1/48 Tamiya F-14A Jolly Rogers

[Medicman71]

Man this really making me want to get mine out and start on it.

[Stuart]

Man this really making me want to get mine out and start on it.

[mustang1989]

That's the one thing that I really get a kick out of with Tamiya kits is indeed....their fit. That pit is just all that and a whole bag of party mix. I'm right there with you on the landing gear bay with the maze of pipes and wires. That would be absolute HELL to try to pull off. Lookin' great John.

[jkim]

Thanks guys! My model building has been sporadic at best these days. Looking back on my past builds over the years, there seems to be a pattern of slow building during the summer months, which makes sense since I start doing a lot more fishing during May-September. Hopefully I'll get back on to the Tomcat build pretty soon. In the meantime, I've been doing a lot of lure painting...







The Silhouette Portrait cutter has proven useful in lure painting by providing masks for certain patterns and making a custom logo. For example, the shark mouth for the Flying Tiger lure was a very small and intricate multi-part mask that provided a workable alternative to decals.

[BlackSheep214]

I really like the sharkmouth lure. Wouldn't mind having one in my tackle box myself.

[Duke Maddog]

Beautiful work! Does that help catch fish more, or do you use these painted lures for fishing?

[jkim]

STILL haven't gotten back on the modeling bench yet! And still banging out some lure paints. The crackle finish has been the most frustrating. After 15 or so attempts, I've netted only two successes. One side of the lure will have a nice cracked finish and the other side won't. Weird.

All of the lure's I posted so far will be used. Mostly by me and a few by my friends. And yes, they WILL catch fish. Do the custom paint jobs catch MORE fish than other lures... I personally don't think so. But it's fun and I get a certain satisfaction with (a) catching fish on a lure I painted myself and (b)having other anglers appreciate the lure paints. I've gotten more requests for lure paints by non-fishermen though. They like em as keychains or refrigerator decorations.

[Stuart]

I obviously love the P-40 Lure, but those others are painted beautifully - great work. Are they airbrushed?

[jkim]

Mostly airbrushed. The crawfish is hand-drawn with a permanent pen. Ironically, it was lure painting that got me back into scale modeling a few years back. About 10 years ago, I started painting lures and pulled my old airbrush out of storage and bought an incredibly noisy air compressor from Walmart. That led me to consider building a model again after many many years and here we are! The latest lure-painting binge was spurred by my Portrait craft cutter and using it to create masks and logos. The two don't seem related but there is some common ground that can spur some creative impetus.

[Stikpusher]

Whatever route you took, it’s good to see modeler of your talent back John.