Moments of Zen

[DogfighterZen]

So, after some3 hours of decaling, a good coat of gloss varnish and another one almost ready to leave the bench!

[DogfighterZen]

After all the decals, i switched to another build. I'd scratched the LERX fences a long time ago but the F-18D was relegated to the SBP waiting for a more decent finish than i could give it at the time. As it's getting near painting stages, it was time to put those on so i glued the 2 fences on top of 0,25mm Evergreen sheet strips and cut the fences bases to shape. I glad with how it came out and i think it adds a bit of interest to the looks so i'm glad i did it. The Hobbyboss kit is pretty crude in some areas, neither the fences, which should've been provided, from what i've seen on the real aircraft intended to represent with the O.O.B. decal sheet. It is supposed to be an easy kit so, can't complaint too much as it was also very cheap. I'll also have to build some antennas as none came with the kit.



Now i'm gonna spray some matte varnish on the Eurofighter...

[DogfighterZen]

Now i'm gonna spray some matte varnish on the Eurofighter...

Which is now dry...









The decals are most of the missing detail in the molds so i think that they help the end product a lot.



I'll have the back story and a few more pics when the missiles are finished.

[DogfighterZen]

Wasn't feeling like painting today so i did some small work, got scrap styrene and cut a few antennas for the F-18D...



The GPS antenna for the F-16CP...



And the forward looking sensors for the DP.



I've opted to downgrade the twin seater version from I to D because i wanna keep the rest of the specific SUFA bits for another build, and to have both the single-seat and twin-seat with the same systems and sensors to keep version commonality...

[DogfighterZen]

Felt like painting today...



These are what's left to finish for the Eurofighter. Now i wanna build another one, but a better kit, gotta look through some reviews of the Revell and Hasegawa kits to make a decision on which one to buy.

A few days ago, while chatting to my best mate from school years, he asked if i still had any old drawings from those days. I dug through the piles of stuff i have kept from school, as i was in the Design area from the 10th grade on, i still have a lot of sketches and geometry exercises from those years... As i remembered, i really was a Whif designer in my youth!!
Only found one, from around 1992 or 93, unfinished but in reasonable condition to show, most of the others are small sketches drawn during some boring Portuguese or English class... Obviously, i fancied delta-winged aircraft back then...



Looking at it now, looks a bit like a batplane...
Gotta start drawing again to see if i can come up with some interesting modern designs.

[NARSES2]

Drawings neat  My drawings from schooldays all have propellers 

[DogfighterZen]

Drawings neat  My drawings from schooldays all have propellers 

Thanks! Do you still have any of yours? It was such a memory reviving moment when i found mine...
I think i only drew Spitfires, it's always been my favorite prop fighter, but no surviving drawings. My mate is finishing a FW-190 which is looking very good, when it's finished i'll post it here.

Well, modeling wise, today i got the XF-58 Olive drab on the inside of the landing flaps and wheel bays on my RW P-40B of the AVG Flying Tigers.

This is goig to be my first camo job with the airbrush and i'm really looking forward to see how it comes out... 

[NARSES2]

Drawings neat  My drawings from schooldays all have propellers 

Thanks! Do you still have any of yours?

None of the drawings of aircraft that I know of but then it is 50 odd years ago  What I did find was my old note books where I'd mapped out my "What if" countries (before I'd even heard the phrase) for my wargamming campaigns. Not just the maps but the topography and industrial geography of each nation as well. I obviously paid attention in class 

[DogfighterZen]

None of the drawings of aircraft that I know of but then it is 50 odd years ago  What I did find was my old note books where I'd mapped out my "What if" countries (before I'd even heard the phrase) for my wargamming campaigns. Not just the maps but the topography and industrial geography of each nation as well. I obviously paid attention in class 

I imagine it would be quite a feat to have kept your drawings for so long, i had tens of them and only the one i showed survived these past 20some years... Without a doubt, "What-if" is a personality trait, creative minds always have a different view... My mate was never into making up his own designs, he mostly drew what he saw on books and magazines. 90% of his sketches were of the Mirage 2000, the other 10% were Mig-25s...
I never got into wargaming but it must be fun, i know a lot of people who were/are into it, but i spent most of my free time riding my bmx or training on my K1 in the river till i was 14, after that it was just bmx, sex, drugs and rock'n roll...
Well, off to the bench to mask and paint the Eurofighter's missiles and the P-40's landing gear.

