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1/48 Italeri IAF F-16C Barak WIP

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  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Thursday, May 15, 2014 9:55 PM

bvallot

Your method of preshading haphazardly around random parts is very intriguing.  I can't believe I haven't thought of something resembling this already!  Seems simple enough. =]  Smart!!

Keep it coming...I can't wait to see what's next.

Thanks bvallot!  I can't take credit, though.  Its something I saw someone else do in a WIP thread.

plasticjunkie
I hope their F-14B is a better fitting kit. I try to generally stay away from Italeri for the reasons you mentioned but it looks like you are over coming all those obstacles with a great looking model.

Thanks plastic!  In reality the kits probably very average.  I'm just spoiled by Tamiya and Hasegawa.  Looking forward to seeing your F-14B when its done!

Edit:  Actually, I'm pretty sure this is a re boxing of the Kinetic kit.

dflu78

I love Israeli colors on Vipers. Just lovely. I'm a die hard post-shader using the method you describe. If you've done it before I'm sure you know that gloss coats and everything tone it down somewhat significantly.

dflu, thanks for the advice.  Yes, I have seen gloss coats diminish weathering before.  That might be a bonus in this case because I will be using some very contrasting weathering techniques and it may be a bit much.  We'll see.

And I agree that the IAF paint schemes look great!  I really love their F-15s as well.  I just purchased another 1/48 Monogram F-20 Tigershark and I might turn it into an IAF what-if project.

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Thursday, May 15, 2014 10:34 PM

And yes...I just busted off the pitot tube on the noseBang Head.  Oh well, this won't be too hart to fix.  And worst case I'll have to get a metal replacement.

  • Member since
    September 2011
  • From: Milaca, Minnesota
Posted by falconmod on Friday, May 16, 2014 6:48 AM

Thanks for the pictures of the paint after you added the white to it,  I'm going to try that when I do my IDF F-16.  it looks like sun fading should.  Great job.

John

On the Bench: 1/72 Ki-67, 1/48 T-38

1/144 AC-130, 1/72 AV-8A Harrier

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Friday, May 16, 2014 9:31 AM

falconmod

Thanks for the pictures of the paint after you added the white to it,  I'm going to try that when I do my IDF F-16.  it looks like sun fading should.  Great job.

John

Thanks John!

I've already added more white to it.  I added a drop or two of white to some lacquer flat coat and thinned it very heavily.  Then I used my fine tip airbrush and lightly went over the center of most of the panels.  Then I very lightly sprayed the entire camo job to tone it down a little:

The guys who followed my F-15E build saw that I put on quite a few layers of weathering.  I think I put down something like 13 layers!  This F-16 has 5 so far so there's going to be a few more coming.

  • Member since
    June 2013
Posted by bvallot on Saturday, May 17, 2014 12:24 AM

Very clever. =]  You're just full of surprises.  I might have to start taking some notes.  Some of these weathering techniques are just things I wouldn't think to try on account of being afraid to mix things to "don't mix" and screwing up a good bit of work.  I usually just try to tweak my tried and true methods of doing things before I move on to something radically different.  I'm still only about nine planes in to scale modeling.  =D

On the bench:  

Tamiya F4U-1  Kenneth Walsh

 

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Monday, May 19, 2014 11:31 AM

bvallot

Very clever. =]  You're just full of surprises.  I might have to start taking some notes.  Some of these weathering techniques are just things I wouldn't think to try on account of being afraid to mix things to "don't mix" and screwing up a good bit of work.  I usually just try to tweak my tried and true methods of doing things before I move on to something radically different.  I'm still only about nine planes in to scale modeling.  =D

Thanks, but again, I can't take credit.  This is something I learned on another forum.

I practiced this technique on an older model destined for the scrap heap before I tried it here on the F-16.  In fact, I have a couple of models that I use for that very purpose.

