F-14 Tomcat Group Build idea...

OK everyone, doctor prescribed some "miracle pill" and my headache was gone in a matter of 3 hours.

I painted last night.







I'm frustrated...it seems that with this range of greys, using Testors Model Masters, I'm either too thin or not thin enough. And, the paint "dusts up" in corners, etc. I think I was painting around 15 psi or so...my regulator is a cheapo, I need a more precise one.

Oh well, in a couple of days I'm going to go back, fix some trouble spots, and spot prime the "heck" out of 'er.

I bet I will be the slowest! We have had strep and all sorts of nasties running though the house! Very little bench time in the last couple of weeks. Also having a new range installed. I know that I will get to do some building soon. All of the progress pics look fabulous! I still need to snag a digital camera.

WARNING: response to off topic, topic:

Mitch, oddly enough I had one of them last December. My doctor says it was probably triggered by smelling kerosene all day long=allergic reaction, for a week.(long story). Bottom line is that he gave me Excedrin for Migraines and it worked, but slowly. My headache lasted for 4 days before it finally went away. Although it progressivly got better for two of those days I never left the bed. I couldn't read or move my head much without it seeming like my brain would explode. I puked twice, one from taking too many pills.
No work done on the bench today. I hate Monday's. All the morons come out of the woodwork.
I'm patiently awaiting the new sprue from Academy. They requested that I send the other back in the enclosed packaging so I won't be able to keep the spares. Oh, well.
I'm itching to get back into this build now that I may have some time this week. How is everyone's progress?
PS- Looks like I am going to be the slowest!

WARNING: off topic.

Hi everone. I got little bench time in this weekend, due to a sick toddler (7 days of vomiting, diahrrea and dehydration), an ill wife, and myself - anyone heard of "cluster" headaches. They're like migraines, but only less "regular"; sometimes they hit ever 4 to 6 weeks, other times they come 2 to 3 times a year. The last time I had one this bad was 11 years ago, while working construction...the pain got so bad that I couldn't see, and ended up throwing up.

I'm home from work today, trying to get squeezed into my doctor's schedule, maybe he'll prescribe some magical potion or something (that is how the big pharmaceutical companys operate, isn't it?).

Bah.

pingtang ; thanks for the info i just gone to camera shop today after the long long holiday season we have here. I think i may just grap the nikon 4100 seems ok i guess.

Ga modler : this is the first time im this Gb and well as a newbie and as with others i pray the same to u too . take care buddy.

I din manage to do anything last week as down with flu. i only manage to draw some preshade panel lines to wings and fuel tanks. really neeed to rush with the camera tommorrow . i been lookin for the shopowner this couple days to know more of the function but he is damn busy with festive season photo processing sighs



rush rush rush phew ..... nice plane there audio i never seen this pic before.

hi all, looks like everyone is making good progress on their cats. i was planning to put in some serious build time on sunday but i ended up taking a nap. bummer.

Ga.modeller, may your emergency be resolved, i will put you in my prayers

edited for atrocious spelling. even in a 3 line message i can screw up spelling in 4 places. poo-pah

I actually did some work on my cat tonight. I think I have completed the filling and sanding of the intakes . Now there is just a bit of rescribing to do where I lost panel lines and I'm done with those intakes. Problem is, that's not where the filling and sanding ends. I test fitted the forward fuselage and found the mother of all gaps. At least it'll be easier to sand than inside the intakes.

Ga.modeler Hope everything works out alright mate. And I hope to see you back here soon.

Sorry to see you go, Ga.modeler. I hope things with the family work out for the good and that you can return soon.

I managed to make a little progress today on the F-14B. I finished the filling and sanding and the cockpit and seats are painted. Hopefully I can post some pics before I start throwing on the paint.

