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Introduction:
During the IPMS USA NATCON at Chicago I fell in
love with the TOMCAT which was on display at the TWOBOBS stand. It was
build by David AUNGST, this was a wonderful bird, what a scheme. As soon
as I was back from vacation, I started the project....as I'm a Tomcat
fan, I had to have this bird in my collection!
The model: The HASEGAWA 1/48,you need
an A+ version.
The decals: TWOBOBS sheet n°
48-007.
Resin add : the cockpit from Balck Box.
Construction:
cockpit:
Well, we start with the cockpit, as usual
with a resin cockpit you've got to separate the pieces from this huge block of
resin.
| Then begins the test
fitting, and the first problems come to light....on the left side of the
cockpit you'll find the "steps" with the ladder. You'll
have to sand inside the outside of the cockpit tub because the resin
cockpit didn't have the imprint of those steps. |
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I also made a "big" hole in the
resin cockpit, left side, so I could still save the bottom of the
steps. This way they still have some depth to them. |
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Another problem is the position of the front
and rear cockpit panels, you have to thin the plastic border of the kit, but
still leave some material. You'll have to do the seam job on the front area
with the instrument cover, take a look at the picture and see that I sanded it
too much, so I ended up with a big gap on the front. So I had to put in
some plastic card to close the gap. The rest of the job on the cockpit
requires no comments, a careful paint job an it's done, oops....I almost
forgot to mention that I've added the levers ( flaps, gears...)
Air intakes:
| Some work is required on the
inside the air intakes, Pieces F10 trough F13 have to be in the near
"closed" position, the model manual shows them as they would
appear inflight! |
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Wings:
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I've added some plastic around the flaps,
to simulate the hinges that HASEGAWA forgot. |
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Fuselage:
No real problems, just be careful when adjusting
the pieces for gluing! Don't forget that the gun gas vent is from an A+ model
!
Engine:
| As usual for a Tomcat, one
exhaust can is in the open position and one closed.
Editors note: This
is because one engine is shut down after landing and the plane taxi's on
the remaining engine. SB
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The painting process:
I was looking at the article found in the Fine
Scale modeler March 2001 issue, as it was the first time I started such
project. I sent e-mails to David to get some information about his way
of doing this and about the paint. David was kind enough to shed some
"light" on my problem.
So I decided to give life to the model. Starting with the bottom colour; FS 36375
(TESTOR 1728) with the usual
paint technique of making shadows on each panel line (this technique is called
"pre-shading"). I masked the whole bottom and applied the
first top coat. I started with the light blue, kind of Air Superiority
blue. The mix is made with Flanker Medium Blue (TESTOR 2131) Bright Blue (TESTOR
2032) and Blue (TESTOR 2033), with a ratio of 5: 2 : 1.
After that, I carefully "taped" the
model and drew the edge of the second blue colour, which is Aggressor Blue; FS
35109 (TESTOR 2031). When this job was done, I "taped"
for the second time and added the Dark Ghost gray color ( FS 36320 ) TESTOR
1741. When talking about the "taping" by this I mean I covered all
the area, drew on the tape the edges and cut it with a sharp blade.
Patrick
Patrick Spitaels
ANS MODELISME
IPMS BELGIUM
http://club.ansmodelisme.com
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