1/32 Revell Tomcat from “The Final Countdown” movie

[ScottsGT]

Not going to throw this one up in the wet build since A. Carl is doing one. And B. Tis’ the season for yard work, home maintenance and getting summer toys ready for the water.  I highly doubt I’ll have this one done by the deadline.

I wanted to start out with the cockpit, but knowing there are 3D printed interior decal sheets, I pulled the kit out of the box and pulled up cockpit pics online of the Tamiya and the Trumpeter kits to see which was the closest to the old Revell kit.  
Trumpeter won out and now I’m waiting my order from Hobby Nut Models so I can morph that old Revell cockpit into something.  
 

Reading up on the kit online, one suggestion mentioned over and over was to swap out the landing gear with a set of the Tamiya legs. Well, low and behold, the used kit I got from a fellow member here included the sprues from Tamiya with all these parts.  But yea, not as easy as it looks.  
As you can see, top mounting points are completely different. 

More to come…..

[ScottsGT]

Ok, I took the original gear and cleaned them up a little first.  Tamiya sprue comes with a new hydraulic cylinder so I needed to cut this blob off the part I will need.

and after it is cleaned up.

[ScottsGT]

Here’s the two set laid out side by side.  I simply didn’t use the top section of the Tamiya legs. Well, almost.

At the 36 line is where I needed to cut off the Revell top to reuse.

Of course you’ll need both halves.

[ScottsGT]

Here I used a section of brass tube in place of the metal inserts Tamiya calls for.  I also cut off the part of the top of the gear that slides down into it to stabilize and center the brass rod. These were CA glued in place.

you can see the top of the Revell gear next to it.  This is glued together separately from the Tamiya parts. Once dry, I filled it with 5 min epoxy and slid the two parts together and carefully positioned it as the epoxy cured.

The support arm will not fit in the same location as the Revell part did. It is a bit too long.  But simply drilling a new hole for the locating pin in the correct location works fine. 

[ScottsGT]

Nose gear was a little different. 
Tamiya gear was just too long. So I simply shortened it.  I also used a brass tube insert but this time I had to hollow out the top of the Revell parts to accept the rod. 

glued together with brass tube.

 

finished!

Of course all the details need to be added now.

 

[Peterpools]

Scott

Terrific work on detailing the Revell gear with Tamiya parts - looks mighty good. 

[BlrwestSiR]

Nice start on your Tomcat Scott. 

The only time I've tried grafting the landing gear from one kit into another was interestingly, the Tamiya Spitfire gear into the Revell Spitfire 22 kit. Quite the improvement like you've achieved here. 

 

[ScottsGT]

Man, I’ve been at this bench all day and all I have to show for it is this big mess.  
 

[Peterpools]

Scott

Just a different way of organizing the work done for the day. 

 

[ScottsGT]

Progress!  Sprayed some white primer this evening on intake areas, landing gear and the reskit wheels.  Wow, detail is amazing on these.  Even has the valve stem on them.  
 

[ScottsGT]

Quinta interior for the Trumpeter kit arrived.  I’ve been prepping the cockpit by smoothing down the details provided by Revell.  
So far everything for the Trumpeter panels looks like it walk all fit with a few mods to parts and 3D decals.  So close. 
 

[ScottsGT]

With my kit I bought Jerry included a lot of Tamiya sprues with the landing gear.  Among those sprues were the ejection seats I’m going to try to use and the closed exhaust nozzles.  I’ve already worked those out and I’ll be using them with the build.  
I think trimming a little off the bottom of the seats and I’ll be GTG.  

[Peterpools]

Scott

Nice work on the gear and getting the Revell Office ready for the Quinta decals. Going to look awesome.

 

[ScottsGT]

A little before and after action. 

[ScottsGT]

Ok, not gonna lie. I’ve been home alone all day and never got out of my pajamas. 🤡

Got a good bit accomplished with the office.  Lots of mods to the plastic and lots of mods to the Quinta details made for the Trumpeter kit. 

[BlrwestSiR]

Nice mods to make the bits fit in.

I don't think I could work at my bench in my PJs. I'd end up with model bits in bed. 

[ScottsGT]

Oh, I’ll change after my Sunday shower and put on some clean ones. 

[ScottsGT]

Holy cow. This is my third big Revell F-14 I’ve built.  None of the others gave me fit issues like this one is doing.  Lots of age warped plastic like I’ve seen with older large kits.  Cockpit floor/main section was so bad I almost cut it in two so it would fit.  
Others mentioned the front fuselage to rear half fit.  This one is so bad I’ve started out by gluing front half to unassembled rear half and holding things in place until the glue sets up. 
then I’ll tackle attaching the bottom with wings in place. 
The front view of the top half is like a “V” shape and the V has grown to more of an angle over time.   First start was fighting that. 
 

[ScottsGT]

Oh, and the two front halves look completely different from the back side. Almost like they were from two different production runs of molds.  Inside details cut differently. 
 

I am keeping in mind this is a 34 year old kit I bought second hand.  No telling if somewhere along the line bagged sprues May have gotten mixed up with another kit.  But it’s really odd considering my last two built really easy. 

[KevinM]

On 4/9/2023 at 4:44 PM, ScottsGT said:

Ok, not gonna lie. I’ve been home alone all day and never got out of my pajamas. 🤡

Got a good bit accomplished with the office.  Lots of mods to the plastic and lots of mods to the Quinta details made for the Trumpeter kit. 

Scott it's looking very Nice Sir even working in your PJ's.I have no problem with that if around the house and yard but boy when people come into work @2PM in the Pj's that's another story.

[BlrwestSiR]

My Tomcat is fighting me as well so I know what you're going through. But you're getting through it faster than I am. 

[Peterpools]

Scott

Nice work on the office and you did bring up a very intriguing thought: parts being juggled between different runs of the same kit when buying old kits. Never thought about it but it does make a lot of sense. 

I have to confess, there are days, I hit my studio to work. rarely leave and the PJ's are on all day. Of course, the comfort level is awesome.

 

 

[ScottsGT]

Well slowly getting there.  I’m only able to glue a short section of the fuselage halves at a time due to warpage.  
Glue, clamp or hold and walk away a few hours. 

 

This will probably be all until next week. Wife signed up for a continuing Ed conference in Hilton Head and we leave tomorrow.  What I didn’t know was this will be the big week of the PGA Heritage. I’m not a golfer, just dumb luck we’re going to be fighting crowds for restaurants and traffic.  

[Peterpools]

Scott

Nice progress on the Big Tomcat and going slowly surely assures the alignment will be straight as an arrow - just takes time.

 

 

[ScottsGT]

Back home last night and got back on it.  I’m now fully convinced Revell did some mold swapping or made a new one or something funky.  The panel lines at the front of the fuselage halves were so far off I’ve had to fill them in with sprue goo and re-scribe them.  
Actually, the more I look at it, the alignment pins are off.  I’ve had to fill in the front with sprue goo so the nose cone fits without gaps on one side  

Top and bottom rear fuselage halves seem to be closer. 
I’d really love to be able to inspect a virgin early release of one of these kits.