Well, no work on the Tomcat this weekend but I did start on the Tamiya P-47D. It's a beautiful kit. I did some work on the cockpit and I was going to take photos but I am still having a problem figuring out this camera. It just does not seem to take good close ups. I've played with everything. Kinda frustrating.
Sorry to see you go Ga.modeler, like Mitch said; Our thoughts and prayers are with you. We hope to see you back soon.
Bench time might be a little slim this week as we added a dog to our collection. Our current dog Churchill is an Autralian Shepherd mix and he has been 'telling' us he's a little lonely. Soooo. We got him another Australian Shepherd named 'Red' to play with. Both are adopted from the shelter and Red seems to be very timid. Could be a long week. However, I think that Red may be smarter than Sweetie and I combined.
Anyways, I'll see if I can't get this dang camera working and get some decent photos out.

Ga.modeler, if you're reading, our wishes and prayers are with you and your family. We do hope that your family is well, and that you can return to the forums soon.

hey guys along with my other 2 group builds going on. i have to stop building. i got a family emerngecy to go to. so those that have finshed your cats they look darn good.

Hey thanks for the info on the Grim Reapers. I really like the VF-101 paint schemes and while the black tails looks good, I found some pics of an older scheme that I think I like better:

A prefab Grim Reaper display model -


I think I got this pic from the "Tomcat Alley" website (highly recommended for referrence info and pics and stuff) -


Just an example that I found for a VF-101 paint scheme -


Grim Reaper line bird -


Maybe it's just me but I like these older schemes better .....

I got to go to a hobby shop yesterday, and while I was looking for a PE set for a spitfire I found one for the Academy Tomcat. There's lots of extra details for the cockpit, and external details too. Might get me interested in building it again.

sentry- Have a good look at the Nikon 4100. Nikon make some great cameras. I use a Nikon 5400 and could not be happier with it. With a bit of practice, you could probably get great pics from either camera.

armorman - Here are a few tips that might get some better pics out of your camera. When using macro mode, don't use the zoom lense. I found that some cameras can't focus if you zoom while in macro mode. Also, try using a higher F-stop number (above F-7). This will give a better depth of field (instead of having the closest part of the model well focused, it will help get the whole picture in focus).

hope that helps you.

Just took a quick peek at the ScaleAIR GB. Those are some nice looking builds, Steve!

I managed to make a little bit of progrees on the F-14B but I still have to do a wee bit more filling and sanding to get a paint-ready surface. I'm not sure how much more progress I'll make today (or this weekend for that matter!). Yesterday was my 36th birthday and after last night I'm really not in the best of shape for modelling.

Later guys!

Guys-

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we're up to 11 entries at the ScaleAIR site. Stop by and have a look at

http://scaleair.com/Tomcatgb/gbmain.htm

when you get a chance.

Cheers,

amour my man well happy to hear to get a replacement. did academey mentioned how much their F16 , 32 scale cost. really hope they start with a F14 32 scale.

i really tot of buying the 3.2 canon though o well may check with nikon again

thanks for the info amour my man

Good news fellas! I've contacted Academy and they are sending me a whole new sprue. All I had to pay for was shipping. They even threw in a free catalog. Shouldn't have had to pay for anything in my opinion. I just want to get this baby built. I've got to try to make mine look as Mitch and bstrump.
After this week I am going to run for president and outlaw working. Your only job is to work on your hobby. Anyone wanna elect me?
Hey sentry, I have a canon 3.2 and after trying to get the Macro setting to work it still doesn't take good close up's. I think I am still missing a step.
Nice Photos ch47guy!
have a good weekend guys!

As far as I know , VX-9 no longer operates the F-14 at all.

Chris Ishmael

That VF-101 bird looks awesome. I always like a cat with black tails and canopies. Mine will be pretty much the same, but with more yellow.

Here is an image of the VF-101 sheet which I will use on the Revell F-14D that is in progress for this and the ARC GB.
next to HobbyDecal dry transfer sheet which is also excellent:


More images to follow. Now that my DSL is back up and running.

Chuck
Fly Navy

Hi
Macooke ; thanks for your infom , now im in the middle of getting a canon 3.2 megapixel or a nikon 4100 4.1 megapixels. Will work on it again. Thanks a lot bro. i just masked my wheel wells hope i do something again tonight maybe preshade it first. And get a camera first oh dear.

