Tamiya F-15C Kicked Up A Notch- Dec 1/17: DONE!

[chuck540z3]

Beautiful Chuck! Your kerosene burner is coming along very nicely. I'm surprised that the Tamiya gloss black lacquer fish eyes so badly on the resin bits. I've not run in to that before. One thing I've started to use is Tamiya's semi-gloss clear lacquer spray for my finish coats as opposed to dead flat (although I use that too for certain items). I find that if I literally blush the last coat on I get something just off of a dead flat sheen and I think it looks much better. Just a suggestion and not in any way a criticism.

 

Love what you're doin' Chuck!

 

Cheers,

Wolf

 

 

 

Thanks for the tip Wolf!  I'm always wanting to learn new things, so I'll give that a try.

 

 

 

I'm not Chuck, but yeah, that's what he means - spraying down onto the detail from a high angle, so that the new paint leaves shadows of black.

 

Kev

 

 

Ditto what Kevin said Mike.  Spraying from above is an old trick that can sometimes look really effective.

 

[Vandy 1 VX 4]

Hi Chuch thanks for the tutorial.

Did you get the DVD? Will it help?

[chuck540z3]

Hi Chuch thanks for the tutorial.

Did you get the DVD? Will it help?

 

Not yet Danny, but I'll be sure to let you know when I do.

 

Thanks,

Chuck

[sax003]

Gloss Model Master enamels take about a week to dry, so this was a significant step forward if you use enamels and are as impatient as I am to get on with it!

 

 Thanks for the tips, Chuck, and I can't wait to see it finished!

 

Edited March 10, 2016 by sax003

[chuck540z3]

March 15/16

 

 

As I promised earlier, I will try to go step by step as to how I paint and detail resin cockpits.  The advantage of resin is the nice fine detail that kit plastic rarely has, but this detail is very hard to paint, partly because it usually comes in a large piece and you can't paint and mask off individual parts.  Sooner or later, you will need to brush paint some of this tiny detail, but before I get to that stage, I will spray paint every part I can.  This is partly because I suck at brush painting, but it's also because I can create shadows with an airbrush that will never work with a brush. 

 

As shown above, I painted all the cockpit parts with gloss black Krylon enamel decanted from a rattle can.  After the paint dried and cured for one week, I sprayed all parts with Tamiya acrylic X-22 clear gloss to seal the paint and provide a protective coat from paint solvent.  With each successive layer of paint, you will get some overspray, so with X-22 on the black enamel, you can rub off the overspray with a microbrush dipped in ordinary paint thinner, without fear of harming the paint underneath.

 

 

 

 

 

Next I mask off those areas that I want to stay black.  You really don't need to be all that careful with the X-22 sealing the paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overspray on the cockpit instruments on the right was removed with a microbrush dipped in thinner.  On the left where there are many grey parts and fuses, I just sprayed those areas with Dark Gull Grey (FS36321) without masking anything, since the final color around these parts in Bay 5 behind the seat will eventually be white.  As you may know, the interior color of Bay 5 was changed from green to white with 1980 and newer jets and since the Serial of my subject is 800010, it is likely correct.

 

 

 

 

Overspray on the black parts was again removed with solvent, then the grey parts were masked off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After painted the areas around the grey bits white, I touched up the odd black part as required.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So this is as far as I've gone so far.  I still have LOTS of painting to do with a brush to pick out detail with other colors, but all the heavy lifting of painting the main surfaces is done.  Note the shading around raised relief as remnants of the black primer coat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still lots more to do here…..

 

 

 

 

One thing you need to keep in mind is that the top is most of what you'll see when the fuselage is glued together, so there's not much use going nuts with detail on the sides that you might not see.

 

 

[chuck540z3]

Same with the other side…..

 

 

 

 

Same goes for the cockpit.  As nice as that quilting behind the seat is nicely detailed….

 

 

 

 

 

 

You won't see much of it with the seat installed.  This is where the clear coat of X-22 will really “shine†(pun intended) as I paint all the detail between the black panels.  When I screw up- and I will- I can easily remove the wayward paint without affecting the black.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of detail, I have given up on spending countless hours detailing and adding hydraulic lines to wheel wells that will never be seen again like this nose gear well.  The same went for my P-38L build and I don't miss it a bit, although I will detail the main gear wells that can be seen, if only with a mirror.  Having said that, one of the Eduard PE brass kits has a few bits for this wheel well, so I added them as instructed.  By checking the other detail of the kit parts, there is no doubt in my mind that this well is made for an F-15E anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Painted up, they don't look too bad, but I'll add a bit of dark wash later to makes some of it “popâ€.  BTW, I used Tamiya Pure White lacquer as I did in Bay 5.  For those of you who have difficulty getting enough white pigment saturation with enamels or maybe acrylics, you can just keep spraying this stuff until you're happy in one spray session, because it dries so fast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all the detail painting, I'll be adding lots of these fantastic cockpit decals from Peter at Airscale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm really looking forward to using this set.  All that cross-hatched decal film on warning labels will eliminate sloppy work with a Sharpie pen on yellow paint.  Also, have you ever tried to find those “ACES II†labels on the both sides of these seats?  Unless you steal one from another kit, I have no idea where else you can buy them.  Thankfully there are 6 red and 6 yellow ones there in the middle.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will, however, be taking a step or two backwards with the Aires PE instrument panel.  As good as it is already, these bad boys should really add some nice detail to some of the major instrument faces, so I'm going to make up a new one from another Aires kit.

 

 

 

 

You can see I've used one already.  More on that in the weeks ahead.

