New Tamiya 1/48 Grumman F-14 (A, Late A, D) Tomcat

[anj4de]

All that's missing from the box art is a pair of Japanese Zeros.

:-) Exactly my thoughts as well! I have three Tomcats in my stash...a half done Hasegawa (I wonder why half done...), a NIB Bombcat from Tamiya and an older/used 32 Tamiya Tomcat that is in the stage of engraving the fuselage...not sure if any of those will ever get finished though :-(

The new 48 Tomcat will be a winner and I will finish it..in the "only real" Tomcat livery...! "Fear the Bones" :-) The 80ties were my youth, Final Countdown one of my favorite movies at that time...so CAG VF84 it will be!

cheers

Uwe

Edited August 24, 2016 by anj4de

[DannyB]

It looks so good, just a shame I'll never buy one!

I know they never will, and lord alone knows they shift enough kits to not need to, but I just wish Tamiya would look at their pricing policy!

[Fatboydim]

Last part of the Tamiya Tomcat build on hyperscale.

http://www.hyperscale.com/2016/features/f14atamiyabuild48bg_3.htm

[anj4de]

Check out E-Bay for the prices on Hasegawa...not much cheaper! The only "extra" I will put in mine are seats...since I am not good with PE and I hate those decal ones...

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Pavla-S48041-1-48-Resin-Ejection-seat-GRU-7-F-14A-Tomcat-A-6-Intruder-EA-6B-/331123874861?hash=item4d18855c2d:g:IY4AAMXQVT9S88Um

So 5 bucks more...but I do not care...

cheers

Uwe

[Albeback52]

It looks so good, just a shame I'll never buy one!

I know they never will, and lord alone knows they shift enough kits to not need to, but I just wish Tamiya would look at their pricing policy

The BM discussion re the forthcoming AMK F-14 includes a post from the manufacturer indicating a suggested r r p similar to their MiG 31. Should that prove correct it will be £25 - £30 cheaper than the Tamiya offering and really give it a run for its money. Certainly makes my decision easy. If it is to the same quality as the MiG -31, it will provide exceptional value for money. No release date as yet for the AMK model but, if (like me) you prefer something a lot cheaper then that is your option. I can certainly wait.

Allan

Edited August 27, 2016 by Albeback52

[Parabat]

It looks so good, just a shame I'll never buy one!

I know they never will, and lord alone knows they shift enough kits to not need to, but I just wish Tamiya would look at their pricing policy!

Check out E-Bay for the prices on Hasegawa...not much cheaper! The only "extra" I will put in mine are seats...since I am not good with PE and I hate those decal ones...

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Pavla-S48041-1-48-Resin-Ejection-seat-GRU-7-F-14A-Tomcat-A-6-Intruder-EA-6B-/331123874861?hash=item4d18855c2d:g:IY4AAMXQVT9S88Um

So 5 bucks more...but I do not care...

cheers

Uwe

The BM discussion re the forthcoming AMK F-14 includes a post from the manufacturer indicating a suggested r r p similar to their MiG 31. Should that prove correct it will be £25 - £30 cheaper than the Tamiya offering and really give it a run for its money. Certainly makes my decision easy. If it is to the same quality as the MiG -31, it will provide exceptional value for money. No release date as yet for the AMK model but, if (like me) you prefer something a lot cheaper then that is your option. I can certainly wait.

Allan

When has anyone ever paid RRP?! Once these are released, sure, they'll have a high 'opening day' price, but once it becomes a regularly carried item I know there will be bargains to be had. Have a look at Luckymodel.com for their pre-orders - really good pricing even with the shipping. Sure, you may get stung at customs, but it's a darned sight cheaper than the anticipated first release UK prices.

[DannyB]

The BM discussion re the forthcoming AMK F-14 includes a post from the manufacturer indicating a suggested r r p similar to their MiG 31. Should that prove correct it will be £25 - £30 cheaper than the Tamiya offering and really give it a run for its money. Certainly makes my decision easy. If it is to the same quality as the MiG -31, it will provide exceptional value for money. No release date as yet for the AMK model but, if (like me) you prefer something a lot cheaper then that is your option. I can certainly wait.

