AMK 1/48 IAI Kfir C7

[TommyKillander]

Loving the look of this. I like the results of the test pieces, they do look a good match

Thanks Ivan

The brown is a little light because I post-shaded it too much, but I will be careful with that on the model


Okey...

I experimented a bit with preshading yesterday. The idea was to add some colour variation and "dirt shadows" using XF-64. I will ofcourse continue to weather this with oils and pigments later...



I sprayed highly diluted Gunze H308 on the supersonic droprtank (the one in the centerline of the aircraft) and the underside and side of the other (subsonic) ones. I soon discovered that Gunze paints (or atleast the H308) needs to set for a couple of minutes since it darkens and gets the right colour opaqueness after a while.



Lessons learned; The XF-1 Black is too dark for panel shading in my opinion. But part from that I'm pleased with the result. I will use a dark grey colour for the panel shading on the aircraft.


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys!

I have continued with the paintjob on the wingmounted droptanks.



I'm using Panzer Putty for masking; I love this stuff


My idea is to make a line with some minor curves, that's why I'm not using masking tape


Ready for Sand colour


Painted with H313 and faded with XF-55


Masking for brown colour


Painted with H310, but I did chicken out on the fading


I'm happy with that


Masking using stripes of Tamiya curved tape


Tips of the droptanks painted with red. I will add chipping this later


Now I got a more clear view on how to proceed with painting the aircraft...

Stay tuned!

Tommy

[Fridgy]

I've said it before tommy and I will say it again
I love watching your builds come together

[papatika]

Great job Tommy!
I like how the preshading turned out, but it looks different IRL than on the photos for sure. Maybe black and brown used together is not so efficient, because black is much darker. But I can imagine using black for preshading, and brown for mottling. Brown and some light yellow. I think that would result a nice worn / sun faded effect.

Keep up the good work, m8!

[TommyKillander]

I've said it before tommy and I will say it again
I love watching your builds come together

Thanks Mick, you are most welcome

Great job Tommy!
I like how the preshading turned out, but it looks different IRL than on the photos for sure. Maybe black and brown used together is not so efficient, because black is much darker. But I can imagine using black for preshading, and brown for mottling. Brown and some light yellow. I think that would result a nice worn / sun faded effect.

Keep up the good work, m8!

Thanks papatika!
Yeah, the shading looks more pronounced on the photos. I think it will reduce a bit more when I put the glosscoat on as well.
That's a good advice with the preshading, I have something like that in mind.


Tommy

[demarcation]

Nice progress Tommy!

[TommyKillander]

Nice progress Tommy!

Thanks Anders!


Ok... I have started painting the aircraft now

I wasn't super-happy about the black paneline-preshade, so I decided to use XF-63 German Grey instead. After studying a couple of buildthreads I got an idea what to do...

First I preshade the panelines and add a random pattern all over the model as well.


After that I shaded the centerline of the fuselage bottom side with XF-64 Red Brown


On the top side I did the same thing, but more intense at the wingroots and the rear of the fuselage.


After that I put on a random pattern on the panels, using XF-80 Royal Light Gray


I did basically the same thing on the bottom side


Finally I coated the bottom side with highly diluted Gunze H308 using many passes.


Next step will be to mask the bottom side and start working on the top cammo


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys!

Time to paint the aircraft!

...but first I need to do some masking to protect the bottom side from overspray


First colour - Sand. I start with the light colours...


Some masking fun... I use Panzer Putty for this




Second colour - Blue Green


...more masking


Third colour - Brown.
A IPMS buddy mentioned that the Israeli version of FS30219 is slightly more Red, so I decided to add a couple of drops of XF-7 into the paintcup.



This is the result (please note that my cellphone camera have messed up the colours a bit):




I think it looks promising. I haven't done any fading yet, but I will do that tomorrow and I might be able to do the detail painting as well.

Stay tuned!

Tommy

[Zen]

That's looking so good, great work!

[TommyKillander]

That's looking so good, great work!

Thanks Zen


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Some progress today

Faded the panels a bit (mostly the Brown parts of the cammo)


I removed the masking of the air intakes and wheel bays





But wait ! This does not look right...


We have to fix that - lucky I saved the leftover Brown paintmix in a jar. I have started to do that since it's almost impossible to get two paint mixes to look the same. I will also use the same paintmix for the canopy later on...





That looks better I think.


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys!

Continued with the paintwork, lots of small details to finish...

Did the bare metal details on the pitot tube and undercarriage.


Nosecone should be black




After checking the colour diagram; the attachment of the pitot tube should not be black... Plx fix !




That's better!

Painted the lens of the Pave Penny with Tamiya X-19 Smoke


More painting, Gunze H308


Ok... here's one big mistake that I did. I was concerned about the small parts when masking with Panzer Putty (PP is notorious for pulling off small parts and PE when removed), so I decided to add all small parts later in the build.


