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Hi, this is my first
post ever for the gallery, I hope you enjoy looking and reading this article.
I wanted to do a
small theme build, and saw some really nice MYK decals for sale, all in 1/144
and all for VF-154, Black Knights. Since I think the red stripes on the tails
look particularly cool, especially on the F-14, I bought all all three sets
there and then.
The kits I used for
the build were the Revell F-14B, Dragon F-18F and a combination of an LS
F-4E and Arii F-4B.
Click on
images below to see larger images
First up was the
Tomcat. This is an excellent kit, with superb cockpit detail. All I added here
was a couple of ejection handles to the seats and some belts.
I try to represent
the slats and flaps being dropped, I didnt do anything fancy here, just scored
along the respective panel lines and bent down the forward and trailing edge.
You can get away with a bit of artistic license in this small scale.
Once that was all done, the kit was brush painted in the respective TPS colours
using Humbrol acrylics, and a coat of Klear before the decals were applied. The
decals went on really well, and settled lovely with a bit of Micro-sol. I added
some really nice paveways, 'borrowed' from a dragon Tomcat kit. The bonus with
this is, that you get some really well detailed pylons to add to the
phonex rails, in order to get the bombs to hang nicely. The model was then
weathered with watered down Tamiya smoke. I used a cut down toothbrush, and
masking tape to weather the wings along the wing sweep area. I was quite chuffed
with the result, not sure how effective it would be in a larger scale, but in
1/144 it looks good.
Next was the Hornet,
This was built straight out of the box, with only belts being added to the
seats. I did fold the wings, drop the flaps and angle the rudders and tailplanes.
I would do the latter again but on the next build I don't think I would fold the
wings again, the fold doesn't look very convincing, even in 1/144.
I sprayed this
one instead of hand painting it, the result gives a good impression of a nice
clean aircraft, which the new Super Hornet is! Weathering was kept to a minimum,
and only external fuel tanks and practice sidewinders on the wingtip rails. The
decals went on really well again, and look great with the little Knight on the
tail.
Lastly was the phantom, this was the most challenging build as I
used a combination of to the two previously mentioned kits. From the ARII kit, I
used only the nose, and the main oleos. The LS F-4E had better panel lines on it
and an open cockpit, but rubbish wheels for some reason?? Anyway, I cut along
the front panel line in just where the forward air scoop is on both kits, the
nose of the B was glued to the fuselage of the E, then generous amounts of
filler was added all over the nose, to try and give a more bulbous look. The
chin radar/ targeting pod was cut off, as the J model didn't have it, and
sanding commenced to try and smooth the nose out. Tippex was used to fill in
holes and furrows in the nose, until smooth finish was achieved. The rest of the
kit went together really well with only a little filler being used on the wing
roots. I did added some filler to the 'kitchen chair' style seats, to try and
give a better impression of the real thing, and handles added to the tops too,
with some belts. I did use stretched sprue for the radar warning receivers that
go along the intakes, as these are not represented in the kit. My references
show it was all over one grey (nice and easy) so Humbrol 129 was brush painted
on. The decals went on really well again, and look really nice. weathering was
quite heavy, as phantoms were notoriously dirty beasts. Oh, I did drop the flaps
at the back of the wings, but not the ones immediately outboard of the root.
I hope you have enjoyed my builds, Thanks for looking.
Tim Dix (Mildenhall rules)
Click on
images below to see larger images
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