F-14 Tomcat Group Build idea...

pingtang, did I mention that I'm a copyright attorney?

Just kidding....

I'm back.

I've been away for a while, few weeks realy, moving to a new place. What with laying floors and other odds and ends I had no time for modeling, so last weekend I done a quick and enjoyable model (1/144 f-15 form revell) and now I will be starting on my cat this evening. I will hopfuly get to put some in progress pics up soon.


James

Hey everybody! Well I've finally recovered somewhat from Mad Komet Day. So now I can share with you some pix I've taken of the progress I've made on my F-14A. I've managed to complete decalling but I haven't as yet put the final coat of flat on the model.




Progress on the F-14B has been non-existent of late but I have managed to complete the cockpit, more or less, and the intakes. I hope to have progress pics of that build for you soon.

hiya fellas, well progress has been slow because as pingtang said perfectly this kit eats the putty like no other. I've got the seats now 90% done and all that is left is the wash on the cushions and attach the PE harnesses. I think I have finished the intake trunks... I'll tell you tomorrow if I can get to the bench through all the work I have to do for that wonderful thing called a job.
The good thing is I may have acquired a 1/32 Tamiya F-14ABlack Knights... Maybe... A friend got one a swap for a sick deal and I've got two kits he really likes. It'll be a couple of weeks before I can get down to see him but we'll see. I've got that 1/32 Tamiya F-16 to work on too so I am thinking if I can grab that 'Cat then I will be occupied for a long time. Like someone said earlier i have heard that the kit is a bear.
-bstrump... you've been holding out, my friend. That F-14A looks fantastic!! Nice work on the paint. I can't wait to see the final result. Keep us posted. How's things going with everyone else?
Daniel- that stinking seam sucks on that Academy kit! How are you going to deal with it?
MACooke- how is it going with you?
Welcome Back Homagerman!

Hey bstrump, great looking bird! What is that "patchwork" of darker shades I detect, pre-shading random panels? Looks good. I especially like the masking job you did on the black around the cockpit/canopy. Nice and colorful, too. You're doing two cats? Henceforth you shall now be known as "Two Cats".

Well, I'm going to hopefully get a lot done tomorrow (Wed.) that's MY day. My wife is going away this weekend on a girl scout leader retreat (she's troup co-leader for one of our daughters), so I'll have all 4 kids by myself. Won't be getting much done at my bench. Oh well, it'll give you all more time, just to make it fair, ha hahhhhh.

For anyone who cares, here's a link to the ejection site, this is the seat gallery page.

http://www.ejectionsite.com/frame_sg.htm

This is a COOL site. I'm bummed that the F-14D has NACES seats, and not the Martin-Baker Mk GRU-7A, which ranks way higher on the "cool" scale. For me, the only cool seats have the face curtain pull rings above the headrest.

armorman, did you see my post above, with the photo of the canyon in front of the instrument panel cover? I'm still trying to figure out how to continue that atttack. I must've gone through a whole sheet of 400 grit paper, sanding on the intakes. Those things are an absolute !

I'm anxious to start two other Hasegawa models, an F-4E (w/ BB cockpit) and an A-7D (will get Aries or BB)(probably).

Armorman and MACooke, you guys are too kind but I appreciate the comments. The patch work of darker shades is my attempt to reproduce the spot-priming that is done on the aircraft for corrosion control. Not even CAG birds aren't spared!

Great looking cat so far bstrump. Very nice, colourful paint job.

armorman - I'm dealing with that seam by doing alot of whingeing here. But that's what this GB's for, right? All I'm doing is filling the most visible section with Tamiya putty and sanding alot. I won't be able to fill it all the way down to the fan, but just enough to make it look half decent.

Thanks for the kind words, pingtang. Everbody else, when I originally posted the pics, I forgot to mention that the kit is the 1/72 Academy.

Bstrump, I'm glad you posted over in the aircraft forum, or else I never would have known about this GB (on this site, anyway...).

Count me in. I'm a F-14 fanatic from way back. I remeber building one of the original Monogram F-14 kits (which is different from todays kits) back around 1984 or so.

I've got two 1/48 kits going (Monogram & Hasegawa). The Monogram will be a VF-111 CAG bird. I'm seriously thinking about doing it as the "Miss Molly" a/c. Personally, I'm not afraid of the gull over white scheme. Some of the most colorful schemes were on gull/white a/c.