Not my brightest ideas in modelling.... It will be a challenge to make them blend in, since I'm adding them afterwards.... Note to self; Stop doing this in the future!

And I have started with the engine and exhaust as well....


A couple of ejection pin marks needs to attention.


Ready for primer!



Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Okay!!

Had a great day at the bench with lot's of stuff done

I primed the engine parts with the new Gloss Black Ultimate Primer and the white Ultimate Primer


Engine painted with Mr Metal buffable metallizers


The J79 engine is really a piece of art and there are lots of nice pictures on the Internets



It's tempting to got for the green paintjob, but I will paint it in sand and brown colours






I*m happy with that and I will put it aside until it's time for weathering.


I tried my cutting machine for the first time, using Tamiya 240 x 180mm masking sheets.


This is the result; I tried to cut 0,7mm, 1.0mm, 3,0mm, 2.7mm, 9mm roundels and I could not resist to print out my forum and YouTube avatar as well


The 9mm roundels where used for the main landing gear wheel hubs


Painted with XF-85 Rubber Black


The 2.7mm diameter masks where used for the headlights


Reflectors painted with Vallejo Metal Colour Chrome


Outside coated with XF-1 Black


Mounted the headlights to the nose landning gear



Tommy

[sheppsea]

Very nice work

I must admit that cutting machine is speaking to me - £150 on Prime

[josepedro]

Great work on the Kfir!
The airframe has gorgeous lines!

[TommyKillander]

Very nice work

I must admit that cutting machine is speaking to me - £150 on Prime

Thanks!
Yeah, it has been whispering in my ear for almost a year

Great work on the Kfir!
The airframe has gorgeous lines!

Thanks josepedro


Tommy

[demarcation]

brilliant paintjob, fading looks awesome!

[TommyKillander]

brilliant paintjob, fading looks awesome!

Thanks Anders !


It's time for decals... I have put on two layers of glosscoat, using Mr Color Leveling Thinner and X-22.


But I ran into problems right out the gates

I'm not convinced that it's possible to stretch the decal over the bulges on the vertical stabiliser.

...so I decided to cut the decal and I will paint the red and yellow bands instead!




But after we passed that hurdle, everything went on without any issues


Decals finished




Despite the problems with the first decal I would rate the quality of the decals very high The look a bit thick but they conform very well to the surface using a couple of drops of Micro Sol.


Tommy

[pourquoi61]

Very nice and I do like the Panzer Putty, can not wait to see the end product.

[TommyKillander]

Very nice and I do like the Panzer Putty, can not wait to see the end product.

Thank you, pourquoi61

Yeah, Panzer Putty is great; It's my to-go masking material if I can't use tape...

I'm focusing on this build now so I can complete it well in time for the deadline, so I would like to see the end product too

Okey...

I fixed some overspray on the fin and masked the Arava Guardian emblem


Masking wasn't much easier than applying the decal


The result

The colourmatching of the red isn't fantastic

I'll have a look at it tomorrow again and see if I should try to fix it or not....

I have an idea of a base for the model, but it will not work if the emblem on the tailfin looks like something the "cat has dragged in and had a pee on" (word by word-translation of a Swedish proverb for "something that looks really awful")


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys!

Not much benchtime today, but I tried to fix the red colour of the Arava emblem on the tailfin.

When I looked at the colour-chip (the part of the decal that I didn't use) the colour seemed to be dark red with some brown in it. So I mixed a couple of drops of XF-7 Red with a tiny drop of XF-9 Hull Red and made a thin filter (~20% paint, 80% thinner) and loaded the airbrush with that. The idea was to apply the filter in thin layers until the colours matched.

It sounds easy enough, but it was quite difficult because the paint gets darker when wet and it gets lighter when it dries

Anyway, this is as good as I can get it. It's not perfect but it'll have to suffice



Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys!

I'm trying to finish this now, so I'm fully busy building - no time to post updates



Just kidding!

I have started the weathering now. All the small parts have received an oil wash.


....and suddenly disaster struck (again!)


For some reason (I cannot even recall) I decided to glue in the handle and mirrors on the inside of the canopy...
The handle touched the glass and it got two nice marks from the TET

The biggest problem is that the mark is on the inside, so it's really hard to reach it. After leaving it to dry over night I spent two hours with 1200 grit sanding paper and Tamiya polishing compound trying to fix it - but I could not remove the marks completely

So giving up I masked the canopy and primed it.....

After that I painted it in my mixed red brown colour.


And I continued with the black oil wash for the panel-lines.






The oilwash need to dry for 48 hours, but I will continue with the base.

Stay tuned!

Tommy

[papatika]

I just saw the picture about the belly of the plane on flickr and I
I headed here right away. It looks awesome!!!
What's the clear coat you are using? I could not find my solution to go for. Tried Tamiya, MrHobby, Revell and MrColor Super III.
Revell... umm... yeah, better then nothing. Tamiya and MrHobby are ok, but could be better. MrColor stinks, can't handle it in this small room. Maybe when I complete the new workdesk...

