F-14 Tomcat Group Build idea...

Scott: Good luck and Godspeed. I have been faced with that kind of decision before and it is not fun.

On to building. I have been attacking the F-14 tonight and have made some progress. The aft fuselage is together and the intakes are built. I may not do any filling on them since this is 1/72 and the seams are way in the back and small. I did get the Hasegawa 1/72 Air to Air missile set for the Phoenix. It comes with 6 and I may use them all! Along with the 2 Sidewinders and 2 Sparrows. Next I start some wing construction. This kit actually has the wing glove vanes in it. I have to fair them over for an accurate later A. I am going to try to get to preliminary paint stage by Sunday night. We will see.

Hey Scott- when it comes to decisions like that you gotta drop the fun stuff and get serious... I am sure the rest of the guys will say first of all: Good Luck! We wish only the best and know you'll be back. When things get settled and you can drag the hobby out to play give us a holler. Good Luck and say hi to Elvis for me.

Well guys...when I signed up for this GB ,I had this bad feeling. And in the last 3 days it has come to my realization that I will have to back out of this GB. My situation with work is swinging from one extreme to the other.Basically I have been givin 2 options.
The job I have been doing has been under contract,and as many of you know that does not always mean steady employment.I was told that the contract I was working under expires in 30 days and that my company has been underbid.So the only option that I have left is either find another job.(which I DO NOT want to do) or transfer to another position in Memphis,Tenn which is the more lucrative of the two since it includes a pay raise..As I see it all of this will be taking place within the next month or so..So my efforts will now be focused on trying to put all of my stuff in storage to stay for quite some time.If I can get over there and find a place to live shortly after transferring...then it won't be too bad.Right now though it looks like I will be donating alot of my income to Motel 6,at least for the first 6 months or so.Anyway...this isn't a boohoo letter..just letting you guys know what is going on.And for the record I REALLY was planning on contributing to this GB,other than just sandbaggin' along.But alot of you guys have pointed alot of things out to me in your posts regarding your build-ups.I will try to check back as often as possible...I just of course will be watching from 'Vultures Row' .Take care guys....

Later on........

uscusn,

Thanks for the kind words and the info on the camera. I will try to play with the settings some more this weekend and see if I can figure it out. BTW, I put some pics of my first efforts (pre airbrush) in the P-38 plane of the week thread if anyone cares to see that. Take care all!

Sentry,

Thanks for the vote of confidence! I have my camera set at the highest quality but I cannot seem to find the macro setting. My daughter has a nice Sony camera so I may just use hers instead. Your landing gear looks great! I'm not sure I have the skills to do the wire thing yet. I've got my bird buttoned up last night so hopefully I will get some time to fill the various gaps and get some sanding in. I've test fitted the nose cone and it looks like it should be very little work. I can already see some things I need to do to my landing gear now after seeing your pics, thanks for sharing your progress!

nice work roejn. U are a brave soul to tackle the mono cat. i did it once but i fail so i try has instead . but it will be a good model if built tough n solid. keep on it bro

here a bit pic for my landing gear








the gear strut is not shining enough have to redo it again

this is also the first time i use dagital cam too roejn. i think ping got some pointers there thanks

Roejn- So far nice work on the cockpit on the Revell kit, your Digital at 4 megapixels is very capable of providing great images to post on this site. Rule of thumb for images is a minimum of 3 meg. My Olympus is a 3.2, and with the Macro setting has been fine for the images I've posted so far. The advice from Pingtang is right on. Once you get the hang you'll be fine.

weis89-Yes I was still in when the Navy combined the SK/AK rate into one. Oh well I wonder if the Hasegawa F-4J is still on display there at NAS Meridian? Built that back in 1985. Shows how old that 48th Hase kit is now!

Chuck
Fly Navy

Thanks pingtang. I appreciate the compliments and I will definitley look at those links to try to improve my photos. I have already fixed the tail cones thanks to ch47guy and will try to get her buttoned up tonight. :-)

Looking good roejn. That cockpit looks nicely painted.

