bomb bay set arrives today.

Carl Nice start of the LED lighting and the perfect solution to the fit issue - results look spot on. Sometimes it hard to realize the chosen paint color was not good and start over but the new choice seems to work well. Nice work on the louvers.

Carl Looking so good and having to deal with decal issues right at the end of the build. Agreed, just leave the decals now as is, and bring her across the line.

Kurok Thank you for the link - some very impressive work.

Rob WOW, gorgeous work! WNW details are amazing and your treatment: brilliant. Chipping is looking mighty good as well.

Sure hope so, as I've also followed a number of builds and none seem to have had anywhere near a gap that large.

Thanks Carl, much appreciated. The past few days of bench time have been devoted to finishing and weathering the landing gear and as well, applying the zillion of Tamiya decals for the loadouts - easily a good weeks' worth of work ahead.

Jeff Spot on. Just an incredible build and there isn't an update that doesn't include at least one mini tutorial or how to!🏆

Thanks Rob, even at my tender old age, I'm always learning and try to pass it on in my build threads. I've also been on the learning end 100 times more when following builds on the forum.

Looks awesome for sure. 👍

Scott So sorry to hear this and my prayers are with you both. I'm a cancer survivor and I know what you both are going through. Just be there for Mary and the two of you will win the battle together. .

Carl Sounds very intriguing. If you can, just PM the address and I'll look them up online if they are still available. Much appreciated.

Gus Glad it's working out and everything is under control. Just seems with a 3D resin kit, you shouldn't have had some of the fit issues you are experiencing.

Rob Sound like the way to go. I tend to thin my X22 1 pt X22 to 2 pts Self Leveling thinner and after a few coats, a smooth glossy surface starts to come into play. I'll take a look at their website and the vendor I use here in the starts for parts and maybe I'll get lucky.

Thanks Rob I'll give it a try. For decades, I've used a needle in a pin vice to locate the center starting hole for the drill bit and rarely ever had it centered.

Mark Looks A-OK and you're now moving forward.

Thanks Chris, much appreciated. Glad I'm able to include some useful information and tips in my updates.

CONTINUED PROGRESS With bench time being at a premium this past week, I was surprised at the progress made. The nose section was basically completed and glued to the fuselage, with the fit typical Tamiya, nice, tight and almost perfect. Whereas on most kits, access panel meant to be displayed open have some fit issues when closing them up, but on the Big Cat, fit was excellent. The wings have been completed and are being test fitted and ready for priming. The gear has been built up, exceptionally well detailed and care needs to be exercised as the numerous parts require a precise fit and a delicate touch. At this point, they have been primed and painted with Tamiya Gloss White LP2 lacquer, thinned and about six thin coats did the job nicely. The loadouts have been built as well, primed and painted with Tamiya Gloss White LP2 lacquer and applied as with the gear for the base gloss color. Tamiya provides a wonderful assortment of missiles for the F-14A Tomcat: AIM-54A Phoenix (four included) AIM-7E Sparrow (four included) AIM-9G/H Sidewinders (four included) Different versions of the missiles are included in the kit, which I’m assuming are for the F-14D and I haven’t opened up the kit yet. My Eduard mask set had arrived and good few late-night hours were needed to complete the masking. Since I am planning on having the Tomcat’s canopy open, I purchased the set for both the outside and inside framing. A bit tricky to apply but all is well. Wheels and tires were built up, primed and painted with Tamiya Rubber Black LP65. Masking the wheels was a bit finicky but is still the best option for painting. For variation and trying to show different areas of the Tomcat were painted at different times, as well as the missiles and drop tanks coming from other manufactures, whose whites would have been a different hue and color or painted by maintenance on board, I’ve so far used two different Gloss White lacquers, all applied over gray primer and applied with a different number of coats – the whites look so very different. So far whites used: MRP FS 17875 … all intake assemblies and planning on using it for the underside of the aircraft. Tamiya LP2 – loadouts and gear Mr Color 1 Gloss White will be used for the gloss white control surfaces.

Thanks Carl for the tip - I'll give it a try but where I really fall short is drilling out machine gun barrels and the like; I have been struggling trying to center my pin vice and drill for decades and almost never get it centered.

Rob AB work looks awesome, and I really like the additional tips for the H&S air brushes. I'm going to see if H&S makes them for their Infinity CR Plus air brushes. I've always been a big fan of Tamiya X-22 Clear Gloss as it is being an acrylic, is super safe to use over any paint or decals. I also have been using a lot of Tamiya LP9 Lacquer Clear Gloss as it's virtue, once down and dry, is imperious to anything being applied on top of it. Both are my go-to clears and have never let me down.

Easily must have had its share of cuss words for sure.

Guy Just go slow and the water will come out looking mighty good. back in my model railroading days, I modeled lots of water and by keeping the layers thin and letting each layer thoroughly dry, bubbles were not much of a problem but needed to be dealt with as you are doing right away. Looking mighty good.

Kev Some mighty nice work on the launches - just a shame on such an expensive kit, they came void of any details.

John Great choice for a 'fill in' build until the bomb bay Aires set arrives. It's easy to see all the work: sanding and filler needed to whip this T-28 into shape. Nice choice of not to often seen markings.

Gus Yikes, the Viggen is really turning into a challenge. For any gap that it too big for CA and I wouldn't trust filler on for fear of cracking down the road, I go with small pieces of strip styrene, sanded to shape, solid down the road. The only issue is the initial strip needs to be glued to the fuselage with CA or epoxy, as it is the weak link with resin.