1/32 F-14D Super Tomcat WIP

I went with the Trumpeter kit for a couple of reasons- it is somewhat less spendy than the Tamiya, both it and all the aftermarket stuff for it were available at the same time (the Tamiya was out of stock at my favorite vendors) and I tend to prefer to Trumpeter over Tamiya in general.   Otherwise I have no practical knowledge to share about the Tamiya kits as I've never really looked into them...

Stunning work, as alway, Dre!

The big Tamiya kits are really great if they are even close to their 1/32 prop planes. Those are a dream to build and are very detailed models. I'll build one for the NMF GB and I won't use any AM stuff except some tires and decals for "Feeble Eagle".

Cheers, Clemens

Their 1/32 F-15's and F-16's are sweet kits... I had hoped to start a Strike Eagle this year, but the Tomcat opportunity presented itself and here we are.   

Update time...   I've left the cockpit alone for now and have turned my attentions to the other innards of this kit- the intake trunks and engines.

Here's a little of the inner detail of these engines...

and the afterburner faces have been painted, washed and drybrushed...

The intake trunks have the requisite sink holes, 5 per piece so some filling and sanding was needed.

I've decided to try something new (to me) on these intake pieces..   I'll paint them with the heaviest, whitest interior latex paint I could find.   At Lowe's, I found a quart of this Valspar paint that suits my needs- superwhite, glossy and acrylic.

The theory for this is simple- literally pour the latex through the intakes and let gravity sort it out for the smoothest, most blemish-free intakes this side of resin.  To that end, I made a simple drying box and did the deeds with the parts...

Sadly, it worked too well has I have runs and heavy blobs to deal with so the parts are soaking in SimpleGreen cleaner to remove the first run paint.   I'm determined to make this work, one way or another as the paint does work well for this (when it doesn't run).

I am very interested in the sbs for this method of painting the trunks and dealing with those seams. This thing is looking like it will be fully functional when you finish with it Dre!

jester- from what I've read about this particular technique all ya gotta do is fill the sink holes, sand them flush and then just pour the thick latex down the innards of the trunks... gravity is supposed to even everything out and make them smooth, seamless and pristine.

The paint itself does these things as advertised- it really does fill in the seams and lays down smooth- but it also dried in runs and blobs, so that has to be fixed.

Once I figure out the procedure, I'll let everyone know so they can try it themselves.

Dre, you might try thinning the paint.  Pour some into a paper cup or something disposable and gradually add a little water.  Stir it well of course.  You just might find a "ratio' that works right.  Please let us know, and good luck!

Gary

Gary, I honestly hadn't even thought of thinning the paint outside of the can....  d'oh!

I might give that a try tonight...

This technique lends itself very well to intakes that are rounded like the F-16 but on intakes that have 90 degree corners it can be difficult.  You see, the paint will draw in and pool in the sharper corners but it will look even as it moves back towards the rounded part where the fan blade is.  You may have to pour the paint more than once to get good coverage in the corners.

I recently filled some intakes on a 1/48 F-15 kit and I had the pooling problem at the front in the sharper corners.  I ended up stripping the latex paint.  Since the intakes were very straight I decided to just airbrush the white in and it looked just as good.  But I've had great success with the pour and dump method on 2 F-16s and an F-2A.

Hope this helps.  Good luck!

Fly-n-hi, hearing that you went through the exact same issues gives me insight that I lacked before.

Thanks for the help!!

Ens. Bones, thank you for that sweet reference pic!   Someday I plan on returning to this model and this will help get the cockpit better looking.