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Just more decalling... man are there ever a lot. Here's the head. I brushed the Tamiya chrome marker silver on the head light piece first, then brushed Tamiya clear red over it, it makes it catch the light a bit better than just clear red - it would of been nice if there was a clear part made for this. The black and yellow decal doesn't fit quite right - luckily this is the only piece that doesn't fit well, as I have mentioned before some of the other pieces are a bit oversized, but this piece is a bit undersized. Well its in the belly of the aircraft anyways, so I made sure the top of the head was aligned, which left a little white gap near the visor. I used a lot of MicroSET to get it to conform to all the irregular surfaces. Unfortunately, a excess piece of carrier film that I trimed away made it under the decal in this one spot, and I didn't notice it until it dried. When it catches the light in a certain way, you can just see it in the photo - oh well... no biggie.

My wife has the digital camera tonight... I'll take some shots of the resin seats and cockpit stuff when she gets home. Can you suggest any good aftermarket data or stencil decals for that Hasegawa F-14A Jolly Rogers kit, the catograph decals are good, but it seems to be lacking in some data markings or are they complete in your view. Particularly its missing the pilots names on the canopy - and I guess I'm just used to all those warnings on the VF-1 and VF-0s Doesn't the F-14 have more stencilling than the cartograph decals provide?

So If I want to do whats on that box, I don't mottle it in anyway? Even the top surface? Damn, I was all keen on trying that F-18 article out! Is that box photo, and the plane the cartograph decals are based on an all grey plane? XF20 seems awful dark for FS16440 (what about XF-19 Sky Grey - I'm afraid the decal of the walking surface on top of the intakes might appear lighter against the XF-20 paint) - would you recommend me switching to another type of paint, I wouldn't mind getting a bottle just for this kit - as long as its acrylic. What about a radome equivalent -XF55 Deck Tan? Hey has anyone every used Tenax-7 - what is it like? How does it react to painted surfaces? P.S. I've noticed that the Hasegawa kit also includes a forward gear retracted to accept the catapult too.

Ahh, exactly what I wanted to see - thank you guys so much. Sorry David, it was my typo, I have the F-14A Jolly Rogers reissue not the B or D. I am a bit dissappointed in the tailcone for the A on my kit. But seeing the comparison, I think I will stick to my Hasegawa kit for the time being, I might only do the one or maybe two kits in total anyways. Do you guys want to see my Verlinden cockpit detail set and the True Details seats - I got the older GRU-7 seats to go with my A. I think I prefer the Verlinden ones, the details are a bit finer and they have that woven pad over the seats, not the ribbed looking seat cushions (which always bothered me). Hey the Hase kit also includes the "kneeling" forward gear to accept a cat.

Hey David, is there any differences in the overall body and details between your new F-14D and the older (but not really old) F-14D re-issue (Jolly Rogers) - I don't mean the D or A variant differences, but did they completely re-tool the common airframe parts or is it more of an extra sprues thing. Very nice cat Capt.!

Hey thanks so much David for a really excellent and interesting read - man I just love all this info. Its sometimes hard to follow exactly where you're talking about especially with the Fujimi kit since I don't have one (yet ) so some pictures specific to the parts you are talking about would be helpful (sorry I might be referring to your other original F-14 thread - I was reading them together ). Either case, I will bookmark these for my reference when (or if) I actually start on my kit.

Yes, I have the Hasegawa re-issue of the Jolly Rogers F-14A - just looking at the sprues I really love it. Plus I got the Verlinden cockpit set and true details resin seats as well. Its just too bad the wings don't swing - I can't decide which way to mount the wings, swept for a sleeker look, or forward displaying all those flaps and slats. I am really looking forward to it... someday. I was just curious about the Fujimi kit. Every picture of it I see seems a little "fat", wide near the rear end - I don't know if its just a wide angle lens (you know it puts on 15lbs ) or is the kit a little wider - either case its not flattering. However those mirrors and rubber tires, plus the swing mechanism looks tempting, but the lack of detail - scribbed lines are a bit of a turn off. I might get it if I run across it at a local hobby store - now that I have 4 seats I am dissapointed that the Hasegawa cartograph decals do not include the pilot and rio's names on the canopy - do you know were I might get these, it would look nice beside the Valkyries. On a slightly different note, what type of grey would be the closest Tamiya colour? Sky Grey? I know the FS number is provided, but is there a chart that converts that to Tamiya colours? Secondly, that great article on USN weathering, what era is the Hasegawa re-issue kit? Would it have such a mottled grey paint scheme? I would take it that its past the gloss white belly and grey top, but is it overall grey or a lighter grey in the belly?

