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Build log 1:32 Tamiya F-15C with lots of goodies
- Thread starter NSX_Guy
- Start date
New build 1:32 Tamiya F-15C with lots of goodies
That bottom one looks just too blue. Granted I haven't seen a F15 up close in OMG...
ldguy but my memory says it was more gre(a)y. I recall it being more subtle between the colors.
A bit of a non-update, but an important one for future reference seekers.
I (again) haven't been able to spend much time at the table with family vacations and such, but as I posted at the beginning of the month, I sprayed the Aggressor Gray (FS 36251). (Colour is not spelled incorrectly, I'm a Canuck!) Tonight, or over the next several days, I plan on spraying the Ocean Gray (FS36176).
The problem with the updated "Mod-Eagle" is that their paint is incredibly varied with how it shows up in photographs. As I haven't been lucky enough to stand beside an actual F-15 for almost 20 years, I have to rely heavily on Airliners.net for exterior research pictures. Therein lies the rub.
I am building F-15C 84-031, which has recently (since 2008) been assigned to Portland, and when researching the colours (!) i nearly drove myself mad. Then it finally dawned on me; this paint appears variable depending on the light source and angle as shown below.
I am using this picture to assist masking the Ocean Gray on the top fuselage, it looks very light
From the starboard side, she still looks fairly light.
Aww, I give up. The Ocean Gray is almost blue! (FYI, Gray is not spelled incorrectly either, it's Yankee Paint!)
So here's what I did. I went onto http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/f-15/f-15_profile02.shtml and started to pull my hair out. For your information, that's not a luxury I really have at my disposal anymore. I finally decided on the following colours for the plane.
Vallejo 71.050 for the Aggressor Gray with 15% fade.
Vallejo 70.905 for the Ocean Gray with 15% scale fade.
I'm going to see how she looks once I've wrapped up the Ocean Gray, but I'm pretty satisfied with the first colour so far.
I welcome any suggestions or information on any better paint matches on this aircraft that I've already spent far too long building.
That bottom one looks just too blue. Granted I haven't seen a F15 up close in OMG...
ldguy but my memory says it was more gre(a)y. I recall it being more subtle between the colors.New build 1:32 Tamiya F-15C with lots of goodies
Thanks! It's been a very long road, but I think we're actually making progress now
Thanks, that's what I thought, the two Vallejo's seem to play very nicely with each other, I sprayed a spoon the other week with both colors and was pretty happy with the outcome; so we'll see how it looks on the bird itself. The nice thing about paint is that if you're not happy, you can always redo it.
NNNNNiiiiiiiiiccccccceeeee Bird ... Top notch Job ...
Thanks! It's been a very long road, but I think we're actually making progress now
That bottom one looks just too blue. Granted I haven't seen a F15 up close in OMG...
Thanks, that's what I thought, the two Vallejo's seem to play very nicely with each other, I sprayed a spoon the other week with both colors and was pretty happy with the outcome; so we'll see how it looks on the bird itself. The nice thing about paint is that if you're not happy, you can always redo it.
New build 1:32 Tamiya F-15C with lots of goodies
https://youtu.be/uIPS4LyveJs
It's been a while, but I returned to the table a week or two ago now that the weather outside is starting to be frightful! It's been an exciting summer to say the least. In short, here's what's happened since my last update.
Vacationed with the family to Cuba.
Bought a new(er) NSX
Sold the first NSX
Delivered said NSX across country from the Toronto, Ontario area to Halifax, NS. 1,100 miles (1,800km) in 2 days.
Found out my wife is pregnant. (See Cuba trip)
Went to Walt Disney world (twice?!?!) there was no concern here, she was already with child.
Busy season in the construction world; too much work, rode my bike far too little.
Lost my youngest brother to a single car accident.
Waiting for the littlest one to arrive on November 10 or thereabouts.
In a quick serious tone; noting the second last point, please wear your seatbelt. It could have saved his life. My brothers girlfriend was in his car, and she was wearing her belt. She walked away.
Back to the lighthearted regularly scheduled programming please.
This kit has kicked and screamed every step along the way, and I think I've finally rope a doped her enough where she can make the wonderful example she deserves to be.
Over the last couple of days I've done the following:
Sprayed AK interactives wonderful titanium metallizer on the natural metal portions of this bird
Post shaded, very subtley I hope, this bird is in top notch in real life.
Sprayed the first clear coat in preparation for the decals.
Ordered the hobby decal panel number dry transfers.
