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OK, I've now switched to Hobby Photo Host instead of MS One Drive, so the images are now viewable. It's easy to use, but the free sign up means lossy JPGs. I'll have to bite the bullet and pay the fee for sharper images I guess. First off, it’s depressing to find out that all my previous build photos are no longer viewable in the UK since the implementation of the UK’s on-line Child Safety Act. I’m not in a rush to go back and repost all the images previously shared through Imgur, but it’s worth pointing out again here that if you're located in the UK and use a VPN, you can connect to the internet via a VPN portal located in another jurisdiction and previously posted Imgur images on Britmodeller should still be viewable. I'm using MS One Drive for the first time in this post, so still on a bit of a learning curve trying to get the images sized the way I'd like them to be.😉 I started making this, my first GWH model kit, out of the box with no aftermarket add-ins apart from two Sidewinder Noddy caps, starting in March this year. I finally got it finished a few days back when the summer work we were doing on the house to install a heat pump was completed. I feel I finally managed to get the hang of pre-shading in this build and also came up with a way of displaying the model alternatively with all high lift devices fully deployed or retracted. I’d summarise the experience of making this kit by stating it is a finely detailed kit that goes together well, but suffers from an overly complex part breakdown which lacks clear assembly diagrams for some sub assemblies and has some annoyingly inaccurate features that need either correcting or accepting. However, with care it builds into a pretty impressive model. If you want further details on what to look out for when building this specific kit and how I got the alternate flap/slat settings to work, just scroll down past the main photos. I used the following paints/washes, with some Tamiya acrylics for the detail work. Mr Color 337, 307 & 308 for the overall grey low vis finish. Yes, there really are three shades of grey used here Mr Color 205 for the wing leading edges and exhaust turkey feathers Mr Color 327 for all solid red details Mr Hobby Finishing Surfacer 1500 Black for pre-shading over a Mr Hobby Mr Primer Surfacer 1000 base coat Ammo MiG Storm Grey wash for a bit of subtle shade variation and highlighting of surface detail. It may look a tad too clean for some, but I have yet to get the hang of heavy weathering effects. Cheers! Nelly’s Build Tips IMPORTANT: The moveable swing wing spars M8 and M9 need to be put on their correct starboard and port hinge points because they are NOT interchangeable. If you get them the wrong way round, the wings will lack anhedral and so will likely foul the forward wing gloves when rotated forward, forcing the top/bottom glove seams to open up late on in the build when the assembled wings get slid onto their spars. I scratched the part number on each spar with a stylus to make sure I didn’t get them the wrong way round. The decals for starboard and port ventral fins are mirror images. However, the Ventral fin NACA intake on the starboard ventral fin is inboard rather than outboard on the aircraft and so the ventral fins dont match the decals. I put the decals over a gloss black base and used decal softener to get the mismatched decal to conform. Originally I thought the decals were correct and the fin parts were incorrect. Thanks to Parabat for pointing this out in the comments below. If you want a working hinged canopy, make sure you fit part L3 under L27 and L28 before putting the forward and rear fuselage sections together. Otherwise you will find it impossible to get the frame hinge in its mounting brackets. However, I doubt that a working hinged canopy will be a good choice because in my kit at least, it didn't appear it would be a good fit when closed. You’ll probably prefer to either mount it in a fixed open position at the end of the build like me, or glue it closed in position early in the build to allow some reshaping of the frame and application of some filler to get an accurate fit. The kit doesn’t include parts for the umbilical cables that run between the forward and rear Phoenix pallets. I referenced some on-line photos and made some simple versions up out of stretched sprue. The radome top surface doesn’t blend into the forward fuselage at the correct angle. Not really noticeable if you model the radome hinged open to display the kit's very nicely modelled PE planar radar array, but it requires some filler to get the correct transition of the upper radome to the forward top fuselage in the closed configuration. A blanking plate for the forward central underbelly Sparrow missile recess is included on sprue A and it isn’t greyed out in the parts list, but it also isn’t mentioned in the assembly instructions. I’m not sure if this was fitted in the actual aircraft but I decided to fit it underneath and in-between the forward Phoenix pallets anyway. There appear to be two versions of the deck tractor tow bar attachment lugs for the base of the rear of the ventral fins. The destructions show both being fitted at the same time, but after much head scratching and referencing photos on-line, I decided they are actually alternate parts. I believe either L16 and L17, representing the deployed versions, or two off i2s representing the retracted versions should be used. GWH supply two sets of forward wing glove upper seals and rear wing glove lower pneumatic bag seals. These appear to be intended as swap ins/outs for use with either swept back or forward swept wings. After a test fit with the wings temporarily in place, I decided to permanently