I'm here with my
second Tomcat, the Hasegawa F-14B. Done up to represent that of VF-103
Jolly Rogers, from the USS JOHN F KENNEDY final cruise. I brought this kit
from Calum whom is the only person I know that can get hold of the Hasegawa
Tomcats in Australia.
The Kit : Hasegawa
F-14B Tomcat kit No. 09639
Additions : Aires
F-14B Cockpit Set 4149
Super Scale Decals No. 48-1009 F-14B VF-103 Final Cruise
Construction
I started to build
this Tomcat while I was finishing off my first F-14A while the problem fits that
plague the Hasegawa tomcats were still fresh in my mind. I thought that maybe I
could build this kit with out some off the problems that came with the
construction of the kit WRONG, I experienced the same problems
while building this kit that I did with the first kit. Not only that I'm part
way though number three Tomcat and are still having the same problems even
thought I have tacked the three Tomcats in a different way. Yet I have just
ordered another Hasegawa Tomcat from Calum thinking of making it two something
must be wrong with me. I even had to go out and stock up on my putty this kit
seems to require a fare bit of it during the build, I started the kit in the
same way as the first one, with the Aires cockpit, I did not add enough
information in the first article on installing the Aires cockpit to the F-14A so I'll
add some in this article. I found that with both of the Aires cockpits
allot of resin had to be removed from the cockpits. So much so that the
floor of the cockpit was so thin that you could almost see though it. The
same applied to the side wall of the cockpit. I then painted and
assembled the cockpit, once the super glue had set I started the dry fit
into the forward fuselage AFT removing parts of the kit until I was happy
with the fit. As well as thinning out the kit forward fuselage AFT
walls some of the kit hud mounting has to be removed to make way for the
Aries cockpit. Sorry about the lack of photos with installing the Aires
cockpit. The kit went together pretty much like the first one, although I
seemed to have allot of problems with the intakes more so than the first Tomcat
I changed the construction here by assembling the after burners and engines into
the fuselage. With the first Tomcat I assembled the intakes first with little
problems. But on this Tomcat fitting the engines before the intakes was the
wrong move. I had to use a lot more putty and sanding than the first Tomcat to
get intake assembly to fit and match that of the shape of the tunnels, a lot of
re-scribing was involved in this section as well, but after about three hours of wet
rubbing and re-scribing I was happy with the look it was time to fill any
other areas that needed putty. See pics 04 and 05 directly below.
Top and bottom view of the
Tomcat with putty where the joins / gaps are. Adding the Aries cockpit
created a bigger gap in the nose section of the kit, and did flare the
forward AFT fuselage making it harder to align the nose section.
|
Click
on image below to see larger image
|
|
|
|
I had found though with
this kit that Hasegawa did not included the F-14B gun bay access
door with the NACA type inlets, but had instead supplied the earlier
gun bay from that of the F-14A with the grills. I thought what to
do about this problem I didn't want to use the gun bay door supplied, and
when all hope was lost I remembered I had an old 1/48 Monogram F-14 that I was
never going to build. The great thing about this Monogram Tomcat was it included
the parts to turn it from an F-14A to an F-14B/D including the the F-14B/D
gun bay doors with the NACA type inlets. I had to modify the Monogram gun door
to get it to fit the Hasegawa kit but with some putty and lite wet rub you
wouldn't notice. See picture 06. During construction the other fit problem that
gave me grief as well as with the first Tomcat was the Beaver Tail it
just doesn't seem to line up and it creates all sorts of dramas, it took me
about four to five hours of wet rubbing, re-scribing and refilling to get the
beaver tail to look like it fits with the rest of the fuselage. Most of the
construction was now finished and it was time to paint.
Click
on images below to see larger images
Painting and
Decals
for most of the
paint I use Model Master enamel with the odd painting jobs done with Humbrol and
Tamiya, the top of the fuselage was painted in FS36237 while the underneath was
painted in FS36320 the tails, drop tanks and canopy with anti-glare were painted
in gloss black. I had better luck with painting this bird than with the
F-14A were I had nothing but trouble. Once the paint was dry I covered the
entire kit with gloss clear ready for placing on the decals. with the Tomcat now
covered in gloss clear I started to place the decals on this took a week, the
SuperScale decals are not as thick as the Hasegawa decal and there were a few
close calls when placing them on with some of the decals curling up,
but I got there in the end and the kit looked great. It was now time for
another quick cote of clear over the decals, when doing this keep in mind if
your high lighting the panel lines the more paint the shallow the recesses
lines are. I found that before I start building a kit I go over most of the
panel lined with the scriber, some panel lines I find are to hard to make
deeper. This can also help with making the decal really sink into the panel
lines giving that more realistic look of being painted on.
Click
on images below to see larger images
The Finish
The clear was now set on the
Tomcat and the next step was to weather it. I've adopted the pastel wash technic
that Steve Bamford wrote in his article placed in the Tools 'n' Tips,
I have found this the easies method with a great out come. I have tried other
technics from the Tools 'n' Tips section but have not had the success as I have
with this one. The hardest thing with doing the pastel wash is not dropping
or braking pieces of the kit, that's why I try to leave most things that are
likely to brake off during this step i.e. horizontal stabilizers. Now that I had
finished the pastel wash I covered the entire kit with matt gloss, and with the
gloss dry it was time to finish constructing the Tomcat. adding the landing
gear, landing gear doors pylons etc. The ejection seats, canopy and probes are
the last thing that I glue onto any kit I build, normally there the first
thing to get broken off the kit when handling. That is that another Tomcat
finished onto Tomcat number three.
Click
on images below to see larger images
Thanks
To Craig from
Aeroworks for getting a hold of the Aires cockpit, the SuperScale Decals
and the paint. If you want any of the these such items or anything else to
improve your kit drop Craig an E-mail at aeroworks@iprimus.com.au Craig
exports to the U.S and other countries.
To Calum if I had
not got my second Tomcat of E-bay I might have only had the chance to build the
one Hasegawa Tomcat I have since brought three Tomcats from Calum
and have number four and five on order.
To Steve
Bramford for this great site and his tips.
Alan
|