Tamiya 1/48 F-14D VF-2 OIF 2003 Final Reveal

[ZHOU Kun]

Finally finished, WIP thread here:

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235079872-tamiya-148-f-14d-tomcat-wip

 

Also I had done similar work with the AMK kit:

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235079280-amk-f-14d-vf-213-oef-2001-148/

 

This work consist of three parts:

1, Tamiya 61118 F-14D Tomcat, 1/48

2, KASL Hobby F-14A/B/D Slat & Wing Flap Set (Perhaps this is the most difficult part! The flaps warped a bit, and the rails of slats and flaps did not align perfectly)

3, ResKit F-14D F110-GE-400 Closed Exhaust Nozzles for Tamiya

 

The airplane is built with some modifications on landing gears and high lift devices. The paint I used was Gunze Mr. Color, a solvent based color. Painting was done in four steps:

1) apply a layer of Mr. Surfacer 1500 primer;

2) making preshading with brownish black ;

3) basic painting, but with thinned paint so as not to fully cover the preshading;

4) weathering with Winsor Newton Oil color

 

I took this project as complement to my F-14 Tomcat collection since AMK did have some shape issues (especially at the nose section). The engineering and shaping of Tamiya Tomcat was absolutely a master piece when compared to the AMK Tomcat kit. Yet the biggest short coming of Tamiya kit was lack of details and the slat and trailing edge flaps. Tamiya chosen to achieve a enjoyable build yet AMK went on an epic build with abundant details and options. 

 

Most of the difficulties of this build lay on the resin parts. The wings took a lot of time to test fit, fill and sanding, and the KASL Hobby nozzles were too short. I later chose a ResKit set of nozzles to complete this build, only to find ResKit did not do enough test fitting with their parts. I had to cut the afterburner cans short to make it fit better to the F-14 nacelles.

 

Here comes the reveal photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 14, 2021 by ZHOU Kun

[MattSimps74]

Awesome, Baby! It actually looks like a Turkey above the ramp. Seems like an obvious thing to say but you’ve nailed the realism in a way that is utterly convincing. I love the stalky legs, too, just brilliant. Congratulations! 

[ZHOU Kun]

For some of the scale mates who can not see photos from Weibo, I am sharing some photos from my scalemates album

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RMCS]

Superb 

[SaminCam]

Fantastic Zhou Kun! The whole build was excellent but I particularly like the weathering 

[exdraken]

Better than reality!!

[Sky Keg]

Yet another way that makes the Tomcat so very attractive.  Great results!!!!! 

 

Mike

[noelh]

Wow, you are not someone to underplay your talent. Quite rightly, that is some superb work. 

 

I love the Tomcat and that's a beaut. 

 

Brilliant! 

 

[ZHOU Kun]

On 3/16/2021 at 15:29, MattSimps74 said:

Awesome, Baby! It actually looks like a Turkey above the ramp. Seems like an obvious thing to say but you’ve nailed the realism in a way that is utterly convincing. I love the stalky legs, too, just brilliant. Congratulations! 

Thank you! I think it an unique way to make the model airplanes look more dynamic!

 

 

16 hours ago, RMCS said:

Superb 

Thanks mate! I am making an AMK MiG-31 now, hope it would turn out good

 

 

15 hours ago, SaminCam said:

Fantastic Zhou Kun! The whole build was excellent but I particularly like the weathering 

Airbrushing pre-shades can not make delicate effects on skins, I chosed to make it more detailed with oil paints on hand brushes:-)

 

14 hours ago, Sky Keg said:

Yet another way that makes the Tomcat so very attractive.  Great results!!!!! 

 

Mike

It is a part of my in-flight plan, glad that you like it!

 

14 hours ago, noelh said:

Wow, you are not someone to underplay your talent. Quite rightly, that is some superb work. 

 

I love the Tomcat and that's a beaut. 

 

Brilliant! 

 

thank you mate!

Edited March 17, 2021 by ZHOU Kun

[djos]

Amazing model.

So many details, visual effects, weathering.....and presentation itself...simply beautiful

regards Djordje

[Baldy]

Beautiful builds! Lovely weathering and finish - and beautifully presented.

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

[Roberto]

Great! Bravo.

[exdraken]

4 hours ago, ZHOU Kun said:

it is a part of my in-flight plan,

I hope the Spanish one does not need to land on a carrier though

 

nice Taurus load out though!

[Gary Brantley]

Fantastic Tomcat!   

[ZHOU Kun]

9 hours ago, djos said:

Amazing model.

So many details, visual effects, weathering.....and presentation itself...simply beautiful

regards Djordje

I tried my best, and I am glad with the outcome!

