[Anders_Isaksson]

I have missed this thread before but WOW - that is some splendid detailing work going on here!
Good to see all the little refinements you are doing to the HB kit, it sure can use some help here and there.
Also, I am happy that you found my own WIP could provide some pointers.

JesniF-16, on 24 February 2012 - 06:18 PM, said:

Added small details to the heat exchanger vents, which depending on what comes with the photo etch set, I may decide to modify these vent louvres. They are a bit thick.

---

Good work with the interior detail there. Not sure why I decided to blank off the vent interiors on my build... suppose I got lazy.
Wish I had taken the time to do something similar like you did.

Keep up the good work!

[JesniF-16]

Thank you for the encouraging words Anders... your builds are like a blueprint for these cats. Can't wait to see your painted bird I have secluded myself from life the last month and put around 250 hours of work into this project last month!!! I think half of the time is researching and the other half is spent sanding. Family members are wondering if I have left the country Well guess it's time to get building

This post has been edited by JesniF-16: 04 March 2012 - 05:28 PM

[JesniF-16]

Another small progress report. I have painted the canopy and glued in the inner frame. I may opt to do some more weathering later on. I would like to try Chucks salt weathering technique, but I wouldn't like to ruin the model so I will see about that later... Here's the canopy for now... further polishing will also be required later on.





And finally the wings are primed and ready to go (no more rivets). After long hours of sanding and scribing, also some photo etch oval panels were installed. This is my first attempt at using PE parts. I used future as an adhesive because the CA glue doesn't allow any time to position the part




And work has begun on the underside fuselage, starting with the air conditioning vents. I have rummaged through some old sprues and found that the 1:72 F-15C extra wheel hub part is the correct size and to my luck it actually looks very similar to the fan on the real aircraft.
With a bit of sanding...



I will wait to glue the vent cover, as it is right next to the forward fuselage joint.
Thanks for looking
/Jesse

[Aigore]

Great work!

[erik_g]

Nice work, I especially like that canopy. I´ll steal that one!

/E

[JesniF-16]

Thanks Aigore and Erik_G, much appreciated I was glad to see the canopy was clean under the masking tape...
/Jesse

This post has been edited by JesniF-16: 06 March 2012 - 04:00 AM

[JesniF-16]

I've been tackling the upper and lower fuselage hoping to join them in the near future. Unfortunately this may be my last week of free time for modelling... Next week I'm afraid I have to deal with 'work' for a few months, so hopefully I will find some time for my hobby. Anyways, more modifications are made to add life to the F-14 project. I have never built any other F-14 model, but I scribed the panel lines close to accurate without sanding the entire fuselage and starting over.

The front fuselage is 90% done and ready to attach and blunders are checked with some silver paint...


I added the rain repellant nozzles after sanding was complete.



I used the PE vent cover here. It has the 10 louvers at 90deg. vs the kit vent cover which sports 9 louvers at an angle.


I put this modification off this whole build. I've gone this far so I used .010 plastic card to upgrade the wing glove gaskets and I'm happy that I did the extra work and it only took an hour or so... Another idea borrowed by JohnS Be-Devilers cat Very painless and a fun project...




And lastly, I have opened up all of the small vent holes for more depth This is supposed to be more of an upside down "U" shape, but I got a bit carried away.


The goal is to get the main fuselage closed up by Sunday, then this build will be much slower than it already has been.
Thanks for looking
/Jesse

This post has been edited by JesniF-16: 06 March 2012 - 08:06 PM

[JohnS]

Looking good, Jesse.

FYI, here's a link to one of Dave Fassett's F-14D 'Christine' pic's showing the wing glove sealing plate detail;

http://i158.photobuc...14/100_5233.jpg

All of Dave's great photos are in his thread at;

http://s362974870.on...howtopic=226493

This post has been edited by JohnS: 07 March 2012 - 01:09 AM

[JesniF-16]

Thank you John, I truly appreciate the feedback. Dang I wish I had those great pics two weeks ago . I'm still wondering how to paint the A/C fan... So many things to do and not much time to do it. BTW, isn't your cat ready for paint?

/Jesse

[JohnS]

JesniF-16, on 07 March 2012 - 01:20 AM, said:

BTW, isn't your cat ready for paint

I put a coat of primer on the fuselage assembly yesterday. It's hi-lighted a couple of small areas that I'll need to repair. I've also completed drawing the paint masks for the camo scheme. I'll post some pic's, once I complete the repairs. Thanks for asking.
John

[JesniF-16]

JohnS, on 07 March 2012 - 01:49 AM, said:

I put a coat of primer on the fuselage assembly yesterday. It's hi-lighted a couple of small areas that I'll need to repair. I've also completed drawing the paint masks for the camo scheme. I'll post some pic's, once I complete the repairs. Thanks for asking.
John

Looking forward to your progress report John. BTW the brail scale adversary is very nice.

I have a progress report on this HB cat. Being my second model using the AB, I struggled a bit with the paint ( mainly not thinning the light ghost gray quite enuf). I still managed to save the wings and stabs without starting over. Also I am gonna try the salt weathering later on.... Practice on an old Navy bird first.

This pic shows the contrast between the upper and lower color. I almost covered the pre-shading attempt, but in person it is still very visible...

