Arniec Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 (edited) Hi Guys,This is my first GB of this year.I will build a F-14A+ from Hasegawa. I will backdate it to a Iranian version.Here are some pictures of the content of the box.The boxartThe SpruesAnd now the goodies This will be the first F-14 from Hasegawa and a major build for me with all these goodies. I hope the Cheers, Edited June 9, 2014 by Arniec 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNoAF Aerobatic Team Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Will be following this, Arnold! ! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwaterous Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 My my, that's a lot of goodies, have fun making them all fit I'll be watching K 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Very nice! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Following this one for sure! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Nice choice of subject ! Starting from an A+ might mean some more work, loooking forward to seeing how you sort this 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted March 27, 2014 Author Share Posted March 27, 2014 Nice choice of subject ! Starting from an A+ might mean some more work, loooking forward to seeing how you sort this Luckely, I have already swaped the left side of the cockpitfront with a friend who wanted to build a later version with the different air in/outlets for the M6 gatling gun. That was one of the first things to do. The exhaust from Aires that I have are for a A version, so that is done already and the different parts where these go into are already on the sprues as not used parts. Those are the most difficult parts to convert and are already tackeled. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermo245 Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Cool! Look forward to following. Dermot 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parabat Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Nice spread, you might need some early tails with the 'diamond' reinforcement plates ( easy to scratch though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted March 31, 2014 Author Share Posted March 31, 2014 Nice spread, you might need some early tails with the 'diamond' reinforcement plates ( easy to scratch though). Ehhhh, I am not a F-14 expert. Normaly I build WW II stuf. So could you show me what you mean?! Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted April 1, 2014 Author Share Posted April 1, 2014 (edited) First setback of this build The Aires wheel bays don't fit. I was a little bit afraid of this. Here are some pictures. The Wheelbay before cutting some plastic of the kit. Before I did this I noticed that they were a little short to fit compleatly, but thought that I would handle this. After cutting with the shortage in my mind. Here are two pictures with the insert of the wheelbay fitted and Boy that was bad!!!! The right away!!! As you would have noticed by now the front of the bay leaves a large gap and at the back there is still a space of a few milimeters. So to remedy this I put back the carefuly sawn of original plate and glued it back on. again two pictures. In the first picture you can still see a small chip that was lost during removing. Luckely the landing gear will cover this up. I think I will have to reinforce the seam otherwise the possibility would be that the landing gear will not sit safe. I have hade simmilar experience with wheel bays for other models, but not as bad as this one.Luckely I was warned.They did look great though Maybee they fit a academy version better?! Mine have been put back in the box and I will put them in the sparebox. for some other projects. As you have also noted I have put some tabs inside the engine intakes. This will help aligning later on. I hope the cockpit of Aires fits better. I have also decided not to use the refueling probe set. this will be difficult to put in with the cockpitset. So 2 sets are already not used. I have also test fitted the Two mikes seamles intakes and they fit like a glove. That means that I will also not use the Quickboost intake covers.This was a back-up if the seamles intakes wouln't fit. That is set 3 not used. Cheers, Edited April 1, 2014 by Arniec 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Hi Arnold, It's a pity about the Aires wheelbay sets being so undersized, but your recovery of the original plastic is very impressive. I'm not sure how keen you are to utilise the Aires bays (as you say, the detail is lovely), but could you perhaps separate the front part (the deep section for the wheel proper) from the long, narrow element and just use that forward part on the kit? Of course, this option is no good if you want to keep the bays intact for another project.... Anyway, keep at it and I hope that the cockpit set is more cooperative. Cheers, Andrew. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Looks like a tough fight to get everything fitting ! However I believe the result will be worth the struggle, the wheel wells in the Tomcat were full of wiring and hydraulic lines, replicating these is either struggling with resin parts or many hours of scratchbuilding 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted April 9, 2014 Author Share Posted April 9, 2014 I have done some work on it today. I have put on the seamless intakes and put the original parts for the wheel bays on. I will put on some pictures later on this week. