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Revell 1:48 F-14A in VF-14 Tophatters 80th Anniversary Scheme +++FINISHED+++


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Hi all...

Well, my first GB in I don't know how long, after a little break from modelling due to the arrival of my daughter! Looking forward to getting started on this, and as I model a lot slower nowadays, I'm hoping I'll get it finished.

The kit I'll be using is this:

Box_zps3375735a.jpg

And I'll be doing this scheme thanks to Fightertown Decals:

Decals_zps71e109ed.jpg

I haven't looked much at the plastic yet, though it's from 1993 and has some interesting features (like undercarriage doors moulded onto the wheelbay walls and half sidewinders moulded onto pylons) so I'll see what it's like. It's all black plastic of course, so that'll have to go! :)

More soon I hope...

J.

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Welcome to the Group build Jason!

nice choice of subject, looking forward to your build.

I believe your tomcat would have some features missing in the revell kit, particularly the late style gun vents.. If so, let me know, I may be able to help

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Thanks Giorgio and Dermot!

As it happens, Revell include two types of gun/vent so judging by the pictures I've seen I think I'm ok there. However, closer inspection of the kit show it's not great at all. Quite a few sink marks on external surfaces, the Sparrows are molded onto the pylons, and the fit / flash isn't great. I've no pics yet, but I've glued the upper and lower wing halves together and have a step of nearly 1mm on the trailing edge of one of them!

Anyhow, I'm only building out of the box and aren't too worried about being perfectly accurate, so hopefully I can sort out the shortcomings in the kit enough to build a decent Tomcat!

I've done the Revell 1:144 Tomcat before, and it's an absolute beauty of a kit. I'm going to take some of what I learned from that build into this one. Mainly about how to do the wings so that they'll still move. As I'm a brush painter, I was worried with the 1:144 kit that the paint would pool / seal the gaps between the wings and wing roots. So I did the wings separately first (and I mean completely did them - paint, varnish, decals, weathering etc.). Then I covered them in paper and added them to the fuselage and didn't take the paper off until the rest of the aircraft was painted / varnished etc. I'm going to do the same here, I just like my Tomcat wings to move!

That said, I'm hoping there'll be a lot less brush painting in this build (though I'll still brush on varnishes etc.). The main all over colour is Dark Ghost Grey, and my usual Halfords Grey Primer is a pretty close match for that, so I'm going to use that for the paint coat as well. And the tails are white, and I have Halford White Primer too. So all going well it'll be 'easy' to paint once I have it built.

I do have a couple of questions though. Does anyone know if aircraft in this scheme would have used Sparrows? If not I'll have to remove them from the pylons. I have seen them with Sidewinders so I'll either add them or leave them off, I'll see. I won't be adding the Phoenix missiles. I'm doing the CAG aircraft, so it'll be relatively clean, in both profile and weathering. Easier for me! If I leave off all missiles, are the Sidewinder / Sparrow pylons still left in place, just with nothing attached to them?

Also, do I paint the edges of the undercarriage bay doors red (like the Black Bunny one is done) or is it the white of the undercarriage bays?

Thanks in advance...

J.

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Hey Jason,

Here's a build from the last F-14 STGB here which might help with the decals when you come to doing them.

I've seen pictures of it with Sidewinders, but not Sparrows. Can't tell if there were Phoenix's - the photos are from the top side! But others here will probably know for sure! I'd imagine the doors would still have the red edge to them but happy to be corrected...

All the best,

Dermot

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Here's a couple of answers, starting from the easy one: the edges of the doors are in red on this one too. It's a way to make them more visible and prevent accidents, particularly important for carrier based aircrafts

Now the load: by the time VF-14 celebrated its 80th anniversary, the Tomcat was used more and more as a ground attack Platform. For this reason the typical missile load present in most kits is not too correct. "Your" Aircraft would have likely carried the 2 sidewinders, a lantirn pod under the right pylon, maybe a Phoenix under the left pylon and some kind of bomb under the ventral pallets.

