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Some
time ago I built Two VF31 F14A Tomcats. One was a Fujimi Low Viz bird, the other
was a Hasegawa Hi Viz plane. That's when I made my mind about
Tomcat kits on the market. Fujimi has more extras (pilots, weapons,
engine) and is an easier build, whereas Hasegawa has more options (nose cones,
gun vents, wheel hubs, tail versions) and is more accurate and surface details
are more
I
generally find Fujimi is a skinny cat in the front fuselage and you have to add
the Phoenix pallets to conceal this. I have a strong preference for the Hasegawa
rendition.
These
are my more recent Hasegawa 1/72 Tomcats. I built a VF102 Diamonds Back F14B and
a VF84 Jolly Roger
Construction
was straightforward and kits can be built out of the box.
Cockpits.
F14B
is built mostly with kit parts. Verlinden seats were used. Some gauges on the
dash board were built using Eduard PE parts.
F14A
is built with a full Verlinden F14 cockpit set.
Main
color is dark gull grey (FS36231). Seats are black with kahki green cushions.
Belts are various shades or green or grey. Ejection rings are built with kit PE
parts. Some details are added according to widely available documentation. Some
instruments are framed with extra dark grey or black. This is the case with
radar screens. Screens are painted very dark metallic grey/gloss black, which I
think is closer to switched off screens color than the proposed green.
Once
cockpits are completed main construction is started. The main area of concern is
front and rear fuselage joint. Some sanding will be necessary there. As lower
joint may be hidden by jet intakes and phoenix pallets if you add them my piece
of advice is to be careful with the upper part of this joint, just behind
cockpit area.
Landing
gears
are painted white as are Wheel hubs and doors. They are then detailed with thin
copper wire as brake lines. I usually enhance details on gears and wheels with
wash of diluted Tamiya smoke translucent color. Red edges are added with a
permanent ink marker (I read this once on this site, I tried and it works fine).
Engines
exhausts
are built and painted with some black, white and grey in the inside. I detailed
GE exhausts with dark silver stripes of decal. PW engines lips are thinned from
the inside with the tip of a sharp scalpel blade.
VF84
F14A is painted light gull grey (FS36440) overall. I used different tones of the
same color. To achieve this, I used different brands (Humbrol, Aeromaster
enamel, Testors, I even lightened some of them with white) and airbrushed these
colors following panels, panel lines etc...The Verlinden resin fuel receptacle
and PE door are added on front fuselage lower right side.
VF102
F14B receives Phoenix Pallets and
it is detailed with Verlinden PE folding access ladder. It is painted
FS36320 and FS36375 using the same method of mixing shades.
The
reason of mixing shades is to reproduce this patchwork effect on US NAVY
machines which is due to constant touch ups and repairs.
Weathering
is done with a wash of Gunze
acrylic dark brown. Aircraft then are gloss varnished. They then were decaled.
VF84 decals are from the kit whereas VF102 are from a Superscale sheet. Kits are
then matt varnished before finishing details are added.
Last
parts that I added are the tiny position lights (8 of them between wings, gloves
and fins) that prove Hasegawa made an effort engineering this kit but confirms
it is not an easy built. But believe me their F14s are worth every effort.
Eric
PS
: I learned after completion that BOL missile rails equipped F14s always fly
with them on both sides.
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