Tamiya 1/48 F-14A VF-84 Fear The Bones

[jkim]

Hello!  My name is John and I like building plastic models! I'm looking for another site to share my builds so let's give this community a try!  This current build is already half-way finished so to catch us up to the present, here is a quick re-cap...

I started the Tomcat in 2021 and added the Quinta 3D decal set to the cockpit and replaced the kit seats with resin seats from Eduard.





I dressed up the nose wheel well with a little bit of wiring.



I got as far as buttoning up the nose assembly and the project got shelved. Mostly because I was stumped on how to add wiring to the main gear wells.


A few months ago, I got the urge to revisit this build (the need for speed?) and so I pulled the box from the shelf and started tinkering around. One of the Quinta pull rings on the seat broke so I fashioned some new ones from wire and brass tubing.



Prior to shelving the project, I had the Detail & Wonder 3D-printed landing gear set on hand. At the time, I had no experience with 3D-printed parts and the complex nest of support struts surrounding each part intimidated me. Since then I've had the chance to use some 3D-printed parts (most notably, Laminar Flow Design's Spitfire XIVe conversion for the 1/32 Tamiya XVIe kit) and felt ready to tackle the Detail & Wonder gear. But I had already glued the nose wheel well (and a portion of the nose landing gear leg) into place when the nose halves were glued together. The D&W nose gear was too beautiful to leave out so I (carefully) busted apart the nose assembly.


The Tamiya nose gear was replaced by the D&W nose gear.



I also learned that there was an aftermarket 3D-printed wheel well set for the Tamiya F-14A kit from a company called Mini Craft Collection. Talk about perfect timing! This would address my concerns/reservations about the main wheel wells. Once the wheel well set was received, I painted the nose gear well and buttoned up the nose assembly again.







The main gear wells and the landing gear doors (which are included in the MCC wheel well set) have been painted.



The D&W main landing gear legs still need to be painted.


To be continued...

[tcoat]

Will pass for the real thing when done!

[jeaton01]

Welcome, John!

[406 Silverado]

Ya see........I've been waitin' on this fella to come on in here with this incredible work that he does, and I log in this afternoon and BAM......there he IS! 

Glad to see you on here John (jkim). I've been hoping that you'd join in the fun and I'm glad you're picking up the F-14 again as you were doing some fantastic work on it when you started it a few years ago. I wondered what happened to it and then saw that you busted out with this thread. Ladies and gentlemen......the show continues on in 2024!! 


How's the fishing been going BTW? 

[keavdog]

Hey John! Happy to see you here to share all your awesome work.
Really digging this f-14 and taking notes as I have this kit (minus all your awesome extras) in the stash.

[jkim]

Thanks guys!  Appreciate the welcome. I'm a creature of habit so I like to have a set routine.  As far as posting my builds online, I am restricting myself to two forums.  I primarily post on LSP since my focus is on 1/32 WW2 fighter aircraft but I like to have a secondary community to get feedback from.  SPA Modeler has been that second place for a long time and I've enjoyed my time there.  It looks like many from SPA Modeler post here as well so that's good.  But recently, the activity there has plummeted and I've gotten zero response to my last four build updates. So here I am...

Aug 14, 2024 14:47:03 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

How's the fishing been going BTW? 

Thanks for the welcome Joe!  Funny that you should mention fishing... I have a bass fishing date this Saturday at my favorite lake so you probably won't see a build update over the weekend.


Continuing on with some of the past milestones of this build, in addition to adding some very interesting aftermarket products to the mix, I've also made my ordnance removable using magnets to help ease handling and transport.








I have the Eduard resin exhaust set but I didn't like how the nozzles fit so I elected to cut the kit exhaust tubes and use the more detailed Eduard afterburner assembly with the kit nozzles.







The Mini Craft Collection wheel wells fit pretty well within the upper and lower halves of the rear fuselage with some minor removals and trimming required.  Coincidentally, both the MCC and D&W sets have been designed to fit the Tamiya kit and as a result, they fit together very well, even though they are from two different manufacturers.  The added detail of both these sets is significant and highly complementary of each other... I consider them as a matching set.






The nose has been mated to the main fuselage and she's just about ready for painting.



A lot of the smaller bits and pieces have been painted, including the external ordnance.




Exhaust nozzles...




And the tail fins...

[406 Silverado]

Thanks for the welcome Joe! Funny that you should mention fishing... I have a bass fishing date this Saturday at my favorite lake so you probably won't see a build update over the weekend.

LOL!! Well heck no we won't be seeing no update!! LOL!! I'm sure you'll be having a great time out there John.


Some good updates on this puppy. I do love me a good Jolly Rodgers build.

[Leon]

Welcome aboard John! That is some very impressive work.

[project510]

Welcome to the show, John! The first word that comes to mind when seeing your work is , speechless. Holy smokes man. Incredible work!

[TJ]

Now everyone will see what this man can do. Absolute fantastic builds were very attention to the smallest detail. Welcome over John

[jkim]

Almost caught up to the present. I wanted to show a few more things like the wheels that came with the D&W landing gear set.



The arrestor hook, which I elected to paint instead of using the supplied decal for the stripes.




Ok, now we are caught up.  Yesterday, I started painting the wings.  Gave them my usual pre-shade of highlighting panel lines and a random mottle, both in black.




The wing bottoms were painted AK Real Color Insignia White in thin layers to modulate the pre-shade effect.  




The white wraps around to the tops of the movable control surfaces.


Using a scan of the wing top, I created a custom-cut mask on the Silhouette Portrait cutter.


Here are the upper wings after the Gray (Mr Aqueous Light Gull Gray H-51) and metal leading edges (AK Extreme Metal White Aluminum) were painted. I thought the gray was a bit too dark.