Hey come on David, I want pictures of your build up.

Hey David, I'd really be interested in your build up of the Hasegawa F-14, since I'd like to tackle that some day. Could you also include pictures - I don't really want a F-14D, I just want a decent VF-84 Jolly Rogers sittin' next to my VF-0S eventually. I just recieved the Verlinden 1/72 cockpit detail set and the black-box seats - I just wanted to compare the two resin seats. I was a bit dissapointed that the Verlinden cockpit detail set did not come with mirrors for the canopy and both sets didn't come with the overhead face curtain pulls. Funny enough the Hasegawa kit's included photo-etched parts did. Oh, well, I don't know if I would use them, since photo-etched parts often seem so 2D and thin. Looking forward to your review with pictures

Well... here we are tonight before I go to sleep. Nighty night VF-0, dry well without my medlesome hands and fingerprints all over you. Till tomorrow...

Now here's a delema, and I still don't know which way to go if I were to do it again. These side stripes on the forward fuselage have two very fine black line tails that goes back towards the intakes - a shorter one above the black and yellow LEX/canards and a longer one under. Man were they a bitch to get on straight. The thin decals kept curling and going all over the place. It took 20mins each to get them in place properly (DO NOT USE ANY MicroSET or SOL on this) use tons of water to allow yourself plenty of play time to get these suckers in place. Now if the fuselage was not glued in, and was a separate piece, then it would be a piece of cake to get them positioned correctly without the intakes, chestpiece or LEX/canards in the way. But if the forward fuselage section did not mate with the main fuselage perfectly - then there would be really no real way to fill and sand this joint - since it would already be painted and decalled. The VF-1s mated perfectly - this kit doesn't, I may have glued my LEX/canards in at a slightly wrong angle, but I can't see a way to get the perfect angle. Anyways, I don't know which is the proper order of construction for this piece - again its six or one half dozen - but it worked out this way for me, just 40 minutes of holding my breath

Here's a close up of the airbrake, its easier to weather with it in place and decal it so that they all recieve the proper placement. I just decalled right over the holes - then when its semi-dry, I dabbed some MicroSOL right over the holes, and the perimeter decal just kind of "melted" right into the holes. Just the center hold remained, but a few more drops of MicroSOL, and a little encouragment from a small brush and the center hole gave way.

Not huge difference, but I like it.

Here's a 3/4 angle close up.

So now they look like a moveable piece. I wasn't anal enough to extend the width of the intake covers to both ends to meet the walls of the intake - but it just looks like something that moves in the intakes (artistic licence )

I wanted to glue all those loose parts lying around on to the bird as soon as possible - I just know they'd be lost soon - plus I'm impatient I thought it might be cool to angle the intakes like the F-14 intake ramps a bit and partially obscure the intake spinners. What I didn't really like on the YF-19 was how flat these intake covers look when glued right up against the top of the intakes. So I bent the last segment of the cover up a bit (careful, you don't want to snap it off, just a bit) and I glued a cut-off piece of sprue underneath it to wedge it up a bit.

So did you guys hear my screams through cyberspace! Well, it didn't work out very well at first, man that SET and SOL combination really "fused" the decal like "paint" - no amount of tape was pulling it off - just little bits and chunks, really made a mess of the whole situation. To pour salt onto wounds, I was pressing down with the tape to lift some more of the decals up, and SNAP! one of the lower ventral fins (black & grey) snapped off - DAMN! I knew it was a weak joint, so little surface area to connect the fins to the legs - I thought of re-inforcing this area with pins like with a resin kit, but I was anxious and wanted to get on to the next stages, so I coped out and used liquid cement thinking it would be less sanding later on. Well... now I know, I would suggest re-inforcing this joint next time - or at least use tube solvent glue liberally, and then sanding the seam down before painting. I hate these repairs. Well, a few hours later, the fin is back in place, the joint is not ideal, but less noticable than I thought it was going to be, the black decal hides a host of sins And as with all repairs, it will be weak, so I have to watch out for it. The decal mess being too long was then solved by soaking a bit of MicroSOL on it for a bit and using a stiff bristle brush, carefully scrubbing the extended portion of the decal away without going too far into the paint finish. Thank God for the clear-coat underneath. Anyways as you can see, it looks okay - I didn't bother with the one on the inside of the legs, you can hardly see it anyways.

