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1/48 Tamiya F-14A VF-14 Tophatters


arfa1983

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I'll throw my top-hat in the ring with this one. Been looking forward to building this kit like many others no doubt. 

 

I happened to have the USN decals laying around and want to build something a bit different in the old high vis grey and white. And so thinking to do the VF-14 Tophatters which you don't see very often.

 

It's a bit plain jane maybe, So another option is one of the NSAWC birds which I also have decals for, but not sure... something makes me want to build and paint an original Navy Bird! 

 

I built an Iranian and a Jolly Rogers in the past so would prefer to try something new. But the Persian cats are so pretty when painted nicely... such a hard decision! 

 

Anyway, I'll have some time to change my mind!

 

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Bottom one...

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Option 5 Top one (blues and grey)

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Edited by arfa1983
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4 hours ago, arfa1983 said:

Not gonna lie, it crossed my mind to do a crazy double build! 

What can be better than a Tamiya Tomcat build? A DOUBLE Tamiya Tomcat build of course :D

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After looking through the instructions, I realised I needed to make a start on this! It's the start of the good weather season here, which means less time indoors making models. This may sound like a bad thing, but today is the first day the mercury has read below 30C (minimum daily temperature!) Since April or May! It at least means I can probably do a little spraying outside, but for main bodywork I'll go to the LHS spraybooths.

 

It's not the simplest of builds but it does go together so nicely!

 

Brush painted basecoat H317 as no spray booth available to me at moment.  I mixed it 50:50 with Tamiya thinner and a good few drops of Windsor and Newton flow improver and it really went on smoothly. Makes me think I should try brush painting a whole model one day just for a change. 

 

Anyway,  after day 1. (At least one hour to do this!) Will paint the buttons and consoles tonight hopefully! 

 

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A quite productive weekend. Helped the wife wanted to stay up last night and watch Netflix until well past  my normal bedtime. Has anyone seen the squidgame? It's pretty f***ed up! But an interesting show nonetheless if you aren't too squeamish!

 

This kit really is a joy to build. It is slow, because of the number of parts, but you know where something goes because it just clicks into place. And the detail is really stunning.

 

The cockpit is particularly amazing for an injection moulded assembly. For my skill level a resin cockpit would not have turned out any better. I am super happy with how it turned out. Of course the photos show a lot more defects than mk1 eyeball in real life. It was surprisingly hard to find decent pictures on Google of the front and rear cockpit in particular. The selection of button and panel colours is made with a little artistic license.

 

I also built up the bang seats, bottom fuselage and missiles but forgot to take a picture.  Will update tomorrow when a little more progress made. The seats could probably be improved with resin replacements compared to the rest of the cockpit but still they are not bad at all.

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Not glued 

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Well I'm at that glorious point where it looks like a Tomcat!

 

I always forget how big these are in 1/48 scale! Reminds me why we are yet to see a 1/32 bird as part of the GB. 

 

About half way through the build now. Again, time consuming but a joy to build because (almost) everything just fits. A few little gaps are probably my own doing but so many parts go together and it is impossible to see the join. I think this is  superior to their F16 model in this regard. 

 

I left the intakes and cans off for now so I can do a proper paint job on them. But the intakes just snap into place .... Ok I'll shut up now.

 

I left the front bottom panel off so I can put some lead sinkers in there when I go buy some, but I am almost convinced that even with wings swept back this kit has been engineered not to be a tailsitter. The instructions don't mention any nose weight. I'll leave that panel off until I am certain.

 

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Hmmm maybe I need to push the wings in a little more. The wing attachment design is brilliant too.

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Cliche load out I know... But there's nothing else I can use those Phoenix on!

Does anyone know, would the external fuel tanks always be carried with below load out? I prefer the look of the tomcat without them. 

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Very rarely would a fleet F-14 fly without the tanks, though I'm sure very early versions may have done but would have limited their range significantly, especially with the weight of the 4x AIM-54! A good note here is that all of the Iranian F-14As did not carry the drop tanks; I don't believe these were supplied as part of the initial order.

 

Great work so far, it's a superb kit.

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  • arfa1983 changed the title to 1/48 Tamiya F-14A VF-14 Tophatters
  • 2 months later...

