ZHOU Kun Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 Hello, this is my ongoing project: An F-14D Super Tomcat in flight, probably in take off phase. Here is what the project is like now And I would like to share the whole project from the beginning. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 8, 2020 Author Share Posted July 8, 2020 This is a project to complete the F-14 to F/A-18 collection. I have already completed projects such as F-15C Eagle, F-16C Fighting Falcon and F/A-18 Hornet(in the form of EF-18AM). For this time I planned to build an F-14 in flight, but with landing gear hung down. So I chose the AMK version of F-14D 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 9, 2020 Author Share Posted July 9, 2020 The story began with the nose section as most of the aircraft projects do. AMK provided two very detailed seats, which featured most of the ejection actuation mechanisms behind the seats. As for the seams between the two halves, I chose to cover them with masking tapes. I hate unnacessary fill and sand works As I was going to depict an aircraft in flight, I placed two spare Tamiya F-14 pilots from one of my friend in Beijing As the pilots were from Tamiya F-14A kit, I changed the heads with Hasegawa ones as they wore HGU-55P helmets The cockpit was painted simply with Light Gray Gunze C308, all other details were brought up by kit decals and a little washing 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 9, 2020 Author Share Posted July 9, 2020 Nose section with completed cockpit hub. All parts were easy snapped in and fit well. Great fit 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 9, 2020 Author Share Posted July 9, 2020 Nose landing gear bay were spray painted white. Details such as the hydraulic accumulator rings, electric wire bundles, hydraulic lines were hand painted 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 10, 2020 Author Share Posted July 10, 2020 I had read threads in forums that the fitting of fuselage of AMK's Tomcat was not quite decent. So I took more care about dry fitting. There were air intake trunks, positionable shockwave ramps, bleed air doors, main landing gear bays in the middle section of fuselage. One had to pay extreme attentions to make sure everything was in position, otherwise it would bring a lot more sanding and filling work It would be great practice if you remove the seams from slide-moulding, as shown below on nacelles. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 10, 2020 Author Share Posted July 10, 2020 Once I had clear the path through dry fitting, I began working on the two F110-GE-400 Turbofans. Below: a reference photo from DACO's Uncovering the Grumman F-14A/B/D Tomcat, showing the inside of F110 afterburner 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 10, 2020 Author Share Posted July 10, 2020 The air intake trunks and shockwave ramps are also painted and weathered before installing Referred from photo below , also from DACO's book mentioned above 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 10, 2020 Author Share Posted July 10, 2020 Installing the components in the middle fuselage takes great care, if you don't want to have troubles joining upper and lower halves of fuselage Some small parts were glued in place with instant glue, because they were did not fit with fuselage quite neatly. I just didn't want to hold the little parts in place for a whole day! Masking tape was necessary when closing the upper and lower halves 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 10, 2020 Author Share Posted July 10, 2020 First try with flap-down-wings. And for the first time the airframe is put on the pole. I hadn't installed pole hold inside the fuselage then. I was just trying to figure out how to support the Tomcat model, preferrably somewhere near aft fuselage. It was a huge plane, I tried it with steel poles whose outer diameter was 3 milimeters, it worked 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 10, 2020 Author Share Posted July 10, 2020 Once the pole position is determined, I glued a square tube inside aft fuselage, supporting it with multiple spare sprues. The airframe was hold in place firmly 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 10, 2020 Author Share Posted July 10, 2020 (edited) then the top and bottomo halves of fuselage can be glued together. But the shape of nose section is NOT decent! I check up the threads in ARC forums and reached a conclusion that the bottom of nose sections needed to be trimmed flat. But how? with a FILE!!!! As shown below, it look a lot better after a lot of sanding with FILEs. The pallets for Phoenix missiles and large air-to-ground weapons fitted good with the fuselage And this is how it look now: FAR BETTER! Edited July 10, 2020 by ZHOU Kun 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 10, 2020 Author Share Posted July 10, 2020 Modifying landing gear legs was familiar to