Three Tomcats experience

This photo montage is scanned and downloaded from the USS Nimitz initial cruise book. Some pics are from sea trials, others from shakedown cruise. As can be seen, VF-142 were still assigned to CVW-8 but by now had transitioned from Phantoms to Tomcats. Still carrying USS America titles like some A-7s, it's fascinating to see F-4Js (from VMFA-333) sharing the deck with VF-142 and 143 F-14As.

This is the Santa Cat from VF-103.

Italeri F-14A+ kit, with decals from the Hasegawa Santa Cat kit.

I also replaced the inaccurate engine nozzles with leftover spares from Hasegawa B kits.

They fit the Italeri kit perfectly but I need to add the B/D specific fairings between engine and tailplanes

Missing fairings. Fit great though.

The nose cone in this issue is far more accurate than earlier Italeri A kits. No modifications necessary.

Chin pod is leftover spare from a Fujimi kit.

And the VF-41 Tomcat as she looked during JFK's visit to Dublin.

This is an old italeri A kit I restored. Mostly using parts from a Zhengdefu copy of the Italeri Tomcat. One fin, one nozzle, both intakes, all the undercarriage legs/wheels and doors. Nose cone is a spare from a Hasegawa new tool kit.

Wings sweep but as linkage is broken they are free to move independently. This also allows me to put them in 'oversweep' parking position.

Decals are from the last issue of the Airfix kit.

Scrubbed up ok in the end I think!

Mark in the windscreen is where some clear coat leaked through masking tape

More photographic proof that VF-142 had AJ painted on some Tomcats. Up till I saw this I always thought the VF-142 decal option in the old Matchbox kit was fantasy, based on the last F-4J scheme they had worn prior to converting to F-14s. Then I saw they actually flew on and off Nimitz in this scheme!

And again! Although the matchbox scheme is still somewhat different, in that it has the lightning bolts on the outside if the fins, and the AJ inside of the fins. As you can see, and as per the first pic in the thread, they should be reversed.

And finally we have the Zhengdefu/Kitech copy of the Italeri kit. It's not the worst thing ever but it's still dreadful compared to the Italeri one. Plastic is cheap and nasty, fit is worse, decals are best ignored.

This is based on the retooled F-14A+ or B kit, so has the inaccurate exhaust but still a misshapen nose cone ( it's actually worse than the original Italeri one somehow). This got a replacement radome from again a Hasegawa spare.

Decals are all Matchbox originals with Modex from ab old Microscale sheet, and USS America titles from Crazy Modeller copy of Hasegawa kit sheet.

I could have probably sanded down the radome a bit more. 'Bulbous' I think is the word needed.

I went all out with the matchbox decals even if the yellow stripes on wings and nose were not on the Nimitz planes. Oh well, its only a model and was really an experiment to see if the crappy kit was worth building. I'll let you decide.

Engine nozzles are from Fujimi, from the spare engines on stands provided in that kit. Like the Hasegawa spares on my B kit, they fit perfectly. Also like the B kit, I'm missing the fairings between nozzles and tailplanes. I will probably cast a few in resin using Hasegawa parts as masters.