Top Gun F-14s Take Two

Thanks for the kind words, guys! : ) Hi vj mojo, I found some barbecue skewers to use for the stands. I couldn't find a flatbar the size I like from the hardware store -- they were either heavy gauge steel which was too thick to bend and would rust later on, or aluminum which wasn't too sturdy, so the stainless steel barbecue skewers were a lucky find. I don't have a picture of them as I bought them but they were about a foot and a half long and a quarter inch (around 6mm) wide. I cut them up and bent them to a "Z" shape using some hand seamer/sheet metal pliers. The top of the "Z" lines up with the flank of the Tomcat. I glued on 2 styrene tubes inside the tomcat about an inch apart and drilled two holes on the Tomcat's flank (a painful but necessary step -- no one wants to ruin a model but it had to be done and I figured it's the hidden side, anyway) I then cut up a couple bicycle spokes and bent them to an "L" shape. The long side goes into the Tomcat and the short side goes into holes drilled on top of the "Z" stand. Hope that helps : )
 
Thanks for that. Great paint work by the way they look awesome, going to attempt a top gun build myself hopefully my star wars weathering skills will help.

Also do you future the canopy before masking or when you seal the whole model.
 
Thanks vj mojo. I was thinking the other way around -- using aircraft mottling and black-basing techniques on the Falcon. I'm terrible at Star Wars painting. Re the canopy -- I dipped it in Future before painting.
 
Used to work with Chuck Lewis, one of the Tomcat pilots from the movie! Had some great stories about flying either Mav or Ice sorties depending on the day. Has his cameo in the bar singing scene, you can pick him out cuz of his callsign namesake, his hair turned "Silver" in his twenties.

These are FANTASTIC pieces, get these under glass ASAP! LOL almost makes me want to pull out my 1/32 Tamiya conversion that I started working on..... Sooo many 3rd party conversion parts for that thing...... And the re-scribing work is uber-frustrating considering the scale they made the kit, one would think they'd be more accurate.
One of these days...
 
Aegis159, thanks! Awesome to listen to firsthand scoops! Will check out that scene : ) I have that in the stash as well : ) It would be nice if they could scale up their new 1/48s.
 
crackerjazz said:
Thanks vj mojo. I was thinking the other way around -- using aircraft mottling and black-basing techniques on the Falcon. I'm terrible at Star Wars painting. Re the canopy -- I dipped it in Future before painting.
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Hahaha, I have always done the primer and pre-shading, never done the mottling affect. Always finished with oils and pigments and a good fine sharpened china pencil is great for fine detail. So what's your opinion about dipping vs polishing a canopy, I have no canopy xp.
 
Also why did you mask inside the canopy. Sorry to be a pain, but how did you support your model on different angles (you have pics of them flying straight but other pics where they are banking).
 
Hi vj mojo, I do need to polish too, after scraping off the mould line and sanding it down. Only then do I dip it. I havent tried polishing the whole thing yet but I think dipping is easier -- just dip and allow to dry on a paper towel. I normally cover it with a box to keep dust out. Comes out with a wet look : ) I read some people even double dip for even more shine. The cool thing is that even if the mold line sanding/polishing work left a haze, after dipping it comes out clear. And in case some dust particle or cat hair sticks to it while drying, you can spray on some Windex (the ammonia kind) and the Future dissolves. Wash and let dry and you can start over.

When the Future is finally dry I mask the inside completely to protect the Future from paint overspray. I then mask off the outside glass for frame-painting. Burnish the edges of the masking to protect against seepage. I paint with black first (so the frame will appear black from inside) before further painting (mottling or gray Tomcat color). It would be great if after the black you can fix it onto the model using small rolls of blue tack along all the edges to make sure no overspray gets into the cockpit --- then paint it along with with the body so the paintjob becomes cohesive. Otherwise there'll be a slight variation in hue between the body and the canopy. For decals I just hand-brush on some Future on the required spot. Don't remove the masks until the very end for any other gloss or flat spray coats you might have to do. Keeps you in suspense I know -- but canopy work is just that. You don't see the results of your work until the model is completely done.

For the banking position I just used a different pair of spokes -- bent at an angle.
 
Hi working on the remaining stuff -- TCS pods, antennas, pylons and missiles. It's really true the last bits take the most effort : ) Will see if I can make magnetic attachment points for the pylons as they're getting in the way, making it harder to attach the mounts. Now if there's a way to pry the pylons off ...

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Excellent work..!!..detailed and weathered well....but to be constructively critical, they need to be higher off the hard deck and be on clear acrylic tube or flatbar...still great job...!!!...;);)

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A little something to spruce up the base : ) The base looks lonely with just a DVD cover slapped on. Tomcat patches have this cool and brash slogan and variations to it that's pretty cool and ran the gamut from "Anytime, Baby!", "Been to Baghdad, Baby!", "You're Booty, Baby!", to its retirement slogans like "Bye, Bye, Baby!" and "Well done, Baby!"

Why not "It's Movie Time, Baby!", lol. The Tomcat did a fine job in the film, managing to look good while sporting a scruffy paintjob : )

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I'll give it a lick of paint and see how it turns out in color.
 
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crackerjazz said:
A little something to spruce up the base : ) The base looks lonely with just a DVD cover slapped on. Tomcat patches have this cool and brash slogan and variations to it that's pretty cool and ran the gamut from "Anytime, Baby!", "Been to Baghdad, Baby!", "You're Booty, Baby!", to its retirement slogans like "Bye, Bye, Baby!" and "Well done, Baby!"

Why not "It's Movie Time, Baby!", lol. The Tomcat did a fine job in the film, managing to look good while sporting a scruffy paintjob : )

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I'll give it a lick of paint and see how it turns out in color.
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That's awesome! I love the play on the patch slogans.
 

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