TTomcat's Tomcats

[Brian da Basher]

What fantastic camouflage! Reminds of a mix between W.W. I German and a Luftwaffe Night Fighter scheme.

The canopy is really looking good too!

Brian da Basher

[taiidantomcat]

Thank you everybody!

Moritz, I plan on adding some canopy coloring, but I don't think it will be on this Tomcat  :) And Greg, I do have some regret about not going with a bright blue, I think it would have been even more vivid 

Update:



Canopy remasked to protect the clear parts from future Flat Coat









Scale modelers have sharp eyes, so I wanted to create some unique stencils that wouldn't be what we are used to seeing.





Decals and wash done. The Decals are not wanting to stay on, so we will see what makes the cut when all is said and done. The stabs and fins are glued on in this pic. the canopy is fitted just to see how it all looks. Should be ready for the flat coat, and very close to the finish line.

[Brian da Basher]

Wow that's coming along excellently, Mr Tomcat!

The stencils are great and I really like how the white nose looks next to that cool camo!

Brian da Basher

[taiidantomcat]

Wow that's coming along excellently, Mr Tomcat!

The stencils are great and I really like how the white nose looks next to that cool camo!

Brian da Basher

Thanks BdaB!



Flat coat on, which is important it toned down a bright scheme and made it look more "tactical"



Toned down the metalizer too. I was a little curious how the flat coat would affect this.



Shot of the tails, and the unconventional marking placement.



I used Tamiya weathering but it did not show much in the pic. I have to use F-18 exhausts because the engines are so narrow on this 1/48 cat that they don't match up to 1/48 F110/F100/TF-30/AL-31 sized exhausts. These are from the Revell Super Bug.



Highly advanced post-it masking method! Using pastels and an old beat up brush. Much easier to "fake" panel lines this way than scribing



I erred on the more extreme side with this weathering for two reasons. Number 1, Its science fiction baby!! Can't have enough. And 2 with the very toy-like gaudy scheme I did not it to look like a toy.



Really like the engine deck weathering.

The landing gear are still a work in progress, and I am eager to start other projects, so I might take some finishing shots and then add the landing gear later on as I finished other Tomcats  :thumbsup:

[Jeffry Fontaine]

That is one heck of a paint job on that Tomcat.  :)

[Buzzbomb]

Well you get top points from me for masking above and beyond that required to finish a Tomcat.

[Brian da Basher]

Those burner cans looks great!

Brian da Basher

[Goonie]

Honestly, I love what you have done with that Tomcat  :)

[taiidantomcat]

Onto the "next worst" LOL here is Darren's review from the OP in this thread:

Fujimi F-14:
This kit is just slightly less hideous than the Revell kit. It has absolutely nothing in common with Fujimi’s excellent 1/72 scale offering. Why Fujimi hasn’t scaled up that kit to 1/48 scale is beyond me. My example has a production date of 1995 and has some improvements added to the original release, which was in the late 1970’s.early 1980’s. These changes include the newer tail stiffeners and an alpha probe on the radome. They should have kept going on the improvements!

Cockpit (D-): The cockpit is extremely rudimentary and inaccurate. It consists of a floorboard with molded in side consoles. The instrument panels are flat and decals are provided for the instrumentation. At least it has a control stick! The seats don’t even resemble GRU-7’s, although they do have the face curtain pull handles. There is no rear decking behind the RIO, but instead has a set of “black boxes”. The only bright spot of the entire cockpit is a nicely done “sissy handle” on top of the RIO’s instrument coaming.

Shape (C): The Fujimi kit has always looked a little odd to me. I finally figured out why. A friend of mine sent me a book with early Tomcat cutaway drawings. The Fujimi shape matches these almost perfectly. The drawings even have the black boxes behind the RIO. Fujimi must have based this kit off of those drawings. The forward fuselage is too chunky in height and too narrow in profile, having almost a triangular shape when viewing it from head-on. The boat tail is too narrow between the engine nozzles, which are extremely simplistic and are only available in the closed position. The burner can is also very simple, with no detail on the interior of the can and a simply molded flame holder. The intakes are too small and shallow. The airflow doors inside the intakes are molded in the down position, leaving almost no opening. Wheel well detail in the main wheel bays is non-existent, and the detail in the front bay is completely fictitious.