me, since I had done it twice： One with F/A-18F Super Hornet(Hasegawa), the other with EF-18AM (Kinetic, yes still a Hornet) But the first try did come out with instant glue going everywhere, also the outer tube of main gear strut was almost destroyed. I would like to extend my gratitude to Sio, the boss of AMK, who warm heartedly send me another copy of landing gear struts. This time I planted a thin tube inside, as the backbone of landing gear strut. A thicker tube acted as the shock strut inner tube. The file with triangular cross section was used to cut the out tubes (actually by sanding it to make holes on tubes, than breaked it off) flat file was used to trim the end of tube, as to make it neat it worked out good 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 10, 2020 Author Share Posted July 10, 2020 As for the nose gear, i determined the wheels were too small (I had made a comparison with wheels from Tamiya Tomcats) And the shock strut of AMK kit did not extend enough to represent the extended nose gear strut As shown below. When in air and on ground(extended, not compressed) the ratio between length of outer tube and inner tube that is exposed to outside should be approximately 3 to 2. That is how I determined the length of steel tube for the new gear It also work good 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 10, 2020 Author Share Posted July 10, 2020 I chose the split-part-canopy over the clear one. This design is really interesting and the mock up seemed OK Also, as you can see from the photo above, one of the major issues with AMK's Tomcat kit is being fixed with Tamiya's epoxy putty This time the AMK Tomcat began to look like a real Tomcat, I was happy with the result When compared to a Super Hornet, it is still a very large aircraft 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 10, 2020 Author Share Posted July 10, 2020 Time to install the windshield and canopy. I painted both inside and outside of the frames As for canopy, I applied some putty to the bottom of it to make the seam not so obvious Sanded it, this time it would be OK 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 10, 2020 Author Share Posted July 10, 2020 I worked on the exhaust nozzles. Giving it a black base before applying super metal colors. I applied the paint by spraying with the nozzle masked Not weathered yet... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcat911 Posted July 10, 2020 Share Posted July 10, 2020 Wow! Looking very nice so far. Keep it up! Mark 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 12, 2020 Author Share Posted July 12, 2020 Time to work on the main landing gears. Adding drag struts, hydraulic adaptors, downlock actuators, jack pads(right beneath the gear shock strut). Also added are the hydraulic lines for wheel brakes (connecting outer tube of shock strut and the brake units) The hydraulic lines are metal pipes that are pressurized to 3000psi, so they are rigid. When the shock absorber strut moves, there are rotating adaptors between every movable parts: such as upper torsion link, lower torsion link, and inner tube The landing gear extension/retraction actuator has not been added yet. As shown below, pic from DACO's Uncovering Grumman F-14A/B/D Tomcat 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 15, 2020 Author Share Posted July 15, 2020 Look alike??😃 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 Very nice! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nikolay Polyakov Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 On 10/07/2020 at 18:40, ZHOU Kun said: And this is how it look now: FAR BETTER! Excellent work, now the nose shape looks very realistic. On 10/07/2020 at 19:05, ZHOU Kun said: As for the nose gear, i determined the wheels were too small (I had made a comparison with wheels from Tamiya Tomcats) And the shock strut of AMK kit did not extend enough to represent the extended nose gear strut I’ve never thought that AMK kit has such an issues... Great progress so far! 👏 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 18, 2020 Author Share Posted July 18, 2020 The gears got their colors: As for the wheels Step1: I used a mixture with Gunze C33 (matt black) and a drop of white to paint the tyres Step2: Apply masking tapes to the wheels and press the tape so as to follow the edge of wheel rims Step3: Use a sharp modeling knife to cut out the shape of rims, and make the rims exposed, then spray paint the rims with white paint As for gear struts: I just masked the oleos then painted the strut white. The hydraulic lines on the torsion links, landing lights and the marks on the tow bars are hand painted 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 Gear extended looks great! Good job! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHOU Kun Posted July 26, 2020 Author Share Posted July 26, 2020 Primer is on! Pre-shading 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now