Hi Ch47guy

Since u something on the cats maybe i would like to ask :
u have any information of VX 9 ? do they still flying some of the birds . i have one black one but they also has the D version in grey . do they stull using the D version ? or they just disband it.

Now in the look out for vx 9 decals if there is ( the greys one) steve . any idea ?

The VF-101 sheets are still available. Just go to www.vf-decals.com, and you can place an order there.

Audio, I've been a F-14 fan from way back, & thats just something I memorized from one of the F-14 books in my own personal library.

VF-101's current scheme looks like this :.
Now that's one of their show birds. Their line jets have the same markings, only in grey :
.

VF-Decals produces decals for both of these aircraft in 1/48th, although they might be hard to find right now because of their popularity. CAM decals also produced decals for a specially marked VF-101 F-14B with a red canopy hood & all red tails. I think Superscale did a VF-101 sheet also.

Chris Ishmael

ch47guy you rock! where did you find this information? thanks a million! ill have to get right to work researching vf-101 ... turns out they have a little bit of everything as far as the Cats go (they fly all four variants). i will continue looking for tomcat squadrons at either boca chica or key west air base, but thank you for your contribution!

pingtang - thats a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig spider.... i want one!!

Audiophile, VF-101 has a detachment there. I’m not sure if the aircraft are there all the time or they just fly down from Oceana when needed. Since VF-101 has been operating out of there since they flew the F-4, I guess any VF-101 scheme would do.

Chris Ishmael

sentry:

You were asking about digital cameras, and you specifically asked if 3.2 megapixels would be sufficient. I don't know how "good" the current cameras are, how many megapixels, etc. If you look at my earlier posts, where I have posted photos, those were taken with a Fuji Finepix 3800, which has 3.2 megapixels. I have been using the highes resolution setting for model photos, and those are quite good, in my opinion. They take up a lot of space on the chip, but I shoot 20 or 30 photos and download them onto my computer hard drive, then delete them from the chip. I only have a 64Mb chip, it'll hold about 60 or 70 on the highest setting...it'll hold 400 on the lowest resolution setting.

Hope this helps.

Hi Reg...check you e-mail.

Mitch

Harry is no longer, he got chucked over the fence and now the Hepburns have to deal with him.

bstrump- That's a very impressive build. I really like the weathering and finish.

Yup, I was right..."First 'Cat Done" award goes to....(drum roll)...

bstrump ! (fanfare)

Great looking build there, bstrump.

Daniel, I'm glad it's 4:45 am when I saw that, that...that creature. If I had seen that next to a pen last night, just before going to bed, I would've probably had bad dreams, I'm getting a deep, deep spine-chill just thinking of that spider.

Reggie, that's so interesting about baseball and softball. I'll be sending you an e-mail...since my heritage traces back to the east Tennessee Appalachian mountains, I have a lot of "redneck" in my blood, I and I can't resist cracking redneck jokes about Camaros, beer, softball, bowling, hunting, guns, all the stuff that Jeff Foxworthy jokes about. I just remembered the strict social behaviour (look Daniel!) laws in Singapore...a few years back an American punk was busted for vandalism. His name is Michael Fay, he was from Dayton, OH (just 55 mi. up the road from Cincinnati), and he got several can lashes across his arse. He deserved it, as far as I'm concerned. Remind me never to spit or chew gum in Singapore!

Well, before I can resume work on my bird, I've got to clean up my desk, one of the fluorescent tubes broke, AND I've got to either repair that light fixture, or buy a new one. Those were high end bulbs, too...I sold light bulbs for about a month last summer. When I first started, I thought $18 was crazy for a 4-ft. fluorescent bulb. Then I "saw the light"...I put two in right above my workbench, and these things are brighter, whiter than any other light on the market. The company guarantees them for five years...they actually write in that the bulbs are designed to burn 24/7 for five straight years. Luckily I still have a few in my demo pack.

I don't know when I'll get more 'bench time. I'm also doing set construction for my daughter's musical, she's in the 7th grade and they're doing "Cinderella". I'm working from 10 to 4 every Saturday...man, that really eats into my model building time.

Have fun everyone!

Nice bstrump

wow ..... so u be doing in 48 ?