I took a break and checked LSP and a member pointed out that H-51 is actually a WW2 color and may not be correct shade for the F-14A. He said the correct shade in the Mr Hobby line is Gray FS16440 (Mr Color C315 or Mr Hobby Aqueous H315). I checked my paint stash and was surprised to find... Mr Color C315 Gray FS16440! I sprayed it on my paint mule and I think it looks MUCH better.


Did I mention that I am NOT a US Naval Jet expert? I'm not an expert at anything actually but WW2 subjects are more in my wheelhouse than the Tomcat. I weighed my options and decide to wipe the wings and do them over.

[handiabled]

Bookmarked and following this! Exquisitely detailed work John! Excellent to have you here I'll be watching for more

[406 Silverado]

Aug 15, 2024 0:11:53 GMT -5 jkim said:

Almost caught up to the present. I wanted to show a few more things like the wheels that came with the D&W landing gear set.
















Did I mention that I am NOT a US Naval Jet expert? I'm not an expert at anything actually but WW2 subjects are more in my wheelhouse than the Tomcat. I weighed my options and decide to wipe the wings and do them over.

 Those wheel/ tire assemblies alone look well worth the money you paid for the entire landing gear set John and you did them some good justice on picking out the details and weathering them.

I'm trying to figure out what that mesh is that you're using for the paint mottle on the wings. Is that home made or did you source that from somewhere? 

The results of all of the foundation work that you put down is evident in that last picture of the wing tops. Excellent work man. 

[TJ]

See, attention to detail, John I too agree with the color change the 315 looks just right

[kyledehart5]

Holy smokes John!! Just getting caught up in that and what an entrance!!! Welcome to the site, by the way! I hope you enjoy it here. And thanks for sharing your incredible work on this so far. It’s awesome.

[jkim]

Thanks guys! The "tool" that I use for my mottle pre-shade is from a scrub pad...



But you have to thin it in order to spray through it.  Which is sort of a pain to do.

[brandonk]

Can't believe I just noticed this. What an incredible level of work. Awesome !!

[jkim]

Thanks guys!  And just to clarify my decision to wipe the wings of paint and start over.  There were a actually a few things that drove me to it.  Foremost was this troublesome seam on the bottom of the wing near the trailing edge. 



It showed up slightly under the Insignia White paint and I thought I could do a better job of sealing that joint without paint in the way.  Another issue with masking is that metal finishes are a bit unpredictable when it comes to tape.  Sometimes it works ok, sometimes it doesn't.  Re-doing it would be safer.  And finally, that little paint lift... I sanded and micromeshed it but it the edges still showed up ever so slightly.  If that was the ONLY issue, I was confident that I could perform one more round of micromeshing and spraying a slightly thicker primer mix to eradicate the edge but redoing the paint eliminates that need.

[keavdog]

Don't fret working out of your element - you are killing it hear John!

I love the scotch brite idea.

[406 Silverado]

Aug 15, 2024 13:01:33 GMT -5 jkim said:

Thanks guys! The "tool" that I use for my mottle pre-shade is from a scrub pad...



But you have to thin it in order to spray through it.  Which is sort of a pain to do.

  Thank you for that tip John. I've been watching your builds for years and never thought to ask. +1 Karma to you bud. 

[jkim]

Thanks for the comment guys!


Since the paint on the wings has been stripped, I took the opportunity to improve the seam on the bottom of the wing that was visibly poking through the last paint job.




Once that was done, I prepared the wings for painting again.



This time, I used Mr Color C315 FS16440 Gray on the tops.




Since the wings (and stabs) can be painted, decaled and weathered independently, I decided to move further ahead and apply some decals and test out a suitable pastel wash color. I'm choosing a light grey for the bottom white areas. I make my own pastel washes using pastel chalks, water and a dash of dish soap. Cheap, easy and infinitely customizable. Water-based so it doesn't harm paint finishes.



The stencils for the stabs are from the Furball F-14 stencil set. They are printed by Cartograph so they are excellent all around. The stab on the right has been given the gray pastel wash.



The undersides of the wings feature only one decal so I put that stars-n-bars on the starboard wing (again from the Furball decal set) and applied the gray wash to this wing only for comparison.



Cleared a big mental hurdle by figuring out the masking puzzle. I used a combination of kit door parts and sheet styrene to block off the main gear wells and taped everything else. Just about ready for paint!

[themongoose]

Looking good. That’s one of my favorite mottling methods 👍

[handiabled]

Fantastic rework on the wings! I use the same homebrewed method of making pastel washes.

[jkim]

Thanks guys! Resumed the build after a fishing day. The decals were applied on the upper wings. The maintenance stencils and insignia were Furball's and the 210 aircraft number was from Hungarian Aero Decals. I wish all decals were made like Furball (Cartograph)...



The decals for the positional (or slime) lights on the wing tips didn't fit perfectly so I chose to mask them off and spray them. I tried to match the color of the decals.




The wings and horizontal stabilizers have been painted and decaled and given a pastel wash.

[keavdog]

Looks great John. The slime lights turned out really well.

[handiabled]

Such very crisp detail! Slime lights look great John.

[kyledehart5]

Man oh man. That is looking so good. Just excellent everywhere.

[jkim]

Thanks guys! Appreciate the comments!

With some of the components painted up, I couldn't help myself and mount them just to see what they look like together.



The preshading has begun. First, highlighting the panel lines in black.



The canopy area was sprayed solid black as this will be masked off before the Gull Gray goes on.



After the panel lines, a random mottle is sprayed on. This will take some time!

[keavdog]

Great progress. Fuselage paint soon!

[TJ]

Really nice work on the decals and the preshading.