Academy's new 1/72 F-14A: Wichita 103 lo-viz 1985

[Jon020]

Good work! I've not long started work on the same kit, the Academy 1/72 kit, and I too am doing Witchita 103 (coincidence) no. 162603 but depicting it in 1991 conditions with  the red markings and possibly the Hind/Hip kill zap. 

I note you said you used the aires seats. I failed to get these to fit the tub as they were too wide. I presume you cut the tub base a bit wider or did you find an alternative solution? I'm using some tweaked GWH seats instead (as the Aires ones will fit in the GWH kit)... 

Looks good... will be interested in a comparison once finished 🙂

[npirnia]

12 hours ago, Jon020 said:

Good work! I've not long started work on the same kit, the Academy 1/72 kit, and I too am doing Witchita 103 (coincidence) no. 162603 but depicting it in 1991 conditions with  the red markings and possibly the Hind/Hip kill zap. 

I note you said you used the aires seats. I failed to get these to fit the tub as they were too wide. I presume you cut the tub base a bit wider or did you find an alternative solution? I'm using some tweaked GWH seats instead (as the Aires ones will fit in the GWH kit)... 

Looks good... will be interested in a comparison once finished 🙂

Hi Jon,

 

I saw your thread and looks like you are off to a great start! I did use the Aires seats, but sanded the sides of the seat pan. It didn't take much sanding and the smoothed sides are not invisible once installed. You may want to grab the NLG door placards from the VF-111 Furball Aero decals since DXM omitted those. The VF-111 version is not a perfect match for VF-1's, but quite close.

 

Lastly, have a look at the size of the Academy TCS compared to the Quickboost version. I don't have the Quickboost TCS in 1/72, but their 1/48 version seems to be about 10% undersized. This could have carried over to the 1/72 version as well. The Academy TCS is very correct in size and shape - a relative first for Tomcat kits!

 

Good luck with your build! Your VF-111 Miss Molly came together beautifully and I'll be following along your WIP thread.

 

Best,

 

Nick

Edited December 7, 2020 by npirnia

[Jon020]

4 hours ago, npirnia said:

Hi Jon,

 

I saw your thread and looks like you are off to a great start! I did use the Aires seats, but sanded the sides of the seat pan. It didn't take much sanding and the smoothed sides are not invisible once installed. You may want to grab the NLG door placards from the VF-111 Furball Aero decals since DXM omitted those. The VF-111 version is not a perfect match for VF-1's, but quite close.

 

Lastly, have a look at the size of the Academy TCS compared to the Quickboost version. I don't have the Quickboost TCS in 1/72, but their 1/48 version seems to be about 10% undersized. This could have carried over to the 1/72 version as well. The Academy TCS is very correct in size and shape - a relative first for Tomcat kits!

 

Good luck with your build! Your VF-111 Miss Molly came together beautifully and I'll be following along your WIP thread.

 

Best,

 

Nick

Hi Nick. Thanks. That all makes sense with the seats. I used the quickboost TCS on the Hobbyboss kit and found it to be sized perfectly. I'd not noticed that there was one in the academy kit when I ordered it for this one... either I was looking at the wrong sprue or wrong kit (I nearly stated a GWH kit instead) ... but this build looks like it'll be easier. Some parts look well engineered. I opened out the holes a bit in the rear fuselage mounting lugs ...very snug fit. I didn't want to test fit and not get them apart again 🤣

I need to shave a few mm off the rear ones to squeeze the Aires exhausts in... a couple of mm should do it, but should retain structural integrity ok.

I did look at the Furball set for the nose gear door placards, yes they are similar... but I think there's the beginning of a plan for these and some other bits needed (e.g. canopy rail names) to come further down the line. I will use the dxm set too... a mix of transfers for 103 and 111 to give me what's needed ... but yes some other bits still to resolve.

And overall colour too 🤔... more experimenting needed on that.

Thanks for the kind words.

Jonathan

[Bejay53]

Is it just me, or is academy causing my stash to increase this year? Between this F-14, an F-15, F-18 and the 1/144 B-1 my wallet is taking a big hit this year.

There may be better kits of these subjects, but not for the price.

[npirnia]

5 hours ago, Jon020 said:

And overall colour too 🤔... more experimenting needed on that.

Thanks for the kind words.

Jonathan

Mission Models LGG looks pretty good, though I think it might be just a tiny bit dark. I recently adjusted my bottle of gloss LGG a touch by adding some FS36495 and a little bit of white (~10% 36495 and 5% white by estimated volume).  It now looks really good to my eye. Part of the challenge is that photography from the 1980s and early 90s tends to portray colors as lighter and less saturated due to the nature of film. Many F-14s in LGG shot in bright day light look almost white, but LGG hasn't really changed much as a color for a longtime. 

 

It is also interesting that VF-1 managed to keep their jets in LGG and red markings till their disestablishment in 1993. Even though i chose a TPS scheme for my VF-1, they had few TPS jets through the 80s and early 90s. VF-2 also seemed to do the same, but still had about 1/3 to 1/2 of their jets in TPS. I can't think of another squadron with so many colorful jets during this timeframe.

