1/18TH JSI F-14B Tomcat conversion

[A-10LOADER]

Thanks all for the positive feedback, very much appreciated indeed.

I was discussing how to paint the rings on the rods with a fellow modeler yesterday. He suggested I make a jig to hold the rods while spraying the rings so, this afternoon I threw this together quickly, thanks Ed. I wish I would have used this before painting the test rod. It would have made it easier to keep the rings more consistent. Hopefully it will yield better results on the other rods. I just need to get the white paint to cooperate better next time.

 

 

Thanks for your continued support and advice throughout this project, until the next update.

Steve

[A-10LOADER]

Small update for today. I was feeling a little creative yesterday so I made myself a display plaque for the Big Cat. The black frame is 3/16" black foam core board. The Jolly Roger stripe, made from archival card stock, is actually 3 separate pieces layered on top of each other and, yes I cut the chevrons out by hand. A little work in Microsoft Word was used for the text. There is a shadowing effect behind the text but, it's hard to see in the photo. I attached everything with a very thin 2 sided tape made by Elmer's for photos. The " Anytime Baby ...!" logo was printed out on card stock and cut out by hand as well then attached with the tape.

I enjoyed getting something accomplished finally and I think it will be a nice touch to the final display. Now I just have to get the aircraft itself finished !!!

 

 

On a side note, I got tired of looking at my other 1/18th scale Cat sitting in the box ( for the past 3 years ) so, I assembled her and she's now on display in my aviation room. I keep a sheet over it for now until I can save up the money for a acrylic cover, I HATE the dust monster. This Tomcat is 99.9 % stock out of the box as she came from the factory. I did add knee boards to the aircrew and custom painted their helmets. I also added some brown paint to the CCG's on the GBU-16's. I'm also working on a display plaque for this one as well. I am hoping to get shots and post them later in the week.

Thanks again to everyone who still finds this project of interest, til the next update.

Steve

[A-10LOADER]

Greetings everyone, hope you all had a great Christmas.

I've managed to get my head straight long enough to complete a few items so, on with today's updates.

I decided to fill in the wing root where it meets the Radar Warning ECM antenna fairing, it was too severe for my liking. Good call BUZZ, it does look better. I'll have to go back and redo some of the "panel fastener" detail however.

 

 

The front windscreen is all set to be glued into place. The tape is to keep the clear parts glue from getting all over. I need a clean, seamless joint to the fuselage and I do not want to sand anywhere near the glass. I'm hoping once I lay the glue in place I can smooth it out with a damp Q-Tip .... fingers crossed.

 

 

I drilled the main canopy and inserted some small brass rods to help spread the canopy back to where it needs to be. Now when the canopy is closed it lines up nicely with the forward windscreen. The main canopy also got sanded with some 600 grit to accept the black paint before the primer. I also added the lightning dissapaters to the underside of the canopy. I cut thin strips of .010" sheet plastic and used the clear parts cement to attach them then colored them with a bronze sharpie.

 

 

 

Some forward progress, better than nothing I guess. Thanks to all who are still following along and enjoy your weekend.

Steve

[A-10LOADER]

Well now, time to get this forum back up and running again.

Today's update is brief but, still progress. After many coats of clear cement I finally got the forward windscreen blended in to the fuselage. Some primer will give me a better idea of how it really looks. I also took a suggestion from Chuck and used Rust-Oleum texture paint for the walkways on top of the intakes. I tested it on an old A-10 that I use to practice various airbrush techniques. I think it looks the part and will work out nicely on the Big Cat. Thanks very much Chuck, great idea.

I really appreciate all of you who are hanging in there and still showing interest in this project. Til the next update, all the best.

Steve

 

 

 

[A-10LOADER]

Greetings all,

I managed to get some time in today on the Tomcat. I restored the " panel fastener " detail to the areas that I did a little bodywork to.

