Custom painted 1:18 Aircraft TKO UPDATED 1/02 F-14 Vandy 1

[Jay]

I actually said F### out aloud when I saw that camo Sabre! I want one.

[tko211]

I'm glad you guys like the China Lake Sabre. It's an unusual scheme for that plane and I wasn't too sure what folks would think of her. Anyway- I am selling the China Lake F-86. Planned to put her up on the Ebay auction block in the next day or two!

I am almost finished with a Spot Removal Tomcat, and a killer Low Viz Jolly Rogers for fellow board members. I should have some decent pics of those sometime in the next day or so... (depends on if I can sneak out of the Studio early one afternoon while the sun is still up).

After that I have a new F-14 painted that I will likely be putting up for sale... Needs about 4 more hours of work and she will be ready. It's a Special Edition LED bird!

-TKO

[snake]

Can you give us a link to Ebay when you put her up, Zach?

I would be interested.

[dragon53]

TKO211:

Did you ever set up your website?

[tko211]

Well the Camo Sabre just went up on the auction block! No reserve, starting price is set at $75.00 so someone will win her even if that is all she goes for!
Here is the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... _500wt_993

[snake]

Thanks TKO.

[snake]

Proud new owner of the great looking custom F-86 "China Lake"

Thanks for making this available, TKO.

[tko211]

Hey! Congrats Snake. It's a nice plane and I'm happy to see it go to you. I'm in Seattle right now but I get back late tomorrow. I'll connect more with you then. Cheers my friend!

[Black_Dragon_One]

Proud new owner of the great looking custom F-86 "China Lake"

Thanks for making this available, TKO.

good job..

[Jnewboy]

Here is my custom painted FW-190D-9. There really aren't too many choices for the Dora's but the red tail bands and the signature "Christl" painted on the fuse was too much to resist. This was one of the many different aircraft flown by Barkhorn which included the 109, Fw-190A and 262. really he is an interesting pilot to learn about. I was then inspired to ditch the standard issue pilot figure and came up with this nice custom using a simple head swap, custom painted officer cap and a smoke in his hand. This was really a simple custom to pull off, the long delay on this one was the broken landing gear that I had to replace. Then it just sat there for months waiting for me to bring out the camera. So here you go! Enjoy-

Very nice FW!! where did you get the decals??

[tko211]

Hi all! Been a long time since I have posted on this thread. As some of you know, I have been really busy painting custom planes by request. Many of these have been F-14's... about 40 of them just to give you an idea. So the time has come to push the pause button on custom orders and move onto a couple projects of my own.

In the next 1-2 weeks I will finally be ready to show off some new projects that I have been working on. I have a few of them finished and few others that need just a little more work before I am ready to call them good. Here is a list of what I have finished and what is still in the works.

1. F-14A Tomcat (finished)
2. F-104C Starfighter (finished)
3. MiG-15 bis (95% finished)
4. Zero (85% finished)
5. MiG-15 bis (75% finished)
6. F-18A (30% finished)

Planes on the board (schemes picked):

1. Horten Ho 229
2. F-14A Tomcat
3. F-16 Falcon
4. Late model Spitfire
5. P-51D Mustang
6. F-104G Starfighter
7. F-104 G Starfighter
8. F-86F Sabre
9. F-18A Hornet

[snake]

Time to take a much needed break Zach.

I appreciate all that you have done for the hobby, and your customs certainly have kept interest in 1/18 going. Particularly the F-14's that you have done. Can't believe you have done 40 of them. And they all look fantastic.

I am fortunate to have four of your customs, including the last one I just received from you. Awesome 1/18 CF-18. Done in 410 Squadron, "Cougars". She is fantastic, and a true center piece in my 1/18 collection.

I know some people will be disappointed to hear you are taking a break, but you have obviously been very busy lately, and need some time for yourself. Perfectly understandable.

Would like to thank you also for your input with AllGo, and am cautiously optimistic that we will see some other 1/32 models from them.

Looking forward to pics of your own projects.

[tko211]

Wow Snake! I sorta lost track in regards to how many of mine you have. There is one other guy out there that has 6 of mine. I think you might hold the number 2 spot for most owned.
Which 4 again? Cf-18 410 squadron, the golden hawks saber...
What other 2? China lake camo f-86?... I can't recall.

[snake]

Wow Snake! I sorta lost track in regards to how many of mine you have. There is one other guy out there that has 6 of mine. I think you might hold the number 2 spot for most owned.
Which 4 again? Cf-18 410 squadron, the golden hawks saber...
What other 2? China lake camo f-86?... I can't recall.