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Monday, May 19, 2014 11:43 AM

Here's the new weapons load out that I'm gonna use.  I'm going to use the kit's AIM-9Ms, AIM-120Bs, a GBU-31, AN/AQ-14 targeting pod and a GBU-10 laser guided bomb from the Hasegawa Weapons Set.  Here they are painted and glossed up:

Like I said earlier this kit isn't very good and it has been a total struggle to get it to look seamless.  I think I did a good job on the original weapons load out and I feel like I should save those for a Tamiya kit.

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Monday, May 19, 2014 1:11 PM

Here's where I'm at now.  I've painted just about all of the detail stuff like the wheel wells, the AN/AAQ-13 navigation pod and various panels.  I've also gone over most of the panel lines with Mr. Color Smoke and filtered the camo with it.  In addition, I've washed the vents with the black Detailer wash:

The next step will be to gloss coat it to prepare it for decals.

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Monday, May 19, 2014 1:20 PM

Here's a link to an image showing just how filthy some of these IAF planes can get:

F-16A Netz

Dre
  • Member since
    June 2007
  • From: here, not over there
Posted by Dre on Tuesday, May 20, 2014 11:23 AM

WOW!!   I'm totally loving that camo and shading, Fly.   This looks like another out-of-the-park grand slam.

  • Member since
    September 2013
Posted by Dean30 on Tuesday, May 20, 2014 11:50 AM

Agreed the paint job is fantastic!

  • Member since
    February 2014
Posted by dflu78 on Tuesday, May 20, 2014 12:16 PM

Very nice. I like the smoke highlighting. I wish I had the steady hand for doing that myself

  • Member since
    June 2013
Posted by bvallot on Tuesday, May 20, 2014 12:40 PM

Looking great.  Have you considered leaving the edges of the camo "fuzzier" in places instead of a more crisp and clean uniform looking line?  Does something like that appeal to you at all?  Sometimes I think there's a place for it and sometimes I think it may come down to being inaccurate (i.e. US PTO painting v. RAF factory painted rubber masks w/ hard demarcation lines).

=]

On the bench:  

Tamiya F4U-1  Kenneth Walsh

 

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Tuesday, May 20, 2014 1:54 PM

Dre

WOW!!   I'm totally loving that camo and shading, Fly.   This looks like another out-of-the-park grand slam.

Thanks alot, Dre!  But...like I said with the F-15E...there's still plenty left to screw up.

Dean30

Agreed the paint job is fantastic!

Thank you Dean!  This is the area where I'm really trying to improve in.  I think I have the basic skills down and now I'm trying to "up" my game with painting and weathering.

dflu78

Very nice. I like the smoke highlighting. I wish I had the steady hand for doing that myself

Thanks dflu!  I used the fine tip on my Badger 150 and really took my time.  I find that the trick is to work in very small sections.  For example, when I shaded the line that separates the leading edge flap from the wing I did about a half an inch at a time.  If I tried to do the entire line in one pass I would have made a very wobbly line.  I also thinned the Smoke paint quite a bit and built it up over 3-5 passes.  Doing it this way seems to be more forgiving when it comes to hand steadiness.

bvallot

Looking great.  Have you considered leaving the edges of the camo "fuzzier" in places instead of a more crisp and clean uniform looking line?  Does something like that appeal to you at all?  Sometimes I think there's a place for it and sometimes I think it may come down to being inaccurate (i.e. US PTO painting v. RAF factory painted rubber masks w/ hard demarcation lines).

=]

Thanks, bvallot!  Yes, I did consider feathering the camo a bit more.  But in the vast majority of the reference photos of Israeli F-16s the camo has a relatively tight feather.  I tried to get the look as close as I could.  I did this by using tightly rolled Silly Putty worms as the masking edge.

In the not-to-distant future I'd like to build one of the new 1/48 Academy F-4C Phantoms with the SEA camo (maybe for Stikpusher's Vietnam GB).  That will definitely be a feathered camo that I will most likely try freehand with the fine tip on my Badger 150.

  • Member since
    February 2003
Posted by Jim Barton on Tuesday, May 20, 2014 2:34 PM

Great model!

"Whaddya mean 'Who's flying the plane?!' Nobody's flying the plane!"