 

 

I also attached the small brass pins to the canopy with some JB Weld 2 part epoxy and, got the main canopy masked off and ready for black paint. Once the black dries I'll apply the medium gray FS35237. This all depends on how my airbrush decides to act. I just ordered a bunch of needles, air caps and, tips.

 

 

I also managed to solve my compressor issue. I picked this new one up back in January. This should be a major upgrade over my old diaphram compressor and it's alot quieter. Now I need to get my Grex airbrush and I should be set for a while. Thanks for stopping by and your continued interest.

Steve

 

[A-10LOADER]

Small update for today, I managed to get the canopy painted flat black and, as I usually do, I mixed too much paint so I used the extra to check all my bodywork, rescribed panel lines, panel lines that I had filled in, etc. Things look pretty good, IMO at this stage so, the next step will to be to join the nose section to the main body and address that seam that I will need to make disappear.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks so much to everyone who still shows an interest in this lengthly project.

Steve

[A-10LOADER]

Very brief update for today. I am very fortunate and honored to have a " professional " model builder for a friend. He is also a Vietnam vet and a GREAT person. Throughout this project I have refered to him many, many times to guide me on certain things, ask him questions and get his opinion on how to tackle that next step.

A few weeks ago I asked him if he would be willing to make me a new pitot tube for each of my Big Cats. Yesterday he delivered a homerun !! He turned this out of 1/4" aluminum stock and it looks great on the jet. The one that came with the jet was plastic, which was destined to get broken and, was proportionally incorrect. Here is a shot of the new one installed on my VF-154 jet, much better IMO and I don't have to paint it.

 

 

We also have been talking about how I am going to prime / paint this beast ?? I figured on using Tamiya spray cans just because of the shear size of this thing, then going back with the airbrush and washes for weathering. He suggested I give this a try and that I wouldn't be disappointed. I am anxious to try this baby out but, I'm not quite ready for primer just yet. Again, I am fortunate to have such a good friend and can't thank him enough for all his guidance and expertise, YOU ROCK BUZZ !!!

 

 

Next up is to get the forward nose section mated to the main body. Thanks again to those who still find this project of interest and til next time, take care.

Steve

[A-10LOADER]

Greetings all,

Today's update, over the weekend the forward nose section got mated to the main body. Everything went together without a hitch and now the two are one. I will now work on getting rid of the seam where they went together. The bottom seam gets covered mostly by the Phoenix pallets, which is good so, not much of that one is seen.

 

 

 

The 2 antennas are not glued in yet I was just checking their fit. You can see I've moved the forward one, from it's original location, more towards the center of the spine as per my reference pics. The white pieces behind the RIO are pieces of cotton balls. I am plugging any openings I can to eliminate overspray from getting into the cockpit area. Besides getting rid of this seam, there are still a few items that will need to be addressed before I can start to prime her. I have some sink holes inside the lip of both intakes that will have to go away, I need to attach the in-flight refueling door, figure out a way to seal the main canopy so no overspray gets in, mask off the wingtip lights and the navigation lights and, plug any other openings to keep the overspray out.

Thanks to all who still show interest in this project, til next time.

Steve

[A-10LOADER]

The seam on the spine is no more. A little gel super glue and about 10 minutes of sanding and everything blends together very well. I just need to slightly rescribe a panel line on each side and clean out some of the dust from the "panel fastener" detail. I'm very happy with how this all worked out. Now to address the sink holes inside the intakes.

 

[A-10LOADER]

Posted April 15, 2015

 

Greeting's all,

I'm gonna have to put this thread on the " back burner " for a while. My oldest son is away, at Lackland AFB for basic training and Tech school, and while he is away I've decided to redo his room for him. This will be a total gut job down to bare studs and roof rafters. This project will require all my attention and leave no time for the Big Cat. I WILL return to the Tomcat and ask for your patience while I tackel this project. Thanks all.

Steve

Edited December 24, 2016 by A-10LOADER

[A-10LOADER]

Posted on June 30, 2015

 

Work on the room continues, about halfway finished but, still a lot to do. I will be making all custom trim for the room. The room has to be finished by August 18th when he returns.