Thanks Jesse, What do you mean by cutting down not slicing - won't that tend to rip the decal? And what do you mean by "tacky" - do you mean before its dried? Unfortunately mine is very dried, and "fused" in there with lots of SET and SOL to get it to conform to the crevice. So any help would be good. Maybe I can try to very cleanly slice it, and use tape to lift it up off the plastic - without scraping it with a knife (learnt from that old radome mistake on the VE-1 - maybe it will be good for something afterall ) I'll let you know - otherwise you may hear me swear all the way through the internet

Hmm, trimming them after a clear-coat eh, what does the clear-coat do? I am tempted to try, but I'd hate to make a mess of it. I am afraid the combination of the SET and SOL has "fused" the decal to the paint. It would be fantastic if it just came off - flaked off - but I'm afraid I might need to scrape it, and I might damage the paint underneath. I'm not sure about the home-made stuff, it kind of depends on the brand and how many coats of decal film was applied to it afterwards. It certainly is not as thick as Anasazi's decals for the Yamato 1/48. It is thicker than Microscale, that's the thinnest stuff I've ever used. In fact some of it has desintergrated right in my decal box over time. I'd say its like Cartograph (from a few years ago - the last time I have had the pleasure). I'd say its great thickness, not too thin, not too thick - its just that I wasn't used to it, I was expecting the practically indestructable VF-1 type decals. Yes, those sweep areas behind the wings are decals.

Here's a parting shot - maybe some more decalling tonight...

I love the fact that Hasegawa has thoughtfully provided so much of the black markings that otherwise would be another few days of masking. I finally glued the legs in!! I love how this plane looks! Its a shame I have to put landing gears on it and ruin the sleekness - oh well, I just might have to build another one with the gears up.

I thought I'd do all the big black areas first.

Wooohoo! decalling stage - my next favourite step These decals are quite thin, compared to the other Hasegawa stuff. They are very good, but I was kind of used to the other stuff and lathered on the MicroSET liberally and was a bit rough with them, as a result, I ripped a few here and there before I got the hang of the new thinness of these decals. They are great, don't get me wrong, just a little thinner than I was used to from Hasegawa. They are also a bit over sized - I'm not sure whether they are actually oversized or that in combination with the MicroSET softening them and being thinner, that they stretched a little bit. As you can see here at the legs, the black stripe is supposed to end at the knees but there should be some white showing on the lower bulkhead - the black is only supposed to be on the part that bulges out. I already had too much MicroSET on them to neatly trim off the excess length, so I just kept them as clean as I could, luckily the profile of the black stripe matches the knee portion perfectly so to the "undecerning" eye it looks intentional. Unfortunately the photo doesn't show all the little details that must telegraph through these black stripes. I used a bit of MicroSOL on the panel lines and those triangular recesses near the knees to get them to show through the decals properly. I think the next time I do this, I might just mask and paint the black stripes on the legs - its a pretty easy shape and all the details will show through. I chose to decal this first since I want to glue the legs onto the fuselage as soon as possible (just anxious). I will probably omit the numerious warning stencils on the inside of these legs (keep them as spares for my decal box) since they are totally obscured when the legs are attached. The ones that do show are still accessible after the legs are glued in.

Hey David, looking forward to your new F-14 analysis. Does the Fujimi kit's wings swing - that's the bugger for me on my Hasegawa kit, you have to choose which position to place them in. Can you include a photo of the Fujimi box (I am interested in the re-issue with the Jolly Rogers decals) do you have a part number for it? Secondly, can you also include the box of the newer Hase F-14D? I might just switch over to Fujimi - never built one before... but you're convincing.

Congrats on the coup! What a great feeling to have your collection completed. Now I want to see step-by-step theads from you very soon!! Forever long live 1/72!!