Our Generous Sponsors

GROUP BUILD ENTRY no.21
Raffle no. 20

1/72 Fujimi F-14A, VF-31 Tomcatters
by Kristian Amadori (KRI76)
Linköping - Sweden

Hi!

This is my first completed Tomcat for the group build. It's a Fujimi kit but wings are from Academy.
I tried to add some detail to the already good level offered by:

- detailing the landing gear legs;
- putting some more details in the front wheel well;
- detailing a bit the bang seats with belts and "blast tube";
- FOD covers.

The build proceeded quite well, even though I had some difficulties when placing the glove pylons that did not fit well. I don't know if it is me that did something wrong or if it is an issue with the kit.
The model is painted with Humbrol enamels overall FS36375 (except for the black nose!) over a usual pre-shading. The Cat was then clear painted with MM gloss paint prior to decaling. Decals come from Carpena´s sheet dedicated to Forrestal's aircrafts in low-viz. This is an old sheet I bought many years ago and that provides very very thin decals. I had some problems here even though I had put some Microscale liquid decal film. Moreover Carpena does not provide more than the markings for the VF-31 Cat, so all stencils had to be custom made (not an easy task to try to match the colors....).
Another gloss coat and then I started weathering the aircraft using water colors with a mixture of water and dish soap. Lastly I sealed everything with a dull coat from Xtracolor. The bare metal parts (LE's and burner cans) are painted with MM metallizers (aluminum, exhaust and burnt iron).

I hope you'll like it!

Kristian

Back to Group Build Main Page            Return to the ScaleAIR Home Page