Melchior Heavy maintenance! I'm in!

Martin o Welcome!

Pierre Wanna see where that project leads!

Martin o Welcome Pierre! Me too!

Calvin Gifford Good luck! That album image looks like the hulk of a bird VF-154 gave to the USS Kitty Hawk when she arrived for ABE training! :-D

Patrick Hagelstein I can totally understand your remarks on panel lines and rivets and see that a high gloss CAG bird doesn't need that particular level of detail. It's a different thing when going for a grimey beat up line bird; that's when all those details add up to the weathering and mottled look. Still, looking at this particular build: WOW!!! Just WOW! Really well done!

Martin o thank you!

Patrick Hagelstein

Oleg Bogolei Looks fantastic!

Oleg Smilyk Looks very nice!Well done!

Martin o thanks Olegs

Holger Kranich Oh these beautiful lines! Well done Martin!

Calvin Gifford Very nice looking Tomcat! Only one thing - VF-154 never flew the F-14D Supers. But if they had it would have looked just like your build!

Patrick Hagelstein Today I received the kit! Not only did G.W.H. cut out the wrong vertical stabilizers (I can live with that, as my build had the scab plates retrofitted anyway) but also cut out the P&W engine (rounded) shrouds!!! The shrouds in this kit are the carbon fibre GE-110 (square) shrouds for the -B and -D..... Why go through ALL the hassle of cutting out those parts (I certainly think it's more labor intensive hence more expensive to cut the parts out than to leave 3 grams of plastic in the box) and ending up with an 'unbuildable' kit? WHY???.....

The AIM-54As look cool though...

Patrick Hagelstein Otherwise I'm just totally flabbergasted by the insane level of detail now that I'm holding it part for part next to FineMolds offering.... The Hasegawa and Fujimi Tomcats are great kits coming from the late '80s. The FineMolds Tomcat blows those completely out of the water! Then comes G.W.H. with even more refined details and just those rivets and little thingies one would only see up close next to a real Tomcat. I have to come up with a solution for those missing parts but this is definitely the Tomcat I'm gonna build up as a detailed representation.

Simon Zhang they are starting to send replacement parts in China

Patrick Hagelstein Is there a way to contact G.W.H. from outside China then?

Simon Zhang All I can find is an email address: marketing@lionroarmodel.cn

Patrick Hagelstein Great! I'll give it a try!

Patrick Hagelstein Well... Sent an email to Simon's address but heard nothing back.......

Pierre So they basically cut the wrong sprues at the factory... Will be interesting to see whether there is any support for western customers.

Pierre I do not have a huge experience so I might just be talking out of my hat, but from a quick look at your last tomcat I'd say the main issue is some of your coats were laid down a bit too thick. It might be easier in the long run to find the sweet thinner ratio/pressure spot with your airbrush for proper atomisation/coverage and very thin coats than having to do heavy sanding to reach a satin smooth aspect (that and those panel lines will be more consistent).
Plasmo's videos and other youtubers where you can actually see the paint behaviour when they're spraying were a very useful help for me.

Martin o haha yes, I suspected that as well. a lot to learn. after all, only been working with airbrush for a few years. the sanding and polishing is a good backup for when my painting won't cut it.

Patrick Hagelstein I was reading the whole conversation to learn that you're not going for a black Tomcat but just have it as a base for further painting up a Wolfpack Tomcat. I'll just tag along from here on.

Pierre Scale-a-ton is another very useful and informative channel to watch for airbrush painting (and other tips of course).

Patrick Hagelstein ScaleModelAircraft too!

Martin o Thanks guys! I follow most of these and some others. gonna be worthwhile to revisit some basics before putting down that hi-viz coolness. I know i did manage some nice results before, I guess its just when something really important shows up, my skills get worse

Martin o Hey guys, I have no pictures yet but I have to thank Pierre for his careful, diplomatic critique of my airbrush basics I started relearning the basics and while the white coat on the underside is still quite sub par, the FS16440 surface is just beautiful.

Pierre Glad you're getting to the result you wanted!

Patrick Hagelstein Yep, now I see what you mean. Where the Stars'n Bars is in the red band, there is a very fine white line. Good! On the outside though, where it is painted on the grey, it doesn't have that line. But maybe that's what I mentioned before, that everything has this fine white line surrounding it and that's where the printer comes into play. I just feel sorry that the printer couldn't live up to the quality he was supposed to deliver.