Surface Detail (C): The forward fuselage is very nicely engraved, although it is a bit deep. The rear fuselage and wings, however, are all raised lines, and not accurate at that. It’s a bizarre combination. The main wheel bays have zero detail, while the front bay has at least a little ribbing detail. The landing gear is thin and spindly, not nearly coming close to the Tomcat’s beefy-looking gear. The front gear doesn’t contain the two small catapult bar struts on either side of the oleo. The wheels are acceptable and are molded in halves. The chin pod is the “bullet” fairing and is molded onto the plastic. Fuel tanks are provided and are acceptable. Wing glove vanes are provided. The probes on the side of the fuselage are mediocre at best, and the one right below the canopy sill on the starboard side is completely the wrong shape.

Fit (C-): Overall, the fit isn’t too bad. The two major problem areas are where the forward fuselage assembly meets the rear assembly, and where the clear parts meet the framing on the canopy along with the fit of the windscreen to the nose.

Ordnance (F): The missiles in this kit are horrible. They look like they were molded in the 1960’s! The Phoenix pylons are too short and rounded and look funny when put on. I left them off. The only shoulder pylon provided is for the Phoenix, so your choice of loadout is either 6 Phoenixes and 2 Sidewinders, or 4 Sparrows under the fuselage and a Sidewinder and Phoenix on each of the shoulder stations.

Pros: Good “sissy” handle on RIO’s coaming, radar unit that would make for a good base for scratchbuilding, separate stabilators, pilot figures, and …um…and….well…that’s about it.

Cons: Too many to list.

Overall Score: 3/10

Yikes! 3? But its still better than the last one (1)!!  :woot.gif:/>  so here are some initial pictures. It has an intersting "fat" look in the midsection:





You eagle eyed F-14 fans can probably see what Darren was talking about with the very thin cross section on the front, but on the plus side it does have panel lines, and they don't look half bad.



Some opening moves. This color is actually much darker IRL than the pic indicates.



Removed the tab in there for the kit seat, It doesn't have the best detail and will be replaced. also I hate to do it again but...



I'm probably going to do another single seater. The last Tomcat I just had inspiration to spare, and this one is a bit more of a grind.



Wings first! Painted Purple then joined



And then very bright pink



nose half with pretty pink



test fitting the works

[taiidantomcat]

Thanks guys! Well some things went well, then things went not so well, then they got really bad (going to have to upload the pics first and do a separate update though for that mess)






Clamped up. This went fairly smoothly actually. Another knock against this kit though, is the articulation of the wings-- its very very tight and non cooperative, you have to use enough force to move the wings but not so much to break anything so you have to be very deliberate, but I do like that it has the little glove vanes that go in and out not all Tomcat kits have this.

Well this Tomcat project is about experimentation and trying new stuff, so I tried new stuff. If you like perfectly crystal clear canopies, look away now.



I used some Future and Pearl Ex Pigments, in the clear plastic from a super glue package to see how that worked.





Checking to see how some metallic paint works on the clear parts, checking transparency and to see if it would craze. 



Metallics behind the cockpit tub






I also experimented with that pearl ex nail polish I used on the Revell Cat. Having tons of Revellogram Tomcats I used a canopy to see how things would work. I liked the way it looked so I tried it on the Fujumi, but it did not work as well as I had hoped. I think on the test canopy it worked better because I didn't stir it, instead taking the thin layer at the top of the bottle, but on the Fujumi Canopy I stirred so it got thick and I lost a lot of the translucency. Doh! You can also the pearl ex pigments applied to the test canopy on the back half. thanks for stopping by!

[GTX_Admin]

That first picture is just WOW!  I like your experimentation as well.

