North American F-107C

[Jakko]

Here it is with a basecoat of Games Workshop Corax Grey White (called the latter but actually the former) primer:



Hopefully, I’ll put on at least the underside colour tomorrow.

 

[Jim R]

Always nice to get a coat of primer on. Doesn't appear to have highlighted any issues.

 

[PhilJ]

Thanks, though the start is some way behind me now that I’ve finished building (other than the wheels)

View attachment 460017

The pitot tube is scratchbuilt:

View attachment 460018

I didn’t want to use the kit part because it’s very long and looks like the kind used on prototype planes, like those near the wingtips — which is why I cut those off too. The replacement you can see here is shorter and consists of three lengths of brass tube one inside the other: 1.0 mm, 0.8 mm and 0.5 mm.

And here’s a better view of the stores:

View attachment 460019

The fuel tank is from this kit, the bombs like I mentioned earlier, are from the Trumpeter F-105A Thunderchief kit. It has four fuse extenders and four normal-length fuses, which I find odd. Why not give eight of each? But hey, make do with what you have …

Once the glue has dried, I can start painting.

Love the brass work, nice touch

 

[Mickc1440]

How do you get on with their white?
I've used GW paints for over 20 years now and this latest incarnation of white is definitely lacking. It might just be the last two cans I've had but I wouldn't call it white

 

[Jakko]

I like it as a primer, but Corax White is not white, plain as that

 

[Tim Marlow]

Interesting. A lot of people use Corax White or Chaos Black as primers, but neither of them is actually marketed as a primer, just as an undercoat

 

[Jakko]

It isn’t? I can’t say I ever noticed, but now you mention it, it doesn’t seem to say “primer” on the can, no. In any case the distinction is academic to me for purposes like here: I just want a coat on the model so that the water-based acrylics that come next, won’t bead up Not that they always do, but I’v ehad it happen a few times when using them on bare plastic so I’d rather not take the risk of it happening again.

 

[Jim R]

I just want a coat on the model so that the water-based acrylics that come next, won’t bead up

I've had that happen a couple of times. Do you think it is simply the very smooth surface of the plastic or is it that the plastic has some slightly greasy contaminate on it?

 

[Tim Marlow]

To be honest Jakko, I’ve had that happen on primer

 

[Jakko]

I've had that happen a couple of times. Do you think it is simply the very smooth surface of the plastic or is it that the plastic has some slightly greasy contaminate on it?

Could be either, I suppose, but I’ve not investigated enough to tell for sure. Tim’s reply doesn’t bode well for my desire to avoid that, though

Anyway, I sprayed the underside yesterday and then went on to draw a camouflage pattern onto the model this afternoon:



T = tan, m = medium green, d = dark green. This is based on the pattern for the F-100 Super Sabre, because the F-107 started out as an improved version of that before being given its own designation:

(source)

And then I started spraying the upper sides using the Hataka paint set I had bought previously. Well … judge for yourself:



I started with the tan, which didn’t really want to come out of my airbrush no matter what I tried. After over twenty minutes of trying to make it, including emptying the cup, spraying water through the airbrush and trying again with paint thinned with some water, I had painted one patch of brown on the left side of the tail and chucked the airbrush into my ultrasonic cleaner for about a quarter of an hour.

Once it came out of that and I filled it again, it did spray the paint reasonably well, but it hardly covers at all Each of those brown patches has at least five coats on it just to make the pencilled letters disappear. I decided to just paint beyond the lines and then get rid of them later with the greens, because there was hardly any point in trying to do so with the tan. The fact that I couldn’t get it to spray any fine lines at all also didn’t help in neatly painting the camouflage.

So, on to the green, which I hoped would do better:



At this point, after about an hour and a half of toil (including sitting on the sofa stewing while the ultrasonic cleaner did its thing) I said, “To hell with this paint” and cleaned my airbrush. While I was busy doing that and cursing, probably the most appropriate song possible came from the radio in my hobby room:

Thank you, KINK

I will not be buying any more Hataka … Hakata …HawhateverthehelltheorderoftheTandKis paints, I think. The ones I used on my Dewoitine 520 a while ago worked reasonably well, but in general, they all cover like … I was going to say “like crap” but that does tend to cover well, I think, so … like coloured water, I suppose. Maybe some people like this, but I know I’m not one of them — I want paint that covers. I don’t want to build up layers to get the right transparency, have pre-shading and all that kind of modern stuff — all I ask is paint that obliterates every colour underneath when I spray it. This appears to be too much to ask from modern paint manufacturers, though

 

[InFlames]

Which Hataka colour line you used?

 

[Jakko]

The ones with the red caps, which are supposedly for airbrush use.