Martin o Yes, I have to check my source data about the white lines around the roundel outside the stripes. At this point it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where the issues lie. I feel like this is a huge and fruitful lesson but I do not even want to think about the money lost.. The work will continue though!

Martin o On the other hand, I firmly believe that, despite the mistakes we found, this is still better than what is available on the market. The entire squadron is there on the sheet! Nobody has that in this scale

Dominik Weitzer super work on the decals! looking good in my view.
love the F14.

Martin o Thank you Dominik!

Martin o Hello, I am gonna be printing another sheet and I am looking through the original sheets to see if maybe there is something I could reuse. What do you guys think of the last pics in this album (#12-15)? The screenprint technology obv makes the edges a little fuzzy but the modex numbers at the very least are quite usable, no?

Patrick Hagelstein As you said, the edges are a bit fuzzy but the modex numbers are crisp.

Spanjaard Nice job on those decals

Patrick Hagelstein So, basically the gun vents and the refueling probe cover then?

Martin o yes, just that when they are inserted, they sink a little too much. I would maybe use something to put under them next time

Sergej I In

Martin o The colors are on. some fixes still to do but varnish and decals are close now

Patrick Hagelstein That is some serious masking there, Martin.

Martin o Not entirely happy with the wash so I am gonna try to take some of it off. Otherwise, the decals look nice and the cat stands on its own legs now

Patrick Hagelstein Other than that, it's coming along really well!

Martin o This build is concluded! Pictures here! Complete | Album by mnn (1:72) thanks everyone for following, ecouragement and help!

Patrick Hagelstein The Dark Side keeps lurking.........

Maciej Bellos Could be one from VF-1 aboard USS Kitty Hawk in 1983:

[img1]

Martin o YES, THANK YOU MACIEJ! it is VF-1 alpha BuNo 161290, NE 104, 1983. you pointed me in the correct direction and in a Britmodeller thread, I found more pics
https://britmodeller.com/for..034467-vf-1-tomcats-various/

Maciej Bellos Those are great pics Martin! It's my turn to say thanks! That's one of those nice Tomcats one must build. If you ever build it I'll take front row center. It looked like a Ferris cat, so that was my first thought, and boy I was surprised to find decals, albeit for NE100. You completed the search Martin!

Roland Revolvermann I just wanted to write that too
Found the 105 (161292) in „F-14 Legends of warfare" book (page 32). It's the same Heater-Ferris scheme...Thx for the Link

Patrick Hagelstein Way cool!!!

Martin o I was really curious about how those metal barrels work so I went ahead and installed them. Quite a bit of work but not as bad as I expected. The Flyhawk kit is incredible, I keep looking into the box every day

Slavo Hazucha Nice, particularly the casemate battery gets a massive boost in scale detail! Poor Lützow took quite a beating, are you by chance going for a Jutland dio?

Martin o Not a dio specifically but I will definitely try and complete the I. Aufklarungsgruppe, just waiting for the kits to be made As for Lutzow, the kit even includes the destroyer which was used by Hipper to switch ships mid battle so they will be side by side but no water base is planned..

Dave Flitton Watching!!!

Slavo Hazucha So I guess the Lützow will not be depicted in the state when the exchange happened

Martin o haha I would not have the heart for that Slavo I am still recovering from cutting into the Hasegawa Tomcat

Richmond Bookmarked

Christian Lehmann

Martin o As you might have noticed, the picture in the project is not really a delta. It is a late alpha tomcat camo scheme on an F-14B. Because I do not like the default VF-2 options in the GWH kit, I'd like to ask if anyone here on scalemates has decals for F-14D from the VF-213 squadron, specifically the jets in the album. I am willing to pay for those or send the original sheet in the GWH kit in return (or some options from the hasegwa kit). If I am unable to get the VF-213 decals, I will just make it in the "what if" VF-154 hi viz colors :I thanks for any help

Patrick Hagelstein Grumman F-14D Tomcat (Hasegawa 00811, 1:72)
Martin, do you mean these kind of markings? I don't have that specific kit, just wanted to check, so other mates could chime in.

Martin o yes, the kits are somewhere out there. could not even find those for sale. guess its gonna be a black knight.. too bad, the livery is quite common in the other scales. I have it in stash for 144 and for 48 I guess everybody else has too

Pierre Heh, the exact scheme I'm planning to do with this new GWH kit, using this decal sheet: F-14B & D Tomcat Decal #2 (Modelkasten DC-6, 1:72)

They're still available over at HLJ. Obviously I haven't used them yet so I don't know how good they are, but the sheet looks very sharp and the film quite thin. Edit: The only issue I noticed is one red Beware of Brast stencil (which might be a joke, because the other of the pair is correct )

Pierre Also, I think AJ213 164602 was a Delta, not sure about the other plane you have pictured in your album.

