F-14A, Tamiya 1/32

[Tabio]

Hello Britmodellers, this is my first ready for inspection post, so hopefully I'll have got the photo's right, please let me know if they're too big or anything like that.

Anyway to the model, and it's another Tomcat to look at! It's the Tamiya Black Knights boxing, with an Aries cockpit set and Fightertown decals. I went for the cockpit set because of the lack of detail in there, the kit supplies decals for flat surfaces which is pretty poor for the asking price, but it's a bit of a classic kit now and I got it pretty cheap from ebay. I wouldn't part with £120 for it. The use or the resin cockpit was a first for me as were the etched seatbelts included. I painted it using preshading which was a first too, xtracolours, brush painted the metal parts around the exhausts and nozzles with citadel colours, post shading with tamiya smoke and citadel washes in the panel lines and dirtying up the walkways with citadels too. Leading edges of the wings were painted with alclad II. The windscreen was tinted with tamiya clear green using the ouer part of the eduard mask for the outside to mask the inside. Fitment issues were where the cockpit section butts onto the main fuselage and where the air intake sections fit the main body. The decal sheet shows a loadout of dumb bombs but I really wanted LGB's on mine so I did! I made the rough surface texture using a stiff brush to stipple old thich citadel codex grey on as the kit bombs are smooth. It was an enjoyable build, and took me 6 months. I hope you like it.

Regards, Andy.

[daz greenwood]

Wooooooohooooooooooo another Tomcat (I'm in heaven).

Very, very nice Tabio!

[Shar2]

Fantastic, that's 3 Tomcats today, love it.

[davebruce]

Wow, I put my f-14 up today, and this puts it to shame.fantastic bit of work

[Paul A H]

Wow, that is absolutely superb work!

[lyn]

hi

ex model of the tomcat

nice on the eyes

lyn

[jenshb]

The only thing I could put my finger on is the slight gap between the windshield and the fuselage. This makes it look like the windshield isn't quite part of the rest of the aircraft if you see what I mean. The rest is fab - weathering, painting, weapons, exhaust... Especially the slight variations of shading on the exhaust - that really makes it.

Jens

[Pilgrim_UK]

Fantastic bit of work. A work of art.

[Mark M]

cracking build well done

[Andy Mullen]

Thats one great looking Tomcat Andy

[M4rk]

Excellent work, the exhaust cans are particularly impressive

[goose]

its stunning, cant beat the tomcat for shear pressence, how did you get the effect on the bombs, as they look slightly rough on the surface.

[big kidd]

Excellent Tomcat Tabio. That preshading is really difficult to get right i just had my first crack at it too. Well done mate.

BK

[Tabio]

The only thing I could put my finger on is the slight gap between the windshield and the fuselage. This makes it look like the windshield isn't quite part of the rest of the aircraft if you see what I mean. The rest is fab - weathering, painting, weapons, exhaust... Especially the slight variations of shading on the exhaust - that really makes it.

Jens

Thanks people

The gap on the windshield is my least favourite bit too, it was much worse before I fettled with it, with a proper gap you could actually see through! The compound curves were tricky to sort out so I quit while I was ahead! I painted it seperately from the rest of the plane so I couldn't really use some filler, maybe I'll find a way of doing it without disturbing too much surrounding area one day

[Tabio]

its stunning, cant beat the tomcat for shear pressence, how did you get the effect on the bombs, as they look slightly rough on the surface.

Cheers, I'm loving your forum name! I did the texture on the lgb's with some stodgy citadel paint that had dried out to a kind of jelly state and stippled it on with a stiff brush.

Regards, Andy

[NickParker]

Absolutely superb big cat, well done.

Nick

[Deon]

Stunning Tomcat, very nice work

[RussTnailZ]

Fantastic job

[Calum]

great work there. Weathering looks terrific

[CHRISD]

Andy this is the dogs danglers mate very nice

[Royster]

Love it! What a model! Excellent detail

[F-32]

Oooooh, love it, really nice weathering

[Parabat]

Sorry to resurrect this, but what a fantastic Tomcat! Having just done mine, this is a cracking example of the grimy state the birds got into, especially VF-24 just before they got disbanded. Love it.