 

[Jim R]

Never used Hataka paints and I certainly won't be doing so in the future.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Could be either, I suppose, but I’ve not investigated enough to tell for sure. Tim’s reply doesn’t bode well for my desire to avoid that, though

Anyway, I sprayed the underside yesterday and then went on to draw a camouflage pattern onto the model this afternoon:

View attachment 460231

T = tan, m = medium green, d = dark green. This is based on the pattern for the F-100 Super Sabre, because the F-107 started out as an improved version of that before being given its own designation:

(source)

And then I started spraying the upper sides using the Hataka paint set I had bought previously. Well … judge for yourself:

View attachment 460232

I started with the tan, which didn’t really want to come out of my airbrush no matter what I tried. After over twenty minutes of trying to make it, including emptying the cup, spraying water through the airbrush and trying again with paint thinned with some water, I had painted one patch of brown on the left side of the tail and chucked the airbrush into my ultrasonic cleaner for about a quarter of an hour.

Once it came out of that and I filled it again, it did spray the paint reasonably well, but it hardly covers at all Each of those brown patches has at least five coats on it just to make the pencilled letters disappear. I decided to just paint beyond the lines and then get rid of them later with the greens, because there was hardly any point in trying to do so with the tan. The fact that I couldn’t get it to spray any fine lines at all also didn’t help in neatly painting the camouflage.

So, on to the green, which I hoped would do better:

View attachment 460233

At this point, after about an hour and a half of toil (including sitting on the sofa stewing while the ultrasonic cleaner did its thing) I said, “To hell with this paint” and cleaned my airbrush. While I was busy doing that and cursing, probably the most appropriate song possible came from the radio in my hobby room:

Thank you, KINK

I will not be buying any more Hataka … Hakata …HawhateverthehelltheorderoftheTandKis paints, I think. The ones I used on my Dewoitine 520 a while ago worked reasonably well, but in general, they all cover like … I was going to say “like crap” but that does tend to cover well, I think, so … like coloured water, I suppose. Maybe some people like this, but I know I’m not one of them — I want paint that covers. I don’t want to build up layers to get the right transparency, have pre-shading and all that kind of modern stuff — all I ask is paint that obliterates every colour underneath when I spray it. This appears to be too much to ask from modern paint manufacturers, though

Worst thing about all this Jakko, is that someone is bound to come along and say “when I used it, xxxx’s paint covered perfectly”. Happens with almost every brand at some point it seems.

 

[Tim Marlow]

The ones with the red caps, which are supposedly for airbrush use.

Well, the paints did go through the air brush. They never said it would cover the model afterwards did they LOL…..

 

[Mark1]

Some seem to like them I've not tried them and probably won't now.

 

[Jakko]

someone is bound to come along and say “when I used it, xxxx’s paint covered perfectly”. Happens with almost every brand at some point it seems.

Yep, and those probably have not learned the lesson I have: that not everyone can get along with every type or brand of paint If I go and find Tamiya, Mr. Aqueous Color, Vallejo or some other paints that have the right colours for this scheme, I’m pretty sure I can spray the whole plane in one go with no trouble — because I can work with those. Hataka, I was on the fence about, largely because of the lack of covering power I saw before in some of them.

Never used Hataka paints and I certainly won't be doing so in the future.

Some seem to like them I've not tried them and probably won't now.

TBH, I would advise you to do try them. For all we know, you might be very happy with how they spray, perhaps even for exactly the reasons I’m not.

 

[Jakko]

Whether or not you can get along with paint makes all the difference. The medium green is Ammo forest green, the dark is Vallejo olive drab (the bottle I felt is too green for American tanks), and I changed exactly nothing about the rest of the set-up compared to my last attempt: I just turned on the compressor, didn’t turn any pressure or airflow knobs or anything, chucked paint into the airbrush straight from the bottle, and sprayed the model.

The finish is far from perfect, but I can get this to cover and I can spray almost pencil-thin lines with it for the camouflage, neither of which I managed with the Hataka bottles. I did have to use some of that to touch up overspray and the line between the upper and lower colours, though. I should have remembered to do the top first so I would only have needed to use the bottom colour once, of course

 

[Steven000]

Nice progress Jakko

 

[Jakko]

I’ll post some more of it, then



The decals are from both the F-105 kit (tail and nationality markings, warning triangles under the cockpit) and the F-107 itself (everything else below the cockpit). The reason for using Thunderchief markings specifically is because I figure that if the F-107 went into production in its place, it would have used the same serials, been assigned to the same units, etc.

The nose cone is now matt black and the pitot tube is aluminium, and I noticed when taking the photos that I forgot to paint the panel around the gun muzzle in aluminium as well. The main things to do still are the panel lines, wheels and bombs.