"Alert 1 to Eagle 1, splash the Zeros!"- Tamiya F-14

[BlrwestSiR]

On 3/26/2023 at 10:05 PM, GazzaS said:

Great rescribing, Carl.  It's still my most hated model related task.

Thanks Gary! I think it's up there with seam filling for me. 

 

9 minutes ago, Bomber_County said:

Ok Carl just seen this…………dare I say little hairy rodent thingy with a bushy tail….………also I have never seen that film in my life……..not sure why, but just passed me by………..if it was in the 80’s I was playing a lot of sport…..

Phil, living near the largest park in the city, there's lots of squirrels around. Our dog Jimmy lives to chase them too. 

If you get the chance to watch the film, the in-flight sequences are great. The Tomcats are the star of the show but you get to see the other planes that made up a carrier air wing from the late '70s, early '80s.  There's also great footage of an A-7 hitting the barriers. 

[Peterpools]

Carl

Awesome video and yes, it does wonderfully show the diversity of aircraft being flown by the Navy in that era.

 

[Martinnfb]

[Martinnfb]

[BlrwestSiR]

More progress on the Tomcat albeit only a little.

I painted the buttons and whatnot on the RIO cockpit and started on the pilot's

I did a base coat on the seats but noticed one is broken and missing a bit. I'll see if I can find something suitable to fix it. 

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Tried to work on the seats but had an interloper request time for petting. 

I did manage to make progress on one of them. 

[BlrwestSiR]

No cat this time so I got a bit more done. 

I decided it was maybe time to make sure things fit so I taped up the front fuselage and checked the fit of the cockpit. The resin tubs needed some sanding off the bottom and then they were ok. 

I then started adding details to the rear tub courtesy of an Eduard PE set I found in the box. It's mostly placards but does contain the breakers. 

 

[Peterpools]

Carl

Nice progress on the front office and ejection seats - nothing better then a well done front office as it always is the central point of interest on large aircraft.

 

[GazzaS]

Very nice progress, Carl...   despite your 'helper'.

[Martinnfb]

Beautiful and clean work. 

[Bomber_County]

Looking good Carl, I miss our furry headed friends, unfortunately all gone now…….

[Bill_S]

On 3/25/2023 at 9:20 AM, CANicoll said:

Very nice work, Carl!  I'm still in awe at panel line rescribing and all.  I can't scribe a straight line to save my life.  Great subject too.  I just have to get going on my next build, to try and keep up with you and the guys.

Others may know this, but I had a revelation while scribing my XB-70. I'm right handed, and I found that if my scriber is on the right side of my Dymo tape, I have a natural tendency to pull the scriber towards the tape. The scriber on the left of the tape, and it wanders aimlessly. Simple, but it's been a game changer for me.

[CANicoll]

6 hours ago, Bill_S said:

Others may know this, but I had a revelation while scribing my XB-70. I'm right handed, and I found that if my scriber is on the right side of my Dymo tape, I have a natural tendency to pull the scriber towards the tape. The scriber on the left of the tape, and it wanders aimlessly. Simple, but it's been a game changer for me.

I may have experienced exactly the same thing!!!  Hmmm.....

[Peterpools]

Yup, scribing is a mysterious art for me and one of the quickest ways of advancing a model to be a permanent resident of the SOD.

[GazzaS]

On 4/14/2023 at 4:43 AM, Bill_S said:

Others may know this, but I had a revelation while scribing my XB-70. I'm right handed, and I found that if my scriber is on the right side of my Dymo tape, I have a natural tendency to pull the scriber towards the tape. The scriber on the left of the tape, and it wanders aimlessly. Simple, but it's been a game changer for me.

I'm glad that works for you.  I can swerve from either side of the Dymo tape.  Just not a steady being, I guess.

[BlrwestSiR]

On 4/13/2023 at 2:43 PM, Bill_S said:

Others may know this, but I had a revelation while scribing my XB-70. I'm right handed, and I found that if my scriber is on the right side of my Dymo tape, I have a natural tendency to pull the scriber towards the tape. The scriber on the left of the tape, and it wanders aimlessly. Simple, but it's been a game changer for me.

I haven't noticed any tendency to pull to one side but I'll have to check it out next time.

[Peterpools]

For me, it's going as slow and carefully as possible and holding my breath with each pass of the scriber. 

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Finally a smidge of progress to report.

Wings are together. They needed some filler on the join line so that's drying. Once I have them smooth, I'll start painting them as they have to be done before installation.

Next up, my order from BNA arrived with the Reskit burner cans. 

I have the Aires ones but they're a bit small. Here's a comparison with the Reskit on the left and the Aires on the right. 

Close-ups of both. You can see the step around the Aires one.

The Reskit are a perfect drop in fit. 

Lastly, I assembled the rear coaming for the canopy. Why they had to make it out of 4 parts, I don't know. 

[Peterpools]

Carl

Nice progress on the Big Cat and good to see the wings together. Thanks for posting the photos of the burner cans as it shows how technology and techniques have advanced - when the Aires cans were the only game in town fit compromises had to be made but with Reskit, it's a whole new ballgame.

 

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Thanks Peter! It's slow progress but I'm making some all the same. 

Speaking of which, I got the rear fuselage section glued together. The engine nacelles aren't completely circular which is probably due to the moulding technology of the day so I've used some strip styrene to fill in the gap and once dry, I'll reshape it. To hold the strip styrene in place while the glue sets, I'm using a bunch of small paint clips. 

Looks like I'm doing acupuncture on the Tomcat.

More cat time too...

[Peterpools]

Carl

Yikes, a lot of work to glue the rear fuselage halves together and I'm sure you are right, that the technology of the day wasn't capable of molding the standards we come to expect. Always seems what we remember of the past, is way better then reality of what it was. 

 

 

[ScottsGT]

Looking great Carl!  
 

I took my open Revell exhaust and sanded them down to about 2/3 the and glued on the Tamiya closed exhausts.  After sprue goo and sanding smooth and rescribing the lines, they look pretty good.  Length may be off now, but I just liked the closed look for once since I got a set with my Revell kit. 

[BlrwestSiR]

4 hours ago, ScottsGT said:

Looking great Carl!  
 

I took my open Revell exhaust and sanded them down to about 2/3 the and glued on the Tamiya closed exhausts.  After sprue goo and sanding smooth and rescribing the lines, they look pretty good.  Length may be off now, but I just liked the closed look for once since I got a set with my Revell kit. 

Thanks Scott! I'm thinking I'll do something similar with the Aires burner cans on my next one. Might as well try and make use of them. 

[ScottsGT]

Hey Carl,  here’s how I modded my Revell exhaust to fit the Tamiya parts. 
 

[BlrwestSiR]

Thanks Scott. Looks like that could work for the Aires ones. 

Meantime, I had the Kits World 3D decals arrive so I tried them out. They're meant for the kit IP and cockpit tub. The Teknics IP is in resin but uses PE for the instruments. Painting the bezels cleanly was giving me conniptions. I figured the Kits World IP might work. So far it's not a bad fit. Some slight trimming and they seem to fit ok. 

The detail isn't as sharp as the ones from Quinta are but they're also a lot cheaper so I'll take it.