toadwbg Posted April 25, 2010 Share Posted April 25, 2010 I've always wanted to build Tamiya's large scale Tomcat but was historically out of my price range. A few years ago someone sold me a partially started kit on the cheap and I finally got started on it this year. This is an origional boxing- almost 30 years old! The plastic was showing it's age with parts warped, discolored and brittle. I figured if I didn't start this soon it would decompose in my stash! I picked up the Teckniks pit, wolfpack boarding ladder, Steel Beach intake covers, and a few other odd items for added details along with CAMs decals for VF-111 Sundowners, a old fav of mine. I fondly recall the old Monogram 1/48 kit hanging from my ceiling as a kid with the VF-111 sharkmouth on it and that inspired me to take this up. Here's a pic of the raw ingrediants. More to come. here's a pic for inspiration and hope for the end result: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toadwbg Posted April 25, 2010 Author Share Posted April 25, 2010 For starters, I stripped away the previous owners paintjob- which was fo VF-84 Jolly Rogers. Love those markings too but have already done them in 1/48 a few years ago. Castro Super Clean to the rescue Sit tight with some rising and light scrubbing, parts were as good as new Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_K2 Posted April 25, 2010 Share Posted April 25, 2010 The Sundowners are pretty cool. I've always really liked VF-41 Black Aces as my personal choice. Good luck with this; we'll be watching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toadwbg Posted April 25, 2010 Author Share Posted April 25, 2010 Jumped right into the Teckniks pit. This thing is a kit in itself. I imagine putting 10 hours into the ejection seats alone, lots of detail here. The brass instrunments went on pretty well found it difficult to get a good sharp photograph capturing all that detail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_K2 Posted April 25, 2010 Share Posted April 25, 2010 Speaking of Tomcats, a couple of years ago, a friend that worked at the (now defunct), MOANG called and said a Tomcat had just made an emergency in flight landing. I grabbed my cheapie digital camera and made my way to the airport. After looking at this aircraft for a few minutes, it dawned on me; I think this was the CAG bird from the USS George Washington! Too Coolness! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toadwbg Posted April 25, 2010 Author Share Posted April 25, 2010 I have no idea what the fit newly molded and without an aftermarket pit is like, but this thing was a BEAST to force together! Had to get out some serious clamps and musta used 2 tubes of superglue on the coward fusalage alone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Posted April 25, 2010 Share Posted April 25, 2010 It's a real challenging build but I am sure your up to the task...Great choice on the Sundowner markings...One of my favorites to.... Texas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toadwbg Posted April 25, 2010 Author Share Posted April 25, 2010 Speaking of Tomcats, a couple of years ago, a friend that worked at the (now defunct), MOANG called and said a Tomcat had just made an emergency in flight landing. I grabbed my cheapie digital camera and made my way to the airport. After looking at this aircraft for a few minutes, it dawned on me; I think this was the CAG bird from the USS George Washington! Too Coolness! sweet close encounter! I build that Red Ripper CAG Bird about 4 years ago in 1/48 with 2Bobs decals and sold it to someone else who loved those markings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toadwbg Posted April 25, 2010 Author Share Posted April 25, 2010 Showing some of the aged plastic- see contrast between yellowed areas and areas sanded down. Plastic was brittle and I had to do some of my own BDR . I removed the BDR Tamiya molded on and filled in the feuling probe area. Blood and sweat. I'll need to describe a little but I don't plan on rescribing the main fusalage, I'll live with the raised lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilB Posted April 25, 2010 Share Posted April 25, 2010 Excellent progress! Good luck with this one. Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_K2 Posted April 25, 2010 Share Posted April 25, 2010 Two things; where in the world did you find a copy of the Teknics cockpit set, and do you have a macro setting on your camera? I just recently discovered that my little Nikon has a macro function. Five years I've owned the camera and had no idea it had macro capability! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark64 Posted April 25, 2010 Share Posted April 25, 2010 A lot of goodies indeed. Following this build. Nice start BTW. Oliver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toadwbg Posted April 25, 2010 Author Share Posted April 25, 2010 Two things; where in the world did you find a copy of the Teknics cockpit set, and do you have a macro setting on your camera? I just recently discovered that my little Nikon has a macro function. Five years I've owned the camera and had no idea it had macro capability! the Teckniks pit I got a few years ago before Meteor crashed. We've got a nice Cannon digital with macro but my wife always has the thing hidden somewhere I can't get it. So I wind up using my iPhone camera out of convienience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toadwbg Posted April 25, 2010 Author Share Posted April 25, 2010 Had to do some engineering to improve the fit of the forward fuselage to the main fuselage. Added some braces, stiffeners, thickened/widened areas with strip styrene. Used a ton of Superglue again. LOTS of putty and superglue at the seams to smooth this all out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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