Patrick Hagelstein Huh... Never knew about that one... Good that I do know though!

Martin o thanks for the info Pierre, I might get the sheet from HLJ but my wife confessed a dislike for the blacklion jets and wants me to do the knight. who am i to argue right

Patrick Hagelstein So true Martin.... I feel the need, the need for..... BKR!!!

Martin o In the end I will go on building the what-if Black Knight, NF100 decals on 16440 HiViz paint on a white base to make the plane bright. It is very much in progress, I will post some pics in the evening.

ALSO: I have finally found the main flaw of the GWH kit. The person building it Mostly it's me messing up the build as opposed to the incredible kit. It is really better than Finemolds.. Fingers crossed for an Alpha

Patrick Hagelstein I'm with you on that Alfa! The initial sprue shot on Moxing.net showed Bombcat parts already, so there should be more to come.

Patrick Hagelstein Please tell us what you feel right now! Is it living up to your expectations?

Martin o yes, do tell! i am waiting for my hobbyboss kit to arrive for my review gwh vs hobbyboss vs finemolds

Maciej Bellos Following!

Federico Burchianti It's a very impressive kit, it's more similar to a 1/48 with all the parts and complexity than to a 1/72. I have taken all the sprue and compare it to my Fine Molds F-14 (early A model). Both seem so well done that's difficult to say which one is superior (if one is superior to the other); there are many small differences and probably just assembling them I can have an exhaustive opinion. That said, I have excited to have such great models of my favorite aircraft; they have raised the level above even to Hasegawa and Fujimi (the -A model isn't bad at all) kits. Just a final note: the Greatwall F-14D has a completed set of missile (so yes, even the Sidewinders are in the box) but no air-to-ground armament or pods and, if you like to do a "flying" model as I like, you have to add the pilots.

Patrick Hagelstein The weird thing is that moxing.net really early hat a sprue overview with BRUs and LANTIRN pods included. Hopefully a Bombcat is not too long out as I intend to build mine as a late F-14A with TERs mounted on the BRUs.

Federico Burchianti think I will do it 'out the box' as VF-2 CAG, armed with all air-to-air missiles. As I havè at least other 4 Tomcats on the stash, including a Hasegawa F-14D with both pods, I like the idea to use this one to make the F-14 at the apex of the career as fighter (-D version, mid '90s).

Martin o Hello, my final review can be found here: https://imgur.com/gallery/RxCFtqH

Patrick Hagelstein Nice one!

Martin o Finally done, comments welcome!

Holger Kranich Really a nice comparison! Thx!

Martin o You're welcome Holger

Martin o I finally managed to spray the hangar. With the basic details on the deck complete, I will be able to finally put the two pieces together and seal the deal with the elevator. Looking forward to starting with all the details, the kit looks pretty basic right now.

Norbert Steffens Hi Martin,

great. I'm in...

Martin o The deck is now on the hull. The details I am adding are mostly inaccurate, sadly. Gotta use up those PE parts. Putting the 1/700 crewmen on will be fun

Martin o After going mad several times from gluing the railings, the LSO post, rigging and stern lights are the last details separating me from the last and most anticipated build part. The small crewmen. The tiny metal sailors are overjoyed about hopping aboard their ship soon.

Martin o Casting the Trackers/Tracers. Depending on how they go I am thinking of replacing the Greyhounds entirely to have the scene more accurate.

Martin o The casting wasn't looking well so I opted for the Greyhounds. I am slowly adding the tiny figures with the tower and the left side of the hull remaining. After that, its only the rigging.

Martin o thanks Roland! Looking through all the F-111s in the group build, I managed to miss it anyway. These pictures should be very heplful.

Martin o Progressing on the intakes and engines. one of the intakes will be very visible on account of the engine being out of the plane so I had to sand everything down to perfection. That took a lot of time. Also perfection was not achieved. But I will move on. I changed the engine exhausts for the aires parts. They are lacking detail but the shape seems more accurate. I am working concurrently on finishing the panel bays and the intake ramp mechanisms so that the two fuselage parts can finally be glued together but there is a long road before that still.

Martin o Working on the access panel bays. Soon I will be able to start filling them up with sweet sweet details. Tried to put the wings on to see the general scale. I will not use the hasegawa wings though. The GWH kit should arrive this week so I'm gonna use the wings from there.