 

Best,

 

Nick

[Jon020]

4 hours ago, npirnia said:

Mission Models LGG looks pretty good, though I think it might be just a tiny bit dark. I recently adjusted my bottle of gloss LGG a touch by adding some FS36495 and a little bit of white (~10% 36495 and 5% white by estimated volume).  It now looks really good to my eye. Part of the challenge is that photography from the 1980s and early 90s tends to portray colors as lighter and less saturated due to the nature of film. Many F-14s in LGG shot in bright day light look almost white, but LGG hasn't really changed much as a color for a longtime. 

 

It is also interesting that VF-1 managed to keep their jets in LGG and red markings till their disestablishment in 1993. Even though i chose a TPS scheme for my VF-1, they had few TPS jets through the 80s and early 90s. VF-2 also seemed to do the same, but still had about 1/3 to 1/2 of their jets in TPS. I can't think of another squadron with so many colorful jets during this timeframe.

 

Best,

 

Nick

Hi Nick. I think the Mission Modes 16440 looks about right for a clean freshly applied scheme. This suited my model of Miss Molly, but as aircraft age or are exposed to elements or weathering the colours change. I thought the 36440 just a little darker. I appreciate it might just be the lower reflectivity of the matt finish but I've convinced myself it is actually a slightly deeper tone (very little in it, but next too each other (or one on top of the other) they stand out. 

Having had a fairly lengthy discussion with Tony O about the colours, and looked at photos of very pale F14s with the more normal Light Gull or Light ghost Tactical scheme aircraft in the same shot, it's clear that there is some variation. Certainly some Bs or Ds at the end in retro schemes, whilst declared as painted in LGG, clearly were not, and Light Grey 36495 is more likely as it'd be on use onboard for some other aircraft. So whilst this seemed a good choice for 162603, I still think it's not quite right as the colours seen on Wichita 3 in 1991 still have that "warm" look that's given with LGG but not the TPS colours.... even with the variation in different film stocks and conditions. I think 36495 was well justified for Tony's low vis sundowner as he's shown me a photo of two aircraft the sundowner looking very pale in comparison. 

I intend to try some mixing of LGG with either white or (warmer) insignia white to see what that gives. This was at a time that the aircraft were nearing the end of their final cruise... I expect the faded look reflected the use they'd endured at sea on Ranger.

But thanks for the further pointers ... always good to compare notes 😉 and apologies for the further thread drift

As for the kit... I' spent this evening fettling the back end to fit what I thought were the too long Aries exhaust tubes, but they've improved the exhaust nozzle fit so the clearance was possibly not so bad. Something I'll write up on mine shortly.

Thanks again... and it's good to see a completed model of 161288

cheers

Jonathan

[npirnia]

5 hours ago, Jon020 said:

Having had a fairly lengthy discussion with Tony O about the colours, and looked at photos of very pale F14s with the more normal Light Gull or Light ghost Tactical scheme aircraft in the same shot, it's clear that there is some variation. Certainly some Bs or Ds at the end in retro schemes, whilst declared as painted in LGG, clearly were not, and Light Grey 36495 is more likely as it'd be on use onboard for some other aircraft. So whilst this seemed a good choice for 162603, I still think it's not quite right as the colours seen on Wichita 3 in 1991 still have that "warm" look that's given with LGG but not the TPS colours.... even with the variation in different film stocks and conditions.

Hi Jon,

 

It is true that there is a fair bit of variation, but it probably isn't the chosen color per se. All the colors that USN Tomcats were painted in were delivered to squadrons as 2 part formulas that needed to be mixed. Depending on the diligence of the Tech mixing up the paint, the colors could look a bit different between batches. The Tomcat squadrons adhered to USN doctrine on paint schemes. They could only area paint on shore, while deployed all of their paint came in small spray cans and often didn't match very well. Part of the reason that Tomcats often looked so blotchy during and after cruise. The crew walked around on the aircraft with their "greasy boots" and all the touch ups/corrosion control work was done with spray cans of somewhat random color. The good news is that this gives the modeler a fair bit of latitude since aircraft paint colors could vary from the "FS standard" and official USN color chips. And thats not even accounting for fading and environmental factors.

 

I wondered the same about VF-1 for a bit, especially since I'm planning to build NE-104 on her 1984 cruise with the Tamiya F-14A at some point. There is a beautiful CJ Heatley photo of this bird in his book, the "Cutting Edge". This led me to lighten my LGG a bit, but I also have lots of pictures of other F-14s from the 1980s and LGG looks pretty light in all those pics. That leads me to favor photography as the cause more than actual paint color. Especially since USN doctrine was to use LGG and no other aircraft wearing FS 36495 were co-located with F-14s base wise.

 

You can feel confident that Wichita 103 was in LGG, but adjusting the color or using FS 36495 may be necessary to match the desired aesthetic or account for variations in paint batches. Which is what it is all about anyway.

 

I'm excited to see it come together!

 

Best,

Nick

[James G]

Great job, I always like seeing lo-viz cat.

[David H]

i agree it seems Academy captured the shape of the Tomcat quite well. Given its ease of construction i'm sure it will do well in the Marketplace.... once Tony Oliver exhausts his stash of Hobbyboss kits. 🤣

 

-d-

Edited December 9, 2020 by David H
double thread

[Harry Callahan]

Wow your Tomcat is a superb build. Never knew that Academy can make a  kit in this high quality , i was never a big fan of Academy even i like their F-86 Sabre in 1/48..

But i think i must buy their Tomcat too, even i build normally in 1/48.