I'll post some pictures when I get time, over the next few days, but it won't look too much different than my last photos until I get some decals down, hopefully this weekend.
It's been a while, but I returned to the table a week or two ago now that the weather outside is starting to be frightful! It's been an exciting summer to say the least. In short, here's what's happened since my last update.
Vacationed with the family to Cuba.
Bought a new(er) NSX
Sold the first NSX
Delivered said NSX across country from the Toronto, Ontario area to Halifax, NS. 1,100 miles (1,800km) in 2 days.
Found out my wife is pregnant. (See Cuba trip
)Went to Walt Disney world (twice?!?!) there was no concern here, she was already with child.
Busy season in the construction world; too much work, rode my bike far too little.
Lost my youngest brother to a single car accident.
Waiting for the littlest one to arrive on November 10 or thereabouts.
In a quick serious tone; noting the second last point, please wear your seatbelt. It could have saved his life. My brothers girlfriend was in his car, and she was wearing her belt. She walked away.
Back to the lighthearted regularly scheduled programming please.
This kit has kicked and screamed every step along the way, and I think I've finally rope a doped her enough where she can make the wonderful example she deserves to be.
Over the last couple of days I've done the following:
Sprayed AK interactives wonderful titanium metallizer on the natural metal portions of this bird
Post shaded, very subtley I hope, this bird is in top notch in real life.
Sprayed the first clear coat in preparation for the decals.
Ordered the hobby decal panel number dry transfers.
I'll post some pictures when I get time, over the next few days, but it won't look too much different than my last photos until I get some decals down, hopefully this weekend.
My condolences about your brother and my congratulations on the upcoming birth!
Bob
Bob
I'd like to add my condolences also. I had a wreck one time where if I were wearing a seatbelt I would have been killed, I also think that was a one time fluke and I was very, very lucky. I don't go anywhere without one on. Even up to the store.
Glad building season is coming back around, looking forward to updates.
Glad building season is coming back around, looking forward to updates.
Thanks for everything, everyone. If you read my last update, you'll understand that it has been pretty busy around the household. Our little guy finally decided to make his appearance on November 17, fashionably late; as is the family tradition.
Contrary to popular opinion, I have been able to sneak in some time at the table, and am nearing the death throes of this build which has challenged me more than any Tamiya kit has any right to do. That is, in no small part due to the extreme amount of aftermarket parts I've included and my drive to build an accurate representation of the bird I'm working on, F-15C 84-0031 - the colour bird for the Oregon ANG.
Shortly after my last update, I cleared the fuselage, and started with the decals a few days later. In roughly chronological order, here are some pictures of the progress:
Before/after the first gloss coat:
The exhaust cans each had 150 pieces of masking tape on them before I was finished painting, and during a blonde moment, I don't even have a picture of the "after". I had to trim around every actuator, and cover the natural metal before spraying two colours of black - Jet Exhaust on the push rods, and Tamiya's awesome NATO black on the petals. I would imagine I have about 15 hours into the GT Resin exhausts, and they finally look just OK.
Always the worst part. Using Micro-sol or Mr. Mark Softer, and the decal wrinkles. MUUUUSSSSSST resist urge to flatten!
With the decals done, it was time to move onto the sprayed stencils. I had never done these before, but the Eduard included the stencil templates made out of very thin photo-etch material in the "Big Ed" kit, so I figured why the heck not!
The "NO STEP" stencils located on the upper fuselage.
After spraying with Dark Gull Grey (DGG):
Very subtle, let's forge forward:
You'll notice a lot of extra tape in the picture below. I used it to landmark the stencils across the bird.
Finally, the part I had been dreading for literally years (seriously, I got the Big Ed kit in 2005, and wondered how I was going to do this): The two piece "Honeycomb" "NO STEP"/"No PUSH" stencils denote where you cannot step as below is the honeycomb composite section of the airframe. I imagine repairs in these areas would be much more complicated and costly than the regular aluminum areas. I tried test after test to get the stencils right, and I finally stumbled on a combination I thought would work.
This was my original test. As you can see, there isn't enough difference between the text and graphic to have the stencil legible. Even if I perfectly aligned the two masks, it would look sub-par.
Step 1 - locate all the spots on the airframe with the honeycomb stencils. This is what three hour of work looks like.
There were 32+/- stencils in total to spray, and Eduard only supplied 3 stencils, so there was a lot of relocation to say the least.
Step 2 - spray the DGG for the honeycomb
Step 3 - Add one drop of black to the DGG and spray "NO STEP", "NO PUSH" over the honeycomb. Voila! Done this harrowing part of the journey. As they are so fine, I don't have a picture of these on the plane, but I do have my final test shot.