 

 

 

 

 

It will be awhile until my next update, because all this picky cockpit work takes a long time.  Thanks for your continued interest in this project.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited March 15, 2016 by chuck540z3

[dodgem37]

Nice work, Chuck.  Really good show.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[Ironwing]

Far too talented for a human... you are human right?

 

[Guest Peterpools]

Chuck
Beautiful work on the front office and so greatly appreciate the detailed tutorial. Cockpits are my favorite part of any build and just behind painting in enjoyment. Never to old to learn new techniques.
Keep 'em coming
Peter

Edited March 15, 2016 by Peterpools

[A-10LOADER]

Stellar work as always Chuck. Another masterpiece in the making.

 

 

Steve

[geedubelyer]

That's a neat start Chuck.

I appreciate the clarity of the photography which really shows the detail in the resin. You are in for a treat picking out all of the knobs, buttons and cable ties etc.

 

Nice to see Peter's new modern jet stuff in use. Those are definitely on my wish list to treat myself to at some point.

 

Keep at it.

 

Cheers.

[alaninaustria]

Wow! Some really outstanding work going on here!!

[Norm In Toronto]

I asked - you delivered!! 

 

Thanks Chuck, for the painting tutorial. The use of X-22 as a barrier coat is something I'm definitely going to try.

 

Looking forward to the "detail" work.

 

Norm.

Edited March 15, 2016 by Norm In Toronto

[chuck540z3]

I asked - you delivered!! 

 

Thanks Chuck, for the painting tutorial. The use of X-22 as a barrier coat is something I'm definitely going to try.

 

Looking forward to the "detail" work.

 

Norm.

 

 

Thank you everyone.  I was hesitant to show interim work on the cockpit, but with Norm's request above, I thought I would throw it out there anyway.  A few takeaways I didn't mention earlier:

 

1)  As detailed as the Avionix resin pit is, it's also full of of crap, molding agent and other flaws that need to be removed before painting.  As usual, I discovered a number of these hidden flaws after a first coat of paint, so go easy on this coat so that you don't have too much build up with subsequent coats of paint.  All that fine detail can be buried fairly quickly if you overdo the painting layers.

 

2)  I am on my third resin cockpit, or at least I hope to be soon.  That little thin peak covering the front of the Aires glare shield was broken straight out of the box and I cannot repair it, because I tried.  I was going to just live with it with some CA glue repairs that didn't look too bad, but I found another Aires kit on ebay that wasn't too much money, but it seems to be taking forever coming from the UK.  If you look at one of my earlier pics below, you can see it chipped off the front:

 

 

 

3)  The good news, if you can call it that, is that another cockpit set will give me another opportunity to re-do the instrument panel, using the Airscale PE brass.  The original IP, as detailed as it is, could use a bit more 3D relief, so I think the new IP will look a lot better.

 

4)  If you don't have X-22 as a clear acrylic sealer, Future will work too, but I find it a bit too thick for fine detail that I'm trying to preserve.

 

5)  One the side panel for Bay 5 where I first painted grey enamel followed by white lacquer, I should have painted it in the reverse order.  While the grey enamel is easily removed with paint thinner, the white lacquer is not.  With a few touch ups here and there, however, things still came out OK.

 

6)  Some of you may have noticed the the gloss black enamel is too black for the seat and some of the parts in Bay 5.  With dry brushing to create some wear and a final dull coat, these parts will lighten significantly and many will be repainted.  I used to apply the exact black color I wanted first, like flat black lightened with a bit of white, but after dry brushing everything came out too light, so now I keep everything as dark as possible to be lightened later.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[chuck540z3]

March 22/16

 

After many hours with steady hands, I have some more cockpit pics to share, although I am still missing the instrument panel.  My new Aires one hasn't arrived yet after being shipped a month ago, so I may need to go with the old one after all.

 

Anyway, for all my prep of getting the larger areas of the pit painted with my airbrush, sooner or later you need to pull out the real brushes to finish things off.  Here's my painting tools, with a tiny 18/0 “spotter†hair brush on the left, followed by a variety of microbrushes that I soak in thinner to remove painting mistakes, and a few microbrushes with the heads pulled off to act as “brushes†where only paint contact is required, like on the raised switches of the IP and console. 

 

 

 

 

After carefully painting the cockpit as closely as I could with thinned enamel paint, using Jakes' “Modern Eagle Guide†as a reference, I added a variety of Peter's Airscale cockpit decals to finish things off and add a little more realism.  My hands are not as steady as they used to be, but overall I'm pretty happy with the results.

 

 

 

 

From this angle you can see those terrific emergency pull handle decals and a few instrument labels.  Throttle handle was cut off the Aires cockpit because the Avionix one was horrible, although the Aires kit does supply a spare throttle which was not cast nearly as nice as the one on the console. 

 

 

 

 

 

The decal set also comes with the very difficult to find, red and white “Aces II†decals for the side of the seat on either side.  Unfortunately the Aires seat has this label raised, so I had to melt the decal into the raised relief.

 

 

 

 

 

 

More placard decals came in handy in Bay 5 as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Jake's book the wiring is mostly beige/brown, so I went with this color to make the cables stand out a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The front and back of Bay 5 were detailed as well, along with some small parts that can't be installed until the fuselage is buttoned up.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the starboard side of  Bay 5, showing all the electrical fuses, etc…..

 

 

 

 

 

This is how things will generally look when canopy is raised, although I bet you have to really squint to see a lot of that detail in the back.

 

 

Edited March 21, 2016 by chuck540z3