Texas Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Very Impressive.....Your doing a great job. Texas geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted November 29, 2009 Author Share Posted November 29, 2009 (edited) Thanks for the kind words guys, much appreciated. My apologies for the long gap between updates. Let's get this thread up to speed.... So work continued on the upper fuselage/wing area. One aspect of the kit that differs considerably from the full sized aircraft and is quite noticable is the gap around the wing hinge point. The kit is designed to have movable, swinging wings which is fine. However, I don't have the space to pose the model with the wings forward so my model will be depicting the oversweep, swept wing pose. this allows me to tinker with the wing swivel point to try to get a neater gap. As I was fiddling around with this area I noticed that the swivel point was a bit emaciated. The actual knuckle seems to have a deeper profile so I daubed on some two pack putty and re-shaped it. In addition to this work, it was pointed out that the Tomcat has a gentle bend in the leading edge of the wing. Tamiya have suggested this kink but it would look better if it were more pronounced. Luckily it was a relatively easy job to fix. The end result............ A tighter gap and subtle wing kink. So these mods addressed the forward part of the wing opening but the rearmost area still had a gap. In order to reduce the gap here I took a dofferent approach. On the real aircraft, the wing is sealed by thin, sprung metal plates that hug the surface of the wing (you can see the streaks of dirt and grime on many pictures of F-14s ). My solution was to mimic those plates using metal foil. First up, I cut out the plastic panels using RB productions saws I then fashioned replacement petals from foil. Once the wings are installed and glued in their final position, the metal of the petals should allow me to bend them down onto the wing surface and glue them in place alleviating any visible gap. (Fingers crossed. ) Edited November 25, 2021 by geedubelyer Updating image links Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted November 29, 2009 Author Share Posted November 29, 2009 (edited) I figured the next step would be to attach the intakes but before I could do that, I needed to take a long hard look at the wheel bays. It was whilst I had the rear fuselage assembly in my hands that I discvered another slight tweek to perform. By chance, I was studying a walkaround when something popped out at me. The rear fairing around the engine was a different shape to the model. I checked more photos and came to the conclusion that the fairing depicted by Tamiya was of a very early or prototype Tomcat. The pencil line shows the profile I wanted so out came the two pack again. Adding some material here, removing some there resulted in a more accurate profile for a later -A model 'Cat. OK, so I had procrastinated enough.......I could n't put off dealing with the wheel bays any longer. This is an older generation kit and has some detail in the wheel bay area but not enough in this scale for my taste. Oddly, there are no aftermarket resin wheel bay sets for this bird, quite an omission in my opinion, so it is left to the builders to make of it what they will. This is what the kit offers.... I guess some white paint and a wash could make the detail pop but when you take the time to look at pictures of the real deal you soon realise that the Tomcat has very complex gear wells..... The solution that I came up with was to remove most of the kit parts just leaving the gear leg mounting point in place for strength. Around that, I built a deeper section out of metal foil and plastic extrusion. Lots of pieces of plastic and wire later and I ended up with this..... It's a similar story for the front box section of the gear well too. Once again, it was necessary to extend the kit part and add more detail. I added a roof to the kit parts out of metal foil and plastic sheet before beginning to add the various pipes and hoses... This is as far as I've got on the gear bays. Adding all of the pipes and hoses is a long, long job. For a change of pace, I started on the cockpit...... Edited November 25, 2021 by geedubelyer Correcting image links F`s are my favs 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted November 29, 2009 Author Share Posted November 29, 2009 (edited) At least there is some resin available for the cockpit area! thankfully, Aires offer a beautiful 1/32nd scale F-14A cockpit set in resin and etched metal The aftermarket parts replace all of the kit parts and look perfect. I started up front with the windshield and pilot IP/coaming. Now when I said "perfect" I should have said "nearly perfect".......one glaring detail is the HUD projector lens. This is a large circular glass lens right in the middle of the front coaming and is very obvious on the real aircraft. Although it is mounted beneath the tinted windshield, I just could n't live with painting it silver and daubing on some coloured future in this scale. Out came the power tools and I began to modify the aftermarket part...... I drilled out the resin lens, fashioned a replacement from clear acetate and dropped a disc of irridescent confetti into the hole before glueing the new clear lens in place. I'm happier with the way it looks now. The view out of the front of the Tomcat windshield is busy. Looking at the top photo of this post you can see how devoid of detail the kit windshield is. The real affair has a number of doodads hanging from the canopy framing, not to mention the deeper and more prominent framing itself. I resolved to take my courage in both hands and try to improve the glass area. Working with the clear parts is always a bit of a nail biting moment for me. I have a habit of ruining the glazing so it was with quite a bit of trepidation that I began to add some depth to the windshield surround using plastic extrusion. One of the most noticable things about the F-14 windshield is