F-14A VF-1 1:48, Italeri

1
October 23, 2023
Air intake ramps, lowered, showing the bypass duct and the actuator ram...sort of
2
October 23, 2023
The beginning of the reworked boat tail. It's missing some refinement and the aft light cluster. The countermeasure dispensers are from Furball.
3
October 23, 2023
One of the exhaust nozzles, redone in open position with aluminum sheet.
4
October 23, 2023
Drop tanks getting some care.
5
October 23, 2023
Design for the early gun gas purge vent arrangement in Adobe Fusion 360.
6
October 23, 2023
Design for a vent on the nose.
7
October 23, 2023
The previous parts fresh off the printer.
8
October 23, 2023
Not exactly fine fitting aftermarket here...
9
October 23, 2023
Getting there.
10
October 23, 2023
Cockpit getting done. It has some small mods but it was reasonably good from the box.
11
October 23, 2023
More cockpit..
12
October 23, 2023
Crew members in their seats
13
October 23, 2023
Crew members in their seats
14
October 23, 2023
Design in Fusion 360 for the ECS vents in the lower fuselage. A mesh will get sandwiched between the frame and the fan box.
15
October 23, 2023
And off the printer
16
October 23, 2023
Close up of the ECS vent parts, next to the original vents as they came with the kit.
17
October 23, 2023
Some aseembly required.
18
October 23, 2023
And roughly installed in their location.
19
October 2, 2024
20
October 2, 2024
Panel lines came out too stark. It is a shame that it was evident to me only after it was done....
21
October 2, 2024
The 3d printed air data sensors and grills...
22
October 2, 2024
23
October 2, 2024
Inaccurate, or at least weird, loadout... Sparrows and Sidewinders are live, but the Phoenixes are inert (blue bands). One day I'll get around to repaint them, I promise 🙂
Also shown are the 3d printed ECS fans, hidden under their meshes. Worth it? I don't think so but it was fun.
24
October 2, 2024
I modified the nozzles with tin foil to show them fully open. Also cleaned the tail hook of spurious bumps and modified the beaver tail to the early one with the RWR fairings removed.
25
October 2, 2024
3d printed grills for the early bu/nos are shown here.
26
October 2, 2024
Early bu/nos did not wear the sideslip indicator string. I guess that came as a mitigation after the row of issues/accidents related to engine flameouts caused by excessive sideslip that the TF30 powered Tomcats had.
27
October 2, 2024
28
October 2, 2024
29
October 2, 2024
30
October 2, 2024
31
October 2, 2024
32
October 2, 2024
Finished air intake ramps. These are supposed to be in the position they were when flying supersonic.
33
October 2, 2024
34
October 2, 2024
Glove vanes were operational in the early days...later on these were wired shut. I suppose they found the aircraft handled well enough without them and didn't compensate the cost of having them functional.

Kommentarer

21 23 October 2023, 21:30

Patrick Hagelstein
That is some nifty 3D printing there! 👍🏼

23 October 2023, 22:49

Sergej I
This looks like an adventure, in! 👍

24 October 2023, 05:47

Andrés Fernández Lucena
Thank you! It is indeed and an adventure and somewhat masochistic, for sure. As you see the kit was pretty banged up and I could have easily bought any other of the Tomcat kits out there which are leaps and bounds above this one... Nevertheless I enjoy improving mediocre kits more than anything else. And I couldn't really bear to throw in the bin the kit which I had bought as a kid with the little money I had back then. So we're in for the challenge!

25 October 2023, 21:43

Alberto
Wow, that is some serious scratch work, well done! The cockpit looks great already

28 November 2023, 19:08

Spanjaard
missed this one before, great job!

24 November, 22:47

Project info

F-14 A Tomcat, VF-1

34 bilder

1:48

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