Steve

Edited December 24, 2016 by A-10LOADER

[A-10LOADER]

Posted August 29, 2015

 

Greetings all,

Brief update for today. Work on my son's room is about 95% finished. I have a couple of pieces of trim to machine yet and the baseboards received their last coat of clear yesterday. They will be installed tomorrow.

I've been itching to get back on the Tomcat so today I masked off the wing walk areas and sprayed them with the Rust-Oleum multicolored textured paint. This is a great idea, thanks Marcel and Chuck, it really looks the part. So I guess I'm officially back on the Big Cat, just not 100% quite yet but, progress anyway. I wish I had a bigger update for you all. Thanks to all who still are interested in this never ending project, til next time.

Steve

 

 

[A-10LOADER]

Good afternoon all,

Today's update, I've been dying to try the Tamiya panel line wash I ordered so, the Big Cat got " washed." There are many hours of adding details, filling seams, adding seams, etc. and I wanted to see if it was all worth it or not. I have to admit I'm happy with how things look so far. I've never deleted seams or added so much surface detail to a model before especially since my scale normally is 1/48th.

For starters I added the gun gas reinforcement plates around the gun gas exhaust ports. These were made with my punch set, to get the proper inside diameter hole and, .010" sheet plastic. The areas inside the plates should be opened up but, I didn't want to create more openings for over spray to enter the cockpit area. I may open them up once all the painting is done or, just paint them black, we'll see.

BEFORE

 

 

AFTER

 

 

Next came the wash, this is my first time using this product and I like the way it works. Very handy for checking things before the primer stage, thanks Chuck plus, it's already mixed so there's no waste. It does stain the plastic and I can not get it off but, that doesn't matter because it will be covered by primer.

 

 

 

 

This thing had some surface detail to start with and everything I added I tried to match what was already there. With the wash applied everything really pops now.

 

 

 

 

All that out of scale and horrible raised detail around the wingtip light and slime lights looks much better sanded down and rescribed with the panel fastener detail added IMO.

So that's it for today. It may not seem like much but, it took quite a while to get to this stage and I'm happy with the effort so far. Thanks to all who are still interested in this WIP and for your support.

Steve

[A-10LOADER]

Greetings all,

Work continues on the Big Cat but, very slowly, hard to find time lately. I have made some progress however, test fitted pieces to make sure everything looks cool before sending her off to the paint barn and, I've decided to redo the MK-82's.

 I've now decided to turn them into MK-82's with the 904 nose fuze installed as well.

First things first, a couple of shots showing the completed parts test fitted to the airframe.

 

 

 

I also remove the two Radar Warning ECM antenna fairings. One because they fitted very poorly and two, It was easier to sand the area without them there and easier to paint them off the jet. Once I did some reshaping of them they fit nice and tight to the air frame now with no gaps.

 

 

I want to get some better pics of the MK-82's and explain my ideas on correcting them which, I will post later.

Thanks to all who are still interested in this WIP and enjoy your weekend, til next time.

Steve

[A-10LOADER]

Greeting's everyone,

Small update for tonight,

Since I'm waiting for materials to arrive, via the mail, to modify the MK-82's I decided to weather the insides of the F-110 nozzels. They will have clear acrylic rods in them and you won't see much of the weathering but, at least I know it's there. I started by giving them a Flory wash ( dark dirt ) then drybrushed one with Model Master Radome Tan and the other with Model Master Sand. This was followed by adding some different shades of Tamiya's weathering master sets ( sets D & E ). Colors from the sets used were burnt blue, burn red, oil stain and, green. I chose not to go too heavy on the weathering because I wanted to represent engines that had just been recently installed. I'm pretty happy with how they came out and like I said, you won't see much of them anyway.

 

 

In the meantime, back to getting her ready for the paint barn. I can't thank all of you enough for your words of encouragement and your interest during this project, it helps keep me motivated. Til next time.

Steve