F-14A Tomcat VF-1 Wolfpack
Kommentarer
James CThanks Roland 🙂
Inspired by the awesome looking F-14 builds earlier this year, I made a start on this one back in June, and it has been kicking my arse ever since.
I've stopped and started it several times now, and even come pretty close to binning it entirely... but I may just be nearing the end finally. Without exaggerating, this thing has easily used more filler than I've used on all of my previous builds over the last two years combined!!! And to be honest it could still have done with another weeks worth of filling and sanding etc, but I figured if I can at least get it finished to a reasonable standard, that I'd treat myself to the Tamiya F-14 kit in the new year and put more effort into that instead.
I'm hoping to get the black anti-glare on the nose as well as the silver trim on the leading edges of the wings and tails done today, then look at starting the decals on the weekend.
Robin (WhiteGlint)The canopy is a part that rarely stays where it should, at least in my experience.
I believe the last time I built a modern aircraft I placed the clear parts on the airframe and glued them together before glueing them on the jet itself.
It worked for me that time, but I am not sure if that really is the best way to do it...
Looking forward to your progress on this kitty, James.
James CYeah, I thought I had it positioned ok, but I think it shifted slightly on me when I applied some Tamiya tape to brace it while it sat overnight. I should have just detached it and repositioned it again, but I have zero patience left. The other thing that really bothers me is how the wings droop/sag when swept all the way forwards 😠
James CI got the silver trim done on the leading edges of the wings and tail which I'm quite happy with, but not so much the black anti-glare panel on the nose, as the shape doesn't look quite right. I'm going to try and overlay the decal that the kit provides on top instead and see how it looks. Also gave it a light panel line wash and installed the tail hook, external tanks and wheel bay doors.
Also encountered an issue with the outboard missile pylons. They should be different for left and right sides but Italeri only provides identical left side? pylons. Still deciding if I'll ignore it and install them regardless or just leave them off completely.
Anyway, hopefully I'll have better luck with the decals...
James CI'm about 75% done with the decals now. In contrast to the kit assembly, I found them to be a joy to work with. They settle down perfectly with a minimum of fuss. A pleasant surprise to what has otherwise been a real struggle so far. Of course I just had to make a cock-up of my own by placing roundels on the top of both wings (Should only be on the left) By the time I realized my mistake it was too late to correct. If I lift it off, the paint beneath will have a stained outline from it, so figure it best just to leave it as is as I have no desire for re-spraying. Luckily I have a spare to place on the bottom instead.
Murad ÖZERJames my hat's off to you mate for your perseverance and dedication.
if i was in charge of now defunct grumman, i'd have the italeri hq sent to kingdom come for tooling and selling this abomination of a plastic model kit grossly unworthy of it's name...
James CCheers guys 🙂
I finished off the decals yesterday and just need to seal them with a coat of semi-gloss then onto final detail painting of the assorted navigation lights etc.
@ Murad - Heheh, yeah... one can only hope that whomever was responsible for it at Italeri has his ar$%hole infested with the fleas from a thousand dead camels! While I wasn't expecting all that much from the kit prior to starting, I seriously underestimated how troublesome it would turn out to be.
James CIt took me three attempts, but I finally finished the bastard off today!
I made a couple silly mistakes (most notably placing roundels on the top of both wings) but from a distance and if you squint... it's passable. Will look at getting the Tamiya kit some time in the new year.
Anyway, thanks for looking in.
Probably going to be my last build for 2020, so I will wish everyone a Happy Xmas, and hopefully a much better new year for 2021!
