Dirty Tomcats

[TristanR]

Hello, I am keen on building one of these Tamiya Tomcats, but I am torn with the paint scheme.

I like the weathering opportunities offered by the later, ghost grey f-14s, which get nice and dirty, probably on account of the matt paint.  But  I prefer the earlier high vis color schemes in gull grey with the white control surfaces.  Since these were painted glossy, they likely wouldn't get as dirty, and despite looking a lot, I can't find a single example of an early, hi-viz f-14 with the heavy weathering found on the later planes, which is a bummer, because that's what I want to do. 

Does anyone have such an image? Or would these early tomcats simply not get that weathered?  I would commit a weathering crime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Julien]

The appearance of later ones is not so much down to "weathering" as such but corrosion control touching up with spray cans. In the earlier days it was differnet.

 

The spray cans were matt and then attracted more dirt etc, 

 

The Grey/white scheme was also gloss which helped it look better. 

[Giorgio N]

The patchwork effect visible on TPS painted Tomcats is rare on the earlier aircraft because on these only one paint was used while the touch-ups on the TPS painted aircraft are not always made with the same paint originally on that part of the aircraft. The picture you posted clearly shows how a lighter paint was used in areas where the darkest grey was supposed to be used,,,

This means that yes, light gull grey Tomcats were also affected by weathering and touch-ups but this is much less evident. I have some pictures that show quite dirty aircraft and if you look closely at NK202 in the picture you posted you can notice that this one too is getting dirty, like under the intakes and on the fuselage around the rear cockpit section, not to mention how "washed out" the antiglare panel looks like

I have pictures of dirtier aircraft but they are in books, I'll have to see what I can find online. Also in a book is an even more unusual picture of a VF-41 aircraft in light gull grey over white where a number of white panels have been touched up in light gull grey, creating a pretty weird effect

[TristanR]

Thanks for the replies and info guys!  I see what you are saying about the paint touch ups, and it stands to reason the gull grey aircraft would undergo the same process, it's just surprising how difficult it is to find them.  

Giogio, thanks for the description of VF-41, very encouraging, and led me to find this - look at the rudder there, looks like they patched up parts of that with a spray can?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Giorgio N]

Yes, the grey areas on the tail may well be touch-ups with a spray can, or in any case part of the corrosion control. On USN aircraft, any time a panel is removed for maintenance the edges are touched up to avoid any onset of corrosion that may occur on areas where paint has been scratched.

The undersides also show signs of grey paint applied on areas that should be white...