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Italeri Top Gun F-14 and A-4


Tomppa B

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5 minutes ago, Col. said:

Cool!

Are the Italeri kits of both types considered good? Otherwise it becomes an expensive decal sheet to stick on something else.

 

Nothing special, '80s kits with raised panel lines, reasonable detail and average fit. The Tomcat radome has a suspect shape too. I liked the Italeri tomcat when I was a teen but today I'd rank this behind Academy, Revell and HB, not to mention fujimi, hasegawa and fine molds...

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5 hours ago, Silverkite said:

Esci A-4 Skyhawk is in the box instead of their door stopper thing shaped like a Skyhawk

 

Luigi

 

This is good news, as IMHO the Esci kit looks much better. Its only problem is the mix of recessed (fuselage) and raised (wings and stabilizers) panel lines. Now if Italeri corrected this it would be a great idea

 

4 hours ago, roym said:

F-14A nose was corrected when they tooled the bits for F-14B. So it should be ok now. And I like both the Italeri and ESCI Shyhawks.

 

Good to know. Still not my favourite Cat, but must be said that this kit has been in continuous production since was first issued, must have had good sales to do so, someone sure likes it

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I still have my finished Italeri Tomcat built over 30 years ago - a lot simpler to build than the Hasegawa / Fine Molds/ Fujimi newer tools but then a lot simpler detail.

 

I also like the box art on this new release - might pick one up for sentimental reasons...

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  • 3 months later...

Well hot shots was on last night... 

 

Which made me think about topgun...

 

Which lead me to this kit spoke about here on our very own forum. 

 

Seems italeri dropped the ball with this which seems almost impossible in this day and age where all the information you could want is available. 

 

In the film, 

 

Jet 114 was maverick and goose. 

Jet 104 was iceman and slider. 

 

So they give both numbers and both fictional tail arts but only maverick and goose for the canopy. 

 

And the instructions show maverick and goose on 104 with its tail art for iceman and slider !?!

 

 

Then the A4 - decal given for - Lt Hendricks ‘pyro’. 

Wait for it... 

NOT IN THE FILM!!!

 

What about viper or jester? 

Come on really???

 

Can’t believe they messed this up. 

 

Pointless rant over 😂

 

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16 hours ago, Tony Oliver said:

Then the A4 - decal given for - Lt Hendricks ‘pyro’. 

Wait for it... 

NOT IN THE FILM!!!

 

What about viper or jester? 

Come on really???

 

Can’t believe they messed this up. 

 

Pointless rant over 😂

 

 

Yeah. Poor research on the part of Italeri. I think only the Fujimi A-4E/F Top Gun kit included Viper & Jester's names in the kit. The funny thing is that the Fujimi kit isn't even a movie tie-in kit unlike the Italeri kit. 

 

 

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On 3/10/2019 at 1:35 AM, Tony Oliver said:

Well I have only gone and bought it 😕

Could you post pics of the decal sheet?  I've seen some blurry pics on the web and, to me, it seems the Skyhawk's sand/tan coloured decals seems a bit off. It looks ok on the Italeri official page but photo of the actual sheet seem to show a different colour:

 

26220_1422-2.jpg  

 

vs

 

26962_1_ITA1422_1.jpg

 

Taken from here:

https://www.super-hobby.com/products/Top-Gun-F-14A-vs-A-4F.html

 

It could be just my computer screen but I'm not sure.

 

 

 

Edited by Jackman
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Thanks for those Tony! 

 

As I feared, the Skyhawk's decal color seem a bit off especially when compared to what even Italeri recommends for the Tan Special color (FS 20400):

https://www.modelmakershop.com/produkt/produktbild-6276-1544100523-bild-1000.jpg

https://www.lindenhillimports.com/store/p1040/AKAN72011.html

 

Heck, even the old Testor's kit had the correct shade of Tan for the decals ( even if they got the kit wrong; they used an A-4M instead of an A-4F)

https://hattonsimages.blob.core.windows.net/products/271Tes_3190617_Qty1_1.jpg

https://hattonsimages.blob.core.windows.net/products/271Tes_3190617_Qty1_2.jpg

 

Though I personally think Dave Aungst's  shade of Tan Special (FS 30400) would be better suited to the Top Gun bird:

http://www.hyperscale.com/2008/features/a4fsuperfoxaggressor48dwa_1.htm

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/79/f2/4c/79f24c19cca8c0268868f5765dfa6954.jpg

 

 

The F-14 decals look nice. I initially thought Iceman's "Fist of the Fleet' Logo looked a bit odd (the thumb looks different & the fist seems more slanted/squashed) especially when compared to this:

http://skywarriors-gallery.com/va-25-new1.jpg

 

or this:

https://photos.smugmug.com/US-Squadrons-USN/US-Navy-Fighter-Attack/VFA-25-FIST-OF-THE-FLEET-pics/i-tcjNpBZ/1/c6fe8026/O/Boeing F-18C-USN 00057 A static Boeing F-18C Hornet USN VFA-25 FIST OF THE FLEET NAS Fallon 5-2002 military airplane picture by Michael Grove%2C Sr.jpg

 

But then I realised that Italeri probably took their inspiration from A-7 Corsairs:

http://skywarriors-gallery.com/a7ene405 0501.jpg

 

And probably used the same artwork for their Corsair kit:

https://www.italeri.com/prodotto/2739

https://www.italeri.com/uploads/products/1401_decalsLR(1).jpg

 

Anyhoo, thanks much for the pics.

Edited by Jackman
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On 20/03/2019 at 07:44, Jackman said:

The F-14 decals look nice. I initially thought Iceman's "Fist of the Fleet' Logo looked a bit odd (the thumb looks different & the fist seems more slanted/squashed) especially when compared to this:

 

Yeah strange in more ways than one as mentioned - tail art and modex but none of their names for the canopy! 

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