Cheers! 🙂
Michael HickeyNicely done James, and Merry Xmas to you too, hopefully we can all build more model kits next year, I only got 8 finished this year.🙁
SpanjaardIt looks nice from this distance (100 times better that the only tomcat I have ever done, for example)
Merry Christmas and a great 2021. Like our tomcats, I hope next year is 100X better than the former😉
James C@ Michael, Spanjaard, Roland, Augie and Murad.... Many thanks for the positive comments 🙂
Robin (WhiteGlint)Despite all the problems, you still made a good looking bird out of this kit. Merry Christmas, James 🙂
NeulingVery good result despite all the problems you had with the kit! The model looks just beautiful. Only objection: you considering your modelling skills as barely average.👍
James CThanks Jos, WhiteGlint and Neuling. Very much appreciated guys. 🙂
This F-14 build has scratched an itch that I've had for ages now, and is something that I intend to re-visit again in the future and hopefully do a better job of. My plan for next year is to move away from tanks and armour, and get more experience with aircraft instead; possibly starting with the MiG-15 (which I may begin shortly) and then maybe the F-86? I also definitely want to have a crack at the F-4 Phantom at some point... a subject which I've been threatening to bastardize for a number of years now 😛
Martin OostromI love this livery and colours. Those were the goog ol' days.
Job well done James!
Danielthats a really beautiful result! Also harmonizes great with your garden😉 Awesome 👍
James CThanks Martin and Daniel 🙂
@ Martin - Yes, it's definitely a vibrant looking paint scheme which makes it stand out on the shelf. I to also like the older schemes in general over the later "Low-Viz" paint schemes.
Rob HendersonOutstanding! Inspired to get working on the collection of F-14's waiting patiently on my shelf 😄 👍
James CThanks Rob, Gerald, Ingo, Jens and Dominik 🙂
I'm hoping to get my hands on the Tamiya kit soonish, and hopefully do a much better job of it. This Italeri kit, coupled with my own mistakes was very disappointing.
Slavo HazuchaWas just commenting on Donalds Wolfpack Cat and stumbled into this one!
Great show, bears the NZ sunrays like a champion 👍
Thx also for the lenghty description - It does not always have to be a Tamiya or some other 80€/$+ piece to make a good show. Quality decals make another 20€/$ saved on aftermarket - balancing the case for another set of friul tracks, maybe?😉
Donald Dickson III missed this one as well. As Slavo mentioned, I just finished a Wolfpack bird with the Tamiya kit. A Vandy bird with the AMK kit. The Tamiya is, as has been said ad nauseum, is fantastic. Really worth every penny. The AMK is more affordable and is a much better kit than the Italeri you tangled with, but does have some issues to deal with.
Fantastic job on a crappy kit though!
Feel free to check mine out. 🙂
Scalemates F-14 Tomcat Group Build 2020 DONE | Album by smokeriderdon (1:48)
James CThanks Slavo, Tom, Donald and Mattias 🙂
@ Slavo - hehe yeah, I can never have too many sets of Friuls, but the plan is to build more aircraft this year as I need the practice.😉
@ Donald - Thanks mate and yes I followed both of your F-14 builds😉👍
Michael PhillipsBeautiful Tomcat James, great choice of markings too!
The 1/48 Italeri F-14 Tomcat is the very first model I built when I got back into modelling as an adult, so I have a soft spot for that kit!
Michael PhillipsI actually enjoyed the build, and being my first I luckily did not really encounter the issues you did. I used an earlier boxing than you, so maybe the plastic was better on mine since the molds were newer when the boxing I used was made. You are right about not many parts and detail being just ok. The shape of the forward fuselage is a bit off and the gun area is really poorly done.
James CThat's interesting to hear. Perhaps I'm just getting too fussy. On the bright side, kits like this make you appreciate more modern and recently tooled kits a lot more😉
Re the nose gun, yeah I had a similar issues, as it wasn't very clear where exactly to position it, and looking back mine is probably a little too far back (and high) as well.
I think that the positioning of my pitot tubes is also off. If I were to start over I'd also separate the decals that make up the assorted stencils and placards on both sides of the nose and place them individually as I found that the rescue arrow sat way to high on the right side but was too late to do anything about it having already detached it from the backing paper. 🙁
Album info
Being an Italeri molded kit, I wasn't expecting "Tamiya" or "Hasegawa" level of quality and engineering from it etc; but I did end up being both quite pleasantly surprised... and frustrated as hell during assembly.
Every now and then you come across a kit that once started, is hard to put down and walk away from... This was not to be one of those builds unfortunately. I won't go on a lengthy whinge and moan about it, but will instead just mention the biggest (assembly) issues that I encountered, for anyone that is considering attempting this kit to be weary of.
