1/32 F-14D Super Tomcat WIP

Ya dig it?   Right on, man!

Incredible work!  As they said in the 70's(?), "I am impressed"!

I've made a small start in the cockpit with a little painting over the last few nights...

the side wall canvas is various drybrushed shades of lightened greys to simulate both age, sunfading and wear.   I'm slowly working on the fuse panels...  I wish I had decals for these.

the seats are slowly getting there- just a little PE and paint, all that's really left on them is to add the belts and grab handles.

the IP clusters haven't yet been painted beyond the basic black, but I did work on the display screens a little...  I need to tone those down a little so they don't look like deep aquariums.

just a lot of slow, busy work that gets hidden deep within the closed cockpit.

Todd- that isn't a dumb question, but yes I use a #00 or #000 brush and a very steady hand to paint that stuff after priming them in flat black and a base coat of gloss white.   Luckily the resin is molded so well that the littlest details have just enough edge definition to make the painting very easy.  

What makes these wheel wells so easy is that they're essentially gloss white through out and a good wash makes the details pop without the need to add much additional painting.

Hi Dre, Great job... love following this build.  

Dumb question from a newbie...how do you obtain the color on the hoses, wires, etc??? fine brush / steady hand?

And now the wheel bays have been washed with a mixture of Future and Tamiya Clear Smoke to simulate oily buildup and residue.   I may go back in and swab some windex-soaked ear buds around to show "cleaning".

After all the years of looking for a good, easy to use wash I have to say that Future mixed with clear Smoke is the best solution to recreate oily aircraft interiors.   It has a slight warm tone when dried that looks a lot like petroleum by-products.

Just gorgeous! I love your work on this bird! I won't comment on every update here though, although I'll do that in the actual GB!

Guys, sorry I haven't yet written up a wet-sanding toot, I've been a little busy with work the past week..

But I did have some time over the weekend to throw some paint at the resin bits.

Added a little color (almost entirely inaccurate, mind you) to the nose gear bay and main gear bays.   Although the bays are almost entirely white, there is some subtle staining and discoloration on hoses and insulating wraps that  breaks up the blandness...  which is all I was trying to recreate through various shades of light colors.   these still have to be dirtied up with a heavy wash.   It is really tempting to paint all of the wires a light grey just for contrast, but I'll refrain from that.

and I spent a little time making the wheel hubs look used and dirty... I haven't begun to age the tires.        I might have gone just a little too far on the backs of the main hubs...

Yeah, make some wet-sanding lessons, Dre!

It is really great for sanding basically everything, but I can't get it perfectly right. A tutorial (especially from you) would help a lot!

Cheers, Clemens

No problem man, I will use them on my tomcat:-)

OK, wet sanding lessons?   Can y'all give me a day or so to write that out?   I'll have to organize my thought..

I second that, I wanna know how.

I love following your builds Dre, you do really great work. Following this thread makes me wanna get started on one of my Trumpy Tomcats. One thing though, do you think you could give me a quick lesson in wet sanding?

Oddly enough, there's no detail at all for the  trailing edges or spoilers; I guess that both Trumpeter and Eduard figured that the wings would be built swept back and closed up.  It is really tempting to try and do this with the wings opened up, if only to show off the red warning paint.   I've still got to go back and lightly sand off the CA ooze from the access panels.

(FYI, I looked more closely at the Tomcatters decals and the big, distinctive tail emblems could be a lot better printed- there's a white backing layer under the yellow that isn't the same diameter as the yellow, so there's a noticeable 'ring' around the edge.  The other optional set isn't much better.   The low-vis decals are the best in the box because they're only 1 layer!)

Look at the detail with the photo etch Dre, if there is as much for the trailing edge flaps, I really would urge you to have the wings open. Space can be an after thought, I mean, I build 1/32 jets in a one bed city apartment so basically I am saying just build it in most elaborate fashion possible!

That's a fantastic looking kit of a beautiful aeroplane, she's going to look spectacular when you finish it!

I've done a bit of clean up work last few nights on the previously assembled wings and weapons, primarily sanding and polishing seams and a little PE workout tonight.

After tonight's effort, here's a pile of ready to go plastic stuff.   There's enough plastic here to make several 1/32 kits...

oooh... shiny PE stuff.

it was kind of slow going placing all those access panels into place- I used a pencil to line up the little ones.  The leading edge dress up is very tasty- it should look great in red.

the edge flaps are big solid pieces with little clean up needed and they both get a bit of flash.  (edit to add- there's a ton of sink holes on the underside, but they'll be hidden when installed so I'm not going to do anything about them.)

since I was working on wings, I went ahead and added a slime light to the left stab.   I need to find some glow in the dark paint for these....

and finally..  this is why I wet sand and polish every seam I can reach these days....

Credit to Trumpeter so far- the molding and fit on the pieces I've used thus far has been fantastic.

