Okay, I managed to get some things done this past week so here's my latest update. First off, all of this is work on my Micro Modeling Month campaign subjects on another Forums. Then I did some work on the SPAModeler's review of the Hasegawa F-14 Tomcat Dual Kit for this site. I am showing the construction process here but the complete review is in the Members Reviews Forums.
I'll start with the MMM campaign models. I installed the completed cockpit inside the forward fuselage first:
Then I closed it up with some weight in the nose, just in case:
I also puttied and smooth out some seams that I had seemingly all over this model:
Just for fun, I put the two sub-assemblies together to see how this bird was coming along. Here they are dry-fit together:
Later on, I cemented the whole thing together and added the canopy after I dipped it in Future. This bird, once the canopy is masked; is ready for paint:
I also worked on my Hasegawa AH-1S Cobra for my US Army. I had a devil of a time with the cockpit decals. After 45 minutes of sitting in water; they still looked like this:
Finally, I just decided to let them dry and later on I simply cut them out with scissors and cemented them to their respective parts of the cockpit and instrument panels:
I was finally able to close this bird up:
After a few touch-ups and then some added details, I closed up the canopy on this bird as well:
After masking the canopy, this bird will also be ready for paint.
Moving on, I started the two F-14's for the review.
I started of course, with the cockpits. The kit offers a choice of Photo-etch parts and paint; or paint and decals. For the purposes of this review, I did one cockpit in each option.
To start out with, I assembled the four bang seats for both of these aircraft. The seats come in five parts each. The ejection seat handles are photo etch. I added them to the seats in the photo etch cockpit but left them off in the paint and decal cockpit. I will add them later to the second cockpit when the paint and decals are completed so as not to risk breaking them off and losing them in the process:
One thing to watch out for when attaching the side parts to the seat cushion: ejector pin marks that stick out. I had to remove a few on these seats to make things fit well:
This first cockpit was done with the photo-etch. As you can see, the photo-etch parts were not cut to shape to match the indentations and cuts on the sides of the basic cockpit tub, as well as on the back of the cockpit. I'm expecting fit issues in the future when it is time to close this particular cockpit up:
The second cockpit assembly went together easier:
Here is a shot showing the two of them side by side to compare how they look:
The instrument panels for the photo etch cockpit do not have photo etch parts for them. Instead, you are given color call-outs to paint in the details. I started to paint these instrument panels for this cockpit; the basic paint was laid down first:
The second set of instrument panels don't need paint as the decals for them already have the base color on each part. I didn't do the decals on them yet so they will be shown in a subsequent update.
While I had the paint out, I added the basic paint to both cockpit tubs to start them off. I painted the cockpit panels on the sides of the photo-etch cockpit so as to dry-brush some white or grey over them later to bring out the details. Here they are with the start of the painting on them:
That's all I have for now on these. I also completed a commission build which is also a Modeling Resolution model that I will be posting later.
Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.