Not sure if I will have the time to finish the Hasegawa kit. Might just pull another Monogram kit from the stash...

Here's what I've done so far. The Hasegawa is on the left, while the Monogram is on the right.


Chris Ish

Hey ch47guy, are those stock cockpits? They both look great!

I'm really leaning towards doing an F-14 in Air Force colors, as if the AF may have used one as an agressor. Can you imagine the F-14 in Israeli colors, but a lizard scheme? I, for one, think that would look awesome.

Guess who got a job offer? Guess who got a job offer??

Regarding my earlier post about ejection seats, I think the Mk GRU-7A seats are way cooler looking than the bland SJU-17 NACES...see below, and compare for yourself. These are from the ejection site.

The seat from the F-14A, A+, and (I believe) B models...



And the seat from the F-14D...



The proof is right there, fellahs, right there in the puddin'!

Face curtain pull rings = COOL FACTOR !

Hey ch47guy! aboard! I was hoping I'd snag a few more by posting in the A/C forum! Great progrees so far, BTW! MACooke, I'm actually trying to do three birds in this GB; an A, B and a D! I'm not sure if I'll be successful though. I think your right about the seats. The SJU-17 is so F-18! It doesn't belong in the Cat.

yo fellas! Well, the wash is applied over a nice coat of future so the cockpit is officially done tomorrow(yeah!) Through it all the cockpit looks very good and with the seats in I'll be pretty impressed. The next task this weekend will be to complete the lower fuselage and assemble the top and bottom. Aside from housecleaning on Saturday time should be plentiful.
bstrump- don't be bashful- admit you did a heck of a job! BTW the F-14D Naces seat looks like a wuss seat compared to the GRU ver.
Mitchell- I don't know what to tell ya on that crevasse in the front of that instr. panel... Maybe fill it with asphalt or concrete? Hehehaha- kidding! I did that with my first BB cockpit because it was not real specific on where to cut. I ended up building a styrene seat for some putty and sanded until there was no more sand paper... sounds like the direction you are headed too.
What do you think Daniel? Should we invest in Squadron Putty on the Stock Market??
ch47guy- ! With those nice cockpit shots I definitely think you got the goods to join this build! Welcome aboard.

Thanks bstrump! I just love it when others agree with me...

Here are my seats, from the Black Box cockpit set.



I still need to dullcoat them, and add the "crotch pull" ejection handle.

armorman - That's not a bad idea, I'm just afraid we'd get accused of insider trading. Plus I'm mostly using Tamiya putty.

MACooke- I'd suggest you use the road crew that filled the pot hole out the front of my house to fill that gap. Problem is, you'll probably be waiting a month til it gets filled.

I just bought a 50-lb. bag of Sacrete at Lowe's, I can use that to fill in that big- gap. Wait! I can kill two birds with one stone...all that concrete will eliminate any need for additional weight to hold down the nose gear!

Thanks guys for the kind words. Yes, those are the totally stock kit cockpits. I've been hoarding my Black Box F-14pits for a while now (3 A's, 2 A/B Bombcat, & 3 D sets). I've got 2 of the True Details pit sets for the Monogram kit. I'm thinking of doing an early F-14A+ from VF-74 with the TD set. I really need to knock off a lot of rust off my skills before I screw up a resin pit set.

I will admit that the small size of the photo hides some of the flaws. My skills are pretty rusty. Thats one of the reasons I've decided not to continue to build the Hasegawa, but do another Monogram instead. I've got plenty of both in the stash. Time is another consideration, as I have only about 4-6 hours a week to do any quality work. I'm way too tired after a typical workday to not screw something up. Weekends are pretty much spent doing house work, spending time with my daughter, & my lady takes up the rest of my free time. Oh well. Its a good thing I've built a few of the Monogram kits over the last 20 years or so.

Chris Ish

hi all, just a quick question, on the F-14D, is there any difference between the RIO and pilot's ejection seats ? i believe that the pilot has an extra lever, but is this visible on the hasegawa 1/48 kit seats ? i been scrutinising the two and they look identical. this is the NACES ejection system we are talking about here, not the MB.7

the cockpit is about to be flat coated and then drybrushed as per David Aungst's article on hyperscale, and ive also done some other subassemblies. apologies for alot of talking and no pictures, dad has the digital camera and he is only coming back later tonight from china.

