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Hi Everybody, I've been away from the scene for a while, but i've not been sitting idle. Presented for your viewing pleasure is my second Tamiya F-14, done up in the glorious early markings of VF-211: the "Fighting Checkmates" of NAS Miramar CA. As with my previous Tomcat GYPSY 203, The model was painted with a combination of Model Master enamels for the interior parts, and a combination of Tamiya Acrylics, Mr Color Lacquers and Metalizer finishes for the exterior. The exterior markings were mostly hand-painted, with the help of some painting masks for the "NG" tailcodes and white "VF-211" on the ventral strakes. My friend also made some snazzy "110" modex and BuAer number decals for the build. The red pinstripes were done with some old Microscale red pinstripe decals i had in my stash. I made extensive use of the NewWare models deluxe F-14 masking set which helped immensely with painting the wing spoilers, the canopy, and the intricate serrated exterior of the convergent-divergent exhaust nozzles. The major resin aftermarket that i used were the Eduard resin ejection seats and early style F-14 wheels. I also used a set of Wheeliant early style wheel chocks. We can't have our Tomcat rolling away from us while left unattended, can we?? i also recently finished my third F-14 Tomcat in the markings of VF-24, VF-211s sister squadron. I'll need some time to edit the highlights before i can upload them here. Thanks for shopping!

Hi Everybody. Despite my apparent lack of activity, i have laboured to produce yet another modelley-looking thing. IMG_0020 by convairb58 It is the much-loved 48th scale Tamiya F-14 Tomcat, done up in the markings of my former CFI instructor, "Big John" Lawler. John had come from the F-4J community, flying with such luminaries at "Heater" Heatley. While with VF-32 (Callsign: "Gypsy") he was paired up with Greg "Hollywood" Dishart, perhaps better known for being the technical advisor to Paramount for "Top Gun". IMG_0022 by convairb58 This kit was a doddle to build, and its nothing at all like the Hasegawa F-14. The fit of all the parts on this model is precise, positive, with nothing vague or prone to misinterpretation, and the finished structure is quite robust. About the only place where i find the kit lacking is the ejection seats and their only failing is some rather dubious decal seatbelts, meant to be cut from the sheet and glued on. Not an issue if you put little polystyrene guys with helmets in the cockpit however. I replaced the kit seats with the Quickboost 48-0223 set. Aside from the overhead ejection pull handles being fussy to paint and install, they look beautiful once painted and weathered. IMG_0039 by convairb58 The model was mostly painted with Tamiya acrylics and Mr Color lacquers, all thinned with Mr Leveling Thinner. I cannot say enough good things about Mr Leveling Thinner or the Mr Color Gloss Light Gull Gray. The paints are incredibly fast drying which makes a tremendous time saver if you build lots of Navy planes like i do. The decals are a combination of VF-32 markings from Furball Aero Design (which worked very well), Tamiya decals (which mostly worked very well) and some custom made decals from my friend Todd Enlund. John's plane did not have the multi coloured stripes or the crest on the inboard verticals like Gypsy 200 had, so i had to match the Canary Yellow of the decal by eye using Mr Color paints. I sliced the black pinstripes from the inboard vertical decals and applied them to the painted fins. I used Testors Metalizer non buffing Steel for the Corrogard areas on the leading edges, aluminium looking too bright to my eye. IMG_0048 by convairb58 I made extensive use of the Tamiya provided masks for the clear parts (worked very well) as well as the aftermarket mask sets made by both Furball and New Ware models. The New Ware set was particularly useful for painting the alternating white/metal translating iris sections inside of the convergent-divergent exhaust nozzle (itself a unique piece of engineering). IMG_0033 by convairb58 IMG_0098 by convairb58 If you've been reluctant to build this kit based on all of the horror stories about building a Tomcat, i can say that Tamiya has made it about as easily as its gonna get to build a 48th scale F-14. Its admittedly an expensive kit, but what you're paying for here is the forethought and care in the engineering that goes into making this model a joy to build. Up Next: Fisher's 32nd scale RF-8G Conversion. Thanks for shopping. -d-

The F-14 is close to my favourite post war jet so when Tamiya released this I had to have it. It's a bit of pity they've done the real early A as I actually prefer the late A's and B's. But as I don't have a Hi Viz F-14 in my collection, and it's by Tamiya I figured I may as well build this as close to from the box as I can. Lets see if it lives up to the hype. I'm going for the VF-41 option at this stage , using aftermarket seats . The wheels are late wheels so I don't think they are correct. I'll check the kit ones out and see what they look like. About 4 hours work and some of the major sub assemblies are done. So far everything fits perfectly, and I mean perfectly. I've found if it doesn't fit I've not cleaned up a sprue gate properly. Some parts I haven't even bother to glue as they just click in, Or when I have used glue I've not bothered to glue the entire length of the join, just tacked it in a few places. I have a small seam to fill on the leading edge of the wing gloves where the upper and lower fuselage meets.

OOB, Fightertown decals.