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Wednesday, May 21, 2014 10:46 AM

Jim Barton

Great model!

Thanks Jim!

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Wednesday, May 21, 2014 10:53 AM
  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Friday, May 23, 2014 10:39 AM

Houston, we have a problem...

So I tried out a new product (to me).  Its the Humbrol Gloss Varnish.  It worked out great...just like Future.  Well, on the Humbrol website they show enamel washes being applied over this gloss varnish so I though I would give it a try.  But the enamel paint or thinner that I used (it wasn't Humbrol's enamel wash) ate through the finish right down to the plastic!  And like a dumb *** I didn't test it out on a scrap piece or hidden area first:

Fortunately, I applied it to the fuel tanks and pylons first.  By the time I started putting it on the right wing I began to see it ruining the tanks and I stopped before I put it on too much of the plane.  So only the top of the right wing was ruined as well as the horizontal stabilators.

Fortunately, the screw up goes with the grain of the camo and not across it so that will help with the masking and repainting.

That spot on the center fuel tank was a seam line that I noticed.  I figure since I had to repaint the other two I might as well sand it out.

I suppose that the enamels that Humbrol use must be formulated in a way that doesn't attack their gloss varnish.  In fact, they advertise on their site that you can use their enamel washes on their acrylic paints.  I guess I just used the wrong product.

These kind of setbacks used to really bring me down.  But now my modeling skillz are a bit better and I don't get bummed out because of the challenge of dealing with this.  I'm confident that I can fix this.  Before, when something like this would happen, I would want to punch a hole in the wall with my head.  But now I've learned to just step back, take a deep breath, asses the situation and move forward.  After all, isn't this part of model building...dealing with disasters?

In fact, I've already fixed most of it and will have pics later today!

Dre
  • Member since
    June 2007
  • From: here, not over there
Posted by Dre on Friday, May 23, 2014 11:46 AM

Yikes!   Experience can give hard lessons, but I'm glad that your pushing on through.

This model certainly has tested your patience.

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Friday, May 23, 2014 12:03 PM

Thanks Dre!  Yeah, this one has definitely been a test of my patience.  That's why I'm not giving up on it.  I've already invested too much blood, sweat and tears to stop now.  I'm not gonna let this thing beat me!Super Angry

And here's the touched up model (and gloss coated):

I'm not gonna say that its exactly where it was but I will say I got pretty darn close.  I did it all in one session and it took about 2 hours...including mixing the paint and masking.

Dre
  • Member since
    June 2007
  • From: here, not over there
Posted by Dre on Friday, May 23, 2014 2:52 PM

You work mighty fast- eager to see this one finished?   If you hadn't said that you had to repaint that wing, I'd be hard pressed to see the difference.  

Great recovery from a possibly fatal error- I would have been tempted to send it to the wall- hard, fast and angrily.

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Friday, May 23, 2014 4:06 PM

Ha!  Thanks!  Yeah, I thought about sending it airborne.  But it was weird.  As soon as I saw what was happening with the paint I just sort of accepted it and began planning how to fix it.  As I get older it seems like my patience gets better.

As soon as I committed to repainting it I got it done very quickly.  In reality, it wasn't really too difficult.  I just started with that dark brown camo as the boundary and just painted like I did the first time.  The only thing I didn't do was re prime & pre shade the ruined areas.  Turns out the pre shading wasn't really necessary.

The next steps should be decaling and re attempting the panel line pin wash.

  • Member since
    February 2014
  • From: Michigan
Posted by silentbob33 on Friday, May 23, 2014 5:58 PM

Nice recovery! I probably would have given up after that setback.

On my bench: Academy 1/35 UH-60L Black Hawk

Dre
  • Member since
    June 2007
  • From: here, not over there
Posted by Dre on Saturday, May 24, 2014 8:22 AM

Yeah, I'm starting to think that with an aggressive post-shading, that pre-shading is pretty much unnecessary.  But... it is the foundation that everything else builds off of, so i don't plan to quit it anytime soon.

Still, that's a mighty fine bit of recovery.

