Tamiya F-14D VF-11, Brown Splinter Temp Scheme

[A-10LOADER]

WOW, she's really looking good Marcel, great work.

Steve

 

"TOMCATS FOREVER, BABY...!"

[dodgem37]

Very cool.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[GreyGhost]

"Whoa ..."

 

-Gregg

[dsahling1]

I recently finished a backdated Tamiya 1/32 F-14A to a Block 70, VF-1 “Wolfpack” and it took about 10 months to finish, so I know what you mean it takes a lot of work but the Tamiya kit I think has the best “shape.”  I ended up rescribing all the panel lines and had to carefully find and check references for them, scratch built the 7-vent gun panel, scratch built the intake bypass ducts (next time the ramps go down to hide it), had to modify the wing sweep device to make them fit and still move, redid the canopy with a combination of kit, resin, photoetch, and scratch built parts, cut off the tail widened the fuselage, and scratch built the “boat tail” of the early blocks, used a whole bunch of resin items like a cockpit, exhausts, resin missiles, added detail to the phoenix’s pylons and zactoman front phoenix pallets, had custom vinyl masks made for the wolf head and stripes on the fuselage and vertical stabilizers, stars and bars, and some various lettering, and other various upgrades like having to heavily modify the air brake, detailing the landing gear, etc.  I like to think it came out really quite good (gotta upload the photos).  But man was it a lot of work,  What I think would be really cool is if Tamiya updated/scaled up the 1/32 F-14 to look like the current 1/48 I’ve heard so much about.

 

The next time it’ll be a Tamiya F-14D from the last catapault shot “112” from VF-31 from 2006 updated as I won’t have to mess with the gun vent, intake bypass ducts, canopy closed, and tail left as is.

[Marcel111]

On 6/8/2022 at 1:45 PM, themongoose said:

Wow this is looking great! I’ll have to plan a trip to the beach when i get ready to scribe mine  

Ha, I really do highly recommend the approach, I have a secret plan to scribe my next Tomcat (VF-111 F-14A) when we hit Florida later in the year :-)

 

On 6/12/2022 at 5:00 PM, dsahling1 said:

I recently finished a backdated Tamiya 1/32 F-14A to a Block 70, VF-1 “Wolfpack” and it took about 10 months to finish, so I know what you mean it takes a lot of work but the Tamiya kit I think has the best “shape.”  I ended up rescribing all the panel lines and had to carefully find and check references for them, scratch built the 7-vent gun panel, scratch built the intake bypass ducts (next time the ramps go down to hide it), had to modify the wing sweep device to make them fit and still move, redid the canopy with a combination of kit, resin, photoetch, and scratch built parts, cut off the tail widened the fuselage, and scratch built the “boat tail” of the early blocks, used a whole bunch of resin items like a cockpit, exhausts, resin missiles, added detail to the phoenix’s pylons and zactoman front phoenix pallets, had custom vinyl masks made for the wolf head and stripes on the fuselage and vertical stabilizers, stars and bars, and some various lettering, and other various upgrades like having to heavily modify the air brake, detailing the landing gear, etc.  I like to think it came out really quite good (gotta upload the photos).  But man was it a lot of work,  What I think would be really cool is if Tamiya updated/scaled up the 1/32 F-14 to look like the current 1/48 I’ve heard so much about.

 

The next time it’ll be a Tamiya F-14D from the last catapault shot “112” from VF-31 from 2006 updated as I won’t have to mess with the gun vent, intake bypass ducts, canopy closed, and tail left as is.

Great project! I do think the result makes it so worth while, the Tamiya kit just looks hot when done well. I'm actually already planning my next Tomcat, which will be a VF-111 bird.

[Marcel111]

Some quick update pics... getting to the pint at which I will attach the vertical stabs and the windscreen, can't wait!

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Marcel

[dodgem37]

Love this!

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[Marcel111]

Thanks guys!

 

Finally glued on the tails... just couldn't wait any longer ... the joint still needs to be cleaned up...

 

 

Cheers,

 

Marcel

[LSP_Kevin]

Nice work, Marcel. But boy do those colours look strange on a Tomcat!

 

Kev

[Starfighter]

Excellent work, mate! I can't wait to see it in the flesh! 

[Marcel111]

On 6/25/2022 at 2:53 PM, LSP_Kevin said:

Nice work, Marcel. But boy do those colours look strange on a Tomcat!

 

Kev

They sure do! Especially on a D, the A's were adorned with temporary markings pretty often. Mind you there is a picture of a VF-11 D in a splinter blue camo out there and I've also seen a D in the blues as found on the NSAWC F-16's, unfotunately I somehow lost that pic.

 

I've always wanted to do this brown Cat but had to do the VF-213 gray Tomcat before I could start this. Mind you, I'm looking at the build almost every day so it's starting to feel normal

 

6 hours ago, Starfighter said:

Excellent work, mate! I can't wait to see it in the flesh! 

Ben, you'll see it in Belgium in December, really looking forward to that meet-up!!!

[themongoose]

2 hours ago, Marcel111 said:

Mind you there is a picture of a VF-11 D in a splinter blue camo out there and I've also seen a D in the blues as found on the NSAWC F-16's, unfotunately I somehow lost that pic.

This one?

 

 

[Marcel111]

33 minutes ago, themongoose said:

This one?

 

 

Interesting pic, I never knew those Ferris A's went to sea painted like that.

 

But no, I was referring to D's and specifically to this VF-11 plane:

 

 

Cheers,

 

Marcel

[Oldbaldguy]

51 minutes ago, themongoose said:

This one?

 

 

 

This one photo pretty much flies in the face of the, “Yeah, well I know for a fact they were all painted this way!” crowd.

[Marcel111]

I've spent quite a bit of time on the nose. Getting the windscreen to fit well takes a while, plus adding the windscreen vent and radome latches is also a bit of work.

 

I've tried to replicate the sand-blasted appearance of the radome including the woven effect here and there. Also note that I had to paint the areas of the to be applied decals gray else the stenciling would turn out brown.

 

Cheers,

 

Marcel