Urban Gardini [img1]

Maciej Bellos Sorry, sorry, I missed this!

Patrick Hagelstein I love the GWH kit! I even think it's better than the FineMolds one and that was awesome already! Can't wait to start mine after some other stuff on my table.

Martin o welcome new faces! I am planning to review the kit, loot the wings and drop the box back to the stash lol. serves them right for first making a delta. There is a big commercial opportunity the model companies are missing imo. If they made a kit depicting the first prototypes, everyone would have to buy seven kits each. I know I would

Patrick Hagelstein

Cuajete Nice job so far. Interesting...

C. B. Nice little ones excellent camo.

Martin o thank you

Chris Greathouse These tiny scale builds blow me away! Well done, they look great!

Martin o Thanks Chris. Currently casting 1/700 Trackers/Traders for my carrier so more tiny scale coming soon

Neuling Small and beautiful!

Martin o Thanks!

Greg Baker Yeah, very nice work. It's not easy to get such great results from 1/144 scale. You might consider giving the panel lines a bit of a wash. Maybe not 100% accurate for the scale, but I find it draws out the colours that are otherwise hard to see at this scale. Just a thought.

Martin o Thanks Greg. I did two layers of wash actually. it is more pronounced somewhere and less elsewhere. In the end I decided it looks fine. cleaning the excess wash was causing a lot of damage so I did not want to risk another go

Greg Baker You know, now that I look at it a bit more closely, I can see it. It's just the reflection off the light that makes it seem shinier than it is. I know exactly what you mean though... some parts more pronounced than other. That happens to me all the time. Great work though, I love 1/144 builds.

Patrick Hagelstein Hi Martin, I just read your review again. One thing I noticed is that you commented on the Fujimi airbrake protruding. That's actually correct and not many manufacturers get this detail right.

Martin o So you think it should not be sanded and rescribed? Interesting. Gotta check with the pictures

Holger Kranich Real nice comparison of the 4 kits. You really pointed out the pro´s and con´s. Glad to have the Fujimi and Hasegawa at home. But now i need the Fine Molds one. And lets see what Great Wall Hobby offers us in the next time. GWH seems to be a great deal. Will you expand your comparison with the GWH kit?

Cheers Holger

Martin o Thank you, Holger! I am definitely planning on expanding this not only with the new GWH which I will try to get ASAP but also the old Hobbyboss and upcoming Academy.

Holger Kranich Yeah, cool to hear that!
And btw, it was a great relief for me, that you share the opinion that the Hasegawa canopy looks ... weird, at least. Now i know that i am not alone.

Martin o Yes it is a cause of great anxiety for me as I am otherwise heavily biased for the Hasegawa F-14

Holger Kranich Oh i can imagine! I like the Hasegawa kit very much and have figured out that the Revell canopy fits quite good. A little sanding here and there...

Martin o Ah yes, the canopy is the only good thing about the Revell kit

Patrick Hagelstein Why? What's wrong with a WWI era F-14?

Patrick Hagelstein F-14A Combat Air Museum Topeka | Album by Hagel (1:72)
This is a picture I took a while ago. Not as pronounced as on other airframes but you can see the raised trailing edge of the airbrake. Beware, it's only on the top one and only at the back.

Patrick Hagelstein Pictures 4 and 5...

gorbygould Nice job!
I assume you've left the swastika like that deliberately.

Martin o thank you. yes, the cross is deliberate. I changed some other details too. like the paint scheme on the nose. hope it wont offend the historical accuracy crowd

gorbygould I'm not interested in historical accuracy. In my books, a good looking model is a good model.

Martin o yup, i see it the same way

Martin o Slowly progressing towards the paint. The metal underside is polished and while the surface is not exactly smooth, I will accept this state as the positive rivets are nicely visible.

On the other hand there is no surprise at the rivets being messed up where it will be most obvious - on the top. While washing off the carrier glue, I broke the rivets on one of the wings and now I am trying to salvage the situation using free lines. Sad but important lesson.

Whoever is planning to use the HGW rivets - they are beautiful and the carrier glue can be washed away with just a slow stream of water or a gentle touch of a finger. Do not use wet cloth like HGW tells you

Martin o Was left home alone for the weekend, naturally all efforts were directed to gluing and painting pieces of plastic. i started out by some preshading. Tried that for the first time ever and sadly, there is no noticeable effect. Will try on black base next time. also I confused RLM 82 and 83 causing me to have two layers in some places. Making the positive rivets to appear was therefore more difficult in those areas.

