MiGFan79 Posted November 7, 2020 Share Posted November 7, 2020 Hi All. After approval from Col my contribution to this group build will be an Italeri 1/48 Tomcat. Plan is minimal extras outside of the Furball Decals and possibly seats / seat belts, mainly just to do a nice straightforward build of what I think is a great livery. I started this kit a couple of years ago and built / painted the wings (which due to the "traditional" construction is the logical way in my opinion). Other than some parts removed from the sprues for dry fitting that's as far it went. It's obviously not the Tamiya kit in terms of design or engineering but dry fitting indicates it should build ok, only a*se is having to mask the wings so early in the build for basically the duration of the build! It will be decked out with a suitable period deck launch / intercept loadout as befits the theme of the GB. See you all on the 14th! 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anatol Pigwa Posted November 7, 2020 Share Posted November 7, 2020 Great work on the wings. This promises to be a very fine build indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted November 7, 2020 Share Posted November 7, 2020 If the wings are any indication as to the overall quality of your work we're going to see a nice result Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiGFan79 Posted November 27, 2020 Author Share Posted November 27, 2020 I have found some Aires GRU-7 seats in the bits box that fit the orignal tub quite well (not the case with the Academy kit they were intended for). I am going to use these in conjunction with Eduard etch intended for the Tamiya seats to "busy" up the cockpit area a bit. There isn't any etch or other aftermarket available for the cockpit itself, however I have borrowed the FIghter Town generic F-14 sheet which is chuck full of useful stuff for use all over the airframe. I hope to be able to use decals to on the main panels and then a bit of dry brushing and highlighting to give some life to the side consoles. My plan is to get ad much attached to the fuselage as possible before joining the halves together as I don't want a million gluing and filling jobs to do while i work around fully painted and masked wings. Rear stabilators fitted and first wipe of putty in lieu of primer. Try and make some inroads on the cockpit this weekend. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dansk Posted November 27, 2020 Share Posted November 27, 2020 great stuff 👍 and The aires seats look awesome and I think your plan with drybrushing the side panels will be really nice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted November 27, 2020 Share Posted November 27, 2020 You look to be making good progress there with some worthwhile updates to the cockpit planned. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiGFan79 Posted November 30, 2020 Author Share Posted November 30, 2020 Progress on the cockpit and seats. All working out well up to now. I'll crack on detailing the seats later this week then that's all the internal stuff done. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 Tidy work in the 'pits. Hopefully that horizontal join isn't a problematic one when it comes time to assemble the forward fuselage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnl42 Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 Yeah baby! Can never have too many F-14s! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiGFan79 Posted November 30, 2020 Author Share Posted November 30, 2020 2 hours ago, Col. said: Tidy work in the 'pits. Hopefully that horizontal join isn't a problematic one when it comes time to assemble the forward fuselage. It’s not bad at all. General fit and finish, while unlike to keep Tamiya awake at night, is pretty good. I’ve certainly built worse. The Academy F-14 certainly needs more work, the top half of the forward fuselage is moulded into the rest of the upper but the joint line for the lower part of the cockpit is cranked and needs much more work. I’ll KUTA the Academy kit I’m building as an aggressor at some point. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 33 minutes ago, MiGFan79 said: ...I’ll KUTA the Academy kit I’m building as an aggressor at some point. Is it too far on to be included here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiGFan79 Posted November 30, 2020 Author Share Posted November 30, 2020 18 minutes ago, Col. said: Is it too far on to be included here? It's at the same point as this build was (wings painted) but as I've got this build well on and my RAF Phantom going in KUTA and I like to give myself a slight chance of getting a GB project finished so it'll stay on the back burner for now. It will resurface on a GB sooner rather than later. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 15 minutes ago, MiGFan79 said: It's at the same point as this build was (wings painted) but as I've got this build well on and my RAF Phantom going in KUTA and I like to give myself a slight chance of getting a GB project finished so it'll stay on the back burner for now. It will resurface on a GB sooner rather than later. If you do get bench space and time it'll be most welcome here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dansk Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 That cockpit looks superb 👍 nice work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiGFan79 Posted December 8, 2020 Author Share Posted December 8, 2020 Things are moving on nicely still. Aires seats with Eduard etch and a few choice placards from the Fighter Town sheet - Rest of the airframe going together quite well. Some filling here and there but nothing biblical. Thoughts are moving towards painting now which fits in well with the British Phantom I am working on in parallel for KUTA. Sub assemblies (except missiles) are very simple on this kit, especially with most being white. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 Taking shape nicely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiGFan79 Posted December 22, 2020 Author Share Posted December 22, 2020 Powering on with sub assemblies as these are my pet hate at the end of a build and things I find a real struggle to get over the line. Pretty pleased so will get all these bagged up and put to one side for now. Once the festive (relatively speaking) period is done I'll get the compressor and extractor fired up and get some paint down on the main airframe, although my initial focus will be my Phantom FG.1 for KUTA. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 Good job on the sub-assemblies, I too find them a struggle to get done but haven't yet managed to have the ability to get them done early on as you have. You're doing a great job on your Tomcat, it may not be the Tamiya kit but yours certainly looks like a Tomcat to me, and a very nice one too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 Some very good work gone on with this one especially in the cockpit. It looks to have gone together very well, again especially when you compare it to the Tamiya kit. Keep up the good work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiGFan79 Posted December 23, 2020 Author Share Posted December 23, 2020 It's not a bad kit, especially when you consider it was just under £20.00 when I picked it up. The Academy one which I have on the bench as mentioned above seems reasonable too, only thing I don't like on that kit is there is a large cranked joint at the front of the fuselage which I'm hoping can be dealt with before the cockpit tub goes in as it will be much easier to squeeze it into reasonable fit if it can be accessed from both sides. I have the Tamiya F-14's in my stash but I'm still honing my skills and finding techniques I like using so I'm getting plenty of value building the "lower" end of the F-14 kit market! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dansk Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 Did you paint the goodyear on the tires? Thats insanely good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiGFan79 Posted December 24, 2020 Author Share Posted December 24, 2020 On 12/23/2020 at 4:58 PM, Dansk said: Did you paint the goodyear on the tires? Thats insanely good Lol no. it’s on the fightertown decal sheet but I thought it would look good, especially on an early hi viz ‘cat. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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