Revell ‘Top Gun’ F-14 1/48

[Alexglide]

Despite powering through lockdown with a rekindled enjoyment of model building I’ve only just found this forum, so apologies if I miss any detail you’d usually expect, feel free to ask.

 

I’ve somewhat inadvertently started a collection of 1/48 aircraft featured in film and TV - Memphis Belle and Gibson’s Lancaster sit proudly on a shelf and at Christmas the wife cunningly remembered I’d floated the idea of Maverick’s F-14. Sadly, it’s the Revell kit rather than the Tamiya so I struggled to find much aftermarket for the detail I want, so as an experiment I bought the Big Ed kit for the Tamiya model to see if it can be transplanted onto this one. I couldn’t find any info on this so I thought why not post here!

 

The thought occurred to me shortly after starting the other day so there are a couple of ‘before’ pictures missing, but so far the cockpit interior is coming together well - A bit of hacking was necessary as Goose’s footwell was built out for some reason, but the holes made are covered with the photo etch

I wasn’t able to fit the rudder pedals exactly as Eduard intended, so I filed down the existing moulded ones to stubs and attached the etched ones to them

You might also notice the rather oversized throttle lever - there wasn’t one at all on the revell moulding and it was the best I could do with what was laying around!

 

The instrument panels needed  minimal changes to make the etch fit - just a couple of little notches where the backing wasn’t quite large enough 

Now to let that all dry and start on the seats!

[Alexglide]

Quick Update, after priming, painting and gluing some of the etch onto the tub I found a few more bits to file away - the tub in the Tamiya kit is made of several components rather than the one here so i get the odd surprise when I try to find a home for some of the unused photo etch! All good though, the interior is pretty much there, just need to give it a light coat to even everything out.

The seats have been pretty straightforward. Some of the detail is included in the moulding but it’s rather chunky as you might expect, but it was a simply job to cut it away before assembling. It’s a shame the shoulder straps seem so uniform but there didn’t seem to be much scope for adjustment so I’ll live with it!

Now to let that all dry, hopefully I can get a bit of weathering done and give it a shot of matt varnish tomorrow.

[desert falcon]

Welcome to the forum @Alexglide, looking good so far !! 

[Alexglide]

Cheers @desert falcon, hoping it doesn’t go downhill!

[Alexglide]

A bit more progress over the weekend - Learning from the cockpit I took some time to go through the eduard instructions and made a note on each stage, converting them as best I could to match up with the revell kit. The Tamiya kit the etch is designed for is made up of a lot more parts, so it’s taken a bit of working out. As an example, the undercarriage bays in the Tamiya kit are built up of individual side walls, where much of it in the revell kit is just moulded into the fuselage underside. Anyway, made sense of it now and made a start on some of the externals. I’ve also built up the turbines, these look like they need a bit of work to make fit but they’re beautifully intricate so it should be worth it!

While that’s all drying I’ve primed and then painted the intakes white, masking off the contact surfaces to save a bit of sanding later. The forward section of the intakes will be grey like the exterior, and the white tends to get quite grubby so I’ll need to weather this and paint the grey once the white has cured - hopefully I’ll have the time tomorrow!

 

[Alexglide]

Busy week but time for a quick update. The intakes have now been finished and made slightly grubby before sealing them up. The fit wasn’t brilliant but a bit of time spent sanding down the high spots minimised the use of filler.

While I had the ghost grey out I gave the underside of the wings a quick preliminary coat, and then the topside with the US Navy bluey grey (the name escapes me now!) just so there’s nothing missed on the wing roots once the swing wing is installed. 

 

That’s all I’ve had time for really, I’ve left the cockpit tub to glue inside the fuselage until I can carry on.

 

I’m starting to run low on ghost grey, I tend to preference revell enamels (this one is number 76), and end up shopping all over the place so if anyone can recommend a good supplier for these that could make my life a bit easier!

[Alexglide]

A bit more done over the weekend - the fuselage halves are now together, it’s at this point it started to become apparent that this kit fits really poorly. Still, sanding and filling can cure most issues with a bit of patience! The eduard set comes with the fold down ladder and steps, which aren’t catered for in this kit, but I started building the ladder out of curiosity and then got carried away, so I’ve cut away part of the fuselage in order to make this work - I’d like to build the kit with an open canopy and I think it would be much nicer with the steps. Looks a bit rough at the moment but won’t take much to tidy up -

as the front undercarriage bay sides and doors come as a single piece, and the hinges are not in the correct place a bit of surgery was required here. I just cut off the hinges and kept them to the side (except for one, that fired off at I can only assume escape velocity, is it’s nowhere to be found - I made another one with some scrap, see if you can tell which one 😂). Once I’d tarted up the undercarriage bits I reattached the doors ready to be fitted later.

the undercarriage legs were a bit more straightforward, just cutting away the chunky plastic detail and replacing. I reckon the undercarriage is going to be a pig to paint, so I might leave these off for now.

Looking ahead, the sparrow and sidewinder missiles are true to the film, but there’s a bunch of phonix missiles in the kit, along with the substantial fuselage hard points that will all go to waste. Sadly, they seem to have included these instead of the very much needed drop tanks - I’ve had a browse today for some aftermarket ones but can’t seem to find any in stock anywhere, anyone got any tips?