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F-14A VF-24 Renegades 'Last Rage'


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For my entry, I will be building Hobby Boss's 1/48 F-14A as a line jet from VF-24 Renegades during their 'Last Rage'. I will be using a fair bit of AM for this one, the Steel Beach Late Life Upgrade being essential for the NACA gun panel.

Other AM being Wolfpack Design resin fuel tanks, Hasegawa Mk.83 1,000lb iron bombs (kindly donated by Neilscrim), Wheeliant resin wheels, Fightertown decals, Master Brass pitot and AOA and I still need to find my Quickboost GRU-7 seats.

Kit and AM;

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Reference Material; (The Air International is particularly handy as it has some pics of VF-24)

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Well, better late than never ey?

I've been busy this afternoon with some construction and dryfitting. Intakes have been filled and sanded and I have a cunning plan to make the intakes seamless and have the ramps in the open position to show off the gaping maws...

I have cut the excellent Quickboost (Aires with the seatbelts moulded on) GRU-7 seats from their bases and assembled them. The amount of detail is just superb, though the kits seats are undoubtedly the best seats you can get in a kit.

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I added a throttle handle to the kit pit - just a bit of carved sprue.

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Intake trunking all filled and smoothed down.

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I added the Steel Beach resin F-14A 'Late' update . This is the Hobby Boss parts copied in resin. There has been a little shrinkage, so some fillng was required, but it is ok.

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The main gear bays are a cinch with the Hobby Boss Tomcats - the fit is so positive with each other and also to the fuselage parts. A lot easier than the Hasegawa bays and streets ahead of the Revellogram F-14 (thankfully I sold mine as soon as I bought one!).

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My cunning plan... Two strips of card to insert on the inside of the intake to allow the ramps to be posed in the fully 'up' position and not have a gappy, stepped inside face of the trunking.

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The plastic card will be inserted in the gap behind the forward ramp in this pic.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some more headway on this build. I took some time off to build the C-47 :mental:

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Cockpit test fitted

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First use of a Dremel type tool to remove the kit seat mounting brackets - a little enthusiastic I think!

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Mr Surfacer 500 for the sides. I'm really liking this paint on filler.

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  • 2 months later...

After a long while of real work getting in the way, this is getting some attention.

I've done some work to the cockpit and seats, and completed the surprisingly laborious task of assembling the wings.

The MFD's were painted with a mix of Humbrol 15 Midnight Blue and 3 Brunswick Green. The faded (originally black) canvas covers over the IP coamings were painted with Humbrol 98 Chocolate mixed with 15 Midnight Blue to create a faded black look. The starboard side of the canvas was always lighter as it was rarely replaced as it was little worn, entry and work in the cockpits being conducted from the port side.

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Just a bit... I tried using a toothpick for the switches, but found it too big. So... I used a single toothbrush bristle glued to the back of a pair of tweezers. Mental.

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Glad to see you back in the seat on this one mate. :)

The cockpit looks fantastic, and well done for painting all those switches! What type of paint do you use? I can never get tamiya acrylics to stick that well when I'm using them tiny!

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Cheers DannyB, there's still more work to do, but it's getting there! I use Humbrol enamels, I've not heard good things about acrylic brush painting well, from most manufacturers anyway. You coukd perhaps get a few tins of enamels for small detail painting?

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Thanks for the tip! I've got some enamel knocking about so will be giving it a go. :thumbsup2:

I know what you mean about plenty more work on the horizon, why does the F-14 always feel like it takes twice as long to build than anything else! :lol:

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Hmmm, two cockpit bays with everything on show, two complex intakes, intricate undercarriage (in 1/48, unless you model the Revell/Monogram monstrosity)... But, as we all know, it's worth it! Nothing like a Tomcat on the shelf.

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A little bit more added to the overall painting/detailing. Apart from the ribbed pads (in real life the seat pads were replaced with locally made 'waffle' type of material) the Quickboost seats are outrageously accurate in detail, to my eye anyway.

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  • 1 month later...

Like all good things, time needs to be taken! :waiting:

I've now finally got some reliable time to myself in the evenings, so I'm going to try and finish this before December - we will see though. It's just good to get the airbrush going and do some modelling.

I've not done a heck of a lot, just sprayed the boarding ladder and step recesses, added some wiring to the RIO's IP coaming and added a splash of yellow here and there to the cockpit. Nearly satisfied enough with the cockpit now to get it sealed up in the forward fuselage halves.

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