1/48 Tamiya F-14A Tomcat - "Rage 207"

[DoogsATX]

Let's have some fun with missiles! A few bitterly cold nights at the bench, too cold to trust myself with the fine work of applying touch-ups to the F-14, so why not get the missiles going?

 

Initial coat of MRP-38, Light Ghost Gray:

 

 

Second pass with a weathered white of Gunze 69 Offwhite and some light, warm gray (just a drop). The Sparrows on my reference shot show a lot of variability and best guess is missiles were hodgepodged (you can see this on a ton of other reference photos - white fins on a gray Sidewinder etc). 

 

 

And...putting some radome tan on the radomes. These, too, showed variability in the references. For the more "tan" ones, I added a base of Gunze Sandgelb. Radome was a mix of Gunze Radome and a few drops of Chrome Yellow, since Gunze's interpretation of radome seemed very flesh-like. 

 

 

Next I'll be masking off the radome, refining the gray, and making things dirtier, per the references - since the Sparrows are currently too light compared to the dirty F-14 belly. 

 

 

[Shaka HI]

Absolutely gorgeous, man...geesh.

[F`s are my favs]

I`m only thinking about what happened to the lower lips of the intakes... why they look so thick? Or maybe there will be some attachable edges? I just can`t remember that exact detail on the Tomcat, but the intake edges should be quite sharp.

[Bryan]

You are doing a brilliant job on this.  I have kind of moved away from jet models, but seeing what you have done here makes me reconsider.

 

I loved the "carved from concrete" look that F-14s from the era always had, and you are capturing it perfectly.  They always looked patchy, blotchy, and stained.

[petrov27]

I`m only thinking about what happened to the lower lips of the intakes... why they look so thick? Or maybe there will be some attachable edges? I just can`t remember that exact detail on the Tomcat, but the intake edges should be quite sharp.

 

Intake lip parts D14 and D15 are not attached/installed yet

 

Looking great - very nice mottle/varied finish

Edited December 10, 2016 by petrov27

[DesTROYer]

Spectacular

[DoogsATX]

Big but not so big update!

 

So first off, I noticed a few nights ago that I forgot to sand down the resin pour nubs on the Sparrow warheads. Ugh. This necessitated some repriming and repainting - and I went ahead and knocked out the AIM-9 heads while I was at it. 

 

 

Back to the big show. The upper surfaces needed a bit more grime, so they got a loose, asymmetric stippling of highly thinned Gunze Tire Black. 

 

 

I'm really, really eager to get into the corrosion control touch-ups, but there's all kinds of little stuff I have to knock out first, and that's been eating my bench time the past several nights.

 

Like...the intake walkways. I used Furball's masks for these, and I'll just say I'm not a fan of the vinyl selected for the masks. It's basically opaque so placement is annoying. It's stiff. It's super tacky. As a result, I got a tiny amount of lift (and some weird in-curve on the port walkway toward the front).

 

 

A bit of masking and respraying later, and all fixed. Even with the extra effort, I much prefer painting these to resorting to decals.

 

 

Ugh. More masking. I don't even know what this stripe is, but I have choice words for whoever thought it up. Masking a straight line over those tail humps is not an enjoyable experience unless you like frustration and expletives. 

 

 

And...out the other side. Got a small "hangnail" just inside the port tail, but it's nothing a quick touch-up and some corrosion control won't sort out. 

 

 

Extending down the sides, with a gap for the NAVY stencils. 

 

 

In "random things that need sorting" news - been adding the red borders to the gear doors, and discovered that these doors don't have outside faces - they just seat right against the fuselage (and seat very nicely). So that's two fewer things to paint at least.

 

 

Up next - outer gear bays and then FINALLY corrosion control. 

[David66]

Looking good so far, love your weathering techniques and will deffo be nicking some of them for my Topgun diorama when I get back to it. Also going to put one of these Tamiya Tomcats onto my want/wish list, thinking of a relatively new but weathered finish on a Hi-Viz, VF-1 Wolfpack bird........ Anyway, thanks for sharing your weathering techniques with us mere mortals, looking forward to seeing how 'Rage-207' turns out !

[Guest Peterpools]

Matt

Sweet progress on the Big Cat. Love the topside weathering.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

[Out2gtcha]

Looking fantastic...........

 

My brother just won this kit last night in our local IPMS clubs holiday party gift exchange. 

[DoogsATX]

That's looking fantastic Matt!  I'm itchy to start working on mine, although (fortunately) I'm building a brand new (months old) glossy LGG/white bird circa 1977.

 

Hopefully masking off the control surfaces isn't too tedious! I'm slowly building up to masking off the exhaust cans...that's going to be an ordeal.

[A-10LOADER]

 

Ugh. More masking. I don't even know what this stripe is, but I have choice words for whoever thought it up. Masking a straight line over those tail humps is not an enjoyable experience unless you like frustration and expletives.

 

That thin gray stripe you painted is called "the plane of rotation" area. It's there to remind you not to linger in that area when the aircraft is running just in case the engine should grenade.

 

Keep up the great work.

 

Steve

[Shaka HI]

Good to know..it's never a good idea to turn into hamburger...

[Tony T]

Otherwise known as a turbine warning stripe - i.e. where you will be sliced to ribbons if the turbine explodes...

Always felt slightly uncomfortable sat in the cosy spot in the rear of the DC-9/MD-80. The noise the engines made at take-off made you feel like you were sitting in a high rev gearbox.

 

Nice Tomcat BTW. I am tempted to do one in 1970s high-vis colour.

 

Tony

[DoogsATX]

Finally got into the nerve-wracking work of the corrosion-control touch-ups. References point to a very light gray - lighter than Light Ghost Gray - so I used Mr Paint 197 Light Blue Gray mixed with some Light Ghost Gray. It looks the part, if a bit more pronounced than in the pics, but I'm assuming decals and clear coats and additional weathering will knock the contrast back somewhat.