Eduard F-14D Exhaust Nozzles (648560 for Tamiya)

[Mike]

F-14D Exhaust Nozzles (648560 for Tamiya)

1:48 Eduard Brassin

 

 

Tamiya's überkit of the mighty and much-loved F-14D Tomcat is superb, and Eduard have been bringing out lots of sets, with this Brassin set following up to further enhance the detail in the rear, where injection moulding can't offer the level of detail and finesse that resin can.  Especially Eduard resin, which is amongst the best quality currently available.  The set arrives in the usual black box for larger castings, and under the layers of protective foam and the instructions, you will find two ziplok bags, one of resin and one containing the Photo-Etch (PE) parts, which are further protected by a piece of white card.

 

 

The trunking is quite long on the Tomcat, so is made up of two parts.  The tubular section is covered with superbly detailed corrugations along its length, with the rear face of the engine inserted along with the delicate PE rendition of the afterburner ring, which is made up of three parts, and will need care in correctly assembling it, to which end a number of diagrams are provided to help.  The trunking has attachment notches for the engine faces, and the exhaust petals flush fit at the rear by lining up the two blocks at the top.  The F-14 is often seen with one nozzle compressed to its smallest aperture and the other relaxed, but this moulding has two identical open nozzles that have a full set of pre-cut kabuki tape masks (not pictured) that are applied to the exterior to achieve the pattern seen on the nozzles.  It’ll take some time to apply, but the results should be well worth the effort.  The finished assemblies slide inside the fuselage, and have the block on each trunk/nozzle to assist with alignment.  Sympathetic painting will be the key to showing off these parts to their best effect, so spend some time researching the colours typically seen within the trunk and on the nozzles, making good use of the masks.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

 

[busnproplinerfan]

Are these ever in the open position in flight? or just on take off? I have two Revell D models that need rebuilds and want to put them in flight and use the landing gear parts for an older A model that needs a landing gear. The kit's afterburners are fully opened, I guess you could cut the pieces and close them, but they overlap each other I think.