Another Tomcat | 1/48 | Academy | F-14A

[Parker]

And so it begins. A Tomcat. Academy model 12253, to be precise.

Again, with thanks to the good folk here who show & share their knowledge my last model was the best I’ve done, IMHO. Certainly, nothing compared to the outstanding models on other threads in here (seriously, the level of detail is absolutely amazing) … but I do what I can.

First up the pilots & cockpit.

As I’m a newbie, and perhaps this is just me, my attention to the pilot(s) & cockpit up until this point, has been scant. Previously I would’ve just whacked a bit of green (any green that was close to hand in the tackle box) on the pilot, then slapped a bit of black in/on the cockpit and that was that.
However, this time I’ve painted his boots & gloves, black! Look at me learning. Internal dialogue screaming NOBODY WILL SEE HIS FEET. Shut up, I know they are painted. But I digress.

So this is where I’m up to. I’ve painted the pilots; I’ve taken my time with the cock pit and instrument panels. I even googled “FA14 cockpit” to try to get a bit of an idea of what it should look like.

Looking ahead, I see a lot of folk doing pre shading with an airbrush on the big bits*
(*newbie technical term, keep up).

I have a question. Is there a technique I should look at for pre shading without the use of an airbrush? I’m tempted to just give it a go, brush, pin wash, get arty free form jazz, faff about, see what happens. But if there’s an actual technique out there I be interested to investigate further.

As always… thoughts, answers, suggestions welcome.

Anyway. Status update, images.

-P

[Hawkmoon]

Nice start on her

[Parker]

Cheers Hawk.

[Parker]

Status update.

Cockpit & pilots done. I tried a bit of weathering, I'll say they’re done but I’ll probably give them a touch up before putting the canopy on and masking. Lost both joysticks somewhere as they pinged out of the tweezers. I really need to improve my tweezer skills. TBH, to save time, any part smaller than a grain of rice I may as well just put in the bin straight away.

-P

[Parker]

After much fiddling and cursing, I finally got the pilots & cockpit glued within the upper fuselage section. Nothing seemed to line up, and in no particular order, sausage fingers here, broke off both pilots’ heads, part of the seat and the arm off one of the pilots. All glued back on now but for an hour yesterday evening I was not enjoying it. Calmed down and found zen whilst painting the black area around the cockpit. A bit more detailing to be done before I glue down the canopy but its getting there.

-P

[Hawkmoon]

When things are going down hill rapidly take a walk, kick a can about and then maybe go back to it looking good though and nice work

[Parker]

Thanks Hawk, walking away is certainly best practice when its all going sideways.

Update. Found my zen yesterday evening whilst final touch up and weathering of the cockpit & pilots prior to attaching the canopy. I’m still not great at gluing the canopy, always my achilles’ heel. But its done. Then masked. Said my farewells to the pilots, telling them I’ll see them when their plane is complete.

Next up, fixing in place the top & bottom fuselage and incorporating the wings. This stage turned out to be quite easily be the most difficult model thing ive done in my very short time back at this hobby. It took a while but I think ive done it. I’ll give it 24 hrs to cure, peel off the masking tape supports and hope its all holding in place. *crosses fingers*

This evening, if it hasn’t held and my gluing has let go I’ll be walking away, see whats on Netflix, and tackle it again on the weekend.

- P











Stay safe everyone.

[Parker]

I’ll give it 24 hrs to cure, peel off the masking tape supports and hope its all holding in place. *crosses fingers*

Not A Very Exciting Update.



So, after peeling off a few of the masking supports it was evident that in several areas I hadn’t managed to actually glue the upper & lower fuselage components together.

So start again.

Wait 24hrs.

Success!

Started painting.






-P

Stay safe everyone.

[Tomcat64]

That's coming along really nicely mate - even with the hiccups it's throwing at you!

You're doing the right thing by walking away and leaving it when it starts playing up though

And yeah beware the tweezers, they lull you into a false sense of security and pretend to be your friends but they're actually secret agents for the carpet monster

[Parker]

An update.

I’ve painted. After much buggering about, several missteps with incorrect paint & terrible brushes, possibly over egging the pudding with the previously mentioned terrible brushes, I walked away for a couple of days as i felt the Tomcat was getting away from me, fortunately I returned with a new MUCH better brush as was able to stay with it and the underside is complete and I’m happy with it.
The top however has come up a lot darker than I intended and needs work. Still a lot to detail (wheel bays and engine exhaust bits) & fix up the scratches, nicks, etc, unintentionally created by my sausage fingers whist removing the masking tape. Most of which I’ll incorporate into the weathering under the guise of artistic licence.











