Started 14/03/2010 - Completed 03 May 2010
Additional Photos taken 20 June 2010
I will be building this option from the Fightertown sheet #32003
14/03/2010
After a generous donation by Joel (aka Bandwagon106 on Britmodeller), I couldn't resist opening and starting this build.
and the simple cockpit so far.
As can be seen from the profile above, this airframe had the NACA gun vents, but none of the ECM suite, that were added to the F-14A's in their later life. The Revell kits comes with the mid-life 2 port gun vents, so I quickly filled these with putty and using a set of my line drawing drilled out the 3 NACA vents. Once happy I glued in some thin plasticard to complete the vents.
The vents with some Tamiya XF-19, showing more work needs to be done to clean them up.
03/04/2010
With closing up the cockpit, I dug out my Tamiya F-14 to see what detail I could add to the Revell coamings as they are devoid of any detail, and ended up removing the built-in coamings, and will be replacing them with the Tamiyas.
Test fit of Tamiya coamings after removal of Revell coamings.
A bit of Mr Surfacer and some Micro Mesh has improved my gun vents. Will spray them tomorrow to see if they are good enough.
The clear parts were dipped in Klear after being cleaned up, and stored in plastic food boxes until this week when I masked up and sprayed Tamiya Clear Green on the centre section of the windscreen.
Comparison of the Revell fuel tank (closest) and the Tamiya Fuel tank. They will definitely need some work doing to at least the rears, just got to figure out what and how.
Size comparison of the Revell vinyl, plastic and Tamiya vinyl tyres. I definitely will be using the Revell plastic versions.
The kit seats with the Fightertown data stencils applied, and ready for a Matt coat and drybrushing.
Removing the ECM bumps by sanding them down, the resulting gaps in the fuselage and beavertail were filled with plasticard and again sanded down. Mr Surfacer to be applied and some paint applied to check the surface.
After building many Hasegawa F-14s, I decided I didn't like the way Revell handled the horizontal stabs and the wings. I dug through my stash of metal rod and tubing, and found two lengths of Aluminium that fit into one another. Test fitting shows the idea will work, but I can seen lots of problems when I finally come to glue the back end of the fuselage together.
Stabs drilled out and tube ready to be inserted.
Tube inserted and slid into the fuselage.
Here I have removed the gear mechanism from the wings and cut in grooves, so I can slid the wings into position whenever I need. This and the stab mod allow me greater freedom when spraying, and they can be attached at the end.
12 April 2010
Test fit of the major components. A bit of weight needs to be added I think.
A somewhat successful attachment of the front fuselage to the main body. The top join is nearly invisible.
However there were large gaps on the left...
...and right sides. A lot of CA glue was applied and sanded down.
The top right hand side had a large gap which needs to be filled.
The nose gear wheel well needs some more attention. The channels in the underside of the intake leading edge have been filled with plasticard.
After checking through my references I have chosen to portray this Tomcat without Fuel Tanks and Phoenix Pallets. My main reason - I had a feeling I would struggle to modify the Revell Fuel Tanks to look anywhere near as good as they should, and I didn't want it to hold this build up. Another reason was looking at the photos of the Tomcat with its fuel tanks and pallets fitted, the paint scheme is looking a bit shabby, and it looks as if parts had been swapped out with other Tomcats. I want mine to look like the earlier bird, whole and pristine.
Externally the engine intakes were attached and cleaned up OK. The insides however are not looking so good. I am thinking intake covers possibly, but I shall make at least an attempt to smooth the seams. The white dots are where I drilled the fuel tanks and pheonix pallets attachment holes, bigger and filled with plastic rod.
I removed the plastic from the tails and the wings where the Navigation lights are portrayed and replaced them with Cutting Edge Red and Green resin, CA glued and then sanded to shape. The lights on the upper and lower wing gloves were cut and filed to shape, and plasticard backing glued on before the two halves were joined. I shall fill them after the main paint scheme has been completed.
And a quick colour check - a blast of Aclad Aluminium and Steel on the Revell nozzles. I will spray the sides with white and cream, and redo the engine faces again towards the end of the build.
21 April 2010
Since Saturday I have been masking and spraying the main colour scheme. I started off by spraying Tamiya XF-2 White thinned with Cellulose thinners. After drying for a few hours, I masked these areas and sprayed Humbrol #147 (FS36495) under the fuselage. I also sprayed the undersides of the wings and stabs with Humbrol #127 (FS36375). Sunday morning I masked the fuselage underside and started spraying Humbrol #250 (FS30279). After leaving for most of Sunday to cure, I started masking late into Sunday night/Monday morning, finishing on Monday night when I sprayed a 3:1 mix of Humbrol #119 and #186 (FS30140). Curing overnight I masked for the last time and sprayed Humbrol #149 (FS34095). After a few hours, I pulled off most of the masking to reveal the scheme so far. The ball of masking tape used is front and centre.
I have left the masking tape in the wheel wells and intakes as touch-ups will be required, and I will leave it in place until I am ready for the Klear coating.
Even though I used a lot of masking tape I still managed to get overspray in some places.
28 April 2010
Paint touch-ups done, and remaining masking was removed, less the cockpit. After 3 coats of Klear, I applied the small amount of decals and sealed them in with another couple of Klear coats. Last night before succumbing to a Migraine,I managed to finish applying a Flory Models Dark Gray and a Dark Brown wash. During the day I have gradully removed most of the surplus, leaving what you can see in the pics.
I would have started on the Matt finish tonight, but I have found my Xtracrylix Flat Varnish has turned lumpy and unusable, so I shall be popping down to my Local Art shop in the next couple of days and picking up some Winsor & Newton Galeria Matt Varnish to try out.
After getting some W&N Matt Varnish, I ran a few tests on the Horizontal Stabs and found the ideal spraying ratio was a few drops of Tamiya Thinners to a pot of Varnish (my pots are 7ml). After spraying one heavy coat, I left it to cure for a few hours, and it had given a very flat finish, but was still tacky, so I left it for a full 24 hours.
As I was building up the final parts, I added some simple pastels weathering, and started filling the glove vane navigation lights with Klear. It will probably take a few more days until I manage to fill the cutouts completely, but with the rest of the build done I am putting up these photos, and will finish them off at a later date.
Whilst taking photos of my Iranian Tomcats, I took the opportunity of the nice weather to take some Sunshine shots.
