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Hey builders I want to start the build thread for my F-14A project. In a sea of weathered, late model paint schemes I wanted to try a high vis jet. VF-51 by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Although I fiddled around with trying to improve the look of the kit intakes, I came to realize the Zactoman product is the way to go, more on that later. First up the inflatable bladders at the rear of the jet. yes Trumpeter has molded these in rubber, gross. I guess to retain the movable feature of the wings this choice was made but man they are hard to work with. The good news is they will glue up with regular model cement, the bad news is that rubber is very difficult to sand and address seams. here is a shot of the part glued and a first pass and filling the seams. Trumpeter foolishness by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr You can see the ridge line of rubber and the over all messiness of the seam. My thought was ok sand a bit more and flood the area with thick primer....this worked out great! Rubber fix? by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Well great until you try to pass the wing of the egg shell think primer and then CRACK...hairline fissure everywhere. The problem is that there is too much flex in the part. After sanding the primer away I pinched and super glued the tallest point on the front of the piece to the fuselage, oh and I guess i'll mention I wanted to sweep the wings back that's why i was going through all this heartache and misery. This worked much better and then allowed me to ******* file this area to allow the wing to sit flat. More rubber by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr I also "inflated' the rubber part to allow a better seal against the wings...inflated with some packing plastic that is. More rubber by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr still had that nasty seam though, and you can see the pinch and sand work too. More rubber by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr The final fix was to tape and then build up the edges with Tamiya putty to create a clean hard edge, this looks great so far, but it still needs a little filling and massaging to look right. Rubber fix by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Rubber fix by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr More soon as the zacto intakes have just arrived!