Academy 1/72 F-14A Completed!!!!!

Hi guys!!! Completed this kit today, flat coat done by future + tamiya flat base. Realized tail fins attached in opposite sides after flat coating, nothing much can be done....

1/72 Academy F-14A WIP

Hi guys, I decided to start on this kit today. I still have 1 more in my stash, since I got it dirt cheap. Anyway, I read online that this Academy version is somewhat a copy of the Fujimi kit but with less details (well I wouldn't know since this is the only 72nd scale Tomcat that I have).



Anyway, construction always begins with the cockpit. The cockpit isn't really well-detailed, at least the kit provided decals for the control panels. However, I find the ejection seat pretty detailed, unlike the bare/basic type which other kits provide. This one had seat belts molded on, the 2 rings on top (i dunno what is the name for those), in fact the ejection seat is made up of 4 parts! The cockpit tub was sprayed in gray color, then decals for the controls were done. Ejection seats were painted, dry-brushed with silver. I was pretty satisfied with the overall look of the cockpit.







Update!!! - Continued with fitting, manages to fit the top and lower halve of the body together, fitting was ok, putty needed at some parts. Fitted the front section to the fuselage, bad bad fitting, alignment problem resulting in slight step. Intakes also glued in place, alignment also problematic resulting in slight step. Problems were tackled with putty, lots of it. Rescribed the whole plane, including the wings because I find the existing panel lines too shallow, took me about 2 days to rescribe the whole kit. Next, I sprayed the white areas.





Update!! - Pre-shaded whole kit, sprayed the front black triangle. Sprayed main color H315, painted silver edges on wings and tail fins. Attached landing gears. Canopy unmasked, luckily no bleeding, cleared up masking tape residue with lighter fluid, no bad effect on clear part due to future coating.

1/72 F-16B Completed!

Hi! My first completed kit of 2009, tried out quite a few new techniques i learnt/read about! I gotta say i really like the superglue+baby powder technique i learnt at the 1/144 airshow gathering, but got to work more on it because i flood the seam with super glue then add powder to it, after painting then i noticed a bit of unevenness. Another annoying this about this kit is that the pitot tube provided is like so fragile, bend a bit can almost break it off, gotta learn to replace it with needle.

I also painted the intake white, masked it off and sprayed the grey intake lips, took a few tries until i find it acceptable, but if u look closely can see its not really a straight line. I also tried fading the dark grey paint on the top side, added some white to the paint and spray quite randomly, although the effect isn't really noticable

This kit is also a OOB build, preshaded, painted with Gunze H305/306/307, weapons to be added on later when i have the time. Canopy was not glued on when photos were taken, still got to touch up the seats a bit more.

1/72 F-16B [WIP]

Hi! Started on this 72nd scale F-16 on New Year Day!!! Kit is the Italeri boxing (cause it's cheap), similar to the Tamiya 1/72 F-16. I will be building it into a 2 seater.

Clear part of the canopy was attached to the sprue, had to sand down the nub mark and polish using autosol(industrial polishing compound I think). Dipped in future and covered.

Seamlines at the cockpit area, the kit gives the option for a F-16C or F-16D version by changing the fuselage area near the cockpit for a 1 seater or 2 seater. Wings were molded separately, seamlines at area where wing meets the fuselage. Intakes were quite ok, seams weren't as bad as the other areas. Otherwise, the parts fit together quite nicely.

Finished assembling most of the parts, eliminated seams before pre-shading.

Painted the cockpit(kit lacking of details). Sprayed the intake and the wheels area white. Will have to mask the white area of the intake to paint the gray lip of the intake.











3/1/09 - Pre-shaded the whole jet with black (my lines are not that straight, but it doesn't matter), canopy temporary stuck on with blu-tack to mask cockpit. It had been 2 days since the canopy was dipped in future. After pre-shading, bottom of the jet/tail/fuel tanks/canopy 'strip'/front top fuselage was sprayed with H306. The pre-shaded lines are showing through!!!!





4/1/09 - Finished painting the remaining colors, H305 for the darker part, H307 for the radome. Intake masks removed, masking was a little uneven, re-applied masks and spray. Landing gears, tail fin and exhaust can attached and to my horror, a big seamline where the exhaust connects the fuselage, no choice but to leave it since kit painted... Brushed painted 2 coats of Future, 2nd coat applied about 3 hours after 1st coat. Will be leaving it to dry for at least 1 day before trying out enamel wash using lighter fluid.



5/1/09 - Did an enamel wash on the panel lines of the whole jet. First time doing a wash, hope it turns out fine. (fingers crossed!!) Enamel wash is a mixture of Tamiya Enamel Black and Zippo Lighter Fluid. Lighter Fluid does not affect the underlying Future, so I'm safe. Will be leaving it for a full day to dry. Tomorrow, will be doing decalling and a final future coat to seal the decals. Finishing line is in sight!





6/1/09 - removed enamel wash, I think panel line might not be deep enough, some wash in some panels removed with the surrounding wash. Anyway, I think the effect can still be seen although it might be quite light. Decals also applied, some were too big/too short/too long. Will brush on a coat of future to seal the decals and wash