Global Scale Modeller

So, I managed to snag the Hasegawa 1/48 F-14 Idol Masters kit. Ive been wanting the F-15, but since purple is my favorite color, I grabbed this when I had a chance. Its not easy to get as it is a Japan only release. This one was affordable and I happened to see the listing as soon as it went up. Got lucky.







So, I set to building it. As with any kit, the pit is first. I was not planning on adding any aftermarket. The whole point of this is to have a purple 14 with anime girls on it, NOT to be accurate. That was the plan anyway...







So that went fairly well. No major issues. I have a tendency to jump steps at this point. Very often I will do the exhausts and intakes next regardless of order. So I set to that. Now is when I started to hate this kit. I will not be buying another Hasegawa 14. At least not in 48. the cross in the middle of the exhaust is thick and impossible to remove without damaging the petal on the exhaust.





So after much cursing I had to get an aftermarket set, which I did not want to do. *sigh*. So I got that done...





So then on to the body and all that mess. The design of the wheel wells sucks IMO. The fit is meh all around. Had I thought that I could manage these decals on one of my Revell 14s, I would have chucked this and used one of those. But, I managed. Now, on to the decals.

The decals. I can not accurately describe how much these things SUCK. Thick and BRITTLE. I have dealt with decals from 1969 that performed better than these things. They break and crack at the drop of a hat. They are NOT as precise a fit to the model as you would hope. They provide white decals for the leading and trailing edges. They are so freaking brittle they are essentially unusable for that. AND they are not opaque enough. I tried one wing and gave up. Decided to mask and paint the white as close to the decal shapes as I could.





As you can see, they dont match up properly. You can see all the chips and what not where the decal just flaked off. I had to get up and walk away. Didnt go back for over a week. Then I masked for two hours and sprayed the white...



Dreading the upcoming battle, I tackled the big decal, the central thing of the whole project, the girl. Im not going to go into details, but trust me, it was everything I had to make look not horrible. I used more Solvaset on that one decal than I do on an entire build most of the time.





So thats where it stands. I am gonna do more decal stuff today. Just wanted to share. Once I finish this, I shall dive into the UH1-Y for the copter build.

i love so much this decoration, so sexy (and so japanese, i didn't know that the JASDF had F-14! That's a great new! )

Your doing a great job of getting that decal set to perform. Don't give up on it to a viewer it looks far more than passable which might be what your thinking being the builder.

The Japanese are an odd lot sometimes
The funny thing is they produce this stuff for interest and not just for money’s sake

digger303 wrote: Fri Aug 04, 2023 1:22 am Your doing a great job of getting that decal set to perform. Don't give up on it to a viewer it looks far more than passable which might be what your thinking being the builder.

Oh, you don't see the issues in pics. But I do realize I am uber critical.

Twokidsnosleep wrote: Fri Aug 04, 2023 7:07 am The Japanese are an odd lot sometimes
The funny thing is they produce this stuff for interest and not just for money’s sake

They are actually carachters from a game. They did DLC of the carachters on planes for Ace Combat 6.

https://acecombat.fandom.com/wiki/THE_iDOLM@STER

So, I got the exhausts on, the top and side decals done and then to work on the issues with the white parts...



As I mentioned, the white decals are not opaque enough. But there are several that have stencils in clear built in to allow the purple underneath. So I figured I was screwed and just have to live with because I couldnt really mask that. In this pic you can clearly see how the color under shows through the white parts. There are 4 roses. Top and bottom of each wing tip and the stenciling you see on the flap.



So, I was digging around for something else and notice there were 4 rose decals all on their own. Which made me actually look hard at the rest of the sheets and lo and behold, there was the lettering. Someone at Hasegawa had the sense to include these in for someone who wanted to just paint the white parts like I ended up doing. So I have to retract some of the nasty things I said out loud about the people who designed these decals.



So now, I have it primarily built. All decals done. Front landing gear on. Rear ones are drying as I sprayed them again once I got them together. Install those, the antennae and gear bay doors and chin pod and should be done.

I finally put the wraps on this one last night. Ill post all the pics in my portfolio.

smokeriderdon wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2023 2:40 pm I finally put the wraps on this one last night. Ill post all the pics in my portfolio.

You did a marvellous piece of modelling. Looks just like the way the creator first drew it.

Thank you sir.