the green tint of the centre section. It's easy to overdo the tint so I was careful to keep the effect subtle. studying reference photos revealed that the windshield is layered. There are at least two laminations and this gave the ideal opportunity to get the tint right. My method was to use a blue green on the kit part then cut out a second curved glass panel and tint that one in a lighter green. With the two layers together, the tint looks quite acceptable. An added bonus of this technique is the greater depth created by laminating the glazing. I made a couple of curved rails to glue to the inside of the windshield and hold the second glazing part in place then scratch built the doodads (technical term) to hang from them. a lick of paint and the view out of the windscreen looks much busier now. The IP uses acetate behind etched metal panels for the flight instruments. Everything else needs painting. There is no substitute for printed instrument faces is there? The RIO coaming grab handle benefits from a bit of modification as it's a bit flat compared to references but the RIO IP is lovely. To bring us bang up to date, here is the last photo showing the sunglasses I made for the pilot So that's where I am on the build to date. Thanks for your patience. cheers, Edited November 27, 2021 by geedubelyer Updating image links F`s are my favs 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toadwbg Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 wow! Masterpiece comes to mind. Special request for all in the Tomcat modeling community- please make this build into an article we can downlaod and print out geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 Exceptional Work! You work on the wing is very revealing, thanks. Barry geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daywalker Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 Almost unbelievable detail! The wiring in the gear bays looks exceptional. Absolutely stunning! geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackbetty Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 those wheelbays are unbelievable! exceptional work i hope the new trumpy tomcat cures at least some of the issues of the tamiya kit geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marek Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 You are doing exeptionaly good work on this Tomcat!!! I´m realy waiting for more. Tomcat is my favorite plane and it is great to see some masterpees in the model form of that plane. Keep working, man and send more pictures soon, PLEASE! geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted December 21, 2009 Author Share Posted December 21, 2009 (edited) Hi guys, Many thanks for the kind words. I'm pleased that you like the progress up to now. Work has been moving forward steadily on the cockpit area of the Tomcat. Here are some piccies of various pieces....... RIO stick RIO circuit breaker panels. Front cockpit. Many of the tiny resin switches were broken or missing so I replaced them with wire. I try to give the impression of stencilling around switches and buttons to help create a busier look to the instrument panels. Rear cockpit. Both cockpits from the side. I'd like to congratulate Aires on a fabulous product. This resin cockpit set has been a blast to paint. I'm yet to find out how the fit is but I'll let you all know when I get that far. Lastly, here is an idea for more three dimensional looking pedals. Edited November 27, 2021 by geedubelyer Correcting image links Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted December 21, 2009 Author Share Posted December 21, 2009 (edited) I'm also attempting to modify the seats a little. Aires have modelled the factory fresh GRU-7 with pleated seat cushions. They are beautifully crafted and ideal for anyone building a jet that has just rolled off the line. For an in service jet, the cushions were replaced when they wore out and have a more straight forward appearance. I'm hoping to give my jet a "lived in" look so I replaced the resin cushions with some crafted from two pack modelling clay (Games Workshop "Green Stuff") More soon I hope. Edited November 27, 2021 by geedubelyer Updating image links Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marek Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Yuor cockpit looks realy very convincing. Like the real think. Great job, man! geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Loving this work from you GWB...The attention you have given to the details on this aircraft is almost unbelievable, you must really like this aircraft a lot to lavish so much time and effort into it. Chers Derek geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted March 13, 2010 Author Share Posted March 13, 2010 (edited) Howdy folks, Here's another one of my sporadic updates on the Tomcat. The seats were completed with the addition of belts and extra details plus stencil decals from Fightertown Decals. I tried to add a little visual interest by curling down the backrest cushion on the pilots' seat and tucking a belt behind it. Next up was the canopy. I created the lightening holes in the frame on the underside of the canopy and removed the molded on de-mist piping ready for the addition of a new one Edited November 25, 2021 by geedubelyer Updating image links Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted March 13, 2010 Author Share Posted March 13, 2010 (edited) the locking hooks are etched metal supplied with the Aires resin. The static discharge strip inside the canopy glazing is a thin sliver of metal foil Leaping from the canopy into an entirely different area I began work on a couple of the pylons. First up, the Phoenix rail. I added some scratch built detail to the underside as I'm not intending to load any ordnance on this Turkey. This missile rail is heavily weathered. Edited November 25, 2021 by geedubelyer Correcting image links F`s are my favs 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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