Academy F-14A Tomcat, "Hairless Kitty" - COMPLETED

Looks great. That look of its almost ready for paint

BrandonK

...This is the first -14 I've seen in a desert scheme so to speak...

Hey BK, actually, it's primer. The airframe was being refurbished and was paintless. I found some pictures of an paintless airframe in a book and tried to recreate it. Regardless, glad you like it!

-O

Planegeek

Nice looking! I know nothing about carrier ops or launching. We have nice long runways in the Air Force. But I do remember the Navy Pilots slamming them on the deck just to show off at Red Flag.

 

Patrick

That is cool. This is the first -14 I've seen in a desert scheme so to speak. Very cool. Ugly? Hmm...perhaps differnt, not ugly. If the Iragi's had these this is what they would look like. Well done.

BK

Beautiful work, but man that yellow zinc Chromate is one ugly color...

I do like how you have one afterburner in open position while the other is closed, another unique touch on this build. The intake covers look good too! All in all, one good looking 'Cat. 

   Looks like you wrangked that cat into submission O, love rhe unique paint job, very eye catching...and COOL.

OK FSM, here are the final pictures of my completed F-14. This was mostly built OOB, but I added some strip styrene "wing gloves" and some FOD covers made from paper. I had to do some rescribing on the forward fuselage. I know the lines aren't accurate, but I mostly followed Academy's lines for the sake of simplicity. The paints are MM and Testors' "little square bottles". Markings are painted on and scrounged from the spares' drawer. Weathering was done with pastels and Flory washes. 

Let's get on to the photos...

Questions, comments and criticisms are welcome. 

Thanks for looking and Happy New Year!

-O

Straycat1911

Would've saved yourself a lot of angst by buying a Tamiya...

True, but I have a limited modeling budget. Additionally, I have a few kits in my stash that I have to get to. Both of those things taken together keep me from buying new kits, especially the latest and greatest wonder-kit and its price tag. So, if you can't build the one you want, build the one you have, right?

Before I share the latest progress on my Tomcat, let me give you a little background. I have the book F-14 Tomcat by Tony Holmes. It's chock-full of some great color photos of both high and low vis Tomcats. On the last 4 pages, there are 3 photos of a F-14A at NARF North Island going through a refurb. It's covered in ZC primer with some limited stencilling. I thought it would an interesting scheme to model. So, I started this pig's ear with that goal in mind.

Here's what the Tomcat looked like before I sprayed the zinc chromate. I wanted to add some depth to the final ZC coat, so spraying some panels with varying colors would give the finishing coat some variation.

Here's what it looks like with the ZC on it.

I'm happy with the way it's turning out. I think I'm past the hard place and getting around the rock. Hopefully it's downhill from here.

Of course, comments, questions and criticisms are welcome. Thanks for lookin'!

-O

Just ask away Oortiz . Hopefully I can remember everything. That was in 1985 -86. 

Would've saved yourself a lot of angst by buying a Tamiya.

Just sayin.

Looking good.

lurch, good to know you worked on these birds. I'm sure I'll have some future questions when I get around to building my Hasegawa 'cats.

BrandonK, I remember when you built yours. If I remember correctly, I was building my first Tomcats (Revellogram and an Academy) when you were building yours. (Unfortunately, both suffered mishaps and had to be written off.) Thing is, I don't remember the first one being this much of a bear to build!

-O

Looks real good. I've built that kit and the join below the cockpit to the lower fuselage and the glove vanes were an issue for me as well. Other than that, the kit was a nice build. I am pleased with how it turned out. It looks like you are taking this to whole new level. Perhaps this one goes to 11.

BK

Yep thats looking like a tomcat. I spent 2 years working on them as an ordnanceman. You are doing great. Keep up the good work.I was with VF-33 based out of N.A.S. Oceana and on board the U.S.S. America out of Norfolk VA. Those were A mods then. 

   Navy pilots used to say that Air Force runways were extremely short but hell for wide.

gregbale and Tanker-Builer, I appreciate your comments, but let's wait until we see how this hog's head turns out.

As far as markings go, I appreciate the Pukin' Dogs suggestion, but I already have something (a little different) in mind.

Planegeek, I was listening to a podcast hosted by a Navy pilot who said that even on shore-based landings, they fly the approach as if they were at the boat.

And there's this...Air Force vs. Navy Landings

Nice looking! I know nothing about carrier ops or launching. We have nice long runways in the Air Force. But I do remember the Navy Pilots slamming them on the deck just to show off at Red Flag.

Excuse Me!

          I don't agree with what you said! I think you need to go look in the Mirror! What are you gonna see? A pretty darn Good Model Builder! I like the way you re-scribed the Panels. From non existant to "Lookin Goood" Now, don't make a prominent part of the finish and with that darned good looking office(What we could See anyway) you are building a great looking "Kitty".

       I saw a "Kitty" some time ago and I will say. The only place you could see panels at a distant was where the airframe gets stressed on a daily basis. that's why I never say anything about Bombers.They got overstressed every time they flew, and still do! Last But not Least, Doing what you did to that "Also Ran" kit, brought it up to very high standards, Well Done. Now go get some markings on it, Please?

