Started 29 June 2007
Proposed Scheme - VF Decals #72002
Restarted 18 April 2009 alongside the VF-101 F-14B "Red Tomato"
24 April 2009
Following on from the main assembly in 2007, I somehow mixed up the differences on the F-14B and F-14D variants, and on opening the two builds, I found I had added a GPS antenna to the F-14B and not to the F-14D. I have now sanded off the antenna on the F-14B and here is how I added the antenna to this build.
First I drill an 0.8mm hole approx centre of the spine, just up a mm or two from the rivets.
next I stretch some sprue and melt the end to form a semi sphere
then feed through the hole
and finally glue from inside the fuselage, let it set, and then if necessary prune the excess sprue inside.
05 May 2009
After finishing construction of the major assemblies, I sprayed the paint scheme, using Xtracrylix Light Compass Grey on the underside, Dark Compass Grey on the sides, and Dark Blue/Grey on the upper surfaces. Once dry I masked up for the Black Skunk stripe and sprayed the Xtracrylix Night Black. On removing the Jammy Dog and Tamiya masking I used, I pulled up various areas of the scheme, which I had to go over with touch ups to repair the damage.
Also I found the resin seats I had painted up back in 2007
I finally found my Alclad 2 stash and sprayed Grey Primer over the Dr. Pepper resin Exhausts, sprayed Alcad2 Pale Burnt Metal, applied a black wash, and painted up the exhaust shrouds with Humbrol Black. Unfortunately when I unmasked, after painting the silver edges I pulled off most of the black paint, so I sanded it all off and tried again with Tamiya Semi Gloss Black and Citadel Mithril Silver.
Not being able to use my "hot" paints, as I used to, has put a certain damper on build motivation. Case in point, was I had masked off the wings, for the bare metal leading edge, I painted the Citadel Mithril Silver, and on removing the masking tape, pulled off a large portion of the Acrylic paint on the underside. This hardly happened when I was using the enamels, and now I have to be very careful and am reluctant to carry out any masking.
Still it has taken nearly two years, but I have finally finished this build.