[DogfighterZen]

After finishing another whif, the PoAF Typhoon, i now have to give my RW P-40 some time, so today i got the XF-19 on the underside...



And sorted out some weapons for the F-18D and F-15CSE...



I'm still choosing if i want a AN/AAQ-14 or a 3rd drop tank in the Hornet's center line station, but the rest is chosen, 4 Mk.20 Rockeye, 2 AIM-7C Sparrow and 2 AIM-9L on the Wingtips.
For the final loadout of the CSE, not sure if i want only AIM-120s on the pylons or also have a pair of AIM-9Xs.  If they carried any exterior load, while using the Conformal Weapons Bays, my guess is that it would be 120s? Would it carry 1 or 2 pairs of 9X on the CWBs stations?
I can also load this one with all external load and keep the CFT idea for greater range...
This is just half of the ordnance i have to finish, there's also the F-16CP/DP's full load, although that's already chosen.
And already i'm thinking of starting something new...

[DogfighterZen]

Ok, time for a little update...
As i wanna properly learn some weathering techniques, i need to practice a lot more, so i dug out the Airfix F-86E from the stalled builds pile to serve as one of the next test subjects for that, and after the colors and gloss coat, some AK Grey/Blue camo panel line wash.
Started on the P-40, XF-1 for pre-shading and covered it with the wrong color, XF-52...



Ended up covering most of the initial mess...



It will get another coat of brown later on to cover it up more evenly before the green goes on.
Next up were the whifs, the F-18D, another mess, which ended up almost completely covered in XF-24...







And then, the rest of the XF-24 left in the cup went on the Airfix F-86E, which already had previously been pre-shaded with very thinned XF-1...
IMHO, this one came out a bit better although the pic doesn't show much...



Still a long way to go from what i want to do but i'm enjoying the learning process, airbrushing is fun!

[DogfighterZen]

Time for another small update...

Sometime ago, i was offered help by our own PR19_Kit (to whom i am very grateful ), regarding some PoAF lo-viz markings and we were in "negotiations" regarding such markings and him printing them for me, but it coincided with the first unfortunate health issue of Mrs PR19, and i wouldn't dare to bother him, or anyone else going through such a moment... specially about something like decals.
So, i spent some euros and got all i needed to make my own decals, and after a few months of not having the patience to spend time at the computer setting up images, i'm finally getting down to business... I was having a few problems resizing images but tonight i got around that and successfully printed in normal paper, the PoAF lo-viz roundel, tail band and fin flash in 1/72! 
On Paint.NET, i made up a tail band and the rim around the Christ's cross for the roundel and the fin flash was found online. this was the first test with the 2 smaller roundels, fin flash and tail band being 1/72, the larger roundel is 1/48 and the larger tail band was supposed to also be 1/48 but was too skinny.



There's also a ton of other stuff i wanna print like numbers, data, squadron markings, but this was what i wanted to have for a long time, now i just have to successfully make and use the darned decals! Of course, there's still a lot to do in color matching and some of my own designs i wanna try, so there's still a lot of computer work ahead, but it shouldn't be a problem as i'm starting to get used to editing images.
No news on the plastic front to report as my RW job has got me worn out pretty much everyday this week so i'm just doing computer work...

[NARSES2]

Some nice progress going on 

[DogfighterZen]

Some nice progress going on 

Thank you!  Just got home and got the decal sheets in my hand ready to print! I'll be back later to show how it went.

[DogfighterZen]

Well, ended up not having the time i needed to be able to print the decals and apply the decal film but did get a few minutes to start designing a proper decal sheet. Got all the stuff printed last night into one file and added a bird...
The roundels used are not the correct ones, only remembered that after i finished the editing. Also forgot that i have to separate the designs which are to be printed on white from the ones to be printed on clear sheets so this work was just to learn how to design a decal sheet.



So, that's it for now, maybe tomorrow i can finally get down to printing...