attach the forward upper seals H4 and H5, which are shown fitted for forward swept wings in the instructions. TBH there wasn’t much difference in fit to choose one set over the other, but the H set worked well for me and really do need to be permanently cemented in place for a convincing blended fit with the upper fuselage. I kept the two sets of lower bag seals as swappable parts. While we are on the subject of the rear seal bags. The colour profile indicates these should be painted Matt Black, whereas the destructions state they should be Dark Sea Grey. After trying Matt Black, I opted for the latter, although they do appear substantially darker than the aircraft's upper surface grey in most photos, so I might try repainting these in slate grey to see if this is a better match with the photos. Some of the kit’s decals were out of registration with their white base layer. I only found out when they floated off the backing paper and had to trim some excess white surround before applying them. The decals also have a matt finish which I found difficult to blend in with a gloss clear coat and so ended up airbrushing a matt varnish across the entire model to get even reflectivity. When viewed at certain angles it's clear this wasn't a 100% perfect fix. Don't bother with the decal provided to create the green hued forward panel of the windshield. It's totally opaque! I used some Tamiya Clear Green applied thinly on the inside surface of the transparency instead. There are white, low vis grey and black versions of the various aircraft stencils supplied on the decal sheet, but no instructions on which versions to use with which aircraft scheme. I ended up putting some, but not all of the low vis versions on BuNo161435. More often than not, aircraft late in their service would presumably have had various stencils overpainted or worn away anyway? I needed more low vis 'No Step' stencils than were on the decal sheet to fulfil every indicated placement in the decal layout sheet anyway. So, I decided that 'No Step' stencils on both the spoilers and flaps was overkill. Surely if you have to step on a spoiler to then step on a flap they were only needed on the spoilers? The grey low vis versions are hardly visible on the model's overall grey finish anyway. I used two sections of black decal to represent the overhead longitudinal wire aerials inside the canopy transparency, but discovered at the end of the build that there are two silver kit decals that seem to be intended for this, but aren’t mentioned in the destructions. The 103 decals for the flaps on the Jolly Rogers scheme appear to be in a USAF font and not the USN standard font because they have 45 degree diagonals rather than 60 degree diagonals. I have no idea if this is accurate or not, but I doubt the USN uses anything ‘tainted’ by being used by the USAF. 🙂 The numerals provided for other schemes appear to be the correct 60 degree USN versions. However, despite downloading a correct USN font to print my own versions, I decided this was a minor discrepancy and without supporting photographic evidence I used the kit 103 decals plus scanned copies of these to make a second set for the second set of flap parts (for the reason see below). Alternate wing configurations Moving on to the wing part mods I made. In my opinion, GWH missed a trick by not supplying two sets of parts F1 through F4 (central wing components) with the kit. This would allow the modeller to make up two fully assembled sets of wings that could be alternatively slotted on to the swing wing spars M8 and M9. One set with flaps, slats plus spoilers retracted, and one set with these all deployed. However, I came up with a work around that involved using small 4mm diameter Neodimium magnets mounted on some parts opposite small metal inserts in their adjacent others (J1-J4 , I7, I18-I20, H1-H2 and G5-G6). These hold the alternate sets of extended or retracted flaps and slats firmly in position on each wing, whilst allowing their easy swap out. The separate wing spoiler parts in the kit (I9 through I16 plus I21 & 22) are designed to be mounted in the open position, but to execute the plan I had to modify these to fit on parts F3 and F4 in their closed configuration. The modified and magnetised wing assemblies were the first parts I constructed in the build to test my idea before committing fully. There's only enough space inside my display cabinet for the wings swept back, so I had a back up plan to glue the retracted versions in place if it didn’t all work out. However, it actually ended up working a bit better than I'd envisaged!

Hello, I am keen on building one of these Tamiya Tomcats, but I am torn with the paint scheme. I like the weathering opportunities offered by the later, ghost grey f-14s, which get nice and dirty, probably on account of the matt paint. But I prefer the earlier high vis color schemes in gull grey with the white control surfaces. Since these were painted glossy, they likely wouldn't get as dirty, and despite looking a lot, I can't find a single example of an early, hi-viz f-14 with the heavy weathering found on the later planes, which is a bummer, because that's what I want to do. Does anyone have such an image? Or would these early tomcats simply not get that weathered? I would commit a weathering crime.

I was digging through my stash looking for my next build, thinking I would tackle the Academy F-4C that was winking at me (who can resist the Camo?), when this leapt out at me. Now the only thing I can resist less than a Phantom in SEA Camo is a Tomcat... This will be very much out of the box as I am feeling poor at the moment. Mind you, the level of detail is pretty good (the cockpit is exquisite) and I love the Grim Reapers scheme. Anytime Baby!