1/48 Tamiya F-14A Tomcat

[Calum]

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. 

 

Edited July 7, 2017 by Calum

[Air-to-Air]

I'll be following your progress on this one. I enjoyed your work on the Goodbye Okinawa F-4EJ (another favourite aircraft) and I am interested in seeing how this kit falls together.

[Calum]

Cockpit painting. Detail is as nice as you'll probably get in plastic. For me it's good enough that I'll never consider a resin cockpit (unless it was a exact replacement for the kit parts).

 

What I would like for in my next build is decals for the side consoles and instrument panel. I really like decals over raised detail in this scale. Hasegawa do it well some of their kits.

 

Painting this was about 3 hours of what became tedious work.  Tamiya's instructions are good showing what colour goes where, but it just takes time.

 

I airbrushed everything Gunze FS36270 for the base grey as IMHO FS36321 always looks to dark in this scale. The black consoles are brush painted Vallejo Black/grey and the other details were picked out with various Vallejo acrylics. 

 

 

All that said the angle of the side consoles means a lot of the detail is hidden (another reason I doubt I'd ever bother with a resin pit)

 

Edited July 7, 2017 by Calum

[Jose Pedro]

Hi!

Great job on the cockpit!

 

Cheers!

[NealParkes]

Well thats a great start for sure!! I'll be keeping an eye on this colourful tomcat!

[exdraken]

Nice work so far! Vf-41 is a nice choice! Vf-14 would have been the logical alternative

 

[Christer A]

That's a great looking cockpit!

[Calum]

All the major sub assemblies are done. I couldn't resist sticking the major bits together (no glue) to see how they fit... The only issue may be slight gaps under the tail fins, but I haven't confirmed there are sprue attachments still requiring clean up. The main fuselage to nose piece fit is absolutely perfect. 

 

The multi part missiles are pretty good but will need a tiny bit of filler on the seam lines.

 

 

The canvas covers for the front instrument shroud looked a bit plain and non canvas like. To make it more canvas like I applied a piece of tissue paper over the shroud and used MEK to "melt" it onto the plastic. The back one looks better but I was happy with the effect so I did the same on the back. I then painted it, applied a dark oil wash and then dry bushed it. Not perfect but good enough for me.

 

 

I also had a go at the exhausts. I used the "David Aungst" fix for these.. Rather than explain about it, read it here. To be honest I'm not sure it's worth the effort as mot much can be seen . I painted the outside of exhausts with various shades of Alclad . The detail on these is pretty good but I'd be interested to see resin ones, that said they'd have to be a drop fit replacement for me to be interested. 

 

Edited July 7, 2017 by Calum

[David H]

I too did the DA fix. He does have a good point, that its a fools errand to try and spray paint down a long tube into a blind hole.

 

I too couldn't resist taking one of these pictures...

 

 

VF-41 will be a cool looking plane; wise choice.

 

 

D-Peche Mode

Edited April 17, 2017 by David H

[modelman182]

Looks beaut, Calum.

 

Got my hands on one last weekend - think I'll do it in the Wolfpack scheme (as a sort of nostalgic homage to the old Airfix 72nd F-14, which was my first Tomcat build). For the time being it'll be stashed away.

 

Like you, I'll adopt Dave Aungst's approach to the cans. Thanks for the reminder (and link) about that.

 

Cheers

 

Kev

[CJP]

I'm watching this build with interest Calum and have admired your previous work - I have limited my  subjects to the Sea Vixen, Scimitar, Demon eras due to display space limitations but might be tempted to rethink & include a Tomcat - the kit looks well engineered & I like the way they have included part of the front fuselage with the windscreen moulding.

thanks CJP

[Calum]

Now the 109 is put to bed I got some time painting the F-14.. I know "black basing" is all the rage at the moment  but I don't like adding extra paint if I don't need to, especially as the detail on this kit is pretty fine. Plus, because the fit is so good, and joins are on panel lines it really doesn't need priming.

 

 So, as I've done for ages I add some random dark splotches all over the kit with extra dark sea grey. Then I applied the light gull grey (Mr Color) on the upper surfaces. Most of the darker grey disappeared (should have used a darker grey) , oh well. 

