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F-18 & F-14, which is the best Model in 1/72


David Hadland

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I've been looking to fill a couple of gaps in my collection/stash and I was thinking of getting either a F-14 or a F-18 or if the price is right , both.

I'm not really bothered about the type of F-14 I get although the A type does seem to be the standard, for the F-18 I would prefer to get the F-18E Super Hornet.

So my question is which is the best type for the following aircraft

 

F-14 Tomcat

F-18 Super Hornet

 

A-10  & F-35 these are kits I might get Time and Cash permitting so I may as well price them up.

 

A-10

F-35A  I suspect that the Italeri kit is probably the only game in town (around £20 and a good kit) 

 

The amount I want to spend is between £15 - £20 on each model

 

Thanks in advance

Edited by David Hadland
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I'm afraid none of the best Tomcat kits would fall within your budget, at least not if new. I would suggest looking for a second hand new tool Hasegawa kit or a Fujimi one, these may be found in this price bracket

Of the cheaper kits, maybe the Hobbyboss ones are the best, for sure they are the most modern and generally superior to Revell, Italeri or the old tool Academy kit. Cost should be around £20-22. The recent new tool Academy kit is IMHO at the moment very good in terms of value for money and if you don't mind adding another fiver to your budget is IMHO money well spent over the Hobbyboss kits. Just don't mistake the new and old tool kits from the same company, the older one is not bad for its days but the new one is in a different league

Similar problem for Hasegawa, the "high visibility" and "low visibility" kits are from the old mould, so much inferior to the various issues of the new mould kit, that is vastly superior in everything (including price)

 

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Well, the best Tomcat in that scale would be the one from GWH, however it is far more expensive than £20.

I would advise to stay away from Hobbyboss unless you can get it for £10: for whatever reason they put some sort of the divider on top of the canopy and it is not a seam line: it is solid 2mm high aerodynamic thing that you would need either to sand off or replace the whole canopy. As far as the accuracy goes I have no idea since the canopy was a deal breaker for me but judging from their 1/48 attempt I would not be surprised if it is full of the panel, rivet lines and other things that you would never find on the real thing.

I hear that new tool Academy is quite good for the case if you do not want it to be displayed with flaps and slats down otherwise Fujimi (recently was reboxed by KA Models) or Hasegawa (however watch out: Hasegawa still keeps old mold around with raised panel lines, no flaps, etc, so your safest bet would get https://www.scalemates.com/kits/hasegawa-00544-f-14a-tomcat--120633 (Atlantic Fleet Squadrons)) would be a bit worse than GWH yet less expensive.

 

Other than that you could try Revell which is worse than GWH, new Academy, Hasegawa & Fujimi but still is OKish. Btw, Revell has Top Gun boxing https://www.scalemates.com/kits/revell-05677-movie-set-top-gun-1-and-2--1260333 which has their F-14D & F/A-18E. Both are not the best and have only decal options for the movie (that got delayed once more).

 

As far as F/A-18E your choice is probably between Hasegawa and Academy however they are a bit more expensive than £20.

 

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You've given me a bit of food for thought, if the new tool Hasegawa is that expensive I'll most likely get one this month and one next month, Or I may just stick to the USAF and get an F-15E Strike Eagle along with a F-35A and possibly an A-10 (the HobbyBoss one has good reviews, except neither kit has any weapons for the aircraft)

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@David Hadland one thing I completely forgot about Hasegawa is that their kits do not have armaments. Not sure about F/A-18E but their Tomcat does not have even Sidewinders. So take that into account. And if you would want to configure it as Bombcat you are probably looking for another 20+ in aftermarket weapon sets.

