1/48 Academy F-14A Tomcat  

by David Chong

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This is a kit built for my friend bearing the same name as the nose art. Previously I've built a P-47 for her http://www.arcair.com/Gal4/3401-3500/gal3451_P-47_Chong/gal3451.htm 

The kit was built OOB except for True Details resin cockpit set for Monogram kit but fits nicely into the fuselage however the canopy can't close (not enough forward planning?) because the ejection seats sat too high up so I had to sand it down a LOT and added ejection handles made out of stretched sprue. The kit is horrible but beggars can't be choosers so...

At that time I've added strengthening plate on the rudders by carving it out from a single styrene card (see pic) and corrected the vents thing (what was that?) above the intake.

The fit of the kit's forward fuselage was a nightmare. The panel lines on the forward fuselage sides was rescribed using a Hasegawa kit as a guide (which may also be wrong anyway). Added rivet details along the way. So after a lot of super glue, sanding, glue, sanding etc which lasted maybe 3 months... the kit was ready for painting. .

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Painted using almost a full bottle of gunze lacquer and applied CAM decal. Since the decal was not meant for Academy kit, it needed some mod to fit. Decals for the missiles are OOB with a LOT of modification to make it look right but they came in the wrong colour anyway. The nose art was "stolen" from a Dragon Black Widow kit and the recipient of the F-14 signed her name on clear decal sheet. OK this is not historically correct but it was not meant to be.

By the time I was done with the Phoenix and Sparrows I ran out of steam for the Sidewinders so they were left out. On request only light weathering was done.

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Now this particular model had been to places. During the build it was demo for a Games convention and for my local club meet. After completion the model jumped a Hornet and MiG modelling competition and earned the nickname F-14+4 HornyCat. On the same day it earned another nickname TomDog because according to club members the nose profile looks more like a dog than a Tomcat. Now its on temporary display at another hobby shop before I can pass it to its intended recipient (oops).

David

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Photos and text © by David Chong, "HornyCat" courtesy of Kelvin Wong