In any case if you want to use no missile, the pylon configuration can vary. First of all, in the Tomcat the underwing pylons are usually made of 2 parts: the pylon proper and launcher. If you look at the part in your kit, there's a point where the pylon is craniked. The part above is the pylon proper, the part below is the launcher. The launcher for the Sparrow is correctly depicted in the revell kit but there's no launcher for the Phoenix. The rail for the SideWinder is attached to the pylon proper.

Tomcats were often seen with the pylons but no launcher, to reproduce this you need to do some surgery. However sometimes the launchers were left in place. I've seen a picture of the anniversary jet with a sparrow launcher, so it's not incorrect to just cut the sparrows and leave the launcher.

Small note about the SideWinder launchers: your Tomcat used the BOL launchers, slightly different from the ones included in the kit. Up to you if you want to modify or replace these.

Speaking about fit: this kit is a rebox of the old monogram kit from the early '80s. These kits never had a good fit and the moulds at some point were really worn with result of an even worse fit. It's not a bad kit at all, but sure needs some work

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Ah this'll be good, I wondered if a tophatter might appear! :coolio:

A couple of heads-ups, the fightertown decals are lovely but don't include the walkway decals or a couple of the stencils, like 'no steps' so you might need to refer back to the kit decals for those, the kit could be a bit of a PITA, raised panel lines and some interesting details missing or included.

For some really good reference pictures checkout

http://www.topedge.com/panels/aircraft/sites/vf14/

Some really good pictures of this specific jet. :thumbsup2:

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Thanks for all that info, it's much appreciated, especially those pics! At the moment I'm leaning towards just leaving pylons (and maybe launchers) but no missiles, so I'll cut off the Sparrows, but we'll see how it goes when I get to that part.

Yep, the kit definitely isn't great, which is a pity. I do like my modern, excellent detail and fit, kits so I'll see how I get on with this! And I've noticed the lack of walkway decals alright, seems weird that they left them out. I won't be able to use the 'No Step' decals that come with this kit either, as I'm pretty certain they're red decals to go with the Black Bunny scheme.

Anyhow, I've a bit of work done. Firstly, I got the two wing halves glued together, and once they're dry I'll tidy up all the edges before getting them ready for priming/painting.

Wing_zps34408682.jpg

Then I got the tails assembled and primed/painted in the white. It showed up some sink marks that weren't as obvious in the black plastic, so that'll need some work:

Tails_zps13bc90c2.jpg

As the 'base' of the tails are attached to the fuselage on this kit, I also had to prime/paint that section in white, after masking off a bit of the surrounding area.

UpperFuselage1_zps0acd8e3f.jpg

That pic also shows how big this kit is; that's an A3 cutting mat it's on! And it also shows how big the industrial sized sprue attachements are. And finally, just to see how it looks, I dry fitted the tails:

UpperFuselage2_zps74a74bfe.jpg

That's all so far, I'm going to tidy up the wings, sort out the sink marks in the tails, and then re-paint the tails and prime/paint the wings in the Grey to see how it looks.

Thanks...

J.

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Well, I made some progress, but don't have pics yet. I tidied up the tails and re-sprayed them, they're ready for the first coat of gloss. I did some work on the wings (I had to scrap/cut a good bit of plastic, especially on the leading edges) and then did the first spray. That showed the more work is needed. And it also showed that the Halfords Grey is darker than I thought, though that could be because it's over black plastic. I need to do more sanding / filling before I can spray the wings again, so I might do a light coat of white before doing the grey the next time to see how that looks. If it is a little too dark, I'll probably stick with it though, I'm not going to worry that much about it...

Apart from that, I got most of the internal stuff primed and got started on the cockpit, will hopefully have pics of that soon. The kit really isn't great, lots of flash and soft plastic, so getting the parts ready can take longer than normal. Lots of Ejection Seats pics online, so that'll hopefully help make an OOB build look a little better.

