Paramedic

Yes. Another bloody Mustang.

I purchased the Tamiya kit many moons ago after reading glowing reviews. I was impressed with what I discovered in the box, looking forward to the build. However, I had other projects to complete, including a scratchbuild subject that wrapped up in November. I broke out the Tamiya kit in December after securing a handful of aftermarket bits, and I must say the journey has been an absolute pleasure. In accordance with the instructions, which one clearly should follow in this particular case, I began with the Packard V-1650 Merlin engine. The detail is magnificent, but I just can't leave well enough alone so I added a bunch of additional detail using plastic and wire.

Here are a few pictures to get the ball rolling. I probably went overboard on the weathering, and will make sure to temper the impulse to over do it when it comes to the rest of the aircraft.

 

 

 

 
 
 

Well we had a bit of a setback..Had the Fus. stars and bars in the wrong place...don't follow the decal sheet instructions if you have an actual photo.
Now I wouldn't have done this a few years ago,I'll just call it age related screw up.One of those GRRRR! moments.
So we fixed it (first pic) with several choice words.LOL.
Cheers.Bill.

Slowly getting there...just the details now..Thanks for looking in

Finally got around to laying some paint down...now the fun starts,decals and details. Still have a carrier deck and figure to get to as well.
    Such fun...Cheers for now.
 

Back at the bench with an oldy but goody...We are taking two Hasegawa Hellcats and attempting to entitle them.
Have been collecting AM for a long time ,some just recently traded for with a good modeling friend. 
Mating Trumpter wings to the Has fuselage x2,want a F6F-3 and a F6F-5. Will attempt to rescribe and enhance all the surface detail..new cockpits,detailed engines, etc.
Have line drawings and references in place and a head full of ideas..All that's left is a bit of time and some luck sorting out how to do it.LOL. 
Cheers Bill.

 

Got my hands on this nice base from Australia ...quite lovely it is
 

I e-mailed him last Autumn about the P-51D ones and they were then on their way back. Ask him about it, he may - or they may be on their way? Always good to show interest?

Sad to hear, will try to support. Used some resin and the placards for the Tamiya P-51D and they were excellent! Hope Roy can keep in buisness, his stuff adds alot of nice details.

Hi all,
 
No doubt some of you will have seen my review and build of the beautiful Border model 1/35 Stuka here and on You Tube.
 
Well, they have now kindly sent me a 1/32 Lancaster kit which I am tracking the delivery of hour by hour. It is due to arrive by this Friday, March 18th '22. As soon as it arrives I shall make a quick "It's here" video and then a full unboxing looking at sprues, instructions and decals et al. I will then get stuck into the build straight away.. I have wanted this kit for over 4 years since seeing it at Model world in 2018.. can't believe after all the ups and downs it's finally landing on my doorstep.. strange really, as my doorstep is built on an ex RAF site in Gloucester UK.

Sad to hear, will try to support. Used some resin and the placards for the Tamiya P-51D and they were excellent! Hope Roy can keep in buisness, his stuff adds alot of nice details.

Hopefully with better printed 3D parts as in the Viggen kit...

Yeah , a video would be cool Tim.

Looking like a great choice as the first LSP. I´ll follow with interest!
I started my 1/32 "career" with the Tamiya P-51D (which is soon done.. After a few years!) And with my little knowledge - those kits are outstanding and a great choice!
 
 

This is exceptional.
 
 

The Hasegawa P-47 is nice enough. But I would love an upscaled Tamiya Razorback and bubbeltop - and an M and N! Then an upscaled P-38 series and a P-51B/C.. I can dream eh?

That is some great choices for subjects! 
 
 
Is it really that ugly though? I like the curves.. But i think the MiG-15 looks awful.. Opinions are like asses and all that - (split!)?

Moose Republic produce three Tunnan sheets, some of which could be replicated using masks, I do like the ones with the green upper surfaces, makes it look almost not fat!
 

Not very, very, very, very, very, very, very dark blue?
 
