I opted to do something different. Some killer colour scheme. Nothing that I have seen before. Ref white and with yellow and black posterior looks very inviting.
The cockpit from the kit is a shame. I looked through ebay for a UK supplier and found several for the Eduard Upgrade set. I use UK like MJW, Stevenmods over Australia and USA because its very speedy. They normally arrive within a week, Australia, even though is 4 times closer takes about 3 weeks from day of dispatch, Should be the efficiency of Royal Mail. Kudos. Same with the USA due to distance and sheer volumes.
The upgrade details are quite nice and glued in place. The dreaded handles are put in too, 50% of them I threw away as it will not be seen anyway. I painted the RIO scope with black and yellow washed it several times before locking the GLOWING binocular scope in Mr. Colour Gloss. I really liked this technique that I discovered and developed while building the 32nd scale F14B Tomcat, which was snapped up on the first day of MCON 2015, which won nothing. It was sold for a ransom that is about 5 times that would have been the offer for the champion single coloured crap Greyhound.
The floor board is weathered and dirt pigments was put and locked in place with diluted matte varnish.
The cockpit is then assembled with Resin seats from Australia after it arrived 3 weeks later. This tub is then protected with wet tissue stuffing masking system that I developed and explained some time early.
The fit is wanting in many parts of this kit, unlike the sublimal Javelin. Seems the indian subcontractors aren't holding up the torch very much in terms of plastic mold engineering comparing to their counterparts in Korea and China.
As I have chosen a much harder scheme to paint, I have decided to close the air brakes, Besides, its not common practice to leave this one while parked somewhere anyway. The fit as common to kits that are designed with opened configurations, closed with gaps a galore full.
Nothing that cannot be fixed by melting and spreading plastic. Once its dry, a good old rub down is the order of the day and the trusty MADE IN CHINA scriber is the ultimate useful tool. For all those in Singapore, I urge you guys to head down to Miniature Hobbies to get one. Better than the Jap reccommended Olfa reverse blades and way way stronger than pins on vices.
Tails all in and now the sanding begin with earnest while waiting for the decals to arrive from Hannants UK. I order 2 decal sheets and 2 grams worth of pitot tubes, They charged me 9.25 quids for shipping and it came in a box that cannot be fitted into the mail box which can hole A3 size by 6" articles! Opening it, I found that it is stuffed with 6 air filled PE pillows for cushioning 3 sheets of paper! They could have sent like everyone else on hard backed envelope that will take only 5 days to arrive and costs only 2 quids. Crapping shipping practices which means the end of Hannants for me and all my gang!
The wingtips did not fit so well, so the good old thin Tamiya cement with 30% putty to the rescue. Sanding it later with wet sandpaper and fibre glass pencil can being up the shine. And the trusty scriber comes in for its bit of action too.
Wings are painted yellowish orange over the preshaded black and then highlighted with lemon yellow.
The wings are polished using my old cotton Tee Shirt to give it a shiny surface so that decals can stick better later.
Both wings completed and polished as described above.
Tamiya Tape all over. This is very tricky as there are antennae and curvatures. The fuel tank station is tricky as it has be painted red later. And red does not stand out on black undercoats. So, it has to be masked. To makes things worst, the black diagonal stripes ran across the two pylons! Lots of edge rubbing is needed to get the tapes to adhere to the edges and nooks. I used a bamboo toothpick to do this as it will not break like normal wooden ones.
The black sections are highlighted with dark and medium grey to give it a homogeneous look like hte highlighted and faded yellow. When the tapes are removed....I am very happy with what came out.
Wing is rubbed and polished to prep it for decalling. I am not a proponent of the usual Future Klear method as it will make the eventual paint too thick and makes weathering the lines difficult.
Decals on for the tanks. Ready for the new Tamiya Matte Varnish. I saw its really very effective.
With the wing tips done, attention is now focused on the main body. The cockpit were masked, puttied and sanded. Tamiya tape with Masking Sol diluted with water does its job all the time.
The painted lower surfaces and the pylons were masked for the white that will be due to come on. Also bearing in mind the red tips as well.
The whites are mixed on several panels with grey to get a mixture of disparity of tonal hues on the turtle back.
With Wheelwells stuffed with wet tissue, on when the two tone yellows.
The base coat orange and the yellow highlights are done with these. The XF3 needed 25% Gunze Gloss and diluted 50% with leveling thinner.
The great revelation. Some edges are not even, so its remasked and touched up with black and grey tones.
Wing tips doe with decal on. Its a double decal on decal design to save on costs of production by Airfix. Tricky to get it all aligned properly. Lots of Microscale Micro Set does the trick followed by the use of Gunze Marksofter.
Tail up with red and highlighted with very thin whitish hues for fading.
Really happy with what turned out. The pylons done and rubbing compoind fine from Tamiya gives me a good glossy sheen ready for decalling. The pylons are hand painted with 3 light coats of Vallejo red by using the glazing method to give it a smooth and even finish.
Tail fins weathered and faded.
Red line painted and decal roundel up and on. The turtle back has loads of cross hatched warning decals. Very tricky as the decals are very thin and spread over antennae and holes. These required cutting and nudging with cotton buds.