Tomcats, of course!

[taiidantomcat]

Happy start day everyone!!  :)

Going to work on an F-14, just haven't worked out the details of what exactly the plan is  stay tuned!!

[Tophe]

Tomcats without air intake? (for outer space?) :)

[Crbad]

Macross! Or is a tomcat already too close?

[Steve Blazo]

Have loved the Tomcat since I built my first one many years ago, a very cool warplane. Waiting with anticipation. 

[taiidantomcat]

Tomcats without air intake? (for outer space?) :)

yep!  :)

Macross! Or is a tomcat already too close?

Normally you would be right, but I went a little different


So I have my great Tomcat project going, and decided I should kill two birds with one stone and build the next Tomcat on the old build docket for this GB. This means I will be parallel posting a lot probably but I think most people won't mind.


So to start its Scale-O-Rama:



Sr-71 pilot on a cut down wing I found in the spares bin^


1/2 inch holes drilled^



to be filled with the afterburner parts from Revellogram TF-30s.

Intakes are where things get a little different:



braces^



Tape to identify the "cargo containers"



Cut!!

Diagram:



10 "containers" hoping no or very few of the same colors.

 

[LemonJello]

Looks like an interesting start.  Will be following this as you progress.

[DFZ]

Looks like an interesting start.  Will be following this as you progress.

Same here! :)

[taiidantomcat]

Thanks guys! Some progress:



^Major parts laid out for paint. It was going to be light blue but at the last minute I had a change of heart:



Turqouise!



Some of the initial work on the "cargo containers" lots of paint layers and colors involved in all this



Close up of the "hammered" texture variant of rattle bomb, in this case copper



So this is the order of the day for a lot of these, Hairspray method using kosher salt. here the stripes will look distressed,others may look more or less beaten up.

So each one of these little "containers" is going to have its own little unqiue look and colors and character, they need to look and "feel" like they are all separate individual entities and like they have different "owners" from different places for this concept to work. But it is a lot of paint layering and weathering!!

 

I have already thought of improved variation on this idea for the future as well.

[LemonJello]

I like the cut of your jib. Can't wait to see the paint and weathering effects.

[taiidantomcat]

I like the cut of your jib. Can't wait to see the paint and weathering effects.

The good, the bad, and the ugly:



a quick test fit to show what I am going for^





Just what the doctor ordered!^



shiny!^



price tags and square nipping tool. (this will make sense in a moment)



This is Krylon "Chalky finish" SWMBO picked it up, and I nicked it after running out of Orange. This stuff is awesome, it covers in one hit. Boom done.



I feel a little silly about the wings. I told myself "put the stripes length wise for once" Then I masked. and like magic they somehow ended up width wise. Auto pilot    I might add some chalky finish color to break that up a tad.



And the ugly. The Grabber Orange cracked badly on the fuselages. I am going to giver everything a few days (plenty of other stuff to work on) and then sand it, and hit it with chalky finish, perhaps deliberate texture paint before that to level it all and cover it as well. the underside cracked, but its a pretty out of the way spot between the intake trunks, so I am not too worried about it. I love these colors though, and after struggling with the orange the impromptu color change was very pleasant.

The cockpit windows are going to look like a 737/707 I was looking at them and I think I can pull it off, they don't look too tricky to make masks for (famous last words!!) I have not painted the Canopy yet at all, so I may make it look like a very vivid individual panel with the idea that it is a seperate escape pod.

I don't think I have planned this one out that great, but I am keeping up on it, and making progress so its actually coming together.

[Buzzbomb]

Plans.. you work to a plan

Love your work though, these Chris Foss type finishes look great

[taiidantomcat]

Plans.. you work to a plan

Love your work though, these Chris Foss type finishes look great

Thanks! If I could do this whole Tomcat thing over again I would just do nothing but Chriss Foss schemes just straight out. still, about half of them so far are (may do the rest all Foss) even If I changed the colors.

Update!



Repairing some of the cracked skin. I covered it in texture paint rather than sanding, then painted the new color over that.



Added white to the cockpit. Its going to be a dark cockpit, so I need all the help I can get, but I don't think its going to make much difference so I am not going to worry about it.



So I was about to rattlebomb a canopy when I remembered I had painted an orange one years ago. Might as well you that, and since its painted on the inside we can have some more fun with layers too



So this is my pilot. I painted him in "Verdigras" just wanted something bright, but it reminds me of hospital scrubs!! Ha! He was going to be a pilot. (I'll name him "price") but I think I have a better idea on how to show scale. My original plan was 2 1/72 figures and 2 droids, but I might cut that number in half if this plan works out.



Astromech droid. I don't know if its quiet to scale (any have any idea how big R-2d2 is?) but I painted a googly eye, added silver, some color and then eyes and a little detail with a marker. Going to put him where the HUD normally goes (why didn't I think of that idea sooner?)

[taiidantomcat]

cockpit installed









Windows based on 737. Not perfect, but I still think it captures the look

[ysi_maniac]

Love those 737 windows.

[DFZ]

That is very good masking work! :)

Zen
 

[Tophe]

Love those 737 windows.

So do I, so unusual on a Tomcat!

[taiidantomcat]

Always a battle with Tomcats 




Holes drilled for undercarriage



differences in length. This model will sit lower to sell the scale-o-rama



Painted up after lots of monkeying around with the exact arrangement



Grabbed another pair of Tomcat wheels and put it all together after painting and got some good beefy looking landing gear  :)



piece of confetti glued onto the back of the 1/72 scale SR-71 engines



ohh shiny




R-2/Astromech glued in

[taiidantomcat]

tried to get at least one decal on each "container"



"Rust" using Salt and hairspray method





Streaks added with Tamiya weathering pigments



always fighting...

Put all the containers on and done! I weathered it but the pics are not showing it:









Not my best work, but It is still a lot of fun and I plan on making more scale-o-rama "Cargo Cats" in the future. the next one will have a more simple scheme in order to make the cargo containers stand out more. I feel they are "lost" in all the bright craziness right now LOL