Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro F60 (7)

Finally, after being stuggled with the carbon decals for awhile, the cowlings are ready to be coated with some GX100 Clear. I have applied just a very light layer at the moment in order to seal the decal first. Appearantly some of the carbon decals didn't really lay very well and bubbles were spotted. Some tiny cuts were made and the decals were fitted with some decal setter.
Some thicker coatings will be applied later on.

F-14A/B Tomcat VF-111 VF-103 (2)

Just got a couple of hours free and I could squeeze a little but over the cockpit.
After getting rid of the cockpit, I will be able to move on to the fittings around the frame.
I have always want to paint the display screens at the dashbaord this way for many time. But afterall, I always skipped doing that at all my previou works. In this twin build, I am working on it slowly and in this way, I have the passion to try more differnet steps around.
The way the screen is painted is like this, and it is simple. I just hand-painted some silver on the screen and then with a roughly mixed clear yellow and blue.
The little trick here is that, when the clear yellow and clear blue is roughly mised, some of the mixed clear green will be a bit yellowish and some bluish. By painting this un-balanced clear green, the screen will appear to be more dynamic, and not just a clear green over silver base.

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro F60 (6)

From time to time, some carbon fiber decals are somehow supplied with the kit. Yet, some of them may not present the pattern well enough, or I should say, some afte-market CF decals are way better. As a result, even the shape is there and you just need to put it in place, but you still would like to apply the after-market decals with the same shape.
Here is a little trick that I have recorded on my own so you may take as a reference.

First of all, paste a piece of masking tape over the original decal.


Then cut out the entire shape of the decal with no transparent edges.


Unmount the masking tape from the original decal and post it at the back of the after-market decal. This time, I am using the Studio27 one. Be sure you manage to turn the left and right side correctly. In this case, my decal is a symmetric one so it does not matter.


Cut the decal with the shape of the masking tape and you will be able to get an identical decal with the new pattern.


Simple and easy. And you may now enjoy more variations from different brands of CF decals.

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro F60 (5)

I have got a light clear coat of Gunze GX100 over the TS paint. In this way, the enamal nature of the color paint can be sealed and future paint will not be affected. Also, as the TS-58 is a metallic or pearl paint in its nature, a clear coating before applying decal also helps to prevent silvering with a polishing clear coat is applied.

After some days letting the GX100 is dry thouroughly, I have started apply the decals over the cowlings. There are only limited sponsors decals around, so it is actually not a tough job to do. But at certain point, I do recommand applying carbon decals before the sponsor decals as later, I found that a couple of those sponsor decals lay on top of the CF!

F-14A/B Tomcat VF-111 VF-103 (1)

It has been awhile since my previous build on a Tomcat. Instead of he Fujimi kit that I have done at the start of 2009, I am returning to this Hasegawa kit. I have built the same VF-103 Last Flight a few years ago. of course, the result is not very good in the eye of today. And I will be working on 2 kits at a time so my piles of F-14 can be relaxed more quickly. So let's see how this couple will get along.



These 2 are actually 2 different versions. F-14A follows its own standard manual, while the F-14B follows the F-14A Plus manual. The main difference will be the parts used for their nozzles and some minor parts around the frame. But basically these 2 are the same kits.


There is a piece of photo etch attached to each kit. Each consists of some cockpit dashboards and some cockpit accessaries like mirrors.
I have quickly assembled the 2 cockpits with their respective PEs.

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro F60 (4)

After a couple of weeks, the de-canned paint has settled and also grew a little thicker. This will be doing me a lot of good in the coming painting work.

Before actually applying the de-canned TS85 paint, I have a final check of the cowlings to make sure no pin marks were missed and to fixed some of the gaps. And them primed the entire frame with Finisher Foundation Pink. This should help to give brightness to the red on top of it.
I have painted both sides of the end plates before hand so the white at their top part is painted first.


After the primer, the de-canned TS paint was diluted with Gunze lacquer thinner. In this way, the paints are not subjected to lengthy drying time as normal enamals.
The covereing power of this paint is good. I can easily get the color saturated without over-shooting the color into a darker tone.


The parts will be un-touched for some while until the paint dry out. In the mean time, I can work on something else like the cockpit, the engine.... or some other kits as well. XD

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro F60 (3)

Finally, I have found myself a comfortable moment when I can sit down a while and get this little thing done. What I am trying to do is to collect the paint in the spray can with great care so I didn't risk any chance spitting the paint everywhere.

There are a few things to be prepared, a paint bottle; some pieces of clean paper; a straw; a rubber band and some blue tack.

First of all, cover the openning of the bottle with the paper and fix it with a rubber band. Then prepare a 3~4cm of the straw.
Open a little hole at the roof of the bottle. Install half of the 3~4cm straw into it. This time, fix the straw with some blue tack so the straw wouldn't drop into the bottle or rise when the air is pushing from inside of the bottle.

The picture below shows my first attempt tonight.


However, After a few sprays, I felt the need to cut open some little holes on the roof. This let the compressed gas releasing from these holes instead of pushing back towards the straw. (Well, you may imagine by the time the gas releasing from the straw, the paint comes together too!)

So finally, I have opened some little hole around the straw too.

After some careful "spraying", I have collected half bottle of the TS-85 paint. You may notice the bottle looks like a can of coke refresh from the refrige. And indeer it is very cold. I am not very good at Physics but I can tell it is a perfectly physic stuffs. So no worry! When the paint cool down for a while, it is as normal as what came out from a regular Gunze paint.

And here is the finished one, a pure TS-85 paint for airbrushing.

PS: I have just be able to collect half bottle, because then I have collect certain paint in the bottle, an extra spray push a lot of paint from those little holes. I think the size of the bottle and the size of the holes has limited the amount of gas releasing from the inside. I am really not some Physics guys but anyway, I think I can get some more of the paint with ease later on even I have used up this half. So why would I risk messing up the place?!