Revell 1/72 F14D NE106 of VF-2 "Bounty Hunters"

[SaminCam]

Welcome to my next WiP, Revell's 1/72 F14D. There's lots of Tomcats appearing on BM at the moment (i wonder if this is anything to do with the soon-to-be-released Top Gun 2?) but I've not seen much of the Revell version, could this be a bad sign?!?

 

This is my first F14 since the mid 90s and to be honest it's not the model i was hoping to build - I've ordered the new academy kit but given up hope of it arriving from Korea after nearly 4 months. This model on the other hand had next day delivery so I just went for it. First impressions are ok, panel lines are pretty chunky but there is quite nice detail in the 'pit and wheel bays and i like the scheme.  After a bit of dry fitting I'm not so sure... things don't seem to fit particularly well and i have a feeling this might be a battle, especially after just finishing two lovely ww2 eduard kits which pretty much fell together. 

 

I've started doing a bit of Tomcat research and already decided this isn't going to be museum quality accurate like one of @Tony Oliver's. I want it to have a decent load out (Grim Reapers rarely, if ever, did) and the revell version is missing loads of little details which I'm not going to chase on this build. Ill be happy if it has the "feel" of a later build tomcat, I can sort out the fit issues and the colours and weathering look good. 

 

I've also been looking at aftermarket bits and pieces: the revell canopy is horrible (thick, scratched and a bit misty), can anyone suggest a replacement in 1/72? Should i be getting wheels, nozzles, better missiles? Nothing I've seen is recommended for revell version but i guess i can make things fit? I've already gone for resin bang seat and started to scratch some detail on the blank bits of the cockpit:

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, my current construction pace is pretty glacial but this is all that's on the bench so will keep you updated - thanks for dropping by! 

Edited September 5, 2020 by SaminCam
Changed title

[fewr9fkr9595]

PM sent 👌🏽

[SaminCam]

Finished adding a bit more detail to the cockpit: 

 

 

Won't be able to see too much of this but certainly busies up the previously bare bits of cockpit wall. Next step will be to get a coat of primer down.

[SaminCam]

Got the first coat of paint on the cockpit last night, xf-54 dark sea grey, and started to pick out a few details, xf-85 rubber black for the consoles and xf-49 khaki for the canvass coverings on the side walls. The coverings were added using milliput and will get some shading to try and create a canvass-y look - I'm going to use this method for the more visible covering between the pilot and RIO so good to get some practice in here! Thanks for looking, Sam

 

 

 

[SaminCam]

Bit more brushwork done this morning and sealed that in with a gloss coat for the next step of washes and drybrushing. Resin seats arrived which look a lot better than the revell effort so will be getting these set to right height with some plasticard and then base-coated. 

 

 

 

[SaminCam]

Ejector seats pretty much caught up with the rest of the tub now and ready for gloss coat before washes and drybrushing. These are the quickboost set - I wasn't sure if I liked them at first but now think they look great with some paint on. I also wasn't happy with my painting of the IPs so prised them out, cleaned them up with a bath of window cleaner and started again. Nearly ready to add highlights and weathering to the various bits and pieces. Cheers, Sam

 

 

 

[SaminCam]

Ok, so this is totally awesome! Today in the post @Tony Oliver sent me spare missiles, exhaust nozzles, sensors and wheels, this is incredibly generous, thank you! i also received a new (very clear) canopy and a set of resin wheels from hannants so I'm hoping i can make a nice job of the revell kit with all these goodies!

 

 

 

[SaminCam]

Afternoon all, I've been tinkering away at the cockpit for the last few days and think I'm nearly there. I decided to cut out the RIO's console from the fuselage sides (with a razor saw) so I could work on upgrading it more easily. The main modifications were to cut some of the top cover away and extend the sides with plasticard, add a layer of miliput moulded to look like the canvass covering and add the raised up box on top, again made from bits of plasticard. 

 

 

After brush painting the basic colours I added a thinned oil wash, flat coated and then drybrushed to highlight buttons and raised details. The decals on the ejector seats were taken from spares and the canvass covering and seat cushions got special attention with some oil paint shading.  

 

 

 

 

 

It's taken a while to get to this stage but I think the extra details scratched together and the resin seats especially were worth it. I've also got a nice, clear, vac-formed canopy so at least some of this should be visible! I'm nearly ready to get the fuselage halves together and then I will add some detail to the pilot's console cover and the area behind the RIO's seat. Thanks for dropping by! Sam

 

 

 

 

 

 

[fewr9fkr9595]

That’s looking really smart mate 👌🏽

[SaminCam]

Evening all, not getting much time at the bench at the moment but over the last week or two managed to more or less finish the cockpit. After the last update i added (hopefully) enough weight to keep it nose down using araldite and shotgun pellets, i then glued the tub and the halves together. Most of the time and effort then went into scratch building some structure behind the RIO, adding the covering on the front and modifying the pilot's HUD. For references i used a mixture of photos of the real thing and where these were lacking, i copied pictures of the larger scale resin kits. Paint was pretty much the same as the cockpit with tamiya acrylics, a flat coat and then some dry brushing and oil wash

 

 

 

 

 

The canopy is meant for the hasegawa kit but with some tlc should fit quite well. It's just placed on here to give a feel for how it will look:

 

 

Finally i made some progress on the intakes. These were glued, the seams filled and sanded (not perfect but they'll do) and attached to the fuselage:

 

 

The fit wasn't great and a fair bit of sanding was needed to get it to go together. The front half of the intake isn't much better and some steps on the inside are going to be inevitable i think... more on that next time! Cheers, Sam

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SaminCam]

Hello all, hope you're having a good weekend! The surface detail on the revell kit is ok but i felt like it was missing something... Looking at photos of the real thing, and the array of fantastic models on BM, i decided to add more detail around various panels. In the photo I've made a start and it's going ok! I mark the location with a sharp pencil, do two twists with the really small drill, clean up the holes with micro mesh then do a single twist with the larger drill - kind of madness but strangely satisfying, which is good because there is plenty more to do!