 

8 hours ago, Baldy said:

Beautiful builds! Lovely weathering and finish - and beautifully presented.

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

Glad that you enjoyed this work! The photos were taken with Sony digital camera with a 240mm focal range lens

 

7 hours ago, Roberto said:

Great! Bravo.

Thank you!

 

6 hours ago, exdraken said:

I hope the Spanish one does not need to land on a carrier though

 

nice Taurus load out though!

The Spanish Hornets are not carrier qualified, they just fly from airfields on land:-) The TAURUS came from my old Revell Eurofighter sprue. F/A-18 was the only  strike platform to carry the TAURUS missiles in Spanish Air Force as of reports published in 2018

 

 

5 hours ago, Gary Brantley said:

Fantastic Tomcat!   

Thank you!

Edited March 18, 2021 by ZHOU Kun

[ZHOU Kun]

Hello, I would like to share you some WIP photos of this Tomcat build. I would like to share it here in RFI thread in short, if this would help people who would build it with such massive conversion. It began with mock ups with the KASL Hobby resin wing set

 

 

The resin wings consisted of 2 separate wings and their slats and flaps, intended to replace the wings provided in the kit. KASL has inserted a metal spar to ensure the wing would not warp, great job! As for the flaps and slats, they warped a bit, and there were some mis-alignment among the rails and tracks to extend and retract the slat/flap

 

 

 

As for cockpit, straight out of box. The pilot figures of Tamiya were decently detailed and moulded, a pleasure to build and paint. 

 

As for nose gear compartment, I added some bundles of electric wires according to AMK's instruction sheet

 

 

 

 

 

It was not easy to fix the resin flaps as the port trailing edge warped a bit. I did not bother to put it in hot water to bend it straight, as I used some Tamiya epoxy putties instead. Filling and sanding always work

 

 

As for exhaust nozzles, I did not think the kit parts were decently detailed for such an expensive kit. I opted for KASL nozzles first, only to find them too short. I bought ResKit sets later on

 

Also added to the cockpit were the canopy jettison handles made of plastic sheets

 

Then, it came to the modification of main gears. As the shock strut of nose gear was already extended on ground, I left the nose gear as what it was.

 

The extended shock piston were made of stainless steel tubes. I did not cut them, but sawed them open with a triangular file, then sanded the cross section smooth and clean.

 

 

A thinner tube was planted inside as the backbone of the extended gear

 

Put it in front of the AMK build

 

 

As F-14Ds were able to take off without the assist of afterburners, I chose The ResKit F-14D Closed Nozzle Set for Tamiya. It was an awesome set, yet it seemed ResKit crew forgot to mock up with Tamiya airframe before they manufacture this product. The afterburner sections were too long for the model, although the length may be decent for a real Tomcat. So I had to cut the burner cans short to achieve a better fitting

 

 

And... the gears were painted and weathered

 

 

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by ZHOU Kun

[ZHOU Kun]

A little recap on the progress continued...

 

Masking the windshield and canopy marks the beginning of paint work. Tamiya tapes work for the outside, while Galaxy Model masking tapes work for inside. Altough the Galaxy Model product was intended for AMK kit, it worked well on Tamiya parts as well

 

 

 

 

 

 

Galaxy Model has provided a transparent green film for AMK kit, I used this on Tamiya windscreen and it worked OK

 

 

 

And the paint work of airframe began with massive preshading over areas where dirt, oil stains concentrated

 

 

 

And then, the fuselage got its colors...

 

https://www.scalemates.com/albums/img/2/4/0/931240-67957-15-1440.jpg

 

 

 

 

Although Mr. Color lacquer were considered to be very strong, you have to be careful applying them to the resin parts. The coats may peel easily if you stick large masking tapes to resin parts. I worked with extreme care to prevent this when painting the exhaust nozzles and wings

 

 

And this was the first photoshooting outside, it looked good

 

The decals I used were spare ones from AMK's F-14D kit. I chose VF-2 OIF scheme, yet the beginning was almost a nightmare as the decal bubbles

 

I had to cut the bubbles open and re-apply some masking sol, yet did not work. Later on I had to sand the bubbles smooth with fine sand papers

 

And this resulted in a heavier weathering than I originally expected

 

 

And you would never forget the scuff marks underneath both of the wings...

 

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by ZHOU Kun

[F-32]

Simple put the best Tomcat model I've ever seen

[ZHOU Kun]

On 3/22/2021 at 03:49, F-32 said:

Simple put the best Tomcat model I've ever seen

Thank you! Glad that you like this piece of work! 

[ZHOU Kun]

Let's see if the photos show properly now, after almost seven months...now the photos are uploaded on Imgur...

Edited October 14, 2021 by ZHOU Kun