Allan

Exactly the same boat I'm in!

And, it's nothing to do with tamiya not offering flaps & slats, or it not being on the very leading edge of moulding technologies, but purely because the AMK kit appears to be just as good (if not better) and a heck of lot cheaper.

Also, retailers seem wiling to reduce they margin on kits from manufactures like AMK or Eduard because they maybe seen as a 'risk' by the consumer but to reduce the price on tamiyas appears to be a very rare thing! Can't blame them, business is hard enough as it is and tamiya are going to be a 'safe' manufacturer that will always shift units. I just wonder how many extra units they might shift with a slightly less aggressive pricing strategy on their modern jets.

The tamiya kit does look incredible though and the real pinnacle of common plastic moulding techniques!

[colin]

We don't have a definite price on the AMK one as yet only that it will be somewhere in the Mig price. I bet now they have seen what Tamiya are charging that will change.They only need to come in slightly under the Tamiya kit now to be seen as cheaper.

And like Parabat has said the Tamiya price will drop, look at their new 1/32 kits and how they have dropped since release

[Robert]

I would love to purchase said kit but to me it is expensive, when the price does drop to what I think is a reasonable price then I will purchase it but that might be some time as it seems to be the must have kit at the moment.

Perhaps a couple of years down the line when AMK releases theirs ?

[DaveJL]

Sure it's pricey (think my pre-order was £67.50) but when one thinks about, for example, a Hasegawa kit at around £30-35 second hand, tooling which dates back 20 odd years, and when one adds the minimum aftermarket (which in case of the the Hasegawa F-14, would be a resin cockpit at say £15 and some sort of weapons) the price fairly adds up. I think the RRP of the Hobbyboss kit is around £50 too.

I do agree it is expensive, but if the tooling is like their F-16, it will be great out of the box (i always like to add resin seats though).

Having said that, the AMK kit looks great and if the price is going to be in the region of what is suggested, i'll be buying many more of these than I will the Tamiya kits.

[Julien]

Review including sprue shots up on Detail & Scale; http://detailandscale.com/scale_model_review_tamiya_no.61114_%20f-14a_tomcat_1.48_scale.html

[GreenDragon]

Saw a message from one of the decal companies yesterday on Cybermodeler that said the tail fins of the Hasgawa and Tamiya kits are different so the decals for the Hase kit wiil need a bit of cutting down to fit the Tamiya kit. So here's a question.... who got the fins correct?

Paul Harrison

Edit: wasn't on Cybermodeler, IIRC it was on Facebook.

Edited September 6, 2016 by GreenDragon

[Navy Bird]

So here's a question.... who got the fins correct?

Grumman.

Cheers,

Bill

[Sobby_23]

[Homebee]

Dedicated decals by Wolfpack Design - The Last Active Tomcats - Iranian - ref. WD48012

Source: https://www.facebook.com/554818677944675/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1131915643568306

 

 

V.P.

Edited September 28, 2016 by Homebee

[Homebee]

Released...But for the moment only in the US! Just a matter of patience for the rest of the world.

 

http://www.redstarscalemodels.com/product-p/tam61114.htm

 

V.P.

Edited October 4, 2016 by Homebee

[DarrenH]

Out in Australia have one en route from Melbourne.

[Vaildog]

When will Lucky Model get theirs?

[Homebee]

A first look on Cybermodeler: http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/tam/kit_tam_61114.shtml

 

    

 

   

 

V.P.

[roym]

Is the boat tail fairing correct for the VF-1 plane? It's right for the other two for sure but I thought Enterprise's Tomcats had the early fairing until they went overall gull grey. Also are the early fin stiffeners correct for the Nimitz bird?