 

Because I couldn't be bothered trying to accurately mark out the wavy demarcation line between the grey and white  I  scanned the instructions, enlarged them to the kit size, printed them on plain paper then cut out them out. I then stuck these to the model using a few bits of rolled up tape to stand them off a bit so I don't get a sharp line.  Good enough but I've used a white bottle of white (Mr Color 316 FS17875) on this kit so far !

 

 

Nice finger print eh

 

 

Next I masked out the black (Tamiya NATO Black) and sprayed that. I added a few blotches of grey grey to break this up a bit.

 

 

A few more little bits of painting, walkways, gun area and we're ready for decals. Maybe I'll do some of them at the NSW Model show next Sunday

Edited July 7, 2017 by Calum

[Calum]

It's been a while since I updated this but I've been working on this . I ran into a potential fit problem with the vertical fin. 

 

 

I asked around and apparently  there is a little gap here but this looked way to big. I did notice a bit of left over sprue on the mating surfaces so when I trimmed that off it did sit a bit better.I did run a tiny bit of filler in there later on in the build because I wasn't completely happy with how it looked.

 

The cleverness of how Tamiya engineered this continued to amaze me. When gluing the front fuselage to the rear fuselage you just stick some slow setting glue, I used Tamiya with the white top, on the rear part of the front fuselage and slide it in and hold. No need to apply glue along the panel lines.

 

 

Also the front phoenix pallet locks into the front fuselage as well as into the rear fuselage and locks the front part to the rear part. And to glue the phoenix pallets down there is a flat piece running along the centre of the inside of pallet. Again some slow setting glue on there and push into the locking holes, no need to try and apply glue on the seem between the pallet and fuselage. I should have taken photos but I was having to much fun sticking it together

 

 

Although I used gloss paints I gave it a light coat of Gaianotes gloss before applying the Furball decals. Printed by Cartograph you know they will be great to use. 

 

 

 

 

I did use a few of the Tamiya decals for the Phoenix pallets, drop tank racks and missiles. These also performed really well. Whilst the Furball decals are just printed nicer I'd have no issues using the rest of the kit decals if I wanted to do one of those schemes

 

 

 

Once all the decals were down I gave them a sealing coat of Gaianotes gloss, followed by a bit of random weathering with the airbrush. 

 

Once I was happy I gave it a final coat of Mr Color Semi Gloss. I know the actual aircraft were finished gloss but IMHO high gloss finishes don't look right on aircraft models

Edited July 7, 2017 by Calum

[Flyingdutchman]

This all looks very tidy and clean. I'm still amazed that you fully sprayed the forward part beforte glueing it to the rear part. Was there no filler needed?

 

It all looks very nice!

 

Evert

[exdraken]

Superb paint and decaling work!

And black aces!

[Janremco]

After reading this I want one for myself. Looking very promissing. I like a high viz Tomcat.

 

Jan Remco

[Calum]

15 hours ago, Flyingdutchman said:

This all looks very tidy and clean. I'm still amazed that you fully sprayed the forward part beforte glueing it to the rear part. Was there no filler needed?

 

It all looks very nice!

 

Evert

The join of the front fuselage to the rear fuselage is on a panel line, and with the applied to the area on both pieces that mate inside the kit no filler is needed. I did use a bit of filler  (CA) on the  radome on the seam between the 2 forward fuselage pieces and, as described above, a smear on the gap under the vertical fins. But there is no need for it anywhere else. In fact, I've found that if you find a gap dry fitting you've probably not cleaned up the mating surfaces properly.

 

[Ilan]

Very nice work so far!

[David H]

Mee Likee!

Mine is in the arduous painting of the gloss white belly phase right now...

 

D-Peche-Mode

[Calum]

She's nearly done, just the canopy to go and a bit of weathering to go

 

 

 

Edited July 7, 2017 by Calum

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Beautiful.  I am still trying to resist, but not sure that builds as good as this are good for my will-power!

[David H]

Being able to leave off the wings and tailplanes sure makes it a lot easier to handle doesn't it??

 

I will  look to this for inspiration while i continue to hose gloss white onto the belly of my Tomcat....

 

-d-

[Bravo52]

Wow!  I like your approach to this build.  Excellent finish and it is just the right amount of shading. Looks fantastic!

[phildagreek]

Looks fantastic. 

[Blitz23]

Got a Hobbyboss one on the go at the moment as a long term project, if it turns out half as nice as this I'll be happy. Great work, looking forward to seeing the finished build.