Grumman F-14A Tomcat "Frequent Wind"
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April 6, 2024Dug up from the bottom of my stash, a very old Hasegawa F-14A in just the markings that I wanted for my Vietnam War collection.2
April 6, 2024The box is crammed full with a daunting amount of parts...3
April 6, 2024OMG, what am I getting into… There is even PE in there. Not the usual simple stuff I build.4
April 6, 2024First subassemblies in progress. Had to remove al lot ejector pin marks which were all over the place.5
April 6, 2024First spraying session with lots of white, gray and burned exhaust metallic.6
April 6, 2024Sprayed a light buff color in the exhaust, added some of the PE and heavily stained everything based on images I found.7
April 6, 2024More subassemblies in progress. Fit is nice but not everything drops together, care is needed to prevent steps and gaps.8
April 6, 2024Assembling the fuselage step by step. This kit is an exercise in tricky clamping.9
April 6, 2024The butt end kept fighting me, it was difficult to get the exhausts in later on.10
April 6, 2024Starting on the wings. These are clearly designed for the “everything dropped” option, the clean option I want is tricky to assemble.11
April 6, 2024Clamping the intake trunks into submission. The RH one went on OK, but could not avoid nasty steps on the LH one.12
April 6, 2024In the meantime completed the cockpit, which is very nice, complete with PE instrument panels.13
April 6, 2024More clamps needed, widened the rear end a bit to improve fit to the main fuselage.14
April 6, 2024Adding the flaps to the wings. Again fiddly. One kept on popping loose...15
April 6, 2024nstalled the nose. Despite widening I still had a step on the LH side that required filler.16
April 6, 2024Installed the radome (including a nose weight) which did not fit very well. Probably my own doing.17
April 6, 2024installed the gun panels, which also did not fit as well as I would have liked. Also needed filler on the lower nose insert.18
April 6, 2024The canopy unfortunately has a prominent mold parting line along the top19
April 6, 2024Removed the mould line and sanded and polished the canopy20
April 6, 2024Looking great after a dip in HG51.21
April 6, 2024Preparing for the first primer coat by masking the areas already sprayed white. Popped out an upper intake ramp, duh… Managed to reinstall it.22
April 6, 2024Installed and sanded down the navigation lights transparencies. These are so tiny I lost a few which I replaced with clear sprue. Could have done without this level of detail and finnickyness…23
April 6, 2024Filling the base of the fins. Quite some gaps here.24
April 6, 2024Primer coat on, looking pretty good25
April 6, 2024Sprayed the antiglare panel and pre-shaded26
April 6, 2024Used some references from the Internet to help with masking the antiglare panel27
April 6, 2024Complex masking after spraying the lower surfaces white28
April 6, 2024Followed by the light gull grey upper surfaces. So far I have used Revell and Humbrol enamels.29
April 6, 2024Masked the upper surfaces and sprayed the light tan radome and red fin tips and ventral strakes30
April 6, 2024As I had no red Sharpie at hand I tried a new technique for the red door edges: tamponing. Not a great success…31
April 6, 2024Sprayed the NMF bits such as the wing LE and exhaust areas32
April 6, 2024Always exciting: pulling off a ton of paper and tape. Result is not perfect but not too shabby either. Good enough for me.33
April 6, 2024After a gloss coat of HG51 we’re ready for decaling34
April 6, 2024Oops, while decaling I noticed that I forgot to spray the spoilers white. Some judicious masking and a quick coat of white sorted that one…35
April 6, 2024The Hasegawa decals worked fine after coating them with a decal bonder. Lot’s of stencils though…36
April 6, 2024And decals done! Phew. Missiles came from a hasegawa missile set.37
April 6, 2024Before another gloss coat to seal the decals I first installed the landing gear as I can no longer use the spraying handle I used earlier.38
April 6, 2024The gloss coat didn’t go down well, no idea what went wrong. Removed most of the upper finish and ploughed on with weathering. Still practising and may have overdone it a bit.39
April 6, 2024Followed this up with a Tamiya matt coat but evidently was not patient enough. I guess the gloss coat had not fully hardened on the bottom surface and had an argument with the matt coat. Aarghh!40
April 6, 2024After a lot of muttering and hair-pulling I sanded down the carnage as well as possible and resprayed parts of the underside. Remarkably the decals survived the sanding.41
April 6, 2024Used some pastel powders to blend in the new white. By now this bird is awfully dirty…42
April 6, 2024Sitcking on wheels, gear doors and missiles. Quite fiddle and the pylons did not fit very well.43
April 6, 2024Almost there, adding the final antennas and probes with only some detail painting to do.44
April 6, 2024A bit of a disappointing end game but we're done!45
April 6, 202446
April 6, 2024
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15 6 April, 18:18
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