For your viewing
pleasure, here are some photos of my 1/72 scale Hasegawa F-14B Tomcat. The model
depicts a U.S. Navy F-14B VF 103 "Jolly Rogers" aircraft sporting F-14
Final Cruise decals. The F-14 was the Navy's primary air superiority fighter and
fleet defense interceptor from 1974 to 2006. It later performed precision strike
missions once it was integrated with a LANTIRN pod. Now they are all gone.
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images below to see larger images
CONSTRUCTION
Construction
of this kit was pretty straight forward and mostly out of the box except the
LANTIRN pod, the two GBU-10 laser guided bombs and one air-to-air missile.
Although the kit came with a LANTIRN pod, I chose to use a LANTIRN pod from the
Hasegawa 1/72 scale Aircraft Weapons VII kit because it has the decals for the
pod. The two GBU-10 laser guided bombs are from the 1/72 scale Hasegawa Aircraft
Weapons VI kit. The two AIM 9 missiles are from the kit and the AIM 120 is from
the spare parts stores. Overall, the parts fit for this kit is pretty good
except for connecting the nose assembly to the rear fuselage. This required a
bit of filling and sanding.
PAINTING
I airbrushed the
model for a factory fresh paint job using Testors Model Master enamels (Light
Ghost Gray, FS36375 and Semi Gloss Black). The paint scheme calls for Dark Ghost
Gray for a portion of the top fuselage, but I chose to paint the entire model
Light Ghost Gray, except where black was called for. For the wheel wells and
doors, and the landing gear assemblies I used Floquil Reefer White. After the
paint dried, I airbrushed a coat of Future wax to prepare for the decals, and
then applied another coat of Future over the decals. For the final finish I
airbrushed a mixture of Model Masters Semi Gloss and Flat Clear Laquer finish.
DECALS
For the model decals
I used a combination of kit decals and decals from TwoBobs Jolly Rogers Final
Cruise decal sheet (72-040). Decals from both the kit and TwoBobs were
excellent. They were printed well, and easily placed on the model, and snuggled
down nicely to the model.
Overall, the kit is
of good quality, typical of Hasegawa kits, and a joy to build. I was pleased
with the finished model.
Burt
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