I did not want to start on this project yet but here we are

Martin von Schreckenstein
Got the last kit for review. Revell is gonna be included in my last Revell/Academy/GWH showdown. After that I am gonna fill most of the panel lines with putty and try to shape this kit into a smooth surface hi-viz F-14A. Fingers crossed.

Martin von Schreckenstein
curiosity got me started on the panel lines. so much work..

Mathijs Beenhakker
Wauw those panel lines look like they were made with a chainsaw...Admire your determination and i hope you'll pull it off...And my favorite squadron as well...Following!

Martin von Schreckenstein
Thank you Mathijs! For some reason I am pushing this project to the top of my efforts now. I guess the smooth look once the panel lines are filled really looks interesting on a 1/72 Tomcat! Hoping this would make for a realistic hi-viz surface.

Patrick Hagelstein
Hi Martin, this is kind of a masochistic idea... Have fun! I guess..... 🙁 One thing to note though: whenever you decide to rescribe some of those lines, be very aware that Mr. Surfacer and putty are quite brittle. You might end up with jagged lines and putty chips. Still, I will follow this to see how you pull this one off. 👍

Martin von Schreckenstein
yes Patrick, that is a pit I have fallen into before.. I was thinking a very light soft little scribe with a needle but indeed, I am leaning towards just leaving it smooth. Looks quite kickass tbh.

Treehugger
Interesting idea with filling the panel lines. I want to see the smooth surface version of such a kit. 🙂

Martin von Schreckenstein
Smooth surface more or less achieved.

Work will continue once I manage to get some pilot figures to close the canopy. Boy are they tough to get! Anybody have any leftovers they would be willing to part with? Any 1/72 sitting pilots will do. Thanks. Thinking of getting the Fujimi figures out of my daughter's Tomcat and multiply them using epoxy resin.

Sergej I
Wow... sadomazo... full respect and admiration of your effort.
Can't wait you start scribing. Pls record all, the teaser did it's job!

Martin von Schreckenstein
Thank you Sergej! In the end I decided to only rescribe very little. Like not more than 10 specific lines. The rest is gonna remain flat

Sergej I
Interesting! Can't wait to see it painted.

Patrick Hagelstein
Fujimi pilots are pretty nice. Quickboost also has a set of pilots already attached to GRU-7s.

Patrick Hagelstein
Pilot and Operator (Aerobonus 720 027, 1:72)
Sorry! Aerobonus...

Martin von Schreckenstein
hey Patrick, aerobonus pilots are already in. pictures incoming!🙂

Martin von Schreckenstein
uploaded the pics of the aerobonus pilots. They almost look too good for this kit. I glued the canopy closed, masked it and did some sculpting to improve the fit. I also started on the paintjob but covering the black base with all that bright paint is a lot of work so i'm gonna start with white surfacer first. I will try to make the skunk stripe with masking only but I have little faith for this

Patrick Hagelstein
Gotcha! 😄 😉

Martin von Schreckenstein
I will go ahead and call the first attempt at masking the skunk stripe a failure🙂 It was an exploratory attempt anyway so no hard feelings. The surface paint however - a test with the Mission Model paints - really nice!

Patrick Hagelstein
I ordered some Mission Model paints to play with, but wasn't that thrilled with them as I find them quite thick to spray. They level out beautifully though, but I don't have a felling that I have the finesse I get with highly diluted lacquers.

Martin von Schreckenstein
haha Patrick I came to the same conclusion so I went for some ghetto experimentation and found that few drops of distilled water produce an astonishing result. I am planning to try with IPA which should be even better.

Martin von Schreckenstein
both cats are being primed for repaint. old academy on the left, revell on the right. i got two dxm 211 sheets for them afer the paint.

Martin von Schreckenstein
welcome Roland

Martin von Schreckenstein
finished with white surfacer, moving on to grey and then the proper coat. the stripes and masking thereof are making me very anxious haha. wish me luck. I sprayed the dark blue, masked it out carefully and then sprayed white. I will cut really thin strips of plastic masking tape like i did with HMS Agincourt before to mask the white and then the red will be a decal. obviously i am expecting the tape to rip off a lot of the paint so hopefully there will just be some detail fixing rather than complete redo.

Bernd Grün
Love the look of that Hi-Viz Tomcats! Very nice build. Following with interest. 👀

Martin von Schreckenstein
hope to finish on the white areas today. I had to get a different FS17875 as the Mission Model one is useless in shade and spraying also. Quite strange as the Mission model FS16440 is absolutely perfect in comparison. hobby paints are very mystical alchemy stuff i guess

Guy Rump
Looking good, following. 👍

Martin von Schreckenstein
the stripes look a lot better this time around. the red bit is going to follow to be done with decals, plus all the other decals

Martin von Schreckenstein
also tank you Roland and Guy for your encouragement

Martin von Schreckenstein
Metal bits were masked and painted and now I'll finish with decals and do another layer of gloss. with the kits filled and sanded, they should be easy to polish.

Sergej I
I must admit, Martin... I don't miss the panel lines at all...

Alexander
Interesting idea - the execution looks really good for sure 👍

Martin von Schreckenstein
thanks Alexander! Sergej, I know right, looks very on point for this scale