The upper side of the wing. I am still considering to do away with these PE oval panels because they should be a bit more recessed....but that involves more work than I feel like doing at this time Also still need to paint the leading edge...



The under side ...


I added a very small amount of detail to the ladder bay here. And of course those darn red stripes require a Phd in art class


The intakes are glued in and some filler is required... Still need to re-scribe some detail in a few areas




So as you can see my attempt to glue the fuselage halves together by Sunday will not be happening. I will be in a hotel for work, for a couple of months, still planning to pack up my modeling gear to attempt to keep this project in a forward motion We will see how that works out More time will be focused on adding small details so major spraying can be done when I am home (weekends and what not)
Thanks for seeing the model

This post has been edited by JesniF-16: 09 March 2012 - 09:07 PM

[ChippyWho]

Magnificent work here, Sir -nothing short of inspirational!

[JesniF-16]

ChippyWho, on 09 March 2012 - 11:15 PM, said:

Magnificent work here, Sir -nothing short of inspirational!

Thank you for the kind words ChippyWho

[Falcon50EX]

So as you can see my attempt to glue the fuselage halves together by Sunday will not be happening. I will be in a hotel for work, for a couple of months, still planning to pack up my modeling gear to attempt to keep this project in a forward motion We will see how that works out More time will be focused on adding small details so major spraying can be done when I am home (weekends and what not)
Thanks for seeing the model

[/size]
[/quote]

Well, for what its worth, i spent a summer cooped up in a Hilton Garden Inn, with nothing to do but work on a Hasegawa F-14 kit. I was able to built up a lot of the structure, aside from the cockpit.
So, it can be done. Its just a matter of packing along the right tools.

On those intake joints- was all that putty sanded away, or did you do the trick using a Q-tip and acetone? That area is a perennially bad one on just about every Tomcat kit out there.

Cheers,

david

[JesniF-16]

I used Mr.Thinner to take off most of it then did minor sanding work. I agree that the intakes are terrible all around Thanks for sharing your hotel experience and yes I will pack a lot of useful tools. I can definitely get the bird ready for paint and spray away when I go home on weekends
/Jesse

[JesniF-16]

Well, I achieved the goal of gluing the main fuselage together
Now I have all week in a hotel room to sand . At least the model is starting to take shape (300 and some hours later...) what a marathon it has been.
So it was a long task gluing the fuselage halves together and hopefully I didn't forget to add anything inside since it's super glue tight now...

After a dry fit I realized the Aires cans and shrouds didn't fit so...


I made quick work of this problem.


Then poured on the CA glue.


Couldn't get a good shot of the intakes. It's probably a good thing


The main gear cabins glued in.


Some work is done to cover up the ugly gaps by the turtle deck


And after paint, wash and dry brush, here's what I ended up with.


I decided to hand paint the sills at this point....


Of course, a test fit of the pilot seat.


And finally a dry fit up of the forward fuselage. With a bit of tweaking it looks to be a very nice fit


So at last the bird is taking shape and soon the CA glue and sanding will be just a bad memory The Tomcat is a great bird with so much detail to be added.
That's it for today

/Jesse

This post has been edited by JesniF-16: 11 March 2012 - 04:04 PM

[Aigore]

It´s looking sweet!

[mikkod]

WOW...nice updates. Keep up the good work...

[JesniF-16]

Thank you so much Aigore and Mikkod Unfortunately I haven't had any time to work the model so far this week. I really would rather be modeling, but unfortunately I also need to make money Hopefully more pics soon...
/Jesse

[JesniF-16]

Greetings modelers,
Looking back on this build I can see more time needs to be taken when laying out panel lines. I realize now that these lines need to be carefully measured out and I was thinking my eagle eye was good enough . I have lines that are not perfectly straight here and there on my F-14, but at this point I think it's gonna look fine on my shelf when it's done.
With my job and everything going on it is difficult to get anything done so not much progress is done.

Here is my new Red Roof Inn working area, not bad huh?


The exhaust shrouds are super glued into place... then sanded...




Then I did a bunch of researching and since I am building the 1991 VF-111 BuNo. 160689 I have determined that this bird is the Block 100 version. The block 100 seems to be fitted without the beaver tail position light and without ECM blisters (please correct me if I'm wrong)...




It was very difficult to find a good reference pic on the exhaust shroud area. After lots of research I have determined the area is inaccurate in shape and the panel lines are incorrect . My solution is to remove and add 'some' detail to make it look 'decent'. I don't want to retire on this project I just want to make it look somewhat accurate
CA glue and more sanding... And the vent holes were opened up for the PE vent screens installed later on.



Re-scribed some detail and check for major flaws...


After I shoot the Mr. Surfacer I will make the final repairs if needed. Someday I will build the Hasegawa Cat in hopes that it is more accurate than the HB kit. All of the panels and lines are a bit off on the entire main fuselage, Maybe it's as good as it gets for Tomcat kits I don't know.
I don't think the Block 100 has any ECM blisters by the wing glove vane area, I already sanded the kit one's off so I hope not. Maybe you Tomcat experts can help me out with this because it's hard to tell from the pictures I have. Until next time I will be sanding and scribing until I can attach the forward fuselage then sand some more...
Cheers /Jesse

This post has been edited by JesniF-16: 18 March 2012 - 03:48 PM