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Academy F14A Glove Vanes


Uncle Pete

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I'm in the process of beating the above mentioned plane into submission and have a question for anybody who might have tackled it in the past.  It has these odd little "glove vanes" which I understand were eventually discovered to be as much use as a cat flap on the space station but which deploy when the wings fold back.  They're mounted on studs about half the size of a flea's bedpan.  My question is, since they were eventually left out on later marks, should I forget about trying to make them work?  I'm usually of the opinion that if a part is designed to move, I might as well install it as such but don't want to end up with a jammed or falling-off part.  Will that little stud stand up or should I just cut it down and glue it in?  (I don't trust my measuring and cutting skills to replace it with a metal pin).  Aside from that, the kit so far (aside from decals) has been reasonably cooperative, I've got the office installed and the nose buttoned up... even remembered to put a lead slug in there.  But the decals....  The decals!  I should have known before buying the kit since I built an Academy P51 a few months back.  I found they have a window of about two seconds between still being stuck irrevocably to the backing sheet and floating free completely.  And they're about as thick as a sheet of heavy duty MDF.  I got the instrument panels on by floating them on big puddles of floor wax then hoping they didn't drift while it dried.  On the good side, though, they sucked right down with a couple of shots of MicroSol and wound up looking pretty good.  I'm sneaking out to the LHS before SWMBO wakes up to see if they have any Grim Reaper or Tomcats decal sheets (I wasn't crazy about the look of the decals in the box anyway), something with a bit of zazz (and a shark mouth!).  (And something that won't be such a fight to lay on).  (And I'll see how much self-discipline I have... A P38 and an A10 wouldn't go amiss).  (Neither would a Camel and a Tripehound).  (And maybe a couple of Spits and a 109).  (And a Wallace and Gromit Austin A40 van).

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These surfaces deployed only over a certain speed in supersonic flight so they were rarely seen open. They were as you say left out on later variants and inactivated on existing aircrafts. Gluing them closed is a good choice. I can't remember how they work in the academy kit, when I built mine I didn't bother and glued them in place, guess they may not break if you are careful but is it worth the risk? 

Decals in this kit are unfortunately bad, apart from those boxes with cartograf decals. An aftermarket sheet is your best option or you could ask around if someone has a sheet they don't use from a kit with better decals 

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On 5/9/2018 at 7:38 AM, Giorgio N said:

Gluing them closed is a good choice

Probably but I ended up being brave (probably too brave!) and opting for the tricky route.  Had I glued them closed I'd have had to cut a bit off the inside edge where the wing mechanism kicks them open. They're in and on the studs and have survived handling while I painted and applied decals.  I said to the missus, "I'm going into the workshop with a sheet of Academy decals and I'm not coming out till one of us is dead."  I found the decals a bit easier to handle by using very hot water (about the temp of a nice cuppa that's been standing for a couple of minutes), a long soak and floating them in on a glob of floor wax.  They can be a bit squirrely for a minute till I mop up the excess but I find I get a bit more adjustment time out of the deal.  They're just recovering from the first hit of Micro Sol (Sol?  Set?  The red one) and seem to be settling in nicely.  Thanks for the input and sorry I didn't get back sooner... Didn't realise I'd got any responses.

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On 5/13/2018 at 11:15 AM, Hook said:

Academy's nose is way off

I'm not too bothered about that, the paint job is way off too!  On the USS Uncle Pete there's a certain amount of "jazz" involved when it comes to accuracy!  As it is, it's looking more or less like a Tomcat.  If I may quote a pilot I saw on a documentary about a carrier, "It's big, it's bad, it's honkin'!"

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1 hour ago, Uncle Pete said:

I'm not too bothered about that, the paint job is way off too!  On the USS Uncle Pete there's a certain amount of "jazz" involved when it comes to accuracy!  As it is, it's looking more or less like a Tomcat.  If I may quote a pilot I saw on a documentary about a carrier, "It's big, it's bad, it's honkin'!"

 

That she is! 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

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1 hour ago, Uncle Pete said:

Probably but I ended up being brave (probably too brave!) and opting for the tricky route.  Had I glued them closed I'd have had to cut a bit off the inside edge where the wing mechanism kicks them open. They're in and on the studs and have survived handling while I painted and applied decals.  I said to the missus, "I'm going into the workshop with a sheet of Academy decals and I'm not coming out till one of us is dead."  I found the decals a bit easier to handle by using very hot water (about the temp of a nice cuppa that's been standing for a couple of minutes), a long soak and floating them in on a glob of floor wax.  They can be a bit squirrely for a minute till I mop up the excess but I find I get a bit more adjustment time out of the deal.  They're just recovering from the first hit of Micro Sol (Sol?  Set?  The red one) and seem to be settling in nicely.  Thanks for the input and sorry I didn't get back sooner... Didn't realise I'd got any responses.

 

My mistake, I forgot to mention tha shutting the vanes closed would have involved some surgery... this is actyally needed on most Tomcat kits, even the 1/72 Hasegawa kit needs this

Best of luck with the decals ! They sure prefer hot water, like most Far Eastern made decals do. My main gripe with the decals in my box was that they were too transparent and anything that had to go over darker colours showed this through.

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True to all said above. 

 

Not that many new build D planes without them. More rebuilds that would’ve had them originally. 

 

Despite trawling loads of pics I still cant seem to find one of a jet like that - as in built from new without them - to enable me to accurately depict that area on a model as all kits have seams there of some sort that need tackling. 

 

On rebuilt jets the ‘locked closed’ vanes were puttied then painted over but the silhouette of where they were is quite visible in some pics that I have seen. 

 

Got this dilema (1st world problems again) on my current finemolds D which comes with the glove vane parts. To fill and rescribe (but what & where?) as a new build or not to fill fully and leave a ‘ghost’ of them. 

 

:( 

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