Since Saturday, I have been working on the "HObbyDecal" dry transfer panel numbers, and only finished up last night around 11. Also my first time doing these; they were fiddly, but I believe they add a bit of interest and depth to the kit, even if they aren't as visible in real life as they will be on the kit.
I was at a work function last week, and saw this tie. Now I need one.
Finally, a shot of the little dude the day after he graced us with his presence.
Tonight, I plan on adding my second gloss coat, then starting the weathering this coming weekend. Sorry for the long winded post, but a lot has been done!
Contrary to popular opinion, I have been able to sneak in some time at the table, and am nearing the death throes of this build which has challenged me more than any Tamiya kit has any right to do. That is, in no small part due to the extreme amount of aftermarket parts I've included and my drive to build an accurate representation of the bird I'm working on, F-15C 84-0031 - the colour bird for the Oregon ANG.
Shortly after my last update, I cleared the fuselage, and started with the decals a few days later. In roughly chronological order, here are some pictures of the progress:
Before/after the first gloss coat:
The exhaust cans each had 150 pieces of masking tape on them before I was finished painting, and during a blonde moment, I don't even have a picture of the "after". I had to trim around every actuator, and cover the natural metal before spraying two colours of black - Jet Exhaust on the push rods, and Tamiya's awesome NATO black on the petals. I would imagine I have about 15 hours into the GT Resin exhausts, and they finally look just OK.
Always the worst part. Using Micro-sol or Mr. Mark Softer, and the decal wrinkles. MUUUUSSSSSST resist urge to flatten!
With the decals done, it was time to move onto the sprayed stencils. I had never done these before, but the Eduard included the stencil templates made out of very thin photo-etch material in the "Big Ed" kit, so I figured why the heck not!
The "NO STEP" stencils located on the upper fuselage.
After spraying with Dark Gull Grey (DGG):
Very subtle, let's forge forward:
You'll notice a lot of extra tape in the picture below. I used it to landmark the stencils across the bird.
Finally, the part I had been dreading for literally years (seriously, I got the Big Ed kit in 2005, and wondered how I was going to do this): The two piece "Honeycomb" "NO STEP"/"No PUSH" stencils denote where you cannot step as below is the honeycomb composite section of the airframe. I imagine repairs in these areas would be much more complicated and costly than the regular aluminum areas. I tried test after test to get the stencils right, and I finally stumbled on a combination I thought would work.
This was my original test. As you can see, there isn't enough difference between the text and graphic to have the stencil legible. Even if I perfectly aligned the two masks, it would look sub-par.
Step 1 - locate all the spots on the airframe with the honeycomb stencils. This is what three hour of work looks like.
There were 32+/- stencils in total to spray, and Eduard only supplied 3 stencils, so there was a lot of relocation to say the least.
Step 2 - spray the DGG for the honeycomb
Step 3 - Add one drop of black to the DGG and spray "NO STEP", "NO PUSH" over the honeycomb. Voila! Done this harrowing part of the journey. As they are so fine, I don't have a picture of these on the plane, but I do have my final test shot.
Since Saturday, I have been working on the "HObbyDecal" dry transfer panel numbers, and only finished up last night around 11. Also my first time doing these; they were fiddly, but I believe they add a bit of interest and depth to the kit, even if they aren't as visible in real life as they will be on the kit.
I was at a work function last week, and saw this tie. Now I need one.
Finally, a shot of the little dude the day after he graced us with his presence.
Tonight, I plan on adding my second gloss coat, then starting the weathering this coming weekend. Sorry for the long winded post, but a lot has been done!
You have been busy! Work well done on all counts. 
What Moon Pup said!
Congrats!!!
Bob
Congrats!!!
Bob
I wondered how long you were going to get away with all the time you've been spending downstairs.
It looks really good!
Are you glad that you used the HD Dry-transfers? Using decals, you'd inadvertently move a dozen of them every time you picked up the model to put a new one on. Plus this was you didn't have to wait overnight to see the results.
It looks really good!
Are you glad that you used the HD Dry-transfers? Using decals, you'd inadvertently move a dozen of them every time you picked up the model to put a new one on. Plus this was you didn't have to wait overnight to see the results.
Skinny_Mike
Well-known member
Stunning build!
Heavens Eagle
Well-known member
Definitely looking quite nice and the paint work shows a lot of perseverance! Condolences on your brother and congratulations on the "Little Dude"!