This one is not dead .... yet! With a push I believe I can get this super close if not finished by the end. A week or two extension (like the F4 STGB) would be a welcome early Christmas present though! 

 

I have most things primed and/or ready to be primed. I worked out all the seams I could see after the first primer and so should be able to do most painting this weekend.

 

I have also polished and dipped the canopy but I am not sure if there was even a seam line on it!? It seems the seam perhaps only extends halfway down each canopy section like a detonation cord or something like that.

 

Anyway, as it stands now! Yes I am sick of dark primer but naught else available here at the moment.

 

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And some bowls of bits!

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On 12/6/2021 at 5:04 PM, arfa1983 said:

This one is not dead .... yet! With a push I believe I can get this super close if not finished by the end. A week or two extension (like the F4 STGB) would be a welcome early Christmas present though!

No promises but I'll asses the overall situation next week and perhaps have a chat with Enzo on that subject if there's still a few projects close enough to being finished that a slight extension will help their cause.

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To prove I'm not just waiting for the possible extension, I got the white on today with Mr Color 316.

 

Once you go laquer you never go backer!

 

I should be able to get the grey on tomorrow morning plus a coat of gloss so I'll be in pretty good shape for finishing up on time or almost on time!

 

Finishing weapons will be a second priority. Most reference photos for this plane show it naked so if they aren't done in time it will also end up that way in the gallery, then I'll finish them as I don't want to rush the weapons or work on them if mojo is waning.

 

I picked up the white paint at the LHS today and they'd got a recent shipment of goodies so stocked up on Tamiya putty, Mr surfacer, Tamiya extra thin, plus some of the bendy Tamiya tape I have recently heard about! 

 

 

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Goes together nicely doesn't it!  Nice job on the cockpit but I have to say I found it the weakest part of the kit with the moulding of the side consoles & the side panels being a bit soft?  Anyway apart from that its a beauty (when decalling if using the kit stencils, they stick on contact & need plenty of fluid to position them!)

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8 hours ago, Graham T said:

Goes together nicely doesn't it!  Nice job on the cockpit but I have to say I found it the weakest part of the kit with the moulding of the side consoles & the side panels being a bit soft?  Anyway apart from that its a beauty (when decalling if using the kit stencils, they stick on contact & need plenty of fluid to position them!)

It goes together incredibly well. I didn't think the side panels were too bad. They are mostly invisible anyway. 

 

Thanks for the pointers on the decals! I will be using the kit stencils so I'll keep that in mind. Did you use setter and softer with your decals?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Merry Christmas! 

 

Got a lot done today but to be honest it's gonna be a struggle to get it into the gallery on time because we are planning a camping trip to Oman leaving Monday, and will only get back on the 1st or 2nd! But anyway very close now! 

 

It took a long time to mask everything, but I love the Tamiya flexible tape! I know it creates quite sharp demarcation lines but I don't know how I ever lived without it. 

 

The Tophatter decals were very strong and thin but they took around 1,265 coats of Mr Mark softener to even start to conform to the detail. The tail decals also didn't quite fit perfectly but they will look ok once done. I think.

 

The best thing is having that insignia on the fuselage on a light gull grey and white Navy bird! 

 

A few touchups to do, plus white for intakes and wheel wells and landing gear, plus the wing gloves or whatever they're called plus the cans so still a lot of work to get finished. Plus a bunch more decals and stencils! I'll put most of them on, but not the NO STEP ones. I never can get them straight.

 

I have a few more decals on than the pictures show but forgot to get another photo.

 

Anyway, even if I miss the deadline it's been a great build, and I finally feel like I'm getting back into my rhythm with making models.

 

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1 hour ago, Wings unlevel said:

That’s a lot of Tamiya tape! Looks great though, great choice of markings!

It is, but I didn't want to risk overspray particularly because I reprimed the grey surfaces with the dark grey nazca primer so I had a consistent base colour for the light gull grey and not white and dark grey which would have made coverage more difficult. I did use a few post it notes cut up on wings and fins to economize slightly!

 

 

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So this is where it stands now. Unfortunately with the camping trip this week I won't be able to finish in time for the gallery. 

 

If I really had to I could probably push it through today without weathering or weapons, but it is not worth rushing this I think.

 

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