1/72 Hasegawa F-14A VF-154

[arnobiz]

Hello,

This is a big challenge for me: Finish a Tomcat (Or any kit actually!) in less than 3 months... This build will be completely out of the box (Except maybe the seats), probably in flight (With Revell pilots from their new NATO set).

I will be building this one:

with the decals of the Atsugi 25th Anniversary boxing. I know these markings are also provided in the Black Knights Millenium boxing but this way I keep the big Cartograf sheet intact Note that the Atsugi markings are also Cartograf-printed :)

I started with the intakes. These display a number of ejection points which are easily taken care of with a needle file and a glass fiber pencil (Great tool by the way!)

The main parts also have ejection pins but these need to be filled, not sanded down. Easily done with some Revell putty. Note the blue mark on one of the parts: This is to distinguish left from right once the parts are off the sprue. The other intake parts (above) have the same marks on the outside (not visible once assembled).

While the putty was curing on these I started the cockpit. You need to remove the ejection pins on the bottom if you want it to assemble properly with the landing gear bay:

The PE parts are very nice (Provided in the box) but too wide as you can see on the above picture...

I removed the excess with the Dremel, I 'll post pictures tonight.

That's all for now!

Arnaud

[Parabat]

Cool, one of the most attractive tail fins in the fleet!

[arnobiz]

Thanks, here is a pic I found on Go Navy!

Arnaud

[arnobiz]

Hello,

The cockpit PE has been trimmed and now fits the fuselage

Intakes:

First, assembly of the inner intakes. A slight excess of thin glue followed by appropriate pressure generates an excess of plastic whic, once hard and sanded, allows no use of putty at all

The ejection mark on the main parts is now smooth:

Last, assembly of the whole intakes. Fit is unfortunately not great and leaves a significant gap between inner intakes and main part:

This is easily taken care of using a small styrene strip:

Beaver tail assembled. I find it easier to assemble the brake parts before assenmbly of the top/bottom parts as it allows for access from behind and thus makes it easier to mount the brake parts flush.

Note that fit of the too/bottom parts is quite poor:

This is due to the centering pin (center right), which is best completely removed

Now it's much better (The picture is quite bad, it actually fits perfectly with clamps!)

I give quite a lot of details which may seem very basic, please let me know if it gets boring!

Cheers,

Arnaud

[DannyB]

Thanks for the update and the tips Arnaud!

Don't worry about giving too much detail, this sort of thing is invaluable for some of us, I know I'll be certainly following your build with my own 1/72 hasegawa F-14 on the bench!

Keep up the good work, this is going to be a beaut.

[Dermo245]

Thanks for the update and the tips Arnaud!

Don't worry about giving too much detail, this sort of thing is invaluable for some of us, I know I'll be certainly following your build with my own 1/72 hasegawa F-14 on the bench!

Keep up the good work, this is going to be a beaut.

Really great tips and progress photos - following this one with interest!

Dermot

[arnobiz]

Thanks Dermot!

Some progress done yesterday on the ECS grills. First, I drilled two holes at the bottom. This will allow dry-fitting of the part with the possibility to easily remove it with a toothpoick from behind if the fit is too tight

I also removed the kit antennae which are quite wrong (These antennae do not have a thick support plate as depicted in the kit. In order to strengthen the assembly and to know exactly where to position them later, first drill the kit hole all the way through and only then remove the support plates. Note that the smallest antenna is fully molded with the upper fuselage and will thus have to be re-created with a small bit of plasticard.

Before:

After:

The grills are then glued in position after sanding down their bottom a bit so they are completely flush with the rest (This is why it is important to drill the holes at the beginning: You can test/sand a bit more as many times as required and with little fuss). Finally some masking tape is applied before puttying:

The putty is now curing, more tonight!

Arnaud

[Caerbannog]

This is going to be a nice topic which I will follow with great interest! Very nice - thanks for the detailed step-by-step on this build.

[SaintsPhil]

Some great tips here, even for the non Tomcat builder, I like the idea of drilling the holes in the apature for the ECS vents to allow for dry fitting that's one ill be using!

[arnobiz]

Well I'm glad to help, thanks for the feedback

Tonight I made the support for the in-flight position. Nothing extraordinary but again it might be useful to some folks out there

1/ Drill a hole (Smaller than the pole, it's just to mark the position where it will go)

Then glue a section of aluminium tube with the right orientation to give the direction you want to your aircraft. Note that the inner diameter must be equal to or greater than that of the pole. Drill a small (1mm) hole perpendicular to the tube at the outer end.

Stick a small part of tape to cover the hole so that the epoxy resin will not leak (See below)

Build a barrier out of plasticine. This is temporary and does not need to be pretty

Now comes the moment you all expected: Pour epoxy resin into the fuselage and, if the tube has an inner diameter larger than the pole, into the tube. When the resin is almost set but still soft insert a needle (Make sure you move it a bit so it does not stick, the last thing you want is to trap it there!), this will make your life easier later on.

Finally remove the tape from the fuselage (thus revealing the initial small hole) as well as the plasticine wall, drill a hole the exact diameter of the pole starting from the initial hole and as straight as possible into the aluminium tube and insert a needle (Or part of it) into the transverse hole. Fix the needle with CA and that's it for the inner jig!

File the end of the pole so that it does not rotate in the tube (thanks to the needle)

And you're done!

Hope this helps someone,

Arnaud

[Parabat]

Interesting method, thanks for sharing.

[arnobiz]

Thanks. I like it because it is quite strong and very quick to do (about 15 minutes excluding curing time). It is also quite discrete: I use 2.5mm stainless welding rod which is very stiff and strong and small enough to be hardly visible from a distance.

Arnaud