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1/18 JSI F-14A to F-14D Tomcat conversion - VF-2 Bounty Hunters


Skydancer

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Hi, in this thread I will present you my actual 1/18 conversion project. The basic model is the JSI F-14A Tomcat and I try to convert it into a F-14D Tomcat. Many of the changes I made are based upon the genius work from A-10LOADER and his 1/18 JSI F-14A to F-14B conversion.

Why the F-14D?
I wanted to built up the "Bullet Six" (106) from the VF-2 Bounty Hunters in it`s latest modification. So this causes it must be a F-14D cat. 

To see what it shall be, a picture of the "Bullet Six":

us_navy_030415-n-4142i1qgz.jpg 

What is the challange?

1. making a D-Version out of an A-Version Tomcat from scratch - showing in during carrier start. 

this means:
- New cockpit panels for the pilot and RIO.
- New ejection seats
- New exthaust (Don`t know the english word, but you know what I mean ;) "ze german iz writing"
- Flaps out
- rebuilding the pylons to fit an AIM-54 Phoenix
- rebuilding the mounts under the bird to fit GBU-12 and Mk82
- and many more you will see later in this thread...

2. making a Bounty Hunters cat

this means:
- No decals, so I need to make own decals... Photoshop hours and hours and...
- Web research to find enough pictures about her or bureau number aso... 
- Analysis of the material to work out the details... 

Most of the Tomcat conversion has been made identically like A-10Loader shows in his thread: http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=66103&page=1

So to make it a bit shorter, this is the actual status:
tomcatvf2skydancersasqe.jpg

I will soon post some more pictures about the details... But work must go on, and the decals are waiting to be attached on the nose completely ;)

  

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Today i kept on working on the cat. I attached my self made decals to the nose and external fuel tanks. Everything a bit tricky, because self made decals have a problem with the silvering effect. But I think I solved it. However, tomorrow, I will airbrush the nose section with matte clear.

Pictures from a few minutes ago...

nasezdsjr.jpg 
tanks4csn4.jpg

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The chin pod was built from scratch. I used two evergreen tubes and some putty. It was much work to sand it into the correct shape. This was made more than 2 years ago, so no pictures are existing. Well due to my job, it is hard to fond time for this hobby, but a few days ago, I started to work on the cat... Hopefully till its finished.

 

Today I added the mirror into the optical tube. Tomorrow, I will paint the head dome of the other tube black.

 

What I also did today, was airbrushing the cockpit section with matte clear paint. Looks much better now, when the reflection levels of all parts are the same. I used Cerakote matte clear for this, something I never did before, but it looks great with cerakote. Ok, pretty expensive coat, but totaly worth it. Better to brush than everything else I used before.

 

Actual target is to finish the nose section. So I have to finish the new ejection seats, and the detail work of the front wheel box. (Or however this is called )

Edited by Skydancer
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I shot it down for 450$ about 2 1/2 years ago ;) But it is the classic Jolly Rogers version and it was in bad condition. So a bit more work in polishing glas or reconstructing the front gear... antennas aso. ... It would have saved much time, if I haven`t had to built the rocket pylons for the AIM-54 or had the GBU bombs. So a few things had to come out of the 3D printer.

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I made some pictures from the clear painted nose section and the chin pod. The Chin pod will be overworked soon (glas in front of the mirror aso. ...)

 

vf2nosekkuod.jpg

 

podd5u6d.jpg

 

Beautiful job on the forward fuselage except for a few things. That seam halfway in the middle of the radome should not be there, the radomes are one piece. There should also be small gray notch in the lower left corner of the gun muzzle blast fairing.

 

IMG_5830_zpsdn1vjx9l.jpg

 

Steve

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Hey Steve, thank you for the intel! I think anytime I lost the view for this, watching the walk around pics :D

I hope I can change it, the problem is, that most of the colors are self mixed. Hopefully I match the color again.

 

Today I started airbrushing the vertical stabilizers/rudders with the VF2 paint scheme. Yesterday I fixed the skull decal with clear cerakote matte, so I can go over it with masking tape.

 

@Steve, as you can see, I made the same changes as you made on the rudders. (Let`s call it the "Steves detail guid for Tomcat models" ;) )

 

img_24175hum4.jpg

Edited by Skydancer
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