Tamiya 1/48 F-14A; Update: 4/19/24 - DONE AND IN THE BOOKS

[PanzerWomble]

Woot .......Tomcat back on the Menu ?????

Go ! Peter Go !, this should be a cracking build ! 

 

 

[Peterpools]

The Big Cat is back on the bench and underway. Update in a few days. 

[Peterpools]

F-14A TOMCAT

VF-114 1976 USS KITTYHAWK

Tamiya 1/48

Long story short, the Songbird is on the SOD and I decided to go back to my original choice for the GB; the awesome Tamiya 1/48 F-14A Tomcat. I’ve built the kit once before, loved it and for inspiration, all I needed to do is take a fifteen minute car drive to The Grumman Memorial Park in Calverton and just sit and look on the F-14A Tomcat on display.

With our cable out from Saturday evening until Sunday evening, I devoted almost all of my day to catching up on the build.

Decals are the brilliant Furball Sheet #48-20 for VF-114 Aardvarks

Quinta 3D cockpit set used to its fullest.

Paints: MRP and Tamiya Lacquers

Two AM ejection seats which I think are Wolfpack but really don’t remember.

Reference, mostly for correct colors, is the first edition of Randy Coremans, Daco publications: Uncovering the Grumman F-14 A/B/D Tomcat.

First up was the front office, no issues at all. Interior: FS36231.

Loads of details and I was knee deep in detail painting and applying the Quinta set. Incredible as it sounds, the sheet had a mistake: decal 28 is shown in two places. I just substituted another decal that looked correct for the lower RIO panel and good to go.

A lot of time was devoted to the Grumman Ejection seats, painting all the small details and then a round of dry brushing. Surely looks good in the office.

The front nose wheel gear bay was typical of the detail Tamiya includes with their 48^th scale kits. A joy to build and all the details were highlighted with Tamiya Dark Brown Panel Line Wash – helped popped the details and added a nice bit of weathering.

Just love the details

Light weathering in the gear bay. The correct color white:FS 17875

[Landlubber Mike]

Great to see you back at the bench Peter!  Nice start!  Impressive details in the cockpit!

[BlrwestSiR]

Great work Peter. Nice to see you back at it. At least there won't (shouldn't) be any curveballs on this one. 

I'm trying to figure out the best way to do an F-14B from the Tamiya kit as the Great Wall kit is almost double the price. 

[PanzerWomble]

Absolutely cracking work there Peter

[JohnB]

"Cracking" work for sure Peter! Looks good.

[Peterpools]

Thanks Mike

Nice to sit at the bench again and enjoy myself, what a difference as compared to banging, my head against the preverbal wall and making little to no progress as before. 

 

[Peterpools]

PW

Very much appreciated. Just nothing like a Tamiya kit for pure enjoyment.

 

[Peterpools]

Tanks Carl

After a few days break and 'regrouping the troops', I'm now looking forward to bench time and building again.

Hard to understand how and why GWH is so expensive and when compared to the Tamiya Tomcat and I would never buy it for that reason alone. I built the P-40 a while back, nice kit but after finishing it, thought the same: overpriced, not the best of instructions and some fit issues, when compared to Tamiya's Spitfire, Mustangs and Corsair kits. 

I'm sure there is AM out there for the conversion, but it just may bump up the price of the Tamiya kit close to the GWH offering but I would still always favor Tamiya. a

 

[Peterpools]

Thanks John

Making progress and can't believe it but not a single thing to complain about - now how about that!

 

[JohnB]

Knock on wood Peter!

[Peterpools]

John

I'm willing to bet, it can't go on forever, but I'll take every step with none as a victory.

[Peterpools]

PROGRESS FOR SURE

Charging ahead, progress has been made:

Forward section of the fuselage glued up, seams filled and ready to be added to the main fuselage section. A number of parts still need to be added a bit later down the road.

The main fuselage with the wing swing system was a joy to build ... no issues at all – just don’t lose any of the screws or washers.

