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Building an F-14B out of the Tamiya kit?


Eli Raphael

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Guest Smitty44

I don't think there is a full blown Aires conversion, Eli. I am sure you could get there with the Aires burner cans and cockpit but you would still need to do some homework and figure out some antennaes, etc. If you could find the Cutting Edge/Teknics set it is a pretty easy conversion though. I would think it would be more a matter of do you want to spend the money and do all the cutting for the Zacto intake set if you build the Trumpeter kit. Were you not cutting on one in the not so distant past?

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Is the Tamiya cat worth the money? I always loved the plane, but also don't want to spend 2x the kit for conversions and "improvements." I have heard the kit is showing its age.

The first thing to consider is that Tamiya kit is a lot expensive to a raised lines kit. If you could not purchase the trumpeter kit, I highly reccomend the Revell kit. Is a non expensive kit, and have scribbed lines. I have assembled 2 of these, and really liked the kit. The cockpit is excellent, unlike the Tamiya kit, that have flatted panels, and only a decal to do it.

I made one B Tomcat with one Revel, only using the Wolfpack conversion  set.

Cheers, Paulo.

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The first thing to consider is that Tamiya kit is a lot expensive to a raised lines kit. If you could not purchase the trumpeter kit, I highly reccomend the Revell kit. Is a non expensive kit, and have scribbed lines. I have assembled 2 of these, and really liked the kit. The cockpit is excellent, unlike the Tamiya kit, that have flatted panels, and only a decal to do it.

I made one B Tomcat with one Revel, only using the Wolfpack conversion  set.

Cheers, Paulo.

 

The Revell kit has LOTS of other issues, though. 

 

http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=68783

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  • 1 month later...

Really depends on what you want and what is most important to you.

I personally have come to the conclusion that there is no reason to go for the Trumpet.

 

Tamiya is after all still the most accurate kit (in comparison to the Trumpet even by far). If you want a Bravo you need to invest into quite some resin in addition to a pretty expensive base kit and the raised panel lines have already been mentioned.

Depending on where you buy, the Trumpeter versions could even come more expensive or quite possibly just as expensive as the Tamiya version. You can buy all three basic versions of the Tomcat (without going into block related details however). But if you really want an accurate Tomcat then it just doesn't matter. The basic kit sprues are just so full of countless small and sadly also rather huge mistakes and inaccuracies and to think of all the work that at least needs to be done in reduceing the abhorend over-detail it doesn't really matter whether you put that time in rescribing the Tamiya or at least minimally correct the Trumpet. But to turn a Trumpet into a Tamiya in terms of shape accuracy you REALLY need modellers balls and scratch building experience. That is at least my opinion. You don't necessarily need to invest further money into resin if you are not too anal about Tomcats and accuracy. There are ways to work the intake trunks so that they remotely resemble the real thing and there are ways to lift the too deep cockpit tub (however without the possibility to correct the overstretched instrument panels) and if you got the time and putty to build up the messed up Phoenix pallets, just knock yourself out. I would say however, that there is no way to get away without extra resin on corrections on the Trumpet.

 

So depending on your attitude:

if you want to go for shape accuracy, there is really no way around Tamiya. If that doesn't bother you too much, by all means go for the Trumpet but with that attitude I would see no sense in pouring all the money in that expensive kit, if you can have two Revells for the same amount of money.

 

Many people complain about the old Revell kit without knowing the real deal and most of all the changes done to the original even in its early time during the mid and late 70s.

In fact Revell has thought of aspects and details that even Tamiya forgot. Most people complain about the "messed up" canopy and windshield. However! It is by no means messed up! What most people don't know is that there was a slight change in the design. While grumman was the main manufacturer of the airframe, there were hundreds of sub-manufacturers, even on the mere airframe itself. For instance ROHR provided the intake trunks and engine cowlings and also manufactured the canopy. The initial canopy was a tad less "rounded" over the head of the RIO. Revell just depicts the old stile canopy without the slight bow that has been added already early in production after test RIOs complained about hitting the glas while turning their heads in the cockpit. Hence the canopy glas segment for the RIO was slightly bowed outwards as of Block 70 onwards and earlier blocks received new canopies later on according to availability. If you want to build a very early Tomcat, the shape of the old Revell actually even goes way more along with the original at that time than even Tamiya!