I do have questions of course! All fairly easy I hope:

1. I've read in a few places about using Klear / Green for the screens in the cockpit. Is that only when the aircraft is powered on / in flight?

2. Are the Phoenix Rails painted a different colour to the airframe, I've seen some builds that suggest they are.

3. Am I right in thinking that the inside of the intakes are white? Are they fully white, or does the airframe colour go in some of the way? And if it does, how far?

That's it for now I think! :)

J.

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Some answers for you:

1) think of the various screens as not too different from TV screens, so to reproduce them when off better use a vary dark grey with a coat or 2 of klear to reproduce the glass

2) Do you mean the underfuselage pallets or the launchers for the underwing pylons? In any case, these would be in the same camouflage of the aircraft. Of course it did happen that during the transition from one scheme to the other aircrafts could carry pallets in a different colour, but this is not generally the case.

3) Yes, the intakes are white but the underside camouflage colour enters within the intakes. How far into the intake ? Roughly speaking, as far as the first 2 moveable ramps. Some aircrafts have the camouflage/white demarcation straight, others have this at an angle so that the lowe wall of the intake is white for almost the whole length. Better way to look at this is to google "f-14 intakes" and see a few images, there are a number of walkarounds on the net that show well this area

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Thanks for your reply! Yep, I'll do screens off, so dark grey with Klear is perfect, thanks.

I meant the underfuselage pallets, so I'll go with the same colour as the underside camo (which is also the same as the upper camo as this scheme is all Dark Ghost Grey apart from the tails).

I'll check out some pics, thanks. Unfortunately the intakes in this kit are very basic (I can tell how basic they are by looking at some off the other builds!) so there's no additional plastic inside the intakes (like moveable ramps etc.). But some pics should hopefully give me an idea.

Thanks...

J.

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Thanks for that, I'll know what to do when I get to that part! :)

Got a little done, the cockpit is pretty much done, just needs to be put together. Didn't kill myself trying to get it perfect, the canopy is going to be closed anyhow, and as usual I go with 'looks good from a distance'! :) So I just painted it and then did some dry-brushing and a black wash to dirty it up (and used Klear for the screens).

So here are the IPs:

IPs_zpsde5a5430.jpg

The tub, basic as it is:

Tub_zps2b7629f6.jpg

and the two seats:

Seats_zpsfddb9997.jpg

Weirdly, the wash seems to have dried gloss, so I may have to look at putting a matt coat on to deaden it all...

J.

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I got one of these fairly cheaply to have a play with and add a big cat to the collection so will be watching the progress with interest, keep up the good work hopefully mine will join yours soon.

Cheers

Graham

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Looking forward to seeing it Graham! Be prepared for a lot of sanding and filling!

Anyhow, I managed to get a little more done. Got the cockpit finished, here's how it looks:

Cockpit_zpsf73b16b9.jpg

The tails are now glossed and ready for decals and the wings are painted and have the first coat of gloss just on them:

Wings_zps395d540f.jpg

As usual, the colour is a lot lighter in real life, but the grey is probably still a little too dark. But not so dark that I'm going to change it! If you look closing you can probably see a couple of lighter patches. That's the disadvantage of using primer as your paint coat as well, if it gets damaged or a different colour manages to drop on it, it's not an easy task to 'touch it up' (you basically have to spray it with the rattle can again). I tried to use a grey that was close, but once the gloss went on it showed up. So I'll probably have to mask and spray those little sections just to remove those patches.

Once the wings are fully glossed I'll look at putting the decals on them. The fuselage halves can't be closed up until the wings are finished, so I'll probably move ahead and do the undercarriage, the deadline is already looking like wishful thinking!

J.

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Jason, I'm not sure I'd decal the tails yet: these kits as you've already found out don't fit that well, I'd rather glue the tails in place, check for gaps and then add the decals. Filling gaps with the decals on would be quite nervewrecking...

