Inquisitor Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Guess I can kill two birds with a single stone. I can enter both this What-If and the Tomcat GB with this one. As you can guess I'll be doing this little cat in the scheme used in the Ace Combat 5 game. One conflict I had planning which scheme to use it that all the game's materials are not consistent with each other, be it ingame, promotional material or even the sequels. But in the end I settled for the black F-14A as seen on the promotional and ingame cutscenes, instead of using the F-14D and splinter camo. Here's a pic for reference. I'll be using a hasegawa 1/72 f-14A tomcat, Aires cockpit and exhaust. As for the decals I've already traced them in coreldraw and was searching a better way to print them besides inkjet/laser since they can't print white; or spending 500usd on an alps printer and supplies. Just recently found that a fellow modeller that frequents the same hobby shop I do, his family owns a printing business and been printing some custom decals too, and got him to print them for me. I expect to pick the sheets next week. Can't wait to start building it and see the decals on it Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Very nice. But keep in mind. Each model can only be in one group build on ARC. Can't combine them. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Platypus Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 I'll be using a [...] Aires cockpit [...] Good luck and eager to see the result. :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sv51macross Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 :) Hot damn! Benjo, you have to get a sheet like that in 1:48! Holyhellholyhellholeyhellllllzzzz yeeaaah! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benjo Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 (edited) :)Hot damn! Benjo, you have to get a sheet like that in 1:48! Holyhellholyhellholeyhellllllzzzz yeeaaah! WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Edited January 9, 2009 by benjo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Inquisitor Posted January 9, 2009 Author Share Posted January 9, 2009 (edited) :)Hot damn! Benjo, you have to get a sheet like that in 1:48! Holyhellholyhellholeyhellllllzzzz yeeaaah! Since they're all vector graphics it's pretty easy to rescale them to 1/48 or 1/32 without losing any detail. And actually I think the Razgriz sq. shield on the tail should look best on 1/32, but I build only 1/72 and right now I don't have money to spend for 1/32 one. And looking at the image I found a mistake, two of the Galm's red dog emblem should be mirrored, hope I can get it corrected before they start working on it. Edited January 9, 2009 by Inquisitor Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChernayaAkula Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Those decals look great! Phantom is right. It's been common practice to allow one build in only one GB. From what I see, Brian allows WhIfs for the Tomcat 2.0 GB, so you can either enter this build in the WhIf GB or the Tomcat GB, but not both. Your choice. But I for one think it would be really nice to keep you here. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tomcat RIO Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 i think that decal is uber cool!! markings for the yellow tail flanker! my goodness.. which reminds me to progress on my f-15j too.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Adam Baker Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Oh now thats just awesome. Ive got that game and have played it quite a bit. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sv51macross Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Those decals look great! Phantom is right. It's been common practice to allow one build in only one GB. From what I see, Brian allows WhIfs for the Tomcat 2.0 GB, so you can either enter this build in the WhIf GB or the Tomcat GB, but not both. Your choice. But I for one think it would be really nice to keep you here. I asked back before the GB was official about entering the F-14A+ from Macross Zero (a F-14D in UN Spacy markings) and basically as long as it was a markings-only thing WhIffs are allowed. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Inquisitor Posted January 11, 2009 Author Share Posted January 11, 2009 I asked back before the GB was official about entering the F-14A+ from Macross Zero (a F-14D in UN Spacy markings) and basically as long as it was a markings-only thing WhIffs are allowed. You mean this one? