In
about 1980 the movie, The Final Countdown, hit the cinemas. It was about a
Nimitz class carrier (USS Nimitz) being transported back in time to the eve of
the attack of Pearl Harbour. More recently it has been released on VHS and
now DVD. The story line and acting may have been I bit on the weak side
(personal opinion) but where else would you see 2 F-14s toying with a couple of
Mitsubishi Zero (Modified Havards/T-6s in the movie). When I came across
this movie in a video store a couple of years ago I snapped it up and the
modelling mind began to tick over. Could I do a diorama with the F-14 and
Zero in it, what scale? How could I suspend the models in a flying
configuration?
Well
I decided on 1/72 since I had a Hasegawa F-14 kit sitting in the stash, all I
had to do was find a model of an early model Zero. A member of my local
model club came to the rescue; he was getting rid of an early issue A6M2
Hasegawa Zero so I acquired it for $5. With the required kits in hand they
sat in the stash for another 6 months until I dragged the movie out for another
viewing and got motivated to start the project.
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Hasegawa
1/72 Grumman F-14A Tomcat (early issue)
I
built the Tomcat out of the box. I found a couple of 1/72 pilots from a
Hornet kit I had and committed surgery on the back seater to turn his head to
look in the general direction of the target...I mean Zero. The kit
markings were for an overall grey aircraft so I had to modify the scheme
slightly to back date it to around the early 80s, this meant painting the lower
fuselage and underside of the wings white. I forgot about the upper
trailing edge of the wing were white as well. That will be fixed some time
soon. I also used the kits 'buzz'? numbers as well as I was running to a
deadline and forgot all about them until I was decaling. That will be
attended to when I can source the correct numbers. I positioned the
horizontal stabs so that the aircraft had a climbing and turning attitude.
I mounted the Tomcat on a 6mm diameter Perspex rod. One of the engine
exhausts was modified by drilling hole through it and a piece of tube was glued
to the rear or it to give the assembly some strength. I painted the Tomcat
based on colours called out in the instructions modified as mentioned before and
sealed with Future.
Hasegawa
Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero
The
Zero was also built out of the box, I repositioned the control surfaces again to
give the illusion that the aircraft was turning. The pilots head was also
cut off and repositioned. I used kit decals modified slightly to be
similar to the aircraft used in the movie. I also painted the bands on the
fuselage and tail. I also shortened the wing gun barrels to be similar to
the aircraft used in the movie. The model was painted as per the kit
instructions and sealed with Future.
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The
Base
The
base was made form a piece of MDF bought form a craft store. I
drilled a couple of holes to accept the Perspex rod. The rod was pent using a
paint stripping heat gun and forming the bends over a 50mm diameter tube.
I spread some Pollyfilla (wall patching plaster mix) on to the MDF and
shaped into something that resembled waves. After it was dry I painted it
blue and green and added some white for the wave peaks. The remained of
the base was painted a brown colour from a paint sample pot that I had lying
around. I finally sprayed Future on the waves to give them a gloss look.
I am
happy with the final result, not every day you have the chance to model a Tomcat
and Zero together!
Ray
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