The undercarriage was a bit of a nightmare to position and glue, as was the propeller spiral.

Only the rigging remains on the todo list. That and replacing the wing root gun barrels which were lost. Probably gonna order some brass tubes to use in their stead.

Ben M Fantastic!

Łukasz Gliński Awesome work. I think we all salute your weathering skills

Casey Beckett Wow - that bird is beat! Impressive work!

Slavo Hazucha Very nice finish, holding true to the original. MiG-21's are just hillarious weathering objects Great job in 72-scale!

Martin o Thank you gentlemen.

Matthew A Wow

Martin o thank you Maciej

Martin o I am mostly done with the colors. There is some parts that hardly look perfect but I did not want to push my luck and risking ripping off what I already have so this is the state I will work with. All is sealed under a glossy coat for practical reasons, the plane will now be sprayed with flat finish and glossy parts will be highlighted using a brush. As could be seen, only limited use of washes was necessary (mostly on the underside). I will try to make a stencil for the nose number as it would have to be weathered as well and I do not want to waste a decal on that.

Slavo Hazucha This is most impressive, especially in 1:72! Do I get it right that you put on all color coats bottom-to-top, then sanded away through the layers to the desired level? What tools/grain etc... did you use - I need to do something roughly similar on a future build and this result is very convincing!

Martin o Thank you Slavo. It went: paint-scratching-sanding-varnish to seal. That was repeated for each color separately (light faded blue, dark new blue, light faded brown, light faded green, dark new brown, dark new green). The sandpaper I used was a worn 400 grit and new 400 grit. 400Grit is a little rough though, using 600 and a little patience could be more time consuming for better results I think. Great restraint will be needed and prepare to be fixing disasters all the time (now that I think of it, I am not sure about the grit numbers, I will check later)

Slavo Hazucha Thanks a lot, sounds like a few evenings spent in the cycle Good luck on the finishing steps!

Martin o the masking tape is off! Happy with the surface reflectiveness now. next stop are the stencil decals, hope they do not mess it up too much

Alec K Wow, impressive weathering .

Martin o The MiG is finished. Pictures in a separate slbum here:
Complete | Album by mnn (1:72)

Björn Svedberg Looking great!

Roland Sachsenhofer Very very cool project and impressive modeling! I will follow for sure!

Predrag Ivanovic Awesome build report, those Eduard albatros are great,and so colorful that you could buld another after another and never get boring. Great project.BTW i started one(Revell reboxing) too and have one in stash (profipack), i glued lower wing before fuselage paint,that was my dilema. As I can see you did the opposite

James C Very impressive work!

Martin o Thank you everyone!

Predrag - I have glued the wings before as you can see in previous pics. I had to remove them later.. it is one of the disasters I mentioned in the album. Reattaching will be difficult.

Also I got the VIRIBUS UNITIS limited edition kit for Christmas so two more OEFFAG planes will be joining my circus.

The OEFFAG kits are also newer with a lot more detail. They look incredible!

Predrag Ivanovic Martin o.I didn't figure that, out i saw lower wings glued on D. III,and you are right, later pictures shows fuselage without wings.
One more question, do you intend to extend the main legs on Albatros D. V? I found that they are 3mm short.

Martin o there are a lot of other intricacies on the Albatros build. I also did not install the guns trying to save them from assured destruction during painting only to find that adding them later is showing to be quite tricky. So cool to keep an eye on that too.

as for the gear struts.. I still have time to decide. I found a few dubious references and I will scratchbuild new struts using that. If I do not like the results, I will use OOB

Martin o after a few attempts at different ways to rig the planes, I settled on a way to do it using hooks which looks very nice as opposed to the original way of curling the thread with superglue. I am not gonna fix the original results to kinda keep the learning process visible for everyone to see. Sadly the yellow Albatros will be the messy testing plane forever now. Hopefully the others that will follow will turn out much nicer thanks to the yellow Albatros sacrifice. I am gonna take some rest from rigging for a while though. Prepare myself mentally.

Martin o Adding the huge MF box here. Gonna be three birds now apparently.. Also I started on the first one. Not much pictures though. I will try to fix that.

Wim van der Luijt I'm having the exact same problem right now. Posted on Alex's (Uschi's) facebook too and still no response. Very strange as I have ordered from him before with no trouble what so ever.

Martin o I just got an email few minutes before. They are having problems with German Post and it is taking them too long to process orders. They offered to return money but I have no problem with giving them more time now that I know.