WiP 2 - Dragon 1/144 F/A-18 E VFA-105 "Gunslingers"

  I done some decalling work on this one today when I was waiting for the paint on the other ones to dry.  I forgot how much hard work Dragon decals where.  I might arm this one up, still not sure yet.  Still got a little bit more to do on her tho.

   Not many decals on her really, I need to sort that yellow out on the tails... or I could be really lazy and just leave it entirely... hhmm...

   The other, more photogenic side!  God knows what makes it like that... I have coated this in 4 coats of varnish so hopefully I will finally be able to do a decent wash on it.  I doubt it will work like that tho.

  Close up on the "Gunslingers" mascot (it that what it is??), this thing is about 7mm high and look at the detail on it.  Very cool :)

   That is all for the F-18 E thus far...

  PEACE!

  Dazz

Half Completed - Dragon F/A-18 F and E/A-18G Growler

   I can't believe I forgot to post these two before I went away!  Anyhow, I've been back a week now from the holiday I spent with Nat and her family in Gran Carina for 2 weeks.  Was great just sitting there for two weeks doing nothing.  Anyhow back to the models, these two where the only two I could've gotten finished before the dead-line which I did by a few hours iirc.  Nat sat there and watched me decal these two, she must of been bored out of her mind.  Bless...

Here we have both bugs together... is the Growler still considered a bug??  Decided to leave them both clean except for the ECM pods on the Growler.  I can never decide what load-out to put onto the F-18s.  I dunno...

   If I had known that the cockpit was as clear as it was I would of spent a hell of a lot of time on it.  Live and learn I guess, I should of spent so much more time on these than just faffing around. 

 The decals themselves where not that bad actually.  They are the usual Dragon ones printed by Cartograf (spelling?), so you know you have good quality.  Behaved well too.

  The decals from Jasmine models however... what a pain in the arse!  The decals themselves are actually okay, except for the ones on the canopy which are totally unreadable.  The problem is the fact they are all overscaled.  I compared the actual decals to the ones on the painting guide and they are the same size, where as the model is a wee bit smaller.  So I think they should of been for a 1/100 model or something like that instead of my 1/144.  So I had to mix and match with what I could and try to make the best I could.  Came out okay I guess...

As always, I welcome comments.

PEACE!

Dazz

Completed Revell 1/144 - F-18 E Super Hornet

  Well I seem to be on a roll right now.  I have finally finished the F-18 E, lovely model one that I wish I could do again and do it differently.  Learned a bit on this one.  I decided not to put any weapons on this one.  I can't really see a CAG aircraft like this being loaded for war tbh.  So they will go into the stash for me to use on another plane.  Well on to the pictures.

   Tried to give it a little "diorama" by using the airfield... postcard.  Thats the only thing I can think to call it.  I got it from Hannants, thought it was going to be bigger tho.  Right onto the model.  First things, yes the canopy has "misted", I sprayed it with satin varnish and totally forgot to mask the canopy.  This is what happens to the canopy when you spray it with a varnish.  You can see all of the decals, even the annoying little ones.  There is a name on the front undercarriage door, thats a good decal and all the little ones on the front nose. 

   Tried a front shot, dont think it came out too well.  God knows where that shadow came from.  That canopy is really screwed :(  Wonder if I can sand it down... those hard points look really good and they are straight too!  I tried to paint the cannon holes, but dont think they came out too well.  Not too sure on the little box thing thats on the nose infront of the canopy.  Think that might be black... nevermind.

   The fuel tank was a bugger to decal up.  Actually thats not true, it wasn't as bad as the arrow thing or the black spine decal.  It was still a bit annoying tho.  The front door isn't level either, bugger.  that rear wheel needed a bit more work too, oh well... That fuel tank does fit in quite well with the plane tho.  Looks nice, dont think I got the red the right shade tho.

