dmthamade

Excellent work Don! Looks awesome!
 
HÃ¥kan

Simply outstanding! A very eyecatching scheme, and you've made it look truly great representation.
 
Sincerely, Tom

Finally have all decals down and sealed with a clear coat. This took almost a week working on and off. Lots of stencils on this one, i think the grey background could have been bigger on the stencils. The placement sheet for these was a little hard to see, i used the kit placement instructions as well. The decals themselves were nice and thin, worked great. I used the kit formation light strips as the Two Bobs ones were undersize. Next up will be a wash for the panel lines.
 


 
Don

More progress on the Spitfire. I engraved a few panel lines that I had missed as well as sanded down some fish eye marks in the paint. I then gave it a light post shading on the upper wings and top of the fuselage. This is the first time I've tried something like this. It doesn't show too well in the pics probably because of the lighting but it's there.
 

 
After unmasking the invasion stripes, i noticed a slight omission:
 

 
Yup, no black stripes 
 

 
So, out with a bunch of masking tape:
 

 
And a quick spray of Tamiya XF-1 later:
 

 

 
Now to let things dry a bit.
 
Carl
 

Maybe the reason is a little simpler.
Like Tamiya can release it for far cheaper in Japan than Italeri can. As Tamiya have had a license agreement for years to release Italeri stuff for Japanese market why wouldn't they release the Starfighter?
Another kit that is far better in the flesh than what you hear from the Hypercritics..
At a list of 8800 on HLJ it will be 10-15% cheaper in stores..way cheaper than Italeri's price.

Took 2 hours to spray the blue. I did it free hand because I figured that some crew members in the middle of the desert were probably not going to bother masking it up and plus I like free handing with the airbrush. Gunze colours were used; light grey 334, navy blue 54 and green brown 402. Even though H54 is US Navy blue, it does have a green tinge to it which I'm rather happy with.
 

 

More paint. I actually managed to get a little less dust in this than normal....bloody dust. I don't know if I should freehand or mask the camo pattern yet.
 

 

And more
 
And more....
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello all!! I'm thinking about the F-14A Tomcat flown by VF-1. I'm good with the dates in the rules (april 30 1975), but the CAP mission  i'm wondering about. Could i get a yay or nay ruling, will have to start getting stuff together and will also have to finish my JASDF Eagle first.
 
Don

Hello just finnishd a few min. ago.
 
The canopy is not gleud in place.
And my second try on the foil but not the last one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Mark

Fantastic build!! What an idyllic setting for such a lethal war machine.
 
Don

Yep, viscosity and air pressure, as well as distance from subject.

Thank you MARU5137!! The colors look all wrong, don't know how to "fix" camera settings or get lighting right. I went back and did more masking/painting around some grills and the refueling receptacle. Researching this particular aircraft shows the paint invarious states from paint booth fresh to really beat up. I'm tempted to do more weathering using a bit of artistic license, something in between fresh paint and multiple repairs/touch-ups.
 



 
Will start thinking about the metal areas at the rear top and bottom of the fuselage. Seems to be a lot darker than the American F-15.
 
Don

Hmmm, a PTO Mustang, Corsair or T-Bolt all weathered up would look fantastic on this base.
 
Don

It is true that all of this type of pricing always seems to come down.  You are however paying for all that internal jazz that peeps like me will never utilize as I am definitively not an open-panels-wings-folded kinda guy.

Mmm hello guys wakey wakey wth is boystown anyway?
Rather than immediately launch into the whole "here we go again this Mk5 supersnipe is so overpriced" routine..
How about you even look at the other sellers other prices to see if they are a "gouger".
Well they charge 119£ for the AFV club F-16 2 seater.
I paid under that in AUD so clearly the price is NOWHERE near what it will be when its released.
Use your heads..seriously if you think a UK based hobby shop the other side of the world from where a kit is being produced is an "accurate reflection" of retail price let me know ill ship you some prozac..you need it badly.

Very sad and I'm sure I've unwittingly taken advantage of deals like this on Ebay before, for sure if I passed away tomorrow I'd like to think my stash would go to fellow modellers through auction and proceeds go to my estate, buts its more likely, as (I'm single now) local council  would use it as landfill. and that's the harsh truth.
 
SSculptor makes very valid points, you cant take stash with you when you go and I for sure have certainly started to build more in 2014 and hope to stash less.
 