Hi everyone. Once again Mitch is stymied...I'm doing the dry-brushing portion of detailing the BB cockpit. I got the side panels done, all those knobs and switches really weren't difficult. However (a BIG HOWEVER), I'm having a great deal of difficulty doing the "instruments" on the main panels. It seems I either have no paint in my brush, or too much. Either the instrument picks up no paint, or else it is totally covered in paint. How does everyone do the instruments??

Are the resin parts affected by paint thinners (enamel or lacquer)? I'm about to totally strip off the paint and start over (instruments only).

I'll edit a bit later, and post a couple of photos.

Thanks everyone.

MACooke - i usually dab on paint with a dulled thumbtack, you know the kind with the colored plastic handles ? i file them down with a metal file then use that to hold a teeny dab of paint.


can anyone help me out with my ejection seat question ?

Reg:

Try going to the ejection site, here's the link:

http://www.ejectionsite.com/

Also there's a great F-14 reference page, someone here gave me the link (pingtang or bstrump or armorman or someone....), here it is:

http://www.anft.net/f-14/

Hope this helps. As far as using a "teeny" bit of paint, I carve down the tip of a toothpick (wood, duh) and dab on an "eensy-weensy" bit of paint.

Reg you're gonna catch crap for that one!

gotta say reg- I'm not sure on those seats... might wanna post an alternate thread on the Forum and try that. There is a Naval Aviator in this Forum somewhere. For sure he'd know. I think he was on our thread back in the beginning. You might want to start there. He had a picture of a Ford Mustang in his sig, maybe you can email him. The sucky part is flipping through those pages!
Mitchell- the sharpened toothpick does well for me. As yet I have not found another way that works better unless some nano-bot can paint them for me. I think you should be okay on the thinners issue. I have not had any problems. But I have not used ;acquer thinner on resin yet... that link you wanted to the GB badge is http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/reggiethedorf/smallF-14GB.jpg -don't forget to start with .

Hey!Hey! How's everyone doing tonight? Armorman, I know of the guy you're talking about. He goes by the name cobra03 or 03cobra. I haven't seen or heard much from him of late, though.

I have a little bit of progress to report tonight. Landing gear and weapons are assembled. Not much but after Mad Komet Day, I was very low on glue so I haven't been able to do much of anything this week.

I did however swing by the post office today and what do you suppose was waiting for me? A package from GreatModels containing an F-14D, CAM Decals for F-14Ds from VF-2 and VF-31and Hasegawa Weapons Set VII. So it looks like another Black-tail CAG coming up!

that's the guy bstrump! 03cobra... I tried to re-route that package to my house but I failed...

Hi all, here are a few progress pics.

Here is the BB cockpit, both out of the fuselage and installed. The RIO's stick was broken when I opened the set...any suggestions?





I broke the forward sidewall pieces to the BB cockpit...I hate when that happens. I finally got the ejection seats dullcoated.



And the rear fuselage is pre-shaded.

Waw, you've made some progress...

For some reason, my cat-building has been blocked (psychological maybe), but I'm determined that I will work on it tomorrow.
The Hase-cockpit however will find it's way to the sparesbox, because I'll look for the BB version.
Why ? It just doesn't seem right with the AM seats....

That's some great looking progress MACooke. I especially like the ejection seats, even if they are the "boring" type. Thanks for the pics.

I got some good work done on my cat last night. Mainly trying to get the front wheel well walls (try saying that ten times fast!!) to fit on the bottom of the cockpit. Then trying to get that whole asembly to fit in the forward fuselage without a huge gap.

BTW, for those other people doing the academy kit, I found it's best if you glue the walls to the bottom of the cockpit first. Then glue that whole assembly to the bottom fuselage piece, and finally, glue that assembly to the upper fuselage. I tried it the other way and it just doesn't work.

Thanks Daniel!

I can't wait to either a) get replacement parts in for my crippled F-14A, or better yet, b) get my hands on an F-14B Jolly Rogers "Santa Cat" that an acquaintance is holding for me. Not that I want to do a "Jolly Rogers" bird, but the A and B models have the COOL seats!!

And what other bird am I going to model next? A bunch of F-4 Phantoms...'cause they all have cool seats!

Looking good, MACooke!The seats look great, even if they are the wimpy ones,(),and the pit looks oustanding!

Uh, I spotted a major flaw in my cockpit lastnight. It's crooked; it sits lower on the right side than on the left. I dry-fitted the seats in, and looking at the forward fuselage head on, the seats were off center by a few degrees.



What can I use to de-bond CA glue and not harm styrene?