Firstly the good... Italeri provides a very nicely printed decal sheet, with the choice of 3x decal options. I was split 50/50 on whether to do the VF-84 "Jolly Rogers" or VF-1 "Wolfpack" schemes. The Wolfpack scheme won out in the end as I feel that VF-84 "Jolly Rogers" gets done to death on F-14's, and secondly the long stripes along the nose would help disguise any remnants of seamlines once assembled. The 3rd option was VF-213 "Black Lions" but was the least (visually) appealing to me of the three. In contrast to the kit assembly, the decals were fantastic, and settled down perfectly.
For a large model, there are surprisingly few parts to it, so it takes shape very quickly. As it turned out, the fit of the nose cone, and cockpit section of fuselage fit together quite well, and far better than the Tamiya 1/48 F-15C that I had built previously. (Anyone who has built that kit will be familiar with the issue with the join on the nose section etc) Sadly, it would be all down hill from there.
You get the choice of opened or closed engine nozzles, but neither are particularly well defined/detailed.
Another good feature of the kit was the sturdy nature of how the nose and main landing gear struts attach to the fuselage. While the legs themselves were not particularly well defined either; the way they slot into the wheel bays was very good and provides plenty of support and stability for the airframe itself.
The bad... The large upper and lower sections of the rear fuselage were not particularly well molded and required hefty clamping to come even reasonably close to mating together properly. The vertical side walls appeared to have been warped slightly and bowed outward during the molding process which didn't help matters. Be prepared for A LOT of filling and sanding to clean up these joins.
The joins on the insides of the engine air intakes were another major issue, with the gaps being both extremely deep and wide.
The kit has a linking mechanism to allow the wings to sweep forwards and backwards in unison. However, this mechanism is too light-weight to support both wings properly, so that they droop quite considerably under their own weight when swept all the way forwards, and when swept all the way back come to rest on the top of the fuselage itself. The second issue here is that there is a tendency to scrape the paint off of both the upper and lower surfaces of the wings (and the top of the fuselage) when moving them because of it.
The fit of the vertical tails to the fuselage is just plain bad. I opted to glue them into position and attempted to clean up the joins with filler prior to painting so that they would not be so prominent, but this made painting and masking later on far more difficult.
The cockpit interior was quite sparse and while it does have some raised detailing; it looks "generic" and doesn't appear to be representative of the real thing. The ejection seats bare no resemblance whatsoever, with harnesses and ejection handles being completely absent.(I scratched together some rough handles out of scrap wire) The main canopy also had a seam line running along it's length... which normally isn't much of an issue with a bit of carful sanding and polishing, but for the fact that it's on the inside, making it far more difficult to get to, and remove due to the curvature of the canopy itself.
The final major issue I encountered was with the mounting rails and outboard missile pylons. Firstly the mounting rails for the Phoenix missiles did not conform to the shape of the underside of the fuselage where they attach to. I got around this by securing them at the rear first and then after leaving them for several days (for the glue to cure) quite literally bent and clamped them into position with brute force! The other issue is that only two rails (and Phoenix missiles) are provided. Would of been nice to have four to position underneath.
The next issue was with the outboard missile pylons. These should be handed (eg Left and right side) Italeri only provide 2x left? side pylons. (This issue was repeated with the lower ventral fins as well) The result is that once hung, the left side doesn't match the right.
Being such a popular subject, there is a ton of aftermarket accessories and bit's and pieces available. You could replace the cockpit interior (and ejection seats) with resin, as well as the engine nozzles, and you could get around the massive gaps inside of the air intakes with FOD covers etc. But personally, I feel that would be like putting lipstick on a pig, as the base kit itself just has too much wrong with it, in addition to the bigger issues I've just mentioned.
While it would be fair to say that a lot has to do with an individuals modelling skill (I consider myself barely average) In the end, I felt this kit to be more trouble than it was ultimately worth and certainly not worth the extra expense of obtaining replacement parts for it. As such, unless your a sadist, or just want something to practice on... I'd not recommend it, as there are far better options available.
Completed December 12 2020
