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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

Tamiya 1/48 F-14A; Update: 4/19/24 - DONE AND IN THE BOOKS


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Wow Peter, if there is no book around, you can have a nice read on your missiles. Sometimes, I wonder about the service crews training, if they need these heap of stencils.
The painful task was worth it, the missiles look fantastic. My last stenciling exodus was the ZM 1/48 Kai Phantom, which had about a telephone book of information spread around, my not so great urge to build modern jets, vanished a bit by then.

Cheers Rob

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Chris,

Very much appreciated. Surely was a lot of tedious work to apply all of the decals but without them, the missiles would look just close to naked for sure. Only negative, is the four Pheonix missiles are up under the fuselage and wings and not much will be seen - but I knowing it's there just in case and does look good.

Thank you for the comments on the PLW's - for mew, I use the, very lightly and have gone away from using black and use a dark brown or gray instead, as a mean s of picking out the details and adding a bit of 'use' but not over doing it - more like a newly use look. Seems it's working.

 

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Rob, thanks so very much, 

Agree that on the Real Deal, I doubt the crews and maintainers actually read all the stencil data after the aircraft after the aircraft/missile has been in service for a while. It's almost as if the operational maintenance manual has been painted on the aircraft and stores. I wonder how long it stays readable and how much is replaced when/if needed?

I do remember your Kai Phantom - awesome build and it seems no matter how much stencil data is added, there is always more to go. My guess is, the F4's easily hold the record for the amount of stencil data on an aircraft.

One thing for sure between the kit and Furball decals, almost every stencil marking is included and no way will I be using anywhere near half that amount - just want the flavor.

 

  

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IT AIR BRUSH TIME

Work continues with most of the color coats done. With all the rain forecasted for the next few days, painting the aluminum leading edges will have to wait until the end of the week and better weather.

Priming:

With all the sub-assemblies and the fuselage completed, it was time to head for the spray booth, spend a good few hours priming and checking for redos. I was pretty amazed there were only a few small redo’s to take care of.

Primer of choice: MRP Gray Primer, applied with my Iwata Eclipse HP-CS; 3.5 tip.

Color Coats:

Initially the undersides and control surfaces were going to be painted in Insignia White FS17875 but both MRP and Tamiya lacquer versions seemed to be a bit too tannish in hue to match the photographs in my Daco Tomcat reference book but most likely the correct color. I decided to go with Tamiya Lacquer for the first coat and when dried, still seemed a bit off color to my eye. When the second color coat went on, very well thinned out Tamiya X2 Gloss White over the Insignia white base coat, the white matched the book very well.

The topcoat was MRP Light Gull Gray FS36440 and no issues at all. Being a mat finish and needing FS16440 a gloss finish, I very gently wiped down all the Gull Gray with a Tamiya 3000 sanding sponge and smooth as silk, as I didn’t have the correct FS paint in my MRP stash. 

The Furball mask set was used for the upper control surfaces – worked perfectly, saving a lot of time and frustration in masking out all the hinges.   

Next up was all the orange tips everywhere there was a tip to be found. And of course, the only orange I had was an old bottle of Italeri acrylic FS12197, the correct FS number, but the paint was unusable, pretty well dried up in the bottle. I mixed the orange as close as I could get with Tamiya lacquers: Pure Red (2 pts) and Pure Yellow (3 pts) ... looks good and time to move on.

Just so hard to believe how much masking has been required on the Big Cat to this point. Seems to me the hobby has become:

The many uses of Tamiya masking tape.

Wings and stabilizers are only being test fit for the photographs and will be added at the end of the build, which is still a good way off. 

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  • Peterpools changed the title to Tamiya 1/48 F-14A; Update: 4/3/24 - Airbrush Time

HI Chris

We have gas heat and it's on but at this stage of the build, no need to take a chance. Waiting a few days surely won't hurt or slow me down as I've been in low gear for the build - just too many medical issues to deal with right now to work at a steady pace.  

 

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Coming along very well Peter. I agree about the Tamiya masking tape. It does a great job and I use a LOT of it! Beats the heck out of Scotch tape which was the standby for a long time.

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Thanks John

Yup, I do remember those days for sure.  Just seems Tamiya must make more money on its non-modeling products then kits - my bench is overflowing with them 😉

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Looking great Peter and absolutely dynamic. I didn´t wonder at all, when you described, there were only a very few blemishes after priming. I had a huge reload of Tamiya Kabuki tape lately, as some builds require virtually square meters. If you want some relaxation from the Kabuki burden, build a WNW AEG. There is nearly no masking involved, if only because you don´t dare to put tape onto the overall lozenge decals :D.

Cheers Rob

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17 hours ago, JohnB said:

Coming along very well Peter. I agree about the Tamiya masking tape. It does a great job and I use a LOT of it! Beats the heck out of Scotch tape which was the standby for a long time.

I should buy stock in Tamiya when we have group builds.  My He 111 is burning through a lot! I feel a Sprue Bros order coming on after I’m done. 

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Thanks Scott, very much appreciated. Looking forward to seeing your decaling update and you are way ahead of me. I just finally finished masking out all the leading edges that will receive a 'polished aluminum' finished and getting ready to shoot the Gloss black base. Loads of small painting to do as well including the burner cans. Another boatload of Tamiya tapes was used today. :construction:

 

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Rob, very much appreciated and that sure is an terrific reason to build a WNW's kit. I just finished masing out all the leading edges for their NMF and felt as I used a good few square feet of Tamiya tape again.

:construction:

 

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