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted April 13, 2014 Author Share Posted April 13, 2014 (edited) Hi Guys, Here are some pictures of what hase been done till now. This is a picture of the seamless intake fitted. Here are the wings. I have made the wing root a little bit fatter so it will fit beter to the fuselage. On the original plane that was quit tight. Here I have put in a few pieces of plastic plating. I forgot to take a picture before the change. sory for that. Dryfitting on the fuselage. And here it is after filling and sanding. the silver paint is to see if I have done a good job of it. The pictures aren't great, but that is that it is difficult to fotograph from close up. The next thing were the inlet plates for the engines. If you put it like the manual said you to do then they are sitting in Supersonic mode. I have put the front plate flat after removing the extended plastic on the back. The backplate was pasitioned by removing the outerpart of the piston. This looked more the thing. It's not totally correct, but a lot better than before.I also painted the interior white. I also blanked of the air outlets on the inside of the fuselage.and added a small piece of plasic rod, that you can see on the outside. Next thing done was the bevertail. The ECM fairing hade to be removed. Also the fuel dump was replaced with some brass tubing. Here are the pictures of the process. The ECM fairing marked. The fairing removed and a hole, because I wanted to do it the fast way with some cutters. The hole filled with some plastic And final the result after some sanding and rescribing. I don't know if the Iranians were having some flare boxes there, but I leave it there. And that is how far I have got till today. Hopefully I can do some more work on it this week. Cheers, Edited April 13, 2014 by Arniec 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 Very nice work mate! I used the Aires wheelbay before on a build and found it fitted fine, perhaps you received a dodgy one? Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted April 13, 2014 Author Share Posted April 13, 2014 Very nice work mate! I used the Aires wheelbay before on a build and found it fitted fine, perhaps you received a dodgy one? Dave I think you are right. I have seen some other builds and they look nothing like mine.Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 I have a spare set of the bays here that I was going to use in a kit but ended up going 'wheels up' for it if you're interested. Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Flare boxes: the pictures I've seen seem to show these plated over. I have to check if this is the case in any period or if this happened only at some point 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyB Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Nice work Arnie. It always amazes me the amount of corrective work need on the big 'gawa cat, but yet no body has come out with a better alternative! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted April 14, 2014 Author Share Posted April 14, 2014 (edited) Thanxs guys for all the good comments. I have a spare set of the bays here that I was going to use in a kit but ended up going 'wheels up' for it if you're interested. Dave Dave I have just seen your comment. Thanxs for the offer, but I have just closed the fuselage this morning and I wasn't planning to open it up again. Giorgio, I will let them on the airplane. I was going to made a version just befor the Shah was removed from power in Iran. So this will be a very clean model with almost no weathering on it. And I think that they were still in use at that time. I will try to put on some new pictures later on of this mornings work. Cheers, Edited April 14, 2014 by Arniec Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted April 14, 2014 Author Share Posted April 14, 2014 Here are some pictures of today's work. The air intakes taped off for some grey paint. And here after some paint. And here is a picture of the front of the engine painted first black and then dry brushed with some silver paint. I also gave it a coat of Klear. The second picture is when the engine front is put in the intake. Here is a picture of the upper intake lip. left the original version and right the changed one. The (early?!) A version didn't have these. Here are a few pictures after the 2 fuselage half's were put together. As you can see I have clamped the front of the air intake so it will sit nicely later on. And finally the bever tail added. There will be some small gaps needed to be filled, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I hope to be doing some more work tomorrow. That will mainly be filling and sanding. Cheers, 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 (edited) Nice work mate. You might find that the rear panel that finishes off the landing gear bays are a pain to fit with the intakes fitted, but i'm sure you'll be able to sort it no problem! As for the upper intake lips, the one with the ECM 'bump' on it is for later A models and the B/D. Early A models, including all those sent to Iran, had the smoother lip (the one in the right of your picture) Keep it coming! Dave Edited April 14, 2014 by DaveJL 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted April 15, 2014 Author Share Posted April 15, 2014 (edited) Again some pictures of todays work. Here are 2 foto's of the rearplate of the wheel bays fitted. Dave was right, they are not easy to place, but ones they are in place they sit tight. I hade to use some super glue to close the gap between the insert and the rest. There are some sinkmarks on the engine exhuasts, so I gave them a good coat of mr surfacer 500. Tomorrow I will sand these down. The rudders were modified. on the left the unmodified one and on the right the modified one. I still need to place the 2 diamond shaped strengening plates. Here are 2 pictures of the modified gun port. I have thinned the wal and placed a small round piece of plastic inside to see it of. Ater seeing the picture I think I will need to thin it down a little more. close up foto's do help. That is it for today. more updates (hopefully) tomorrow. Cheers, Edited April 16, 2014 by Arniec 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted April 16, 2014 Author Share Posted April 16, 2014 I have done some work today on the left rudder. These are now the same as the right without the strengtening plates. I have also started on cleaning up the fuselage. Not worth the foto's. I hope I can do some more pictures tomorrow and start the cockpit. Cheers, 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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