Viper Group Build 2010-2011

I just realized I for got to take a pic with all the decals on....so I took one with the wash applied!  I used a dark gray mixed with black for the gunship gray areas and a gunship gray wash for the light colored areas. I haven't actually used an acrylic wash yet, so lets see how it goes!!

oh, and the decals went on great! They are from Superscale, great register, perfect adhesion...the only trouble I had was user error.

OWL

I've just learned the hard way that MM Flat cannot be hand brushed.  Bad things happen.

But thanks to help from other members of this forum, I was able to get things fixed. Here is what happened:

Luckily a very very light sanding got most of the flakes out and smoothed it down, and a coat of Future brought back the clarity.  I just have to wait for the future to cure again before I can move on to the next steps.

OWL

OWL, looing good.

Well, after sitting in the man cave and working on a kit, the call of the Viper was heard off in the distance.  A little voice told me that I can still remedy my Sufa, so I am going to regroup.  I already fixed the canopy and will start the paint job from scratch...today, I will spray primer over my current paint scheme and fix the pre-shading omission the first time around.  I will then use some finesse on the camo to eliminate that pastel look I currently have. 

I am not going to let this kit beat me....

Sufa Resurrection

Stuffed myself with turkey...took a little snooze while watching football...then stole some time to play with my Sufa.  New primer laid down and pre-shading completed....next-->new camo and under belly paint.

alright, hutchdh! Glad to see that you are giving the Sufa another shot.

OWL

we got shoved to the second page?! No good!!   So here I am to pop us back to the top.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and a nice Thanksgiving holiday (for those who celebrate it).  F-16 stands of now. I just have to take it hope for the airbrushed flat coat and attach the final bits and shes done!

OWL

OWL...looking good...the Academy kit built up pretty nice  .I am on the road on business for a few weeks and look forward to getting back to the man cave.

Have a safe trip hutchdh!

In other news, Im calling my Viper DONE!!

OWL

Nice work Owl.  Nice work indeed.

Just wondering if it is too late to sign up for this.  Just getting back into the hobby after having my modeling room redone for our daughter's room and being out of any space to use for the past couple of years.  Now that I have some new found space, I can start up once again.  I have Academy's newer F-16C "Arkansas ANG" with some pretty neat Gulf War nose art decals from some Shaw AFB Vipers.

awesome to have you aboard smitty. Holy smokes we have vipers just about done already. wow, i guess i need to get my butt in gear.

In another note. I should be starting my build by this weekend. 

Chewybr: I second that emotion!!!!!!.

Owl: Great looking bird!!! How did you get such a realistic look to the inside of the exhaust?? I have been trying so many different things to get the white hot/bunrt metal look! Never looks quite right though.

BigSmitty: I have added you to the list. Just need the scale.... I am assuming 1/48?

Oct/Nov have been crazy months for me. I have replaced 2 major appliances and a laptop in the space of 4 1/2 weeks. My trusty Dell finally bit the dust and I had to replace it with a new "widescreen" one!.

I did finally get to finish the darn Helicopter for the Korean GB. I think it took me 3 weeks to put decals and weather it....working in 20 min shots a day!! Oh how i long for a "man cave" and a door to lock me in!

I will be starting the "Netz" tomorrow afternoon and night. I have pulled the box down a dzen + times and thought about it. I did pick up some Skunk Models acces. to go with it! With luck and some peace in the house I should have some pics up by tomorrow night, Sunday at the latest.

You guys keep up the great work.

Travis

STFD637

Owl: Great looking bird!!! How did you get such a realistic look to the inside of the exhaust?? I have been trying so many different things to get the white hot/burnt metal look! Never looks quite right though.

 

Thanks STFD!  I painted the inside of the exhaust with gunmetal paint, and heavily dry brushed it with white. The afterburner was also painted gunmetal, but dry brushed with steel.

OWL

Ah, yeah, forgot.  1/48th.  Trying to find some 149th TFW (Texas ANG) decals as the house I grew up in was right in the flight path of Kelly AFB.  I remember when they transitioned from F-4s to the F-16s... everything got much quieter!

CallSignOwl wow thats a beauty of a Viper I see you have the burner can painting down to a science, I will have to remember how you did it. I can only hope mine comes out close to as good as yours did. I have a 1/32 Revell F-16 waiting for some attention, hope to get to it after the first of the year.

BigSmitty

Ah, yeah, forgot.  1/48th.  Trying to find some 149th TFW (Texas ANG) decals as the house I grew up in was right in the flight path of Kelly AFB.  I remember when they transitioned from F-4s to the F-16s... everything got much quieter!

Hey me too!! Well I grew up in San Antonio, but I saw those 16's all the time. Good luck trying to find the decals. I haven't looked lately, but I couldn't find them when I looked. I think I may do the Houston Vipers that way we can have two Texas birds in here. Let me know if you find those decals.

Well I finally got to work on the "Netz." I got the cockpit tub done....had some issues with old decals from the Hasegawa kit. I added a True Details resin seat to the tub as I am keeping the canopy open. I used a toothpick to simulate dials on the side panels (kinda scratched the black off to show the grey through.

