Yes the gray markings (FS 35237) were printed that way. Strangely, they look darker on the Fightertown decal sheet but when applied over ghost gray paint they somehow tone down in color. At times I thought they were too light but looking at reference pics they really look muted on TPS F-14s.
Granted, these pics are blurry but you can see there's subtle contrast between the base coat and markings:
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If your decals are too dark you can use some highly-thinned paint to mist over them like on the vid below. I was about to do the same for the crew names to sort of give a stenciled-on look to them but I chickened out : ) I figured I might not be able to undo it. The modex numbers and name stencils are black, by the way.
Dont fret over the small stuff. You made 2 of the best Top Gun Tomcat model's I've ever seen. You can go nuts trying to count rivets and stains and whatever else. . Be proud of the work you've done!!So.. the camera bird never sported drop tanks because of the camera mounted in its spot. Makes me want to remove the tanks from Mav's jet but theyre super-glued on : )
if you removed the tanks then you'd have to create mini cameras and replace the modex numbers and on and on and on. Don't worry about itSo.. the camera bird never sported drop tanks because of the camera mounted in its spot. Makes me want to remove the tanks from Mav's jet but theyre super-glued on : )
That’s what I call creative..thanks! I’ll keep my eye out!Hi Alex, thanks. They were stainless steel barbecue skewers that I saw at a local grocery store : ) I thought I'd have trouble cutting them at first but found them pretty hacksaw-friendly. Even bending them to shape wasn't that bad.
Wish I had this when I was painting my 1/48 bird!Thanks, KramStaar! So.. according to Matt, there were as many as 9 different filming jets. And the one I weathered as Maverick's was the camera bird which had cameras installed on the airframe and in the RIO seat. Crew names, tail badges and modex numbers changed on the jets throughout the filming, but it was only this bird that didn't have its modex number changed. It always stayed as 104. I wanted to swap the 104 and 114 modex numbers between the two models - I still have spare decals -- but I just know it's not going to end well. Maybe someday when they discover a way to remove decals that have already been clear/matte-coated I'll attempt to remove them.
Here's his updated drawing of the camera bird weathering. Credit goes to Matthew Lawlor of the Top Gun Props and Costumes Forum. This was the paintjob/weathering the Tomcat on display on the Lexington was supposed to get but that failed to happen for budget reasons.
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