As with every Tomcat kit I’ve built over the years and have seen built online, the intakes have always required the most attention and fuss and Tamiya’s, while the best in solving the fit issues, there were still a few to deal with. I was critically careful in how I airbrushed, cleaned and assembled all the parts and while the left hand side assembly went on perfectly, the right hand side didn’t; I tweaked and fussed and just couldn’t get the intake to sit square and flat. With some TLC, it finally settled into place. This is absolutely one area, due to Tamiya’s incredible exacting tolerances, every ounce of paint that would affect the part fit had to be removed.

None of the fuselage seams actually disappeared on their own, all glued in place  with Revell Professional Contacta Glue, taped and clamped. Every seam real or imaginary was gone over with Flexy 5K CA Black CA . Job done.

The wings are beautifully detailed and thank goodness none of the flying surfaces are separate parts, as my Big Cat will have the wings in the inflight sweep position, on the deck, parked and I didn't want any of the control surfaces to be dropped or open.    

At the trailing edge of the underside of the wings. Tamiya chose to bring the glue seam up a tad away from the trailing edge to allow for a neat, clean and sharp edge but that created a non-existing panel line/seam that needs to be filled and removed – job done as well.

 

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Wow, looking good Peter!  I bet this is a nice change of pace from the kit that shall not be named  

[GusMac]

Looking great Peter. It is such a joy to build, as close to trouble free as I've experienced in a long time.

[Martinnfb]

Clean and precise work. 

[Peterpools]

Thanks Mike, much appreciated and absolutely a wonderful break from the 'not to mention kit'. Just a pleasure to sit at the bench and work on a project that is enjoyable and doesn't require a bottle of Excedrin.

 

[Peterpools]

Thanks Gus; completely agree and the very few fit issues I've had, were all builder induced. I even missed the feel and smell of Tamiya plastic; yup, a pure Fan Boy even at my tender age.

 

[Peterpools]

Thanks Martin

Absolutely 100% enjoyment - couldn't ask for more. 

[mark31]

Wonderfull work you have done.

Just a great plane

 

Mark

[Peterpools]

Thanks Mark, so far, the Tomcat has been an enjoyable build. 

[CANicoll]

On 3/6/2024 at 12:03 PM, Peterpools said:

F-14A TOMCAT

VF-114 1976 USS KITTYHAWK

Tamiya 1/48

Long story short, the Songbird is on the SOD and I decided to go back to my original choice for the GB; the awesome Tamiya 1/48 F-14A Tomcat. I’ve built the kit once before, loved it and for inspiration, all I needed to do is take a fifteen minute car drive to The Grumman Memorial Park in Calverton and just sit and look on the F-14A Tomcat on display.

With our cable out from Saturday evening until Sunday evening, I devoted almost all of my day to catching up on the build.

Decals are the brilliant Furball Sheet #48-20 for VF-114 Aardvarks

Quinta 3D cockpit set used to its fullest.

Paints: MRP and Tamiya Lacquers

Two AM ejection seats which I think are Wolfpack but really don’t remember.

Reference, mostly for correct colors, is the first edition of Randy Coremans, Daco publications: Uncovering the Grumman F-14 A/B/D Tomcat.

First up was the front office, no issues at all. Interior: FS36231.

Loads of details and I was knee deep in detail painting and applying the Quinta set. Incredible as it sounds, the sheet had a mistake: decal 28 is shown in two places. I just substituted another decal that looked correct for the lower RIO panel and good to go.

A lot of time was devoted to the Grumman Ejection seats, painting all the small details and then a round of dry brushing. Surely looks good in the office.

The front nose wheel gear bay was typical of the detail Tamiya includes with their 48^th scale kits. A joy to build and all the details were highlighted with Tamiya Dark Brown Panel Line Wash – helped popped the details and added a nice bit of weathering.

Just love the details

Light weathering in the gear bay. The correct color white:FS 17875

Peter, impressive detailing and washing display!  BEAUTIFUL!!

[CANicoll]

And always a pleasure to follow along with your builds.  And Flexy 5K CA Black CA  is something I will have to look up.  Nice work!

[BlrwestSiR]

Awesome progress there Peter. Things look to be going smoothly.

Thanks for the heads-up on the intakes. I have a couple of these to build so that's good to know. 

There's a Tamiya Tomcat next to my bench but of a different vintage and quality I need to get back to at some point.