Small Scale Military Headquarters

thatf14guy wrote:someone here once told me i should paint my plane all black to hide the spots, well can you quess what scheme this bird gonna be. more pics are to come. as i am very busy.

That looks friggin awesome. I love that plane in black.

here is one i've already sold at a flea market for believe it or not $800. this is a late 80s scheme i think.

[/quote]
That looks friggin awesome. I love that plane in black.[/quote]

thanks, hope to finish it soon. working on webpage on facebook right now.

thatf14guy, that black paint looks awesome! I have a second F14 still in the box, it's the Special Edition version, and I want to have it repainted in something other that the original JSI scheme...Everytime I see a new paint scheme I want it - Since I am "paint skill impaired" (or whatever), I am going to have to have someone do it for me, and I'm OK with that - Once "fixed" the F14 is a magnificent model, I really believe the best of the 1/18th scales so far. I have no doubt they will hold their value (plus), but I can't see ever giving mine up unless I need the money to eat!
Anyway, back to my point - I figure I can only afford to have it painted one time...The $64,000 question is which scheme?
Thanks, for adding to my (self imposed) confusion

hell yeah i want one in every scheme.

Started my "Repaint the SpotCat" project a couple of nights ago.

Disassembled the entire aircraft, broke a gear door tab in the process and laid out the parts for masking.

Aircraft will be done with FTD's "Cat Snatch Fever" decals and painted in Tamiya's Dark Ghost Gray. Worked on the cockpit the last two nights repainting the face curtain handles, seats and instrument panels.

Spent this evening masking the canopy with Tamiya 6mm tape.

Will post pics soon. The process to paint this beast has started.

Primed today.

you gonna have a lemon scented plane?

i'll be starting my masking today, can't wait to see what yours looks like. good luck, hope it turns out looking awesome!

Thanks and I'll post pictures of the completed paint.

I had to spend sometime sanding down the tampo markings along the wings and under the canopy. The ink/paint was extremely thick. I didn't get it 100% but it's a lot less noticable.

Paint should arrive early next week and I just emailed Fightertowndecals in regards to the status of my order.

She's gonna look purdy covered all in gray


[EDIT] Update: Brian from Fightertowndecals literally responded to my email in less than five minutes and the decals will ship this week and should arrive by early next week. My Tamiya Dark Ghost Gray and Testor's Euro I Gray also ships out today from another e-shop.

So...She'll get Tamiya color most likely mid-next week. Several days to let the paint and gloss dry and decaled next weekend. Then several more coats of flat, paint touch-up's here and there.

Hi there!
Newbie posting here, although I've been a lurker for quite some time.

NWarty, I'm following your progress with interest as I'll be taking pretty much the same route as you - but would love to see a finished example first before I take the plunge!

I received my decals from Fightertown yesterday, and I must say the quality looks fantastic, really looking forward to applying them.

Are you going to preshade panel lines and such?
And what kind of primer did you use, and how many cans?

I bought 3 cans of 150ml Humbrol Acrylic primer - surely thats enough?

Cheers!

RM,
I used basic Rustoleum gray enamel primer for the big Cat's undercoat as I had two big cans of it lying around. Three cans of Tamiya spray will be used for the base color.

At this point I'm researching the pre-shading on the panel lines as I've never built a low-vis Navy Jet, only Gull Gray birds. The flashes on the vertical stabs will be done with the airbrush. But yes, I will be doing pre-shading on the big girl.

I still have a good bit of time before I begin to shoot color to get all my questions knocked out.

I'm off to the ARC Forums

Best of luck with it, looking forward to seeing the finished article!

here pics of mine without decals, have not got them yet. but open for comments, still needs work. the canopy paint ran a little under the mask, so got to fix that somehow, already tried thinner. overall i give it a 7 out of 10, but thats me. after all i haven't done stuff like this in 5 years. so i'm feeling the paint blues right now. or the alcohal!

F14guy,
That looks great! This bird really looks fantastic in all-gray.

Small update from me,
Pre-shading done this evening with Testors dark gray. Applied liberally to all panel lines. Nevermind that the lines look sloppy as they'll be fixed up in the coming weeks as I start to really weather the turkey.

One of the other things I'll be doing is the red around the gear door outer surfaces. I'm not surprised JSI missed this one.

F14guy that looks fantastic! What color is that? Dark Ghost Gray?
NWarty: coming along nicely!

I dont have an airbrush myself, I was just going to rattle can the whole thing, but as I'll probably pre shade the panel lines I might just invest in an airbrush. Cheap single action would probably do the trick, as I probably wouldn't get the use out of an expensive one. I was thinking of a panel line wash after the main color goes on.

Quick question on the intakes:
Are the interior of the intakes the same color as the overall bird. ie dark ghost gray? Or do you mask them off with the original lighter gray underneath?
Thanks!

As far as I know, yes, the intakes are the same color as the rest of the aircraft.

looks alot better today, i might just have to put on my topgun cd and jam to it!

i've got some outside pics! still no decals.

VERY nice f14guy

Here's the first two passes of color. The photos didn't come out great, so I tweaked them so you can see how the pre-shading peeks through the base coat. It looks good to my eye at least, but it's hard to get the effect from these shots.

double-post

yeah, i preshaded mine too, but you can't tell at all, but it still looks awesome, why couldn't jsi do this in the first place.

thatf14guy wrote:yeah, i preshaded mine too, but you can't tell at all, but it still looks awesome, why couldn't jsi do this in the first place.

Did you use a spray can to overspray your pre-shade? You really have to use an airbrush to get the benefit of the pre-shading- the paint particles are much more fine and atomized. Spray cans leave the paint particles too large to really be "delicate" enough to let the pre-shade come thru. With a spray can it is usually either too little or too much.

yeah i never have used a airbrush, i want to learn though, i hear its alot better to use than using a can paint.

no comment