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1/48 F-14D Tomcatters Last Cruise 2006


FortyEighter

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The title says it all apart from the actual choice of airframe

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The top decal pack allows for three different aircraft but having already built a Hobbyboss kit as "101" (the middle scheme) it will either be the CAG "100" with the black fins or the retro finish grey / white "103"

 

Mike

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🥰

 

yeah baby!!  A final cruise bird will be a must for my collection of VF-31 bird, even have an AMK F-14D just sitting there, will have to get me some decals now.

 

I will be glued to this build.... well not literally of course!! :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

A week late starting but cockpit is awaiting the seats to be painted

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This is the first time I've used an Eduard 3D Space set but have used a Quinta Studios F-16 set before.  Two of the decals weren't a great fit but unlike etch it is hard to try them before fixing.  My main concern was that about five of them literally fell off the backing sheet whilst cutting out an adjacent decal - this never happened with the Quinta ones. However the end result is much better than etch and at a very similar cost.

 

On the plus side, the Eduard set contains an etch for the seat belts which I personally think look better than 3D printed ones.

 

I actually started the kit at the "fit the wing sweep" stages which are finished apart from the fact that I've run out of MRP038 (the underside colour) so can't finish the intakes until an order arrives by that well known winged messenger.  The instructions say glue top and bottom fuselage together and then add the intakes but I think its better to reverse the order as the intake edges can be held against the lower fuselage more easily.

 

Mike

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And the state of play today (there's also  a box lid with most other sub-assemblies built and waiting paint).  At the moment the cockpit section isn't glued in position as I may paint and decal it separately.

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Unfortunately I've just noticed that there is no main canopy on the clear sprue, so will have to ring The Hobby Co tomorrow to see if I can get a spare - will also post in Wanted but doubt very much that anyone will have one that is surplus to requirements. 

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One quick thing I thought about with regards to those decals you're planning to use.

 

They mention that they are for the Hasegawa/Revell models, there may be some slight issues when using on the Tamiya, namely with the fins. If you have to paint the colour for the tail you'll be fine, but if it's one big decal then you might find the leading edge of the decal doesn't line up with the panel line on the tail. I had "wedges" missing from both ends of the decal.

 

You can sort of see it here, I managed to hide it better with clear coats, but the leading edge of the black is meant to follow that panel line. Even the trailing edge of the decal was out

 

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They were SuperScale decals, but if you are able to compare the tails of the Tamiya kit with either of the other two you'll see what I'm on about. Hopefully most of it is painted.

 

I love you choices though!! :thumbsup: 

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On 10/7/2021 at 7:39 AM, trickyrich said:

One quick thing I thought about with regards to those decals you're planning to use.

 

They mention that they are for the Hasegawa/Revell models, there may be some slight issues when using on the Tamiya, namely with the fins. If you have to paint the colour for the tail you'll be fine, but if it's one big decal then you might find the leading edge of the decal doesn't line up with the panel line on the tail. I had "wedges" missing from both ends of the decal.

 

You can sort of see it here, I managed to hide it better with clear coats, but the leading edge of the black is meant to follow that panel line. Even the trailing edge of the decal was out

 

IMG_2582-L.jpg

 

They were SuperScale decals, but if you are able to compare the tails of the Tamiya kit with either of the other two you'll see what I'm on about. Hopefully most of it is painted.

 

I love you choices though!! :thumbsup: 

Thanks for the heads up on the decals Rich, I've decided to go for the CAG bird "100" so there shouldn't be any problem as it needs the fins to be sprayed black and then the Tomcat and badges to go over the painted surface.

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Almost ready for a coat of primer - not that I expect that to reveal any major issues.  Apart from a smear of filler on the inside of one centre engine trunking the only issue has been a prominent joint between the radome halves (I don't remember this from the F-14A build).  Anyway it was not a long seam so after three fill / sand sessions is now looking OK

 

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As you can see I've got a replacement canopy courtesy of Tamiya and particularly The Hobby Co. (Milton Keynes) who are their UK agents - thanks guys! Thanks also to those who responded to my "Wanted" post with offers of help.

 

I've been playing around with a pencil on the wing sweep area as in many photos the circular wear in this area is very evident.  Not sure how this effect could be painted but perhaps a silver pencil could be used?

 

As for loadout I'm going very similar to @Ale85 2xGBU, Lantirn, 1 or 2 AIM-9 and perhaps an AIM-7 as well.  I'm still looking through pictures from 2006 on the net to see if I can find one with all of that armament, though I wasn't so worried about 100% accuracy when finishing "Felix 101" a couple of years ago:

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Regards

 

Mike

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you may know this site already..

 

https://www.seaforces.org/usnair/VF/Fighter-Squadron-31.htm

 

I did see that config but the photos date from Nov 2005 (1/4 way down), there is however a very interesting config 11 photos down, an all grey beast with a pair of TER on the forward underside pylons. I haven't seen this config before, picture is dated July 2006. There's an even odder one down a but further (still dated July 2006), it appears the have one of those training/simulator Sidewinders on the RH wing pylon and what looks to be a real Sidewinder hanging from under one of the underside fuselage pylons???? I have never seen that config before.

 

Probably should look at some F-14's from other squadrons to see what other configs were used at the end. 

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Been wondering about the wing sweep smudging myself and came across this on the y-tube.

 

Looks like an easy method to use. I'll probably put some tape down before the pigment to keep from having to clean too much extra from outside the effected ares.

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Most of the painting is now finished

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though obviously the wing gloves etc have yet to be finished.  Some of the pre-shading is visible but some post shading would accentuate the wear.

 

I've got two sets of decals; one has the circular yellow / black "Felix" decal for the tailfins but the tops would need to be painted yellow - not an issue apart from the fact that the paint & decals are not the same shade of yellow.  The other set have decals for "Felix" (a yellow background and a separate black foreground) and also the fin tops but getting the latter to conform and match round all the edges would be tricky.  So I'm currently wondering about painting the fins yellow where needed, applying circular masks where "Felix" will go and masking the tops before spraying the complete fins black.  Providing I can get the masks in the correct position, lifting them should reveal a nice yellow disc over which the black "Felix" outline decals can be fixed.

 

Meanwhile there are wheel wells to grubbify and JDAMs to paint.

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Maybe put about a third of the yellow into another bottle and add a minute amount of lighter/ darker shades until you match the decal. Even a shade just slightly off could pass muster, esp taking weathering into account.

 

So far, that paint job is looking good!

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