   You can see those little grey boxes between the rudders here.  I have no idea what those decals are or if they are in the right place but they look cool none-the-less.  I had no problems with these decals settling down after the usual MicroSol/MicroSet solution.  Not too sure if those engine exhausts look good enough or not.  I only brushed them with Vallejo Grey-Steel... looks okay to me.  But could to with some weathering.

  Right first off, I know I've buggered the white parts up.  I didn't mask them up before I sprayed it for the third time so the white turned into a pale grey.  I tried to brush paint on the white, but for some reason I can NEVER make it look like its gone on evenually... is it just me??  You can see that fuel tank better here. :)  All in all a good model and one I would most likely buy again but I would put on different decals maybe some low vis ones.  Incase you are wondering, my next project is to finish off the SA. 330 Puma.  :)

  PEACE!

  Dazz

Bombcat, Typhoon, Hornet, Harrier, Hawkeye WiP and New Purchases

  Well it's been a while since I posted anything.  But here is a few posts of what I have done the last two weeks.  It's a struggle atm because I am fighting for control of the table with my family.  Well I'll post some pictures up of what I have done thus far... well thats not correct.  I am further along with some models than I am with others.

  The AV-8II+ with it's 3 coats of grey.  I think the grey thats on the side of the body was a little too dark.  Oh well...

  Top side of the Typhoon.  Not too bad.

  Bottom side of the Typhoon, with the harrier in the background.

 Top half of the Harrier, you can see the 3 different greys but I still think the middle tone is too dark.

  Top half of the Bombcat.  Buggered this up totally.  I think the top half is a little too dark.

  Bottom of the Bombcat, the paint has leaked where I didn't mask it up correctly.  Still learning with the airbrush... should that be "Canbrush"??....

  Top half of the Hornet.  I'm gonna strip this model and start again.

  Read above.

  Now the Hawkeye I am actually happy with. :)

  Think the grey on this one is really good.  However I later found a picture of the very model I am doing and it's supposed to be darker than this... bugger.

  see where the radome housing is buggered?

  Those rudders look very cool to me :)

  The fuel tank for the F-18 and the two Storm Shadows for the Typhoon.

  The fuel tank and the Storm Shadows.

  And again?  God knows why I have 3 pictures of the same thing.

  Last but not least the GBU-10's and GBU-12's that I am gonna be using on the various kits. :)

  Now on to the purchases.

  Got this one when I ordered a few paints.  It was only £2 and I love the MiG-29 for some reason.

  Now this purchase was a complete mistake.  I clicked on it by accident and forgot to take it off at the checkout.  Oh well it is a model I wanted, just not now.

  Smaller than I thought it would be.

 
  Well thats it for now.  More to come when I can be arsed.

  Peace! 

  Dazz

Hawkeye, Super Hornet, Bombcat, Typhoon, Harrier WiP Update

  The last few weeks have been manic for me, with the wedding stuff we had to sort out to all my hayfever playing havoc with me to my anti-hayfever medication actually knocking me out (long story).  Onto what I have done then.

  First up is the Hawkeye, now the rotordome housing is totally buggered I will not lie there.  However I have managed to scratch build new legs for the housing and get it glued onto the body.  Pictures as follows.

  If you look at the housing you can see that its melted to crap, so I am hoping that the rotordome will hide most of the damage.  The yellow bits are from the sprues for the Ex-S Gundam.  It seems to be working well.  Next up the Hornet.

  I've brush painted on some Vallejo Light Grey to see what it looked like, but shes all masked up for spraying now.  Harrier next.

  Once again all masked up ready for painting, I'm gonna have to sort out those intakes now I look at it.  Bombcat next.

  Yeah I've primed it white, doing a little experiment with it.  But shes ready for spraying soon.

  All primed and ready to be sprayed too.  :)  If you've noticed that the pictures are better than normal, thats because I've purchased a Canon 1100d DSLR.  I love that camera :)

  More to come tomorrow.

  Peace!

