1/32 Tamiya Jolly Rogers F-14B

by Blair Hall

--------------------

 

This is my 1/32 F-14B done up in my squadron's colors.  I started with the Tamiya "Black Knights" kit. I can honestly say they didn't do to much more work with it than the 1994 version, as this thing was a bear to build. The forward panel lines were all recessed as they should be, but the aft ones were still all raised. In addition to re-scribing all of the panel lines (why do I do these things to myself!), I also sanded flat some of the raised panels on the forward end that looked more like armor plating than panels. 
Next came the ladder well area. SERIOUSLY lacking in detail. It is a hollow box for pete sake! "That won't do" I said to myself (I think my voice of reason was out doing something else at the moment). So out comes the kit ladder area, along with the door just below the boarding ladder. You will almost never see a ladder down on a Tomcat without the access door to the canopy open/close handle open as well. Using some
sheet styrene, some wire, miliput and quite a bit of patience, I scratch built a new ladder area, and I must say mine looked better. Once that was done, I got to work on the cockpit. Seeing as a large part of my actual job is in the office of these beasts, I saw
a lot of short comings in the Teknics kit. The largest being the pilot's instrument hood. The kit says F-14B cockpit set, but the shroud and HUD are still that of an F-14A. Reaching for the trusty Miliput and Exacto blade... I set out on my journey. First I removed the canvas covers to either side of the centerline. In the "B", the canvas covers are in two pieces, one on either side. The "A" had a single cover covering both
sides and going across the center. once the side wells were cut out, I filled in the center and the hole for the "A" HUD with the miliput and let it dry. From there, I reshaped the top, and removed the control panel in the front. This was replaced with a different panel in the jet and mainly only had a turn coordinater on it. Finally I scratch built a new hud using plain and clear sheet styrene, added the wiring on the shroud, and used painted toilet paper for the canvas. When the TP was dried, I cut it to shape, soaked it in water to make it more pliable, and then put it in place. Fun huh?

Click on images below to see larger images

Off we go to the seats. The detail in the resin seats is amazing, but again.. there are a few short comings.  The first is the ventilated pads. The cushions used in the Tomcat do not have the ridges like most kits make, but are more flat. I filled the cushions with Squadron Red Putty, and then sanded down a little, leaving some indentations. Next, the line coming from the drogue chute to the guillotine (the yellow piece on the left side  of the seat) is not connected in the resin seats.
Using a little stretched sprue, this was quickly remedied. Stretched sprue was also added in various places on the seat to add the details of the various lines on the seat, most notibly the "cut" lines on the back of the seat. There are two yellow lines coming
from the back of each seat that, in the event of an emergency, fire crews can cut those lines and will stop the sequence of the seats firing by accident. 
Next up were the harness straps. There are actually two risers coming from each side of the parachute container, the lower will be a greyish color and the top one has a olive cover around it. The pads have slots in them so that the risers will come out of the
container and behind the pad, then come up. However, most Tomcats you'll see... we never bother to tuck them under the pads, as the aircrews will pull them from behind it when they strap in. The Koch fittings provided in the Teknics kit are wrong. I ended up
making a single fitting from miliput, then making resin castings, and added miliput SEAWARS (SEA Water Activated Release System) to the sides of them. 

Click on images below to see larger images

Some of the photo etched parts did not fit correctly, and others were just plain missing, such as one of the canopy frames for the "turtleback". The set included 2 of the same piece instead, as was the case for a couple other parts. The fit of the canopy to the
airframe was severly off and required a lot of sanding and grinding to get it to fit right. I added more stretched sprue to the landing gear for the brake and hydraulic lines. The TCS camera pod on the nose of the jet in the kit was simply a piece of clear plastic
which they want you to paint silver on the back side.
If I'm going to have this many thorns in my side... I might as well add some more, right? So I placed a MV lens, set back from the glass a few millimeters, and painted the inside walls black to show the lens set back some as it should be. There is also an MV lens for the landing light on the nose strut. 

Click on images below to see larger images

The Tamiya kit also only provides you with rubber tires for the landing gear. Nice for... uh.. something.. but not functional. Kinda hard to solid
mount a model to a base with rubber tires, so I assembled all the wheel hubs and put the tires on, and then made molds and cast new ones from resin. Doing this allowed me to drill holes in the main tires so I could run a screw up through the base and screw her down, along with a smaller hole in the nose gear to glue in a section of brass rod to bend under the base
for stability. The last little bit of detail I added, which any Tomcat modeler should do, was the streaks from the overwing fairings on the wings. When the wings sweep, they pick up grease from the fairings and leave streaks in an arc on the tops and bottoms of the wings. I simply used a oil wash on an artist sponge brush, placed it to the fairing edge, and swept the
wings. This gave me the proper arc, which I dusted over with pastel chalks. 

Click on image below to see larger image

She was finished using Testor MM Acryl, Polly Scale and Tamiya acrylic paints, with a oil paint wash and pastel chalks. The bones, Victory stripes, modex numbers, stars and bars, and the "NAVY" were all painted on. The other decals were from CAM, Reheat, and custom decals I printed at home. The names on the canopy rails are that of my favorite aircrew I took care of during my time at VF-103, and of course... I had to put myself on the port nose gear. The base is simply a sheet of plexiglass that was cut, scored and painted like a tarmac. I chose to only load her with a CATM-9 (training missile) and a LANTIRN pod, since that is normally the only kind of load out you'd see
on the flight line. 

Click on images below to see larger images

All in all, an ok build. A very big challenge to get accurate, but if it was easy, everyone would do it right? Hopefully you enjoyed the pics and weren't to bored with my narrative. Time to get to work on my next project: The 1/32 Revell MiG-29! 

Blair

Photos and text © by Blair Hall