 

Yes Revell is poor in detail and it is not the best base for building a late version of the Tomcat but it is a really neat and most of all cheap base for those beautiful early high-viz kitties. You will need a boatload of resin and an even bigger load of blood sweat and tears to work out the shortcomings (at least the shortcomings can be worked on in opposite to the trumpet!) but hey, it's just what you saved on those expensive Asians and if you do it right you end up with an even nicer rendition of the real deal for the same amount of money or even less.

Edited by bushande
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Personally I think with the extra work the Tamiya kit is still the best. Try closing up those panels on the Trumpeter kit let alone fix the intakes etc. I really wish Tamiya would revisit the Tomcat in 32 scale and give us something like the F-16 detail etc.

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Really depends on what you want and what is most important to you.

I personally have come to the conclusion that there is no reason to go for the Trumpet.

 

Tamiya is after all still the most accurate kit (in comparison to the Trumpet even by far). If you want a Bravo you need to invest into quite some resin in addition to a pretty expensive base kit and the raised panel lines have already been mentioned.

Depending on where you buy, the Trumpeter versions could even come more expensive or quite possibly just as expensive as the Tamiya version. You can buy all three basic versions of the Tomcat (without going into block related details however). But if you really want an accurate Tomcat then it just doesn't matter. The basic kit sprues are just so full of countless small and sadly also rather huge mistakes and inaccuracies and to think of all the work that at least needs to be done in reduceing the abhorend over-detail it doesn't really matter whether you put that time in rescribing the Tamiya or at least minimally correct the Trumpet. But to turn a Trumpet into a Tamiya in terms of shape accuracy you REALLY need modellers balls and scratch building experience. That is at least my opinion. You don't necessarily need to invest further money into resin if you are not too anal about Tomcats and accuracy. There are ways to work the intake trunks so that they remotely resemble the real thing and there are ways to lift the too deep cockpit tub (however without the possibility to correct the overstretched instrument panels) and if you got the time and putty to build up the messed up Phoenix pallets, just knock yourself out. I would say however, that there is no way to get away without extra resin on corrections on the Trumpet.

 

So depending on your attitude:

if you want to go for shape accuracy, there is really no way around Tamiya. If that doesn't bother you too much, by all means go for the Trumpet but with that attitude I would see no sense in pouring all the money in that expensive kit, if you can have two Revells for the same amount of money.

 

Many people complain about the old Revell kit without knowing the real deal and most of all the changes done to the original even in its early time during the mid and late 70s.

In fact Revell has thought of aspects and details that even Tamiya forgot. Most people complain about the "messed up" canopy and windshield. However! It is by no means messed up! What most people don't know is that there was a slight change in the design. While grumman was the main manufacturer of the airframe, there were hundreds of sub-manufacturers, even on the mere airframe itself. For instance ROHR provided the intake trunks and engine cowlings and also manufactured the canopy. The initial canopy was a tad less "rounded" over the head of the RIO. Revell just depicts the old stile canopy without the slight bow that has been added already early in production after test RIOs complained about hitting the glas while turning their heads in the cockpit. Hence the canopy glas segment for the RIO was slightly bowed outwards as of Block 70 onwards and earlier blocks received new canopies later on according to availability. If you want to build a very early Tomcat, the shape of the old Revell actually even goes way more along with the original at that time than even Tamiya!

 

Yes Revell is poor in detail and it is not the best base for building a late version of the Tomcat but it is a really neat and most of all cheap base for those beautiful early high-viz kitties. You will need a boatload of resin and an even bigger load of blood sweat and tears to work out the shortcomings (at least the shortcomings can be worked on in opposite to the trumpet!) but hey, it's just what you saved on those expensive Asians and if you do it right you end up with an even nicer rendition of the real deal for the same amount of money or even less.

 

Sorry mate, I know we've already had some discussions about this and you know a lot about Tomcats, but I still disagree. You can repeat that canopy change thingy (which only infulences the canopy portion above the RIO's head anyway!) as often as you want, it still does capture not what makes the Revell forward fuselage incorrect. The windscreen being too flat and the forward fuselage and radome being incorrect in section are the main issues. 

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They can be corrected up to a certain point. I had to cast a Tamiya radome and heavily modify the fuselage in front of the ront landing gear whell, a Tamiya windscreen (and canopy) is necessary as well. To properly correct the cross sections, most of the surface details around the gun would have to be removed and rebuilt afterwards. Not really what I call 'reasonable effort'... but then, I am totally with you regarding the Trumpeter Tomcat. It requires a lot of work as well and is way more expensive.

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