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Greg Kittinger
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Hasegawa F-2B 1/72

January 31, 2020 · in Aviation · · 16 · 2.5K

This was my first airbrushed jet project. I attempted a hybrid black-basing technique - when I laid down the white, I used the erratic swirl pattern, but stayed a bit clear of panel lines to end up with a sort of panel line pre-shading effect in addition to the mottling. With that combination, and how light I attempted to stay on the color overcoat (especially the lighter blue), it came out just a bit more intense that I was shooting for, but I'm on a learning curve using the airbrush so am satisfied with how it came out.

This was a really nice kit - lots of recessed details and a pretty good fit - only needed a bit of spacer behind the cockpit tub to fill an obvious gap. Some of the smaller details are a little heavy - like the static wicks and pitot, but I decided to just live with them.

I did use an aftermarket set of decals - Hasegawa decals can be pretty thick - that included TONS of stencils. Took days - working a hour here and an hour there - to get them all on. The bombs and TERs came from a Hasegawa Japanese weapons set. The is often pictured with missiles, but I wanted to do something a tad different. I did add PE sway braces to the pylons - that was the only non-OOB addition.

I'm still fighting getting a smooth gloss coat for decals - I think it has to do with my airbrush technique. I laid 5 coats of Testors rattle can gloss, and still had to do a lot of decal slicing/more solvent to get out silvering here and there, especially with smaller stencils across panel lines, and some of those long wing-walk stripes.

I used GS Mr. Color paints for the Ocean Blue scheme, as I wanted to practice for the same scheme I plan to use on an F-4EJ Kai (the next Phantom in my Phantom project after I finish the Turk).

Reader reactions:
11  Awesome

20 additional images. Click to enlarge.


16 responses

  1. Beautiful job Greg !
    Compliments.

  2. Outstanding work as always, Greg!

  3. Paint looks superb from here! The tonal variations are pretty to look at especially in that color blue. I've gotta say, I wouldn't have pinned this as 72nd scale had I not known it was you... Great looking model!

  4. Fantastic, one of models on my to do list...your work is great motivation...
    Regards

  5. Nicely done, Greg. The tonal variation of the blue paint is very nice. You will find that the learning curve with the airbrush is pretty fast as long as you keep it really CLEAN and avoid clogs and fouling. I tear mine (H&S Infinity CR and Iwata neo) down and clean them when I'm done after each session. I use an ultra-sonic cleaner I got from Mirco Mark and a PBW solution and have had NO problems. Keep it up!

  6. That is really nice!

    I love the paintjob and the loadout looks really cool 🙂

  7. Well done, Greg! I think your mastering the airbrush. Nice signature stand.

  8. Holy Cow! This looks fantastic! Great job Greg!

  9. For a first airbrushed project, Greg, let me say I've been doing that since 1972, and I'd be very happy with this result. Excellent work and a really nice result.

  10. Nice one Greg. Looks cool. Your be loving your airbrush, it will take your modelling to the next level.

  11. That’s sharp, Greg. What exact colors did you use? I have one of these to do in 1/48.

    • @j-healy John, for this one, I used Mr Hobby 72 (Intermediate Blue, US Navy Aircraft) and 14 (Navy Blue, US Navy Aircraft), though those are not the most correct colors. There is actually a set sold (https://spraygunner.com/j-a-s-d-f-oceanic-camouflage-color-set/) - I finally found it and ordered for my F-4EJ Kai project) that contains C375 (Radome Gray), C375 (Deep Ocean Blue) and C374 (Shallow Ocean Blue) - that is suppose to be the actual colors for this 2-tone Ocean Blue scheme. Since I'm new to airbrushing, I didn't know how far the paint set would go, so I used the US Navy colors as a base, and then used white to lighten them both to come as close as possible to matching the Ocean Blue set. I did use the Radome Gray from the set.

      That link above to spray gunner shows they still have the set in stock - I'd jump on it because it is out of stock in most places!

  12. Fantastic work!

  13. .very, very nice work...

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