The cockpit made me think of the age of these kits: the Monogram cat was first issued in 1982 ! Yet the detail is still more than acceptable enough some 32 years later... no surprise that these Monogram kits were very well received in the days and are still rated highly today

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I think you're right Giorgio! Originally I was doing the tails separately as they're sprayed white and the rest will be sprayed grey. Since then I've realised that the 'base' of the tails is actually molded onto the fuselage, so that'll have to be masked off anyhow. But I hadn't revisited my decision to do the tails separately.

Now that I know I have to mask off the base of the tails, I might as well attach the tails, using filler etc. if needed, and mask off the whole tail, including the base, when spraying the fuselage.

Thanks for the advice!

J.

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Just starting the decals on the wings now. As I've read, the decals from Fightertown look great, but the 'instructions' are terrible! There are decals on the sheet that aren't in the instructions but are on online pics, like the '200' on the wings. Pretty much none of the decals are labelled / numbered, so that's fun. And it's only from close examination that I realised I've got decals for the ejection seats (though it's up to me to figure out which decals belong to which scheme (there are decals for the F-14A and F/A-18E on the sheet).

Not really complaining as such, but would it be that difficult to go the extra mile and make the great decals great to use as well? :)

J.

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Well, progress has been slow on this, I just haven't had time to work on it. But I have got a few little things done, so I wanted to put up some pics.

Firstly, the cockpit is done and in place:

Cockpit2_zpsff9c96a1.jpg

Next I have the wings completely finished:

Wings2_zpsbb57bdfa.jpg

With them done, I can move on to closing up the fuselage. So I've started on the intakes, which are basic in this kit. Some fans first:

Intakes1_zps9f297bf4.jpg

and then closing up the first intake, the second one will be done once this one is dry:

Intakes2_zps8dc129d9.jpg

I'm a bit worried about the finish date for this GB, and whether I'll get it done or not. I keep telling myself that it's actually a basic kit (it might not fit great, but there aren't a lot of pieces) and also that I'm spraying it, not brush painting it, so hopefully I will get it done.

With a bit of luck I'll get the fuselage closed up this weekend.

Thanks...

J.

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Thanks Dermot...

Looking for a bit of advice. Dry-fitting has shown that there's a gap between the two canopy sections, they don't quite meet up. Normally I'd just use filler for a gap, but as this is two clear sections, the filler will be visible from the inside (if you look at the model from the wrong angle). From the outside the filler will be painted over obviously.

Any suggestions? I could try to join the two sections together with filler before gluing them to the airframe, and once the filler has dried I could paint the filler on the inside with the colour of the inside of the canopy? After all, both edges of the canopies are painted anyhow. Or I could try mixing the inside canopy paint in with the filler and apply it then, so it'll dry with that colour maybe?

J.

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Hey Jason,

Is the fit completely off when you place them together on the airframe or will they not just fit together at all?

Personally, I'd probably try to fit the two sections together and then aim to fix/fill the rear of the main cockpit section - it would probably be less visible as you've got fuselage spine that you could blend it to (instead of two clear parts).

Sorry if that doesn't sound very clear - hard to judge without photos!

Or finish it with the canopy open? I'm sure you'll get plenty of good advice here...

Good luck,

Dermot

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You're right Dermot, a picture helps. So here it is!

Canopies_zps7fb962b1.jpg

The main canopy fits the fuselage pretty well (apart from a small gap just at the 'step' in the fuselage near the front canopy, but that's easily handled) and the front canopy also fits the fuselage pretty well, but it leaves a gap between them, they basically don't meet in the middle. I think taping both pieces in place and then adding filler, and then removing the tape and painting the inside of the canopy to cover the filler might work, assuming the filler is strong enough to hold the two pieces together once it's dried.

Any thoughts?

Thanks...

J.

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im not sure how you going to fix that.

the first thing that comes to my mind is take the joining surfaces and sand them down to fit snug then fill lifted area around bottom of front screen ? hopefully it wont be visible from outside

Canopies_zps996c1445.jpg

borrowed your pic hope you dont mind

Edited by pau n
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