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Inquisitor Posted February 3, 2009 Author Share Posted February 3, 2009 (edited) I know it's been a while since I made any post. People will think that I already gave up or forgot this wip. Well anyways let's start with the cockpit. Since it's my first attempt at using the aires pit and reading about all the problems involved in getting it to fit, I made a few resin copies for my own use; so if I mess up I won't be spending on another pit with the high shipping and dollar price. In the end I only spent like 2-3 hours total to make it fit, it was a hundred times easier than the Aires 1/72 cockpit for the hasegawa F-16. First the instrument panels. Since the game takes place in the year 2010 in the strange real world of ace combat, I tried to update the stuff in the pit. Removed the fishbowl and added the PTID with some sheet styrene. Here's the pit, it only needed some sanding from the sides and lower portion. Didn't spend more than 5-10 minutes with a dremel. Finished with the usual techniques with a dark gray wash and some drybrushing to bring out the buttons. Picked out some of the yellow and red details with a fine brush. One thing I didn't like from the Aires pit is the rear shelf where the canopy hinges are located, it ends up with a flat rear wall; but as seen from photos and the hasegawa plastic it continues a bit more into the fuselage and the hinges are inside this cavity. So I removed that rear panel and glued part of the hasegawa plastic to it. Sidewalls, don't mind the sloppy paint job as it'll be covered by the pit tub anyways. I painted it black and gray so the gray plastic won't show up if you tried really hard to peek into the cockpit after it's glued together. Also as you can see I sanded a bit of plastic so the aires pit would fit. This F-14 pit was pretty easy to fit and I didn't remove much from both the resin and plastic, unlike the F-16 pit which I had to sand the plastic paper thin, it had to be forced into position and warped the F-16 front fuselage a bit. Finally the pit fit into the front fuselage halves held with tape. Besides sanding a bit from the interior I removed 1/3 of the sills in the plastic parts, so the resin sidewalls with the latching hooks would fit and show that step. I still need to do the front landing bay before I can glue it all together. It may take a little while for next update as I like to detail the landing bays a lot. I usually mark the panel lines I rescribe and the whole model needs it, the hasegawa mold are showing their age and some panel lines & rivets are so shallow they'd be lost after a coat of primer. And I just noticed that I knocked off the really small HUD camera... Edited February 19, 2009 by Inquisitor Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TaiidanTomcat Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Hang in there! looking great right now! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benjo Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 This is awesome, i cant wait to see it finished. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Inquisitor Posted February 19, 2009 Author Share Posted February 19, 2009 (edited) Yeah, I think some people thought I gave up on this build, but NO! I'm still here, slowly moving forward. Here are the seats finished I applied one of the decals to test how they look on the first piece of black plastic I found. It was the backside of a door panel from an unfinished model collecting some dust. Might I remind you that shield decal is less than half an inch height and you'd need a magnifying glass to barely see the letters. Choosing the cheapest option had it's con and pros. On the pro side I only paid $15 total for 3 copies, the con is basically I have a silk-printed sheet with white silhouettes which serve as background for each decal, and the color sheet printed by dye-transfer which I have to apply on top of the white one. People that have used microscale printed or zotz decals might have and idea how it works. Need to be careful aligning them and because they are pretty thin and need to be careful not to break them. If I had wanted pure silk-printing which yield something close to any aftermarket decal I'd had to paid $20 per color or at least $100+ total, most of the $ goes into making the plates. Added the grills on the lower fuselage and will be adding the fans behind them later. This little detail was inspired by one of the builds in the tomcat GB. Edited February 19, 2009 by Inquisitor Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChernayaAkula Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 The cockpit looks awesome! :) Especially the fabric covers on the IPs! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TaiidanTomcat Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 Lookin' good! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Inquisitor Posted February 21, 2009 Author Share Posted February 21, 2009 (edited) Some more progress on it. I started detailing the nose landing gear bay so I can close up the forward fuselage. From previous experience hasegawa pretty much molded most of the major details on it and trying to clamp in more detail felt kinda pointless. So, this time I only detailed the fore wall of the bay with some photoetch; I removed the ribs on the rear channel and put some rows of photoetch rivets there. Also, I replaced the two hoses molded in plastic that come from the fore wall of the bay, the original one running all the length of the bay on the right side of the photo had a square cross section, whereas the plastic on the left of the photo ran short and went nowhere. My replacement for the left one still goes nowhere and should continue all the way to the back of the bay, but I had to end it in that place because after assembly that