Stay safe everyone.

- P

[aur0ra145]

Looking good so far!

[Bdiddy]

“sausage fingers here, broke off both pilots’ heads, part of the seat and the arm off one of the pilot” - this comment made me lol
In all seriousness though it’s looking great, looking forward to seeing it finished

[RangerNeil]

You seem to me to be doing very well indeed. Accidents happen and - as Tomcat says - tweezers are the invention of the devil!! Just when you think you have a minute part positioned correctly they ping it into the ether where the carpet monster devours it never to be seen again.

If its any help to you - for large objects such as the one you are working on I have a look at what aerosols/rattle cans/call 'em what you will are available in the required colours and if possible use one of them. All my primer work is done from such cans. One of these days I will get an airbrush.. but till then

[digger303]

You seem to me to be doing very well indeed. Accidents happen and - as Tomcat says - tweezers are the invention of the devil!! Just when you think you have a minute part positioned correctly they ping it into the ether where the carpet monster devours it never to be seen again.

If its any help to you - for large objects such as the one you are working on I have a look at what aerosols/rattle cans/call 'em what you will are available in the required colours and if possible use one of them. All my primer work is done from such cans. One of these days I will get an airbrush.. but till then

I'v been alerted to the fact that tweezers made for screws exist. These have 3 fingers that clamp together that give a more secure hold on round parts if they are big enough. I'm going to look into getting some.

[Parker]

You seem to me to be doing very well indeed. Accidents happen and - as Tomcat says - tweezers are the invention of the devil!! Just when you think you have a minute part positioned correctly they ping it into the ether where the carpet monster devours it never to be seen again.

If its any help to you - for large objects such as the one you are working on I have a look at what aerosols/rattle cans/call 'em what you will are available in the required colours and if possible use one of them. All my primer work is done from such cans. One of these days I will get an airbrush.. but till then

Thanks Neil. I'll certainly look at aerosol for primer on my next build.

[Parker]

Started weathering yesterday evening and will crack on with it tonight when the little one goes to sleep.

I’ll deal with the larger scratches at a later date; however, I’ve made a start on the main body.

My technique is evolving but I’ve gone with what worked on my previous model (Beaufighter). Once the paint colour has been applied, I rub back very lightly with wet/dry sandpaper, then paper towel, then use a 6B pencil to scribe and fill in the panel lines, then rub the graphite with my fingers to ‘dirty up’ the paint job.

Does that make sense?

Anyway, this is the weathering work in progress….

















Thanks for looking in.

Stay safe everyone.

- P

[Parker]

An update.

Its been a couple of weeks since the last update.
Weathering ongoing. Pics below.

Couple of mishaps along the way. Notably, I dropped the model at one point. It fell in slow motion….. and landed nose first. Several bits exploding in several directions. Repairs have been a little from column A, and more from column B. Hidden, or at least attempted to be hidden / disguised with aggressive weathering and strategic placement of transfers.

Anyway, nearly completed.

Updates below.












Stay safe everyone.

- P

[digger303]

What a shame I bet it fell in slow motion and upon impact everything speed up and was a devil of a job to find the bits.
Regardless of that though I'm very pushed to find the coverups and repairs in fact can't spot them at all...

[Kevthemodeller]

All coming along very nicely there mate and an very nice save of the swing wing root

Just love a Tomcat, looking forward to the next update

[Parker]

Cheers fellas.
Bit more to do this evening then, hopefully calling it done.

It’s been a journey. Highs and lows.

[Parker]

Calling this done.













-P

[Kevthemodeller]

Very nice mate

[digger303]

applause all round nice job...

[BigWall]

Very nice! I would never know that it had taken a nose dive.

[Parker]

Very nice! I would never know that it had taken a nose dive.

Cheers.

The nose dive took out the nose cone, a rear wing, a couple of fins underneath and separated the top and bottom parts of the fuselage. Managed to rectify most of it, but, you’ll notice I haven’t taken any close up pics!

[Parker]

[jchrisf]

So cool!

[aur0ra145]

Very nice! Is that a Pukin' Dog paint scheme?

[Parker]

Very nice! Is that a Pukin' Dog paint scheme?

Yes, and no. I went a bit off script with the painting.
(Apologies to the model purists)

[Bdiddy]

Great job mate, stunning build