  • Member since
    June 2013
Posted by bvallot on Saturday, May 24, 2014 6:19 PM

I'm actually doing a phantom and a thud for that GB. I'll be glad to see you in there. =]

On the bench:  

Tamiya F4U-1  Kenneth Walsh

 

  • Member since
    February 2014
Posted by dflu78 on Sunday, May 25, 2014 1:09 AM

Ack!!! Sorry to see you had problems,but seriously....not blowing smoke at ya...you recovered beautifully. I'd never have known without evidence. :)

It feels really good to overcome that monster inside of you that pushes you to want to chunk a kit at the wall if something goes wrong. I used to be that guy too. Then one day I just realized that most anything can be fixed with some patience. My first disaster I overcame was on my 1/32 Tamiya  Spitfire. I spent a few days painting and building up layers and post shading the underside and then I dumped a whole airbrush cup of enamel paint on the bottom :D instead of pushing it aside I spent another several days stripping paint and doing it all over. anyway...I know the pain and the satisfaction that your little mishap has brought you. This one is looking stunning so don't stress it :)

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Sunday, May 25, 2014 1:25 AM

dflu78

Ack!!! Sorry to see you had problems,but seriously....not blowing smoke at ya...you recovered beautifully. I'd never have known without evidence. :)

It feels really good to overcome that monster inside of you that pushes you to want to chunk a kit at the wall if something goes wrong. I used to be that guy too. Then one day I just realized that most anything can be fixed with some patience. My first disaster I overcame was on my 1/32 Tamiya  Spitfire. I spent a few days painting and building up layers and post shading the underside and then I dumped a whole airbrush cup of enamel paint on the bottom :D instead of pushing it aside I spent another several days stripping paint and doing it all over. anyway...I know the pain and the satisfaction that your little mishap has brought you. This one is looking stunning so don't stress it :)

dflu78, thanks for the encouragement/compliment.  Yeah, At some point you just realize that the world isn't ending and you take what the modeling gods throw at you.  But its really nice when you give the modeling gods the big middle finger and fix whatever it was that got screwed up!

This wasn't my first rodeo.  I had a 1/48 Monogram F-20 all finished and when I put the clear flat coat on it it reacted with the Future coat and cracked up really bad.  I stripped the whole thing down and did it all over.  It sucked but it ended up being totally worth it.

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Monday, May 26, 2014 1:15 AM

Alrighty, I've put on most of the decals.  The decals left much to be desired.  Several of them did not fit or were sized incorrectlyBang Head.  They also tended to silver pretty badly.  I had to use a fresh #11 blade and poke holes in many places to get the Micro Set/Micro Sol to flow under the decals.  

Also, the instruction sheet was terrible.  The sheet just had a line that pointed to the general area where the decal was supposed to go.  I had to look up pics on the internet of just flat out guess where exactly they went.

There are a few small stencils that I need to attach but for the most part this is how she's gonna look:

It doesn't really show up in the pics but I washed the wings with Pro Modeler Dark Dirt wash.  It looks good to the naked eye.  It filled in the rivets nicely.

The pylons:

Here are the AIM-120Bs, AIM-9Ms, GBU-10, AN/AAQ-14 targeting pod and the fuel tanks.  The GBU-31 still needs to be decaled:

I will need to go over the panel lines covered by the decals with some Mr Color Smoke to weather them consistently with the rest of the panel lines.  Then the next steps will be to wash the landing gear and wheel wells, flat coat the whole thing and then start with the weathering filters.

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Monday, May 26, 2014 1:25 AM

I mentioned earlier that I busted off the pitot tube on the nose.  So I filed down the tip, drilled out an opening and bought a metal replacement pitot from Voyager.

Obviously I'm going to have to CA it into place and touch up the paint.

  • Member since
    June 2013
Posted by bvallot on Wednesday, May 28, 2014 8:02 AM

Just beautiful.  The ordinance is still quite impressive.  Glad to see you bounce back. =]

On the bench:  

Tamiya F4U-1  Kenneth Walsh

 

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