Now onto taking better photos. First off, see if your camera has a macro mode for focusing. Most cameras should have it. Macro mode will help you alot in taking better close-up pics. While you are in macro-mode, don't zoom at all. It will hinder the cameras ability to focus. Also, work with a higher F-stop number (around 5-7). That will halp the camera focus on more than one point in the image instead of just focusing on the closest thing to the lens.

here's some articles on what I mean:

Depth of field
Macro-mode

There's alot more of those type articles here:

http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/

hope that helps you.

ch47guy,

Thanks so much for helping me with this. I knew it didn't look right, but since this is my first Tomcat build I was unsure. I will fix this tonight! I knew joining this group build would be very helpful. Thanks again!

Roejn, umm.. well.. your tail cones are not right, but its not your fault. Revellogram includes both types of exhaust nozzles (Pratt & Whitney for the A, & General Electric for the B & D) with its current homologated A, B, D kit. Since your doing a VF-41 a/c, you need the P&W nozzles. What it looks like you did was glue the individual petals for the GE engine onto the P&W nozzles. Take off the individual petals from the nozzles, & just glue the remaining part to the fuselage. Don’t worry about being too gentle, since the part you glued the petals on goes into the fuselage, & wont be seen once its installed. Its that simple. The interior looks decent for a high time engine, ie, a lot of soot & dark metal. The Revellogram nozzles are way to shallow to begin with. On the real engine, you’d have to crawl into the afterburner pipe about 3 feet to touch the last stage turbine in either type of F-14 engine. The model makes it seem you just have to reach in & touch it.

Welcome back to the hobby.

Chris Ishmael, whose built a few of these kits in his time

Hey all,

Here are some pics of my progress so far. I'm sorry that they aren't more in focus. I am learning how to take better pictures as well! These were taken by a Kodak 4 megapixel digital so if anyone has any advice on how to take better close ups I would be glad to hear it. First up is a picture of my tailcones which I'm not sure are built right and you can also see the wheels and front landing gear in progress followed by the very vague, and out of focus instructions:





Here are a few pics of the fuselage just dry fitted on so you can see the cockpit:





I was trying to get the instrument panel better with the radar screens on this one:



This is the first time I've posted any pictures so I hope it works! I have some more detail work to do to the canapy area and of course glue the fuselage halves together, fill, sand, fill, sand, etc. Hopefully I will get something done this evening. Of course all comments good or bad are welcome, you won't learn any other way! BTW- how do I get one of those cool Tomcat groupbuild badges...?

Out04, check CAM decals web site Its. http://www.brookhursthobbies.com/camdecals/.
They have 4 sheets for the B model in 32nd.
Chris Ishmael

Hey mitch- very interesting point! I got a buddy that uses Vallejo acrylics in the ready-thinned bottles. He always is bragging about how much better they are. I don't hear of many guys using them around here possibly because they are harder to find. I did see in the latest Tamiya Model Mag that they sell them in big 'ol sets. I am going to see how much they are. Defenitely a difference there on those cards!

Then you went to NAS Meridian, in Miss unless AK "A" school was transferred to Millington, Tenn. I started life in the Navy as an "AK" myself. Then I got my degree from So. Cal and went OCS. And ended up in the Helo community as a MMCO for HCS-5.
Good to see ya!


Chuck,
I did go to Meridian, the armpit of the south. Was there from Mar 90 - Jun 90. That's when I got my orders for 33 onboard Nas Oceana. Went out on the America. Sorry to say that the AK rate is no more. It all went over to SK

Guys:

Take a look at this post of mine from last night:

http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=37146

I never knew there could be such a variance with one manufacturer.

BTW, I plan to use every grey shown when I paint my 'Cat again.

Are there not a lot of 1/32 decal options for a B version? Greatmodels has a few different sets but thats all that I can find.

roejn- nice link!! It's got some great info.
Well, I got the nose gear painted and detailed with a little wire. Slowly but surely...
Next weekend my girl will be at a batchelorette party so I have ALL SATURDAY and Sunday.... I think I am going to faint. This weekend, however, I hope to get the burner cans painted and a little preshading done. Fingers crossed.

Hey guys, I found a great link for Tomcat fans- here it is:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/f-14-ref.htm

Lots of pics, info, movies, etc. Enjoy!

QUOTE: Originally posted by weis89 I was an Aviation Storekeeper (AK) in the Navy. I would have loved to be a fighter pilot. Now I sell aircraft parts for a living.

Then you went to NAS Meridian, in Miss unless AK "A" school was transferred to Millington, Tenn. I started life in the Navy as an "AK" myself. Then I got my degree from So. Cal and went OCS. And ended up in the Helo community as a MMCO for HCS-5.
Good to see ya!