Cheers,
Attila

[TommyKillander]

I just saw the picture about the belly of the plane on flickr and I
I headed here right away. It looks awesome!!!
What's the clear coat you are using? I could not find my solution to go for. Tried Tamiya, MrHobby, Revell and MrColor Super III.
Revell... umm... yeah, better then nothing. Tamiya and MrHobby are ok, but could be better. MrColor stinks, can't handle it in this small room. Maybe when I complete the new workdesk...

Cheers,
Attila

Thanks papatika!
The landing gear bays will receive some wash too, but I will not use black wash.

My to-go clear coat is Alclad II Aqua Gloss - that's what I used on the Kfir.

Lately I have experimented with MrColor Levelling Thinner and Tamiya X-22, but the MLT is a bit smelly and it seems that it needs atleast two days curing time before it is hard and you need to put on a couple of coats before it gets really shiny. But the result is better than Aqua Gloss.
I used it on my J7W1 Shinden in the Warring Weather build.

For your workarea I think that Aqua Gloss is the best option, no smell and you clean the airbrush with water and Ultimate airbrush cleaner.


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

I have decided to make a simple base for the Kfir.

I bought a cheap photoframe on my latest trip to IKEA.


The plasticard where used to form individual concrete slabs


I have bevelled the edges with a sanding stick.


I glued the "cards" onto the PE-LD "glass" that came with the photoframe and primed with Ultimate Primer.

The canopy also received some primer while the airbrush was loaded

I sprayed some irregular patterns with XF20 and XF80 grey paints



I found the group emblem for the Arava Guardians on the net and I decided to make a paint-mask from it using my recently purchased Silhouette Portrait cutting machine. The GIF-image where just imported into the Silhouette Studio software that came with the machine and after some tweaking I got something that I could cut a painting mask from:


I'm using cheap masking tape as a transfer medium (to keep everything in place after I have removed the backing paper)


I placed it on the base and sprayed the yellow/orange layer first


Coated the yellow area with the mask and removed the area that will be painted red


There you go!


But the colours got a bit stark, so I misted XF-57 Buff to tone it down a bit


The gaps received a black oil wash


I flatcoated it and it's finished!





Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys!

The weathering adventure continues.... There a lot of things I want to do on this model, but drying time and life-stuff may cause problems to finishing it in time. I have a mad busy week in front of me

Right, then.... Second attempt at gluing in the rearview mirrors and canopy handle... this time using CA-glue


Inside of mirrors painted with Vallejo Metal Chrome


Back of mirror and handle painted Black



I used a dark grey wash for the wheel houses


Preparing for flatcoat - I'm masking the stuff that I want to keep gloss


Flat-coated - let the final assembly begin


Unmasking stuff..... a bit nervous





Everything seems to be in order...

I'm using CA-glue for the landing gear and hatches.


Some additional weathering as I go along...




I sanded down the tires a bit to make the model set a little on the baseplate.


It can be quite tricky to align the flat surfaces while gluing them in, but it was possible to pressfit the main landing gear wheels and adjust them. The nose-wheel is rotating so that is already taken care of.


Almost finished the assembly - but I will weather the ordnance and subsonic droptanks a bit before I glue them on. Bang seat and canopy go in last thing...

....and I got a lot of detail weathering to do...


Tommy

[xSCAR45]

She's a beaut! Excellent work! That cockpit as a work of art as well.

[TommyKillander]

She's a beaut! Excellent work! That cockpit as a work of art as well.

Thanks xSCAR45 !


Tommy

[gaz45]

Awesome work mate

[Fridgy]

She looks awesome tommy
Well done mate

[demarcation]

Superb Tommy!!

[TommyKillander]

Awesome work mate

She looks awesome tommy
Well done mate

Superb Tommy!!

Thanks guys!

Okey... final leg now...

Did some weathering with oilwash on the droptanks and weapons.

I used Abt502 Dust mixed with Black for the Olive Drab GBU-12's and a mix of Raw Umber and Black for the droptanks and missiles.

The guidepins didn't fit into the holes of the missile rail so I had to drill the larger


Droptanks also in place...


LGBs with light wash


Underside completed - I'm happy with that


Ejection-seat and canopy in place; I had to check photos of a Mirage 5 to get the correct angle of the opened canopy.



....aaand it's Finished








I will take better photos tomorrow, it's too late to rig the photo-booth, laptop and camera now


Tommy

[papatika]

Great job, top build, Tommy! Just in time!

[TommyKillander]

Great job, top build, Tommy! Just in time!

Thanks, buddy!

Yeah, it was a bit tight at the and I had to simplify stuff to make it in time. But I'm calling it done now

Reveal Photos can be found here:
viewtopic.php?f=621&t=23387


Tommy