I might start detail painting the wheel wells tomorrow ...

Born rich? Nah man, where would the satisfaction of actually saving and owning something you worked for be? Well they say money doesn't bring you happiness, it just buys you loads of stuff that does lol!

I should play the lottery or be born rich...  

The say that too about Alpha Romeo's that you have not experienced what a car can be until you own one, then go through the painful experience of everything breaking lol. A guy I know had a DB9, he drove it for a few years and he liked to put his foot down, but he forgot to top up the oil in the engine, a slight mistake lol, and he drove it from Portadown and completely shot the engine to s**t. So he got rid and bought a Bently continental instead which is one big fast car! But I always preferred the Aston, but like your friend, his was being fixed half the time he owned it as well.

Lucas light switches have three positions; on, off and flicker. 

The company motto? 

"We invented darkness!"

Gary

I know a guy here in town who had a Vanquish- said it was the biggest PITA and would never run right due to electrical problems (Lucas, the Prince of Darkness??).   But man, what a sound when it did run right... like angels in ecstasy.

Lol, well that's what happens when you buy a car made completely by hand! An Aston is a work of art, I mean every panel is shaped with a hammer! I would be the same as you only I would have the DB9.

And sadly, it would probably be more reliable than the Vanquish.

I'd be buying an Ex Russian AF Mig, and learning to fly it!

Eh..  If I had that kind of money, I'd probably have a few nice toys too! (certainly an Aston Martin Vanquish V-12 in the garage).

I know right lol, he also had a Ferrari 360 Modena, and the servicing charge? A normal service for a car, £12,000, but I suppose if you can afford the car you can afford the charge. Anyway thanks for the tip I will try it.

Nothing like bags of money and no common sense...  (kind of like building 1/32 jets!)

Back to wet sanding..  try it if you haven't, you'll wonder how you got by without it.

Ah right I see, I heard a story today from a frien who was the manager of the old model shop in Belfast, there was this customer years ago, well many years he was a tradesman had his own company, a millionaire, in fact he actually tiled some of Saddam Husseins palaces of all things, anyway this guy wanted to buy a radio controlled helicopter for he father, only he was going to fly it. He was meeting the guy who owned the shop who competed in world championships in something to do with radio controlled aircraft. So he was meeting Des (the owner) and learning to fly the helicopters and as he got better he decided to go and get the expensive helicopter, money was no object to this guy so he chose a massive Hughes 500 model, with literally every detail, and a turbojet engine the whole kit cost in excess of £10,000 the engine and rotors were £6000 so it was a pretty expensive piece of equipment. So the guy was supposed to meet Des in order to fly it outside, there are a few of disused military airfields around the country so model radio controlled aircraft are usually flown there. Anyhow the guy came in one day with bandages all over his arms to Kevin (the manager) angrily asking for Des, so Kevin was a bit confused as to why the guy was so annoyed but he said wait and he will be here soon. So Des arrives and the guy goes nuts calling him all sorts of names I cant say but not hard to think what, anyway Des takes the guy into his office and asks what happened. The guy said the helicopter nearly killed me, Des wondered how this happened as he was not supposed to use the helicopter until he met Des so he could learn how to properly fly it as it had more power than any other model he had flown. So the guy explains that he took his dad into the living room to show him the helicopter (the blades were 12ft and carbon fiber) and wanted to start the engine (I know what you're probably thinking) so he started the engine inside his house, an actual turbojet and obviously the blades were rotating, he gave the controls to his father who was about 80 and Des had on the controller a sticker saying to to touch the extra power switch (this gives the helicopter the boost needed to perform tricks). So what does the old man do? He hits the switch, the helicopter shoots up, smashes the lights, the carbon fibre rotors shatter, sending shrapnel of the former lights and blade everywhere in the living room, the helicopter drops and smashes into the floor, destroying a table, and what was left of the rotor blades was shredding up the carpet and spinning 6tf or so helicopter around the living room effectively destroying the entire contents of the room. In a panic the guy grabbed the helicopter which was working its way underground via his carpet and tried to grab the blades which were spinning (that's the reason for the bandages) putting him in A&E. I don't know how but he managed to stop the helicopter possibly using the controller I assume but he was asking for a refund and wanted Des to pay for the damage, basically the guy was to told to get lost for being so stupid.  I could not believe the story it was so funny! Thought I'd share it with you Dre, also thanks for the tip.

It doesn't rough up and score the surface quite as badly as dry sanding, in fact it is closer to polishing than sanding.

I've found that it's just easier and quicker to wet sand pretty much everything, and it gives a better result.

If you look closely as the drop tanks, you'll see the roughed up areas where I started with 400 grit sandpaper- smooth, but not deeply scored by the abrasives.   Once I work out the putty, I'll go over the entire thing with finer grits until it's uniform.