Small Scale Military Headquarters

Got most of her done this weekend. Just needs some weathering, the wheel wells painted, the front landing gear detailed and the new Skyworks Toys replacement metal landing gears inserted and she's a ringer for the real thing. To make my Tomcat as close to the correct Block 95 configuration that VF-33's last CAG was in, I sanded off all the ECM bumps: The ones under the wing glove, the one on the left front landing gear door, but stupid me I forgot to get rid of the one on the beaver tail. I detailed out the gun vent as best as I could. The big stuff is all painted using stencils and the small stuff is a combination of homemade decals and some from BadCat's set they are selling. I'll post more pics when it's really said and done. One trick I learned is that forget painting in the formation glow lights, just cut Tamiya's 4mm masking tape to size and it's the perfect color and matte texture to replicate the real thing.

Oh and I figured out how to get rid of the "verticalness" of the vertical stabs by heating them up to straighten them and then filed and sanded the base and the pegs and the holes to get them to align correctly


http://www.flickr.com/photos/13688984@N ... 496834258/

Looks really great! How did you do the tail flashes? They look like they are paint and not decals. Nice plane for sure

TOTALLY WICKED!!!

The tail flash is paint. White base coat, mask over the star, mask the outline for the bolt, then paint Model Master Bright Yellow, then mask over the bolt and star, paint black. Same thing for the AB tail code on the inside. The "USS America" is custom decal, same for VF-33 on the underside. CAn't see due to it resting on the pillow. The 200's are decals as well. The hardest to do was the skunk stripe over the fuselage and canopy. Getting the masking line to follow the exact curvature as the real thing was not easy. Pretty much the skunk stripes on most squadrons' follow the outline as the canopy's shell (and the railing it sits on) and then simply taper to the rear or taper to the front, or taper both directions. VF-33's striping follows no rules thereby leaving no hard surface as a guide to run masking tape against. I had to create my own guide points.

Thanks for the compliments

Excellent work Black Lion VF-213.

She looks great.

Unusual scheme as well.

Thanks Snake! I appreciate the props!
Are you thinking it's unusual because it's not as widely known? Just curious

Black Lion VF-213 wrote:Thanks Snake! I appreciate the props!
Are you thinking it's unusual because it's not as widely known? Just curious

Not a Tomcat expert by any stretch,but am learning more

And yes,I think it is unusual because it is not as widely known as the 'usual suspects".Jolly Rogers,Black Aces,Tomcatters,TopHatters,Sundowners,etc.

Any particular reason you went with Starfighters?And not Black Lions.

Great job all round.


I found this site to be great for checking out the different squadrons.

http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-squadron.htm

Check out fighter fling videos!

The F-14 Rag VF-101 put them out every year. they got the footage from every Tomcat squadron. it goes from 1989 to 2005.

This one is from 2004!

http://www.patricksaviation.com/videos/Guest/35/

Fighter Fling 2003

http://www.patricksaviation.com/videos/Guest/34/