[Joeltc]

i picked one up yesterday. It has the boat tail from the late 70s onwards but without the ecm blister on it from the later model tomcats. So you won't be able to do those early vf-1 and vf-2 tomcats which I wanted to do myself. However those squadrons did have that boat tail from the kit on their 1976 cruise. I have the Fightertown decals for the earlier vf-1 tomcats but I will try and depict a tomcat from that 1976 cruise. Hope this helps.

[RobertF]

Sorry for being slightly off-topic, but how do the Trumpeter F-14s in 1/32 compare to Tamiya's?

 

Much as I am convinced of both Tamiya's and AMK's (future) 1/48th F-14 models' quality, building this brilliant aircraft in as large a scale as possible is still on my wish list. Until now, I have been put off by the half-job Tamiya did on the fuselage details (rivets), especially in combination with their pricing policy... 

 

Robert

[exdraken]

looking through the sprue shots, I wonder if early and late model Aim-9 Sidewinders D& L/M really share the same aft body incl fins... are they supposed to be the same width and length??

or is just the variation in various kits that big?

thanks for clarification!

 

Edited October 9, 2016 by exdraken

[ICMF]

It sort of depends, because the missiles themselves changed over time.  The early production D's had a different motor, which was the same diameter as the body - ie. the body was a straight tube.  Later D/G/H's and all L/M's had a motor that was flared slightly behind the wings.  In 1984, they added the T-shaped arming handle to the motor.  The same basic wing was used on the C/D/G/H/L/M/R/S and AGM-122, but there were four iterations (Mk1 Mod 0 through Mk1 Mod 3).  In general though, body diameter and overall dimensions are the same.  Ignoring the canards, if you're *just* looking at the wings and body, the biggest difference would be the target detection windows (the circles just behind the canards).  L/M's used a different target detector, and had windows that were about 3/8" larger.  

 

The differences are all *very* slight, though.  The motor flare is .165" on the actual missile (.08mm in 1/48).  The wing Mods relate to stuff like how the caging mechanism on the rollerons function, etc.  Stuff that would be essentially invisible on a scale missile.  Even the target windows would be hard to spot.  So yes, for practical purposes, in modelling terms, it's pretty much just a matter of swapping out the canards.

 

 TL/DR: if you want to be strictly accurate, a very early D would have a straight, tubular body and slightly different wings than your typical L/M, and an L/M would have slightly different targeting windows and would be more likely to have the T-handle, but there's no definite configuration and in most cases, Tamiya's breakdown would be perfectly fine.

[exdraken]

3 hours ago, ICMF said:

It sort of depends, because the missiles themselves changed over time.  The early production D's had a different motor, which was the same diameter as the body - ie. the body was a straight tube.  Later D/G/H's and all L/M's had a motor that was flared slightly behind the wings.  In 1984, they added the T-shaped arming handle to the motor.  The same basic wing was used on the C/D/G/H/L/M/R/S and AGM-122, but there were four iterations (Mk1 Mod 0 through Mk1 Mod 3).  In general though, body diameter and overall dimensions are the same.  Ignoring the canards, if you're *just* looking at the wings and body, the biggest difference would be the target detection windows (the circles just behind the canards).  L/M's used a different target detector, and had windows that were about 3/8" larger.  

 

The differences are all *very* slight, though.  The motor flare is .165" on the actual missile (.08mm in 1/48).  The wing Mods relate to stuff like how the caging mechanism on the rollerons function, etc.  Stuff that would be essentially invisible on a scale missile.  Even the target windows would be hard to spot.  So yes, for practical purposes, in modelling terms, it's pretty much just a matter of swapping out the canards.

 

 TL/DR: if you want to be strictly accurate, a very early D would have a straight, tubular body and slightly different wings than your typical L/M, and an L/M would have slightly different targeting windows and would be more likely to have the T-handle, but there's no definite configuration and in most cases, Tamiya's breakdown would be perfectly fine.

 

thank you very much for that ve detailed information ICMF!

so Sidewinder evolution was not really a straight forward process it seems with some parallel developement paths!

 

so then only B (of course) and  E/J/N/ P models would be different ...

 

wonder why Tamiya does not enclude them for the Iranian Tomcats !