Chuck
Fly Navy

I was an Aviation Storekeeper (AK) in the Navy. I would have loved to be a fighter pilot. Now I sell aircraft parts for a living.

Thanks again armorman, and also thanks for the warm welcom sentry! I was wondering about the sharpie idea, sems like it would give you the fine lines but I'm not sure how it would end up looking. I could try this on some scap plastic and see. I was looking over my model last night and I think I might have screwed up the exhaust cones. The directions are very vague on how this goes together so I gave it my best guess but somehow it doesn't quite look right to me. If so I may just leave it as it's not worth paying 20 bucks for aftermarket tail cones for a 10 dallor model. I may try to post some pics soon and will include them so you guys can see if there is something wrong with them.

Hey weis: what do you do? Are you or were you a pilot in a former life?

I too always dreamed of being a pilot, but I have had 20/400 vision since childhood.

Then I broke my back.

Oh well.............

Charge for the references... HMMMMMMMM! I'll charge ya'll 0.00. It's part of my early retirement plan.

wow the more the merried

hi roejn and weis . im new here too welcome welcome.

i just spray paint my undercarriage well doors and wheel struts anyway i have toouch it yet will upload some photos by this week

hey roejn- I am not gonna bother with the swing wing feature either. I usually do one of two things to preshade: airbrush with a brown/ black mixture on the panel lines OR before I ever had an airbrush I used a black permanent marker- traced the lines- and then blended with a small peintbrush dipped in alcohol. That was more time consuming but it worked just the same.
weis89- that is some awesome stuff! I wanted to be a naval aviator but I never had the vision. You should charge for your references!

ch47guy, I was in 33 during Desert Storm. I had a chance to go to fleet week, but was picked to go to "Top Gun" instead. The CVW-1 idea is a really neat idea. I would be interested in see what it looks like whenever you get it done. The only thing is, the EA-6B squadron was VAQ-137, not VAQ-135. Just trying to keep it accurate for you. I will try and locate some VAW-123 Screwtops decals for you.

Pingtang, 33 pics are hard to find out on the net. There are a couple of sites that I have been able to find. Here is one site that has a couple of good pictures from around that time. http://www.topedge.com/alley/images/f14a/vf33aimg.htm If I find any more, I will let you know.

Thanks armorman! I,ve got the wings in place (not even gonna try keeping the sweep wing feature) and will be sealing up the fuselage soon-hopefully tommorrow. I will probably have to do quite a bit of filling especially around the nose cone area. I haven't tried the preshading thing yet....do you airbrush these lines? I may need to try something else or practice my thin lines first! I will try to get some progress pics upoloaded by the weekend. Maybe my modest efforts will inspire those who have hit a snag to press on.......for the Cats!

weis89 I'm actually doing a cat from VF-33. It is an overall Lt. Gull grey with black fins and canopy areas and yellow markings over the black areas. Apparently, it was originally a VF-101 bird, but was on loan to VF-33 during October of 1981. I just haven't told anyone what I'm doing yet.

Here's a link to the decal sheet with the one I'm doing on it:

VF-33 Tomcat decal

You wouldn't happen to have any pics of, either this particular tomcat, or one from around the same period would you? I've been looking all over the place and haven't been able to find anything.

Thanks mate.

yo fellas-

Roger that Mitch- Big A$$ dog!!! I am getting ready to pack up and get to the airport and get HOME!!!
That buddy of mine has confirmed the trade on the Has 1/72 F-14D. I'll put it aside for later this year. I might look at the Verlinden Detail set. I hear it's a nice one.
Gee whiz, I am ready to get home and chill out. The Academy sprue came so I am getting slowly worked up to tackle that 'Cat. I guess really not much work left to tackle. The trunks are painted and ready to rock n roll. Almost time to seal her up and start the pre-shading process. This weekend will definitely be a pics weekend.
roejn and weis89 join up and fly along. It's been a little bumpy but I think with all the talent that is present here the final product will be awesome. A nice sendoff to the sexiest, baddest bird in the fleet.
That is one bad-a$$ Cag bird ch47guy!!!! Thanks for sharing the pics!
Well, I just wanna let you guys know I appreciate the build photos that have been posted and I got a long way to go to match the killer Cats that bstrump and Mitch are putting out. Man, am I glad we extended the build date!!!!
Adios