tank and the hydraulic jack that goes into that hole pretty much leaves no room for it to go further. Finally added another two hoses that go across the bay just in front of where the gear strut goes. Almost forgot to mention that little thing on the upper left of the photo should be the green tank from some reference photos, I'll glue it to the front wall after painting. I didn't use the Aires afterburner rings since they are too simple and don't look like the real one. So, I used the hasegawa plastic + pe which have the multi-layered shape and looks better. Used Alclad dark aluminum for the inner part, jet exhaust for the outer rim and gave it a brown wash. Both pe rings were painted tamiya copper color and dry brushed a mix of different colors like bronze, brown and silver and a brown wash to it. Here are the nozzles, used some inspiration from geedubelyer's wip. Since this thing is 1/72, had to simplify the painting of it. Started with alclad magnesium overall, steel and jet exhaust on different petals, after that used clear orange, red and blue to give it the different tints. From reference photos, noticed that some random panels retain their silver color instead of the tint from burnt metal, so I picked some random panels with vallejo steel and gold colors. The inner portion of the nozzle is a mix of different tones of gray, and some silver and gold here and there. Edited February 21, 2009 by Inquisitor Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TaiidanTomcat Posted February 21, 2009 Share Posted February 21, 2009 Excellent job on the Nozzles, you nailed them perfectly. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sv51macross Posted February 21, 2009 Share Posted February 21, 2009 Love the detail you're putting into this! Blaze (Or Nagase/Grimm/Snow) will be pleased. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Inquisitor Posted March 26, 2009 Author Share Posted March 26, 2009 (edited) Ups, it's been almost a month since the last update and just over 2 months till the GB ends. I must post and update. Well on one hand the damn clear parts were a ***** to get right. Checking on all the tomcats I have in my stash it seems besides the parting line, most have a few defects which are pretty hard to sand & polish since they're in the inner face of them. I chose one with the least amount, sanded, polished and dipped into future. Well, the dipping in future took me a week. I'd leave it to dry overnight covered by a glass and check it the next morning. Guess anyone would use it right away, but NO, I had to check if any dust or bubbles marred the surface which prompted me to clean them and dip them again in future and so on for 6-7 times till I was satisfied. Later I sprayed some clear green on the oval section of the windshield, although I attempted to leave it as glossy as possible but in the end I had to dip the windshield in future again and the tinted green part regained it's glossiness again on the first try. Also I scratched from sheet styrene the warning lights that are installed on the windshield frame. Checking reference photos, the mounting points for the external tanks on the model are too close to the corner of the intake. Whereas the real ones seems to be only slightly placed outboard from the centerline of the intakes. So I drilled new holes to correct this. Later I'll have to check and fix the fit of the external tanks with this modification. Here are the intakes glued, puttied, sanded till the everything was smooth. I used the same technique that some people use here, just dump a lot of white paint in, drain all the excess and let the paint flow. After it was dry I sprayed very diluted brown paint from the rear side to simulate the dirt and grim that acumulates inside them. Although it looks excessive, from the front with the fan face installed it's barely noticeable as you can see in the next photo. Edited March 26, 2009 by Inquisitor Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Inquisitor Posted March 26, 2009 Author Share Posted March 26, 2009 (edited) Added some detailing with photoetch parts, here the detailed launcher rails. And some grills on the rear end near the exhaust and vertical tails. Still need to sand it flush. Cleaned and detailed some of the landing gear doors. Here's a comparison of the original plastic ladder and a photo etch one, plus the little thing in the middle is the access door to the canopy open/close handle. Edited March 26, 2009 by Inquisitor Quote Link to post Share on other sites
viperbite Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 wow! almost missed this one. glad to see a "14" from Ace Combat to "real life". Great work! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tomcat RIO Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 fwah.!! gambatte nei! cant wait to see the finished product and your painting starts Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benjo Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 (edited) This is going to be awesome. put my ace combat stuff to shame thats for sure! Edited March 28, 2009 by benjo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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