  Dazz

New models 1/144 and 1/72

  Me and Nat went out to Lakeside the other day, first time in ages and we had Wagamamas... yum yum.  Anyhow I always go into Modelzone to check out what they have and usually I try to sneak out with a model that Nat hasn't noticed that I have picked up :P  Well we went in there and I was on the look out for a new E-2C Hawkeye as mine has fubar'd up.  I might be able to recover it but I am not in the mood for it right now.  Well I spotted this instead, Nat told me to get it as it's not a "little fart arse thing"... anyhow below is what I got.

  I love the look of this plane, looks mean and it's a European theater plane too, which wins point for me as I saw the Battle of Britain's Memorial Flight C-47 Dakota fly over the other day.  Such a beautiful plane, anyhow it was in the colours of the D-Day landings and I was kinda inspired by it

  I also got these 3 in the post from Ebay, I did order an EA-18G Growler too but I am waiting for that to turn up.  Anyhow I was looking through the kits and I had brain storm concerning the two models below.

  Now these two both had nothing but Air-to-Air missiles in it, I wanted to do something different.  Then when I was researching the Tornado GR4 (Below)...

 It comes with 4 Storm Shadows, as you can see on the box art, there is two Storm Shadows on the wing plyons.  As far as I am aware that would hardly ever get used, its very rare to see a Tornado without the fuel tanks on that station.  I have only ever seen a Tornado without a fuel tank when it was on QRA or parked up.  But I know the Storm Shadow can be put there so technically it's not wrong, just odd.  Anyhow, while researching where they went I saw that the Storm Shadow is used on the Dassault Rafale and the Typhoon FGR4, and I had an idea once I saw the GBU-10/GBU-12's in the kit.  I am gonna turn my Typhoon into an FGR4 and the Tomcat will be turned into a Bombcat.  As far as I can see there wont be that much to do to either models.  The Bombcat put it's bombs where the AIM-54 Pheonix goes (the wiki picture demonstrates this perfectly) and there is some Mk.84 "dumb" bombs in the kit too.  The Typhoon FGR4 is easier, I just gotta find the right pylons to put the bombs on, now I can either have 6 GBU's on the wings, 4 GBU's and 2 Storm Shadows or a mixture with the "Supersonic" Fuel tanks.  I liked the look of the fuel tanks so I am going to go with that.  Now one part that was missing was the LITENING or TIALD pods for the Bombcat, I'll have to find out which it used but that problem was solved by the next kit...

 
  What do you see on the inner-most plyon?  A LITENING pod... well I think it's a LITENING pod, I gotta check that up, but still as I only bought this kit for the decals and the weapons.  I think I am sorted here.  I got the spare Sidewinders too.  Now part 3 of this weapon mix up.  I've got these pictures of an F-18 that I think looks cool...

 Or

  Now, the top one from what I can see has 8 ARMAAMs (AIM-120) possibly 10 with 2 in the body recess with two Sparrow AIM-7's and two Sidewinder AIM-9's.  And the bottom one has 6 AIM-120's with 2 Sidewinders.  Now I dont think these are viable load outs because as usual carrier aircraft usually have extra tanks on.  But it looks cool, so I am going to use the missiles I have left over from the Tomcat and the Typhoon and use them on the F-18.  Cool idea no?  I also got this model turn up...

  I have always had respect for the pilots of this aircraft and the amount of bombs this thing could carry was ridiculous.  I'll make one as the A-6E but I might try to make the other one into a Prowler, I'm sure that Retro-wings do a conversion will look into it.

  For people who like to read I purchased this...

 I was a little disappointed with this book, I thought it was going to be a book about the actual "fights" of the war day-by-day kinda thing but it describes what planes where involved and the paint they had on them instead with a little of the history behind it.  I likes this one tho, there is a few Pumas in it and I have an 1/144 Puma awaiting some loving care, I might get some ideas from this.

  More ideas as and when they come to me...

  PEACE!

  Dazz