Richard

I was talking about the actual integration of these versions of these missiles into the weapons guidance system of the jets. That was not done before delivery but conducted locally in Iran (don't ask me why they proceeded that way). USN serials had other versions of the AIM-7 (the earliest version was AIM-7E2) and AIM-9 integrated, they never used 7Echo-1s respectively 9Papas on their jets. So missiles were certainly there in Iran, no doubt but apart from the AIM-54 the actual integration work on the F-14s guidance system for these missile versions was not conducted before the revolution broke out. That is at least one of the few things where there is a general consensus. There is an interview somewhere on Youtube (I think was taken during a public panel by an American aviation museum) with former IRIAF F-14 pilot Assadolla Adeli who is well known for his 3 in 1 kill and who imigrated to the US and he also states that in the early days of the war there were just AIM-54s and the gun working until IRIAF engineers managed the integration of their existing AIM-7E and AIM-9P stock to the weapons guidance system.
 
(If you watch the great little movie you posted in that other thread on the delivery of Iranian F-14s you will notice that you only see AIM-54s on the early IIAF cats.)

I don't want to stretch the patience to much but maybe as another little piece of interest for curious people:
Since God Almighty granted me a life dream come true and allowed me a visit to Iran and see their last Tomcats live (and actually already before that fantastic opportunity) I tried to delve further into the admittedly very obscure but also fascinating history of these "Black Sheep" of the flock; not just by what little sources of information are available in the West but I also tried my best to scour Persian sources and get in touch with local Persian aviation buffs (there are indeed plenty of them). I also managed to gather original Grumman files and US congress transscripts on the Iran F-14 deal and also the US DIA has publications that paint a different picture than what is circulating around in Western social media and among Western aviation afficionados.
 
There is a LOT of shady and outright false information floating around in the West ranging from silly myths that Iran chose the F-14 upon a "fly off" between a USN F-14A and a USAF F-15A (the fly off happened (158621 in VF-124 markings was used) but the IRIAF chose the F-14 over the F-15 already a rough 2 years earlier) - seriously no halfway competent air arm would chose its equipment especially being so pricey via a fly off! Or myths like that thes F-14s were lesser equipped than their US counter parts or that US expats managed to sabotage the Persian fleet substantially upon their evacuation and flight from the country prior to the revolution. Or claims that only a handful of F-14s would be operable and barely flyable at that. Most of these claims if not all of them couldn't be further from the actual documentable situation. Also stories about Iran giving Russia access to their F-14s are totally unfunded and is even negated by Russia itself. Iran may have a partnership with Russia born out f necessity but that partnership is mainly with the regime and the IRGC - there is a long standing distrust towards Russia by the IRIAF which itself is not greatly regarded by the Regime and the IRGC in turn. What did in fact happen was that Iran gave one AWG-9 radar to China in 1986 and it is said that the J-11s radar is a product of that collaboration.
 
Adressing all those misconceptions would not just highjack but unnecessarily exceed this thread but it is safe to say that most of what we in the West think of these F-14s is rather ill-informed nonsense and as hard as it might be to swallow for every Western F-14-fan, the mighty Tomcat is just as much a Persian Cat as it is an American icon.
 
Please do not misunderstand me! I am in no way a supporter of the Iranian regime and/or it's institution but I confess after diving in the rich and fascinating history of these Persian Cats I cannot be anything else but a little fond of them - well knowing that these old warriors have left the prime of their time well behind them.
 
(A little tidbit regarding colors: The well known sandbrown asia minor camo was done away with beginning in the early 90s and being replaced with a blue / sand-grey color. Around 2005 the IRIAF started to shift the sand-grey towards a colder medium-grey. In 2016 the apparently last F-14A in the old asia minor camo  - serial 3-6039 / 160337 - was taken out of mothball storage and transferred to Mehrabad for overhaul (and potential upgrade?) and was seen early this year in the new blue/medium-grey polymer camo. In 2018 I saw a nice pair of two Persian cats, one carrying the current blue/medium-grey and right beside it a sistership still wearing the somewhat older blue/sand-grey camo. There are currently two serials with a quite fancy sand/brown splinter camo, namely 3-6047/160345 and 3-6049/160347.)
 