Leaving aside the question of your relative sanity...or lack thereof...there's a considerable degree of satisfaction to be had in 'wrangling' those misbegotten kits into something worthy, shiny and bad-*** looking. Pretty much anybody can make the latest Tamigawa kit look good -- but it takes a true, proud, masochistically-stubborn modeler to make th outcasts into something fierce and respectable. 

oortiz10

I think the F-14 looks its  best in VF-1 or VF-84 markings, but I am not going to waste either of my decal sheets on this kit.

I agree completely. Might I suggest the mighty 'Pukin' Dogs' of VF-143 as a possible alternative?

Cheers...and carry on. 

Can you believe it's been 18 months since I last fiddled with this kitty? After realizing what a pain in the rear this kit is, I boxed it up and put it away in the closet. On the highest shelf. Way in the back. Next to my started Monogram A-10.

I have two projects going for the Animalistic GB that are just about at the paint stage, but this SoCal heat has kept me out of the garage where I spray. So, I figured I'd stay inside with the AC and work on something while I wait for the heatwave to break. Like a fool, I pulled out the Tomcat...

I'v been able to get the cockpit closed up, the fuselage halves and intakes assembled, and the nose cone attached.

The upper and lower fuselage halves did not go together easily. Getting things cleaned up resulted in a lot of Academy's soft panel lines being erased.

After the seams were cleaned up, I tried my best at rescribing some of the lost detail.

I know the lines aren't accurate, but I used some of Academy's lines and some "suggested" lines taken from Hasegawa's Tomcat. Again, this is more about the paint, so I'm not terribly worried about accuracy.

My project won't have the working swing-wing mechanism, so I needed to close up the glove vanes. The problem was the opening was way too big for the parts and left gnarly gaps all the way around. I used some styrene sheet to fill the hole then did my best to rescribe an impression of the glove vane. It's not perfect, but I think it will be fine from 3 feet. (Sorry about the focus in the photos.)

So, here are the main assemblies primed and dry-ftted for the sake of the photo.

The primer coat shows me that there is still a lot of work to do to get this kitty nice and smooth. 

Hopefully there'll be a break in this heat soon so I can go out to the garage and splatter some paint before my next update! Until then, feel free to drop your two cents in the bucket. Comments, questions, and criticisms are welcome, as ususal.

Stay tuned!

-O

Wouldn't surprise me.

Everytime we downloaded an inboard pylon on a Phantom, the one bolt holding it to the wing had to go to NDI for dye testing for cracks before it could be reused.  Fairly normal for 50% to fail the test procedure.

Not worth a life or aircraft if a bone broke early when the bird was under full throttle

 Can't confirm that story HooYa but it is plaisable given the importance of the device working as designed.

     Modelcrazy, wish I could explain it better, my apologies.

That's what I was told:

          When I asked about throwing a perfect looking piece of equipment over the side during Plane ops! 

.  .  .  and in between the gear socket and the holdback link or pendant, is the dogbone, apart that is designed to break at a predetermined pressure (Aircraft at full power + cat stroke pressure). The dogbones are made for specific aircraft and are color coded to avoid mistakes.

Most holdback setups are on the nose gear but some aircraft, such as the A-4, have it set up at the base of the tailhook. 

I was told once that because of the way they're made, if a dogbone was accidently dropped on the deck, they would fling it over the side (float test) and get another, as the impact with the deck could affect the breaking point. (But that might just be a sea story) 

armornut

    The tomcat "kneels"  to allow the tow link mechanism, the long paet with a wheel looking dewhickey, to engage the catapult shuttle for aircraft carrier operations. It also levels the mount in the back of the gear for a device called a holdback fitting. The fitting is designed to break under a predetemined tention and by doing so allows the shuttle to launch the bird.

    Periodic inspections of all these parts are common both in carrier ops and beach operations.

 

Huh?

armornut

    The tomcat "kneels"  to allow the tow link mechanism, the long paet with a wheel looking dewhickey, to engage the catapult shuttle for aircraft carrier operations. It also levels the mount in the back of the gear for a device called a holdback fitting. The fitting is designed to break under a predetemined tention and by doing so allows the shuttle to launch the bird...

Yeah, what he said. 

Here are a couple of photos to demo what armornut's talking about.

Photo of NLG in "normal" position versus photo of "kneeling" Tomcat

Hope this helps!

-O

    The tomcat "kneels"  to allow the tow link mechanism, the long paet with a wheel looking dewhickey, to engage the catapult shuttle for aircraft carrier operations. It also levels the mount in the back of the gear for a device called a holdback fitting. The fitting is designed to break under a predetemined tention and by doing so allows the shuttle to launch the bird.

    Periodic inspections of all these parts are common both in carrier ops and beach operations.

Oh, it's not bipolar, or even tripolar (I know someone like that!), it's that SoCal water!!

There is something in that stuff. I was like that when I lived in San Diego.

But it's good to see your keeping busy .  .  .

Bipolar disorder is a serious problem that needs to be recognized and treated by the health care professional as well as the family. 

;)

 sorry, couldn't do that with a straight face. Carpe diem O!! The more the merrier. Looking good so far. Can you elaborate on what the kneeling is about? I'm not as deep on jet paraphernalia as props. =]

interesting.