Here goes nothing… 
My first model, that ended up turning into an experimental model, that I really love since I learn hell loads of staff… going from zero to hero 
Unfortunately, I did not document the whole process, so it looks more like random pics.
I am sure you will find tons of mistakes, as I have too, and I can still see them 
, but hey it was a hell awesome journey and learning experience… I really loved it, and in the end that’s all that matters 
Say hi to Maverick (I applied a glossy layer later on the visor) :
Since it was an experimental model, I did not invest at all on add-ons, I rather tried to work with what I had. And I had the lousy Revell missiles. There were no battle decals included, so I had to paint the stripes and also make some home made decals on my laser printer for the labels… they turned out really good:
I also tried different techniques on the wheel painting. The winning one was the one used on the rear wheels: airbrush the whole wheel white, mask the rim and then airbrush the rubber part with Tamiya rubber black. The front wheels were corrected later on.
Experimenting with masking tape and custom shapes (triangle), which turned up well (next pic):
I was still undecided whether I would hand or airbrush the stripes.
I went the lazy way, hand brushing and I had some paint running under the masking tape 
.
You can see the magnets on the Phoenix missiles.
Home made decals at work. The “NAVY” too is home made 
. I had to cut the vertical stripe decal as per reference photos, since it should not run through the “navy” word. Later on, I cat the part that runs on the lower vertical fin. I really like how they turned out:
I will upload some weathering pics, hopefully tomorrow…