Oh and since you plan to build a pre-revolution iteration: regarding load out you are stuck with only AIM-54s as a load. Iran ordered 786 AIM-54A missiles and over 1000 AIM-7Es and AIM-9s of different versions. However the revolution came inbetween and the IRIAF only received 248 AIM-54 missiles and about 500 AIM-7s and AIM-9Ps of older lots already on their way and not withholdable anymore albeit the integration of AIM-7s and -9s had not been done by the time the revolution happened. (Later on Iran received apparently several hundred more AIM-54 stocks plus thermal batteries and fixed propellant units during the ominous Iran contra affiar as off around '86 until the early 90s). Iran managed to eventually integrate their versions of AIM-7Es and AIM-9Ps (ironically with the help of Israel at that time) into the F-14 guiding system by th time the war broke out with Iraq in Sep. '80. But if you want to do a pre-revolution IIAF bird it is oly AIM-54 and guns for your model if you want to be authentic.
 
Sorry for the long text but as you might reckon - my fascination with these illustrious birds is rather huge hahaha.

Once again, I'm afraid this information is as generalized as stated here incorrect and one of the many myths about the "Persian Cats" swirling around. (I'm sorry my reply to this thread is so late but life currently has it that I only have very limited time and frequent forum visits are sadly not possible for me. Hence please bear with me if I ressurrect a thread that apparently has already found its closure.)
 
Regarding the actual question at hand:
Here are some quick shots if an official Grumman Iran F-14 program management plan: I hope it is discernable but Iran got just the same full meal deal as the USN including tanks. In fact they received the first lots with the improved and somewhat more reliable TF-30-P414 engines (as opposed to the earlier very flawed -P412 iteration), i.e the last lot of Block-90 and the first batch of Block-95 with the at that time new automatic flap/slt control even before the Navy recieved theirs. Iran paid via it's Meli bank upfront alomst double the price per unit and with this saved Grumman from going belly up over losing about three million per serial due to a fixed price contract and the still McNamara infused US senate's neglect to amend that deal hoping to bring the Tomcat program down. Thus Iran secured a lot of special treatment including three large industria complexes for full local overhaul plus depot level maintenance capacities and partly upgrade potential located at Esfahan, Mehrabat (Teheran) and Shiraz. These complexes still allow the IRIAF to take care of their fleet despite the internal competition and rivalry with the IRGC. As you can see, tanks were part of the deal as well. There is also a fairly young image of an IRIAF F-14 in the more modern blue-medium grey camo applied as off around the early 2000s. It clearly shows a nice set of external tanks just placed beside the airframe.
 
In a nutshell: Iran indeed has tanks and they also have the IFR-probe covers available. And they are also wired for carrying the tanks and Iran also received airframes that were just of the same standrd as their USN counterparts. However! Do they actually use these tanks and IFR probe doors. Apparently not or very rarely. And why shoudl they. These aircraft have been and are used solely for air defence and only fly within Iranian confines with plenty of airbases around and also inflight refueling capacities close by. Why regularly strap on draggy tanks that limit maneuverability. So is it unrealistic to strap external tanks on? a clear NO! is it very authentic? ... meeehhh rather not. If they use the tanks than they don't show them around in that config very often. But they are there!
 

 



 

I'm sorry, but this is incorrect. The serial in the image is 159607, a bird that belonged to VF-124 at the time and was painted as an IRIAF bird upon transfer to the NSAWC (or rather NFWS at that time) to serve as aggressor. The last serial bought by Iran and withheld was 160378 and was modified to a NF-14 ship and used for a long time by PMTC.
160378 is one of 10 airframes that are still halfway complete located at AMARG, however this particular serial is stored separatedly as there is still a formal legal dispute ongoing as Iran want that airframe - because they paid for it as they state - and filed an official intl. law suit.

I feel the exact opposite. While the F-16 (and even the forward swept variant) is cool, I have one in the stash, F-16s abound everywhere, in innumerable branches of service, with so many variants in service with so many countries I feel like if you see a jet somewhere, there is a likely chance its an F-16. I start getting immune to even seeing them sometimes.
While that is indeed fine, the Viggen IMHO at least has some uniqueness to it, with its unique camo, unique service setting, canards, tandem wheels, delta, and on and on. To me the Viggen is worlds more interesting than any F-16. 

On the bright side though , given enough pressure Pete, it might start to look like .............a much prettier fighter . 
 
 

They've now added a 
 
Waist Gunner
 
Bombardier

That is some great choices for subjects! 
 
 
Is it really that ugly though? I like the curves.. But i think the MiG-15 looks awful.. Opinions are like asses and all that - (split!)?