CF-18 410 Squadron "Cougars"

F-86 " Golden Hawks" demo team.

F-86 " China Lake camo"

Bell X-1 'Glamorous Glennis".

You gave me multiple colour/scheme patterns on the X-1, but I went for the Yeager original scheme.

The Golden Hawks I picked up from CoreyEagle.

Love your stuff Zach, and they really are true highlights in my 1/18 collection.

Thank you again for first of all doing these, and then making them available to us collectors. And I would be interested in getting more from you at a later date. Maybe a fabulous F-14, as the only one I have is a "improved" Jolly Rogers.

You are a real credit to the forum.

[tko211]

Ah yes! I totally forgot about the X-1. You should pick a scheme for the F-14 and do one... They look really great in custom paint. They are more work but really worth it.

[Light.Inf.Scout]

You do great work TKO...and you too JNEWBOY. amazing .

[Jnewboy]

I was just going through this whole thread, TKO has done some great customs!! Nothing has been posted for awhile, has he stopped doing them?? Ive seen some for sale in the buy/sell/trade forum. Really great work!!

[gliderdwm]

I picked up the F-104 Starfighter 1959 test custom paint and really nice work. I tried to message him about the vinyl stencils and he does not respond.

[Jnewboy]

I picked up the F-104 Starfighter 1959 test custom paint and really nice work. I tried to message him about the vinyl stencils and he does not respond.

yea, I saw that, I wish I had a machine to cut out vinyl stencils like that

So is he MIA now or what?? except for selling his customs??

[pizzaguy]

I'm probably opening a can of worms, but if there is something you need cut out in vinyl I could help you out. I have a small 8x11 cutter. It does a good job. Let me know if I can help.

[tko211]

I just came back on the site after a long hiatus and saw this thread. I needed a serious break from the custom paint thing as I got pretty burned out after too many tomcats. Sorry to gliderdwm, for missing your messages and thus not getting back to you my being MIA was to blame- If you are still in need let me know and we can talk. Over the phone might be best. just let me know-

So since my much needed break here is what I have done with my time:
1. NOTHING for a long time... then I got busy with the following
2. A new white and blue NASA F-104 ( not shown yet)
3. 2 new MiG-15's (not shown yet)
4. F-14 Vandy 1 Black bunny (not shown yet)
5. F-16 agressor (not shown yet) - needs final markings
6. F-18 Red Devils CAG (not shown yet) - needs about 10 more hours of work
7. Ho-229 (not shown yet) - needs final markings
8. SBD Dauntless (not shown yet) - needs final markings
9. ZERO soloman islands (not shown yet) - needs final markings

[gliderdwm]

Glad to hear from you. Nice to see you are at least doing some custom work. Look fforward to seeing pics of solomons zero. I will contact you about the vinyl stencils.

[stang81]

Hi guys

I'm new to this forum and just wanted drop by on this I thread and say what fantastic work TKO!! And what a fantastic forum this is... Wish I had of found it early....

I wanted ask you a couple of Questions TKO. I'm going to redo a 1/18 sabre into RAAF Aussie colors of either the black diamonds or black panther aerobatics teams. I've got the decals ready to go but just would like to know how you remove the tampo printed designs from the plastic model before you paint your under coat??

And what spray paint do you use for the silver on the sabres??? Is it tamiyas rattle cans like you mentioned earlier in this thread??

Thanks for your help and keep up the good work!!!

Cheers

Al

[tko211]

Good questions:

1. The factory Tampo paint markings do have some "build" when they go down. This means that they sometimes have a tendency to have a visible edge to them when you paint over. However most 21C models tampo were thinner and many cover up as is just fine. That said-

2. Silver will show everything so if your scheme calls for a bare metal look it's best to lightly sand off the old markings. Don't worry about sanding them off completely, concentrate on the outer edges mostly and make them smooth so there is no ridge to them.

3. You may want to do this regardless just to be sure...

4. I prime all my models with Tamyia primer or Testors model master primer works too.

5. I use Tamyia rattle cans and Tamyia masking tape (and vinyl stencils) for these models.

[stang81]

Hi TKO,

Thanks for the info much appreciated. ill try and put up some posts of the re-do in this section of the forums. I'm hoping to get around to it early next week hopefully.

Which Tamiya silver do you find is the best match for the silver used on the original models??

Which scheme do you reckon i should do??

Black diamonds:



Black Panthers:




Thanks again

Al