Edited by Doom3r
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14 minutes ago, David Hadland said:

You've given me a bit of food for thought, if the new tool Hasegawa is that expensive I'll most likely get one this month and one next month, Or I may just stick to the USAF and get an F-15E Strike Eagle along with a F-35A and possibly an A-10 (the HobbyBoss one has good reviews, except neither kit has any weapons for the aircraft)

 

Cost of the new tool Hasegawa Tomcat kits (where new is a relative term, the "new" tool dates from 1988...) varies a lot depending on the issue, some recent "limited edition" may easily cost £50, while the basic "Atlantic Fleet" or "Pacific Fleet" may still be found for much less. Being kits that first appeared many years ago, there's plenty on the second hand market and here it's possible to find good bargain with some hunting..

 

That brings me to the new Academy kit... while checking Kingkit for second hand Hase Tomcats I found that they have the Academy new tool kit for £25, new kit, not second hand. IMHO a pretty good price for this kit, higher than your £20 but not by much. The same dealer also has the Academy F/A18E for £21.60. pretty close to your budget and a kit that seems to be rated as pretty good. No connection with the dealer, just reporting prices I've seen and find pretty good. There may be dealers with similar or even better prices, always worth looking around

 

Now since the Revell Tomcat has been mentioned, this is a kit that I find a bit disappointing, as the same company in those same years made some much better kits... panel lines are very wide and deep and mould finesse isn't great. I also feel this kit is a bit expensive for what it offers... but of course we all have our own opinion. I suggest to look at the kits being built at the moment in the F-14 group build on this same forum, you'll be able to see various kits and decide which ones offer the best value for your money

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2 hours ago, David Hadland said:

I've been looking to fill a couple of gaps in my collection/stash and I was thinking of getting either a F-14 or a F-18 or if the price is right , both.

I'm not really bothered about the type of F-14 I get although the A type does seem to be the standard, for the F-18 I would prefer to get the F-18E Super Hornet.

So my question is which is the best type for the following aircraft

 

F-14 Tomcat

F-18 Super Hornet

 

The new tool Academy F-14 will bust your budget by a few dollars/pounds/euros, but it's a pretty solid kit (and at one half/one third the price of the GWH release) that allows you to build almost any version of the F-14 as the box includes a Smörgåsbord (great word, that) of spares:

 

All the usual external stores (AIM-9s, 7s, and 54s, as well as tanks)

3 different chin pods

3 different gun doors

2 different rear cockpit panels

2 different bang seat types

2 different iterations of the above mentioned AIM-9 (a pair of each)

Burner nozzles for the early TF30 and later F110 engines

LANTIRN pod and 2 LGBs if you want to build a Bombcat.

 

The only significant shortcoming is (as mentioned previously in this thread) the lack of posable slaps and flaps.

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Well I have a lot of info to digest, I have checked out the F-14 and it's a bit beyond my budget for one Kit.

 

What I am Looking at is getting a Academy F/A-18E Super Hornet along with an Italeri F-35A and if the budget will stretch that far, an A-10 Warthog, the Academy kit is supposed to be good.

 

Thanks for the help and info. 

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On 10/18/2021 at 11:30 PM, David Hadland said:

Italeri F-35A

Do yourself a favor and go for the Academy or Hasegawa kit.

 

On 10/18/2021 at 11:30 PM, David Hadland said:

A-10 Warthog, the Academy kit is supposed to be good.

Academy's kit is an engraved copy of Hasegawa's now rather long in the tooth kit, my preferred Hog in Gentlemen's Scale is the Italeri.

 

HTH,

 

Andre

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Well thanks for all your reply's, they have been very useful, However these are the models I got

 

For the Grumman F-14D Super Tomcat I got the Revell Kit (#03960)  

For the Fairchild Republic A-10A I got the Academy Kit (#12402)

And for the F/A-18E Super Hornet I got the Italeri Kit (#083)

 

The F-14D and the A-10A were £13 and the F/A-18E was £16.00, also the reviews on Scalemates were Not Great, Not Terrible, so as theses kits were, for me, the best option.

Edited by David Hadland
Checking to see if the glitch in the matrix had cleared
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