You aint never seen a hearse with a U-haul trailer behind it guys, lets get building.

Guys, it;s sad, but, uh, maybe some of y'all with hundreds or even thousands of kits in your stash ought to perhaps think about this:
 
You can't take it with you. And you aren't going to live forever.

Thanks for the encouragement. These techniques should be quite a bit easier to pull off in 32nd scale. I'm finding that my previously preferred scale of 48th is a bit of a challenge with my nearly 50 year old eyeballs. Near vision really went to hell in the last couple years.

Did some panels not perfect, but I started on the bottom to get the feel for it. I used steel wools, 2000 grit sand paper to try some different graining. Some I did in a straight line some on circles.
 

 
Here's an old cargo metro at work I used for some inspiration
 

Update..
 
Doing some trials with foil. Out2getcha has been helping me along.
 

 
More to come!

Dave, thank you very much for the review. I have bought one at the show in Putte on Sunday and I have to say I am not yet too sure what to think about it. I absolutely WANT to like this kit as it definitely is a big step forward compared with the old Revell and Hasegawa kits. The fit looks quite good after a first dry assembly and I also like the groove lines on the flat surfaces such as the wings. Then, the possibility to open the electronics compartment behind the cockpit is very nice as this one was very often seen open. Overall shape and proportions seem to be pretty good, but I have to check again with the clear parts fitted.
Decals look excellent at the first glimpse but I didn't have time to check if they are correct or not. The cockpit is basic and the PE parts for the panels are completely useless, but anyway, I always use resin cockpits and seats on my 32nd scale models. On the other hand, if you put a figurine into the cockpit as I will probably do with my first kit, a new seat and a nice paintjob should do the trick as the cockpit is pretty small. Some more sidewall structures would have been nice, though. But then, I am pretty sure there would have been many sinking marks on the fuselage sides in these areas, just as on the gun bay covers. The engine nozzles are less than ideal. Then, offering both nozzles in opened and closed position or in opened position ONLY would have been a better choice.
The one thing I really don't like at all are the groove lines on the fuselage, expecially those on the upper curved surfaces. Not only they are very wide, they are also extremely different in width and depth on the two fuselage halves which will make rescribing these areas absolutely necessary IMO. I think a NMF finish will be pretty hard to get right. The incorrect narrow main gear wheels are a rather stupid error. In addition, they do not even look correct for A or C versions. The front wheel hub with two different sizes looks pretty strange to me as well.
In summary, I think we should be happy with what we have got from Italeri. Resin manufaturers will soon cover the less detailed areas such as the wheel bays, cockpit, gun compartment and engine. There are already lots of decals on the market, many more will follow. I am pretty sure we will see many nicely built Starfighters soon. I personally hope this kit will be a success and that Italeri will continue developing 1/32nd scale kits.

I am not going to touch on the value for money topic but I can say when I opened mine I was reminiscent of when I opened my Kenitic Sabre kit.
 
I am going to withhold making any conclusions until I build it in RCAF Bare Alum markings and see what I get. With the addition of Harold's cockpit my Sabre turned out actually impressing me. It really makes a nice little kit.

Thanks, guys!! For some reason i try to finess the fit of parts instead of using putty. Getting back to the area around the gun, i added some shim stock to eliminate the gap at the rear. This still leaves a gap at the bottom.
 

 
Instead of filling, i took a razor saw and cut a slot through the inside below the gun.
 

 
I shimmed the slot and let the gap widen by itself.
 

 
What i get for this work is no gap. The shims can't be too long or they will interfere eith the fit of the gun.
 

 
I also added some stock to the rear of the fuselage to aid in alignment and add strength.
 

 
Don

Thanks, guys. So far the build is going smoothly with no hiccups. Last night i finished gluing the lower wings on and today i checked the dryfit of the fuselage/wing assembly to the lower fuselage part. The fit is good, alignment will need a bit of work.
 


 
One spot around the gun opening and doors will need filling with shim stock, always been a problem on all the Tamiya Eagles i've done.
 

 
Thw lower wing to lower fuselage joint needs a little work, the wing surface sits higher than the fuselage. I shim this with some white Evergreen strip stock glued onto the wing surface. This aligns the two surfaces level. The joint may need a bit more work but the alignment is good.
 


 
Little more work then i can close up the fuselage.
 
Don