Tamiya F-14A - Maj Jalil Zandi

[Gazzas]

Now that is a size comparison!

[Cheetah11]

I started to paint some weapon parts this week. The AIM-54A proved to be a small challenge. The markings on the missile date to the mid seventies and even the original kit does not have the correct markings as decals. Only solution to reverse mask. I designed the markings on the Silhouette and then reverse masked them. The white needed a good many coats to cover the yellow and brown but worked in the end.  

 

Reverse mask applied

 

And done

 

More next week. Challenge now the stencils on the missile. 

Cheers

Nick

Edited November 16, 2023 by Cheetah11

[Alex]

Missiles look great!

[dutik]

Nice and interesting subject

 

If you ever want to see a Tomcat escorting a Bear onto a combat mission you have to take a look to Iran

 

Sidenote:

Dunno what your experiences with Techmod decals. My sets tended to break apart or even to shatter into a gazillion of pieces. Might be a good idea to make a scan of the decals before use, just in case the need to print one more set arises.

 

Regards

- dutik

 

 

[alain11]

Hi Nick

I hate missiles ,( not yours of course that are well done ) I hate these stuffs , they are time consuming , , they bored me , that's why , I never ( don't say never  ) or rarely hang them on my builds 

Alain

[Cheetah11]

On 11/20/2023 at 11:30 AM, alain11 said:

Hi Nick

I hate missiles ,( not yours of course that are well done ) I hate these stuffs , they are time consuming , , they bored me , that's why , I never ( don't say never  ) or rarely hang them on my builds 

Alain

 

Hi Alain, I find it a challenge to paint the missiles for which no decals are available but after two or so it becomes a pain. And as you say very time consuming.

 

In the mean time the Tomcat is eating up my paint supply. I could have done two or three WW II fighters with the same amount of paint.

 

 

 

Cheers 

Nick

[Cheetah11]

 

More missiles Alain. Luckily all done now.

 

 

The bottom and top of the fuselage painted. I am glad now I took the time to scribe the fuselage. Some small touch ups still needed on the painting.

 

 

 

 

I tested the brown with freehand airbrushing. Looking at photos of the real thing I am sure it was sprayed free hand since all the Iranian Tomcats had small but significant variations in the patterns.

Cheers

Nick

[mozart]

That's a big beast of a plane Nick, you've made a super job of her, The comparison of the Tomcat with the Bf109 is similar to my window shelf at the moment where there's a Lightning and a Harvard.....the size difference is staggering.  Missiles look fantastic too.

[Cheetah11]

I used photos as far as possible to try and get the cammo pattern right. The pattern was marked with a pencil from the photos and the profile provided by Techmod. There are some variation in the pattern on different aircraft which tends to confirm my theory that the pattern was spray painted freehand.

 

 

And the brown airbrushed freehand. I used one of the few Xtracolor tins I have left. I find the enamel splutters a bit less.  I am clearly not as steady as a few years back. I will blame it on the size of the model making it difficult to hold. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

Tomorrow green and touch ups after the gloss Xtracolor has dried. We have gotten a bit spoilt with the quick dry lacquer paints.

 

Cheers

Nick

[Cheetah11]

Thanks for all the interest gents.

I have the green on and the last painting apart from a few touch ups will be the red warning stripe around the turbine. 

Tonight it will be decal time. The Techmod decals I am not too worried about since I have two sets and there are two sets of markings on each sheet. The Tamiya ones for the warning stencils are a different story. The decals are 35 years old and I only have one set, so I will be super careful with them. The instructions show full Navy stencils on the Iranian aircraft but looking at photos I could only see the warning stencils below the cockpit and no NO STEP or other markings. This is a bit of good fortune as I only have ones from a Revell Tornado which is now not needed. The ejection seat triangles I will also source from another decal sheet as the Iranian jets seem to have USAAF and not Navy style tri-angles. 

 

 

Cheers

Nick

 

[Furie]

Very nice camouflage, very well done and it looks great on the F14.
Really superb.

[Cheetah11]

 

So onto decaling. Dutik you were right about the Techmod decals. Only half of them were usable. Fortunately the most important ones were ok.

 

First round to Techmod.

 

 

The letters of the IRIAF looked a little large anyway when compared to photos. I reasoned a logical size would have been used on the full size and the closest was 12 inch letters. I sized it and used the Silhouette  cutter to create new ones with a slightly smaller spacing. It now corresponded with the panel lines on photos.

 

 

The 35 year old Tamiya decals performed really well. Just a long soak time. If Tamiya is reading this,(one can hope) go back to the mid eighties decal formulas. They are much better then your current ones.

All did not go perfectly with the Tamiya decals though. One of the warning panels folded onto itself and since softening solution had already been applied, disaster struck. I scanned the decal beforehand so I could save the situation. 

The Silhouette software also allows printing as well as cutting. Using the appropriate font I created the the warning mark by just typing it and then sized it.  

The background colour was airbrushed and the decal printed on decal paper. Tamiya paint for scale.

 

 

That brings the drama to a close. The rest of the decals pretty normal application.

 

 

 

Cheers

Nick

[Maxim61]

That's looking real nice.

[mozart]

Good save Nick…..Silhouette to the rescue! I’m guessing you have a more up to date cutter than me then if it allows printing? Mine’s an old Cameo 2, nearly 10 years old. 

[Cheetah11]

4 hours ago, mozart said:

Good save Nick…..Silhouette to the rescue! I’m guessing you have a more up to date cutter than me then if it allows printing? Mine’s an old Cameo 2, nearly 10 years old. 

Thanks Max

I upgraded my software for Silhouette Studio a few years back for a small fee(I think around 20 Pounds). I am sure the old version also had the print function.

The print icon is hidden in the left top corner. Is comes in useful at times such as on this page of the AIM-54 stencils which once sized will be just  too small for a masked stencil. (Also useful for things such as Werk No)

Here is a page of my software version with the print icon

PS. Sometimes a print is useful before cutting a mask to check dimensions and orientation. 

 

 

 

Cheers 

Nick