 

 

 

[SaminCam]

More holes drilled! I've been using pictures of the fine molds version to guide me and think I'm pretty much done with the upper surfaces, on to the undersides next...

 

 

 

[Antb]

That's some smart work Sam. Have you used a "guide" for the holes or are they all eyeballed? 

 

If the latter, that's some work to get them all straight and consistent!

[SaminCam]

17 minutes ago, Antb said:

That's some smart work Sam. Have you used a "guide" for the holes or are they all eyeballed? 

 

If the latter, that's some work to get them all straight and consistent!

Thanks Ant, don't look too closely! I'm marking them up by eye with a fine pencil and you quite quickly get the hang of spacing the holes evenly along each panel edge - when they're a bit wonky or unevenly spaced a wet cotton bud wipes away the pencil and try again! It's quite slow going but strangely relaxing and a good accompaniment to sitting outside listening to the cricket! 

 

 

[Harrier/ViperFan]

That's some fantastic work. For not wanting a museum piece you are well on the way to having one. You have me wanting me to drag out my Tamiya D kit.  

[SaminCam]

1 hour ago, Harrier/ViperFan said:

That's some fantastic work. For not wanting a museum piece you are well on the way to having one. You have me wanting me to drag out my Tamiya D kit.  

 Thanks mate, as usual I'm getting a bit carried away and enjoying learning about F14s along the way!

 

Bit of detail this afternoon was to add the gps dome (Thanks @Tony Oliver !) and to replace the chunky antenna with plasticard replacements. Next step is to sort out the intakes on the underside. Thanks for taking a look! Sam

 

 

 

 

[Serkan Sen]

Nicely detailed cockpit tub and well aligned rivets Sam... It should have taken quite long time to drill all rivets one after other... 😁

Serkan

[SaminCam]

Finally starting to look like an F14 now I've glued the main fuselage together. The fit is a bit iffy and currently working on filling and sanding seams as best i can. After this I'll get back to the nose section; I'm going to add more holes around the panels and have a go at adding some detail to the wheel well. 

 

 

 

 

[SaminCam]

Added some detail to the front wheelbay with various wires, plasticard, bits of sprue, etc to make it all look a bit busier: 

 

 

[SaminCam]

Evening all, nearly got the nose and cockpit section finished and was about to fit the canopy when i spotted the black and yellow handles (ejector seat?) which appear to the right of both consoles. I scratch built them from wire and plasticard - should do the job! I was happy with the painted one (black stripes still needed) but wasn't very repeatable so i made two more which will look the same - these ones also have extra long stems to make painting a bit easier. The cutting mat grid is 10mm and I've left the knife in to give an idea of scale, these are fiddly! Hopefully in the next post I'll have the canopy on and finally get the nose and fuselage all together. Thanks for dropping by!

 

 

 

[SaminCam]

Morning all! As I mentioned earlier the Revell cockpit was pretty horrible with thick, slightly misty plastic which didn't fit particularly well anyway. I got the Rob Taurus replacement which looks much better:

 

 

Now this part is meant for the Hasegawa model so I knew there would be a bit of playing around to get it to fit. First off I slowly snipped away the excess plastic, checking regularly to see how it fit and actually, it's not that bad: the worst gaps are at the back and these could have been reduced if I had a second go and used a finer, sharper pair of scissors (add that to the toolbox list...). At this point I'd already masked and painted the inside of the cockpit so I went for it and glued the new canopy in place with a small amount of tamiya extra thin. 

 

 

I masked up the panel lines as best I could then slathered on some filler. After letting this go off for 24 hours I began to sand - the photo below shows the process about half way through where I've done the big gap at the back but had to add a few more blobs of filler where it wasn't quite smooth. 

 

 

This is where I've got to now:

 

 

It looks ok! I re-did the masking as the edges inevitably got a bit damaged in the sanding process and I'm now ready to attach the whole nose section to the fuselage. I'll see if any more work is required once I've got a coat of Mr Surfacer down but I think it's nearly there (fingers crossed!). Cheers, Sam  

 

 

 

[SaminCam]

Evening all, after much deliberation I've picked a scheme and purchased a decal set so i can model NE-106 of VF2 Bounty Hunters:

 

 

A bit of online research seems to show a plausible load out for this aircraft including laser guided bombs, sparrow, sidewinders, and a phoenix - perfect so that i can make use of the extras sent by Tony (thanks again @Tony Oliver!)

 

 

[fewr9fkr9595]

Nice one mate. I have used those decals before. Very thin and fragile and love curling back on themselves. Take your time and be careful with them! 
 

 

[SaminCam]

3 hours ago, Tony Oliver said:

Nice one mate. I have used those decals before. Very thin and fragile and love curling back on themselves. Take your time and be careful with them! 
 

 

Thanks Tony, very useful to know!

[SaminCam]

Evening! All the main bits together now and edging towards being able to get some paint on! 

 

 

 

 

Plenty of filler used already and fully expecting there to be a more once the first coat of primer is down and flaws get highlighted.

 

The biggest battle has been the join between fuselage and nose section - there was a big gap which filled ok but have struggled to redefine a nice panel line there. After a few failed experiments i ended up "melting" a bit of stretched sprue into the gap with plastic cement then sanding flat once dry. This was then a bit happier to be rescribed than the usual filler. It's not too bad but would have been better if I'd done it this way first time, something learned anyway!

 

 

Thanks for dropping by! Sam