I was going to make this an Air-Air set up but couldn't resist adding some of the bombs I got in my Skunk Models weapons set. I also used Hasegawa's smart bomb set for the Lantern pod. (it is just much nicer than Skunks)

If all goes well the Netz will have 2 Rafael Spice LGB, 2 Aim-9 Sidewinders on the tips, and 2 Python-4 missles. I got rid of the centerline fuel tank for a AN/AXQ-14 data pod.

Here are some pics. I am just glad to have got some work done on this.

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

 [View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

Travis

I should have some more pics up tonight. I got the fusilage halves and verticle stabilizer on the "Netz" a few days ago. Of course while browsing Ebay I found some more resin to add to the kit.

Corrected horrizontal fins and chaff despinsers!

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

I figure...."why not!" My goal is to have this baby loaded for war! Plus it will give a chance t hone my resin add on skills!

Now on to the other GB I have committed to!

Travis

Medicman71,

I found the decals for the 149th FW for the Viper, so I'll be building the San Antonio bird.  By the way, I found some really slick 111th FS Viper decals with the Houston Texans logo for the tail.  

I guess if I really wanted the good decals, I could fork over the money for the old (late 80s) 1/32 Hasegawa F-16A+/C.  It had the San Antonio ANG decals in the kit.  Best I could find was $50 starting bid on evilBay.  Bleah.

BigSmitty

Medicman71,

I found the decals for the 149th FW for the Viper, so I'll be building the San Antonio bird.  By the way, I found some really slick 111th FS Viper decals with the Houston Texans logo for the tail.  

I guess if I really wanted the good decals, I could fork over the money for the old (late 80s) 1/32 Hasegawa F-16A+/C.  It had the San Antonio ANG decals in the kit.  Best I could find was $50 starting bid on evilBay.  Bleah.

Yeah all the ones i've found have been sold out.

Hey all!

Hope everyones build's are progressing along and we are having fun. I have been plugging away on the Netz for a week (when time and kids allow). Got the cockpit in and the main components together. I am still waiting on the resin!. I took the seat out as I found a pretty good gap between the tub and rear wall (see pics). I filled it in with sprue. I would also like to thank Mr. Color (TM) for making Mr. Surfacer and allowing me to fill the small seams in w/o sanding

I also picked the colors for the A/C. The paint guid calls for FS colors and has Dark tan shown 2x with 2 different colors! I am using some Polly scale paints from the extensive collection. WWII Italian warbird colors seem to match the best out of all the choices out there.

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

Keep up the good work....and keep the WIP pics coming!

Travis

Happy New Year everyone! I got some good work done on the Netz recently. My biggest issue was the Chaf and Flare dispensers. I had  a hard time finding pics of the actual pics...finally I found to correct placement. I got most of the parts that will be painted in place glued and ready to go. Here are some pics:

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

Well that's all for now. Hope everyones builds are going great. Can't wait to see some good pics soon!

Travis

SOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I finally got all the parts in place. Just gave the Netz a final wash to prep for priming and.........right out of my hands to the floor it goes. Damage= 1 broken wing tip, some weapons pilons and a horizontal tail fin!! I have already started getting them back together....but I might be waiting to get some more work on this thing. Maybe I will get to work on my Blue Angel  for the Hornets Nest GB!

Travis

Happy New Year Travis .

I make a start today on my 1/72 Hasegawa F-16A and F-16B Fighting Falcons ;

The builds will OOB with markings from the 8th TFW "Wolf Pack" , Kunsan AFB Korea .

It will be a cross-over build with all my other on-going builds for the Korean War GB .

I'll post some WIP pic's later this afternoon.

                           John .

I did some preliminary airbrushing on the F-16A and B

I'll glue the cockpit pieces in place next and then glue the fuselage halves together .

                         John .

alright guys, the GB is back in business!

sorry to hear about the vipers tumble, STFD. are you going to be able to fix it?

OWL

Hasegawa's 1/72 F-16's seem fairly straight forward builds , so I added two Hasegawa F-16N kits to the bench .

I'll build one as the Navy Top Gun aircraft and the other I will back date to a F-16A "Netz" for the Israeli Air Force . Which entered service still in the USAF colors ....

                             John .

WOW! Helo. you don't waist any time!!!!! That is quite the assembly line. Great job.

I was able to get my kit pieced back together. Will post some pics. Lucky for me the break was fairly clean and easy to get back with minimal effect to the finish.

Travis

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]Crisis over. I was able to get the wing tip back on with minimal damage. I started the painting process with a primer and preshading. I also got the Grey underside done (Pollyscale Italian Blue Gray 1).

If I had a set area to do my building I might try Helo's approach and go at a couple of these vipers at once. They are pretty straight forward. Of course once you start adding resin things get slowed down a bit.

 [View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

The wing tip at the top of this pic is the one that snapped off. I broke clean just past the outer pilon. Both of the weapons pilons cam off as well.

Travis

I'm glad you were able to repair that broken wing Travis , your build is coming along nicely .

I just went through all 8 pages of this GB and saw Callsignowl's amazing finished F-16 , I was wondering if those Ohio decals are available in 1/72 scale .

I have built the A-7D Corsair II with similar markings and I would I love to add an F-16C .

If all goes well with my four current F-16 builds , perhaps I might add an ANG F-16C and I would really love to have a go at an Israeli F-16 as well ;

Either an F-16D Barak or the F-16I Sufa and if I can find those ANG markings in 1/72 scale a F-16C [Ohio]

Hopfully later today some more WIP pics ;

                                 John .