[Old Wombat]

Bright, innit.

[taiidantomcat]

I've been bad about updating this



Silver painted intakes with confetti for engine faces. This will create a futuristic "blue glow"



The original plan was to paint it turquoise, but first I need to mask and prime white. This is where it all went wrong.  The masks just refused to cooperate. With such poor masking, I had to give up, and just peeled everything off to see where I was now.











The masks peeled seemingly everywhere, with the exception of the wing tip tops.

[Brian da Basher]

I really like that scheme and I think a few easy touch-ups and Bob's your uncle, Mr Tomcat!

Good to see you back working on this beauty again!

Brian da Basher

[taiidantomcat]

Thanks Brian! Its been unfun working myself out of this hole  but I think I am through the worst of it. Appreciate the encouragement

After thinking on this for about a week and being completely at a loss as to how to fix it, I decided that black was the way to go-- the trick was not covering it all out of frustration!





The first step was masking and covering all the Orange. As you can see these masks had issues too.



I then masked added more pink... lots of coats.





Touched up with hand brushed black, and I covered the bottom where it needed it (Most everywhere!!)



I was going to go with some really nice mud hen exhausts, but this model has been a disaster so its going to be the F100s on the right for simplicity sake, and I'll save the fancy one for something else.

Thanks for looking

[Tophe]

All this hard work seems useful and promise a great result!

[Brian da Basher]

You're the very soul of patience, Mr Tomcat!

I've got to commend you on your grit!

I agree about the exhausts. I actually think the simpler kit ones work better with the color scheme which looks better with each and every update you post!

Brian da Basher

[Gingie]

If you can locate this stuff, it might save you some masking grief:

http://frogtape.com/products/frogtape-delicate-surface

[Madhatter]

A good tip I picked up with masking is once the area has been masked, run a layer of Future around the edge of the tape and that will stop bleed through. And it works - I know because I tried it :)

[taiidantomcat]

Thanks for the tips guys!! I did actually use Frog tape  and I never got a shot at sealing the mask with future or anything else as it just went "instapeel" This model is doomed LOL



Not the best pic to show the wash...



engines with some Tamiya weathering on it. Blue!





Confetti used for the engines-- shiny!



Engines, fins, and stabs attached.



I like it!



I used a pen to outline the pink, after the gloss coat. I wanted to do a kind of comic book style on a model someday, and it turns out with this model fighting me every step, this would be my first little experiment with the concept style. Here is a great of demonstration of Comic books style IRL:



So a long ways to go, and I'm not going to push it with this model especially!! but I'm happy with the outlines.



I used some color shifting nail polish to create a "window" on the made to fit windscreen from a seperate (revellogram) Tomcat kit (lost the original Fujimi windscreen -- did I mention this kit has fought me every step? LOL) tried to pick a creative shape!





The big picture!

[Buzzbomb]

Hmm nice boots.


Chris Foss all the way.

[Brian da Basher]

That's some mind-boggling work, Mr Tomcat!

I especially like the burner cans. I always find those challenging for some reason.

Looks like you're getting near the home-stretch!

Brian da Basher

[taiidantomcat]

Thanks for comments everybody!



I painted the windscreen to make it a little more defined, I like this a lot better. This one is basically done, I am tempted to do some decals on it, but I think that would be asking for trouble the way this one has gone. Everything Darren says about the Fujimi kit holds true, Its not a perfect kit by any stretch but I think most of the problems were the fault of the builder and not the model! :bandhead2:

I may do a few "finished shots" soon but in the mean time



More to come!

[ChernayaAkula]

Taiidantomcat's tomcat protecting Taiidantomcat's Tomcat kits!  Try saying that a few times in a row. 

I'm surprised there's no pic of Taiidantomcat's tomcat taking a nap in Taiidantomcat's Tomcat kit boxes. 

[Eddie M.]

Outstanding work! I enjoy your willingness to go beyond where most would fear to tread!!