F-14

[DARTHTODD]

So if the Hasegawa 1/72 Macross Zero F-14 is really crappy, what's the best 1/72 version out there? I would like a fairly accurate version that I'd be able to apply the Macross Zero stickers (from the crappy F-14) to. I don't really wanna pay a lot either as I'm just getting back into models and it's not my collecting focus right now. Any feedback would be appreicatted, thanks!

[David Hingtgen]

1/72 Super Tomcat? Not many choices.

However, if you can find one, the Fujimi 1/72 F-14A+, B, and D are excellent kits. Well worth seeking out, IMHO. (And cheaper than a Hase). (As it is, an F-14A+/B is the closest thing to Shin's, though Shin does have the distintive chin-pod of the "D")

I know there's a Revell 1/72 out there, but don't know much about it.

PS--never buy a kit that's the prototype F-14D (white and red)---they are usually quite accurate *for the prototype* which means quite wrong for all other D's.

[DARTHTODD]

Thanks Dave for the info, I'll be looking for one. Any ideas or suggestions for paint colors for the F-14? What are the closest color matches for this aircraft? If I'm not mistaken, looks like two main colors for the aircraft plus a few other colors for lights, landing gear, etc. I'm open for suggestions. Thanks.

[David Hingtgen]

Umm, I've never seen a CGI F-14 asides from Mac 0, I'm not quite sure how it's painted. Looks very dark/blue as Tomcats go, almost overall 35237. If you're planning to use the M0 kit just for the decals, it should say how it's painted. (I can tell you how just about any real F-14 is painted, but a fake one with "they tried too hard" patchy texturing?" Sorry)

The most common F-14 low-vis scheme (also the most common US scheme period) is 36320 upper surfaces with 36375 lower surfaces. Some F-14 schemes use all 3 of the colors I've mentioned. (Black Knights do, as did the Wolf Pack)

[MechaEd]

Sorry. Kinda new here so I might have missed someone mentioning this. There is no accurate kit out there for the F-14 period. Not Revell. Not Hasegawa (altho their new tooling one comes close). To fully accurize it will require one to be BEYOND anal retentive. You'll need to see where the GPS humps are. Where there are extra sensor arrays, which operational year you want to model the 'Cat in... etc etc.

Oh... and did anyone mention that the F-14s in Mac0 fired AMRAAMs which they don't in real life? <_< If we consider the timeframe (1999), the F-14s they fly would be equivalent to a current real-world F-14D.. i.e. it WON'T be able to fire an AMRAAM.

Take my word for it... with a 1/72 kit, you won't be able to tell much of a difference, the details are too small. If I ever go about doing one (I'm taking a break from aircraft modeling, AMS burnout), I'd use the following:

- 1 Hasegawa Mac0 F-14 kit (for the decals)

- 1 Hasegawa F-14D kit (for the kit, the engines and the seats and the chin pod.. the most obvious of all the differences)

- 1 Hasegawa weapon set that has the AMRAAMs

As far as the paint scheme goes, they were trying to simulate the VERY dirty TPS scheme that the current Tomcats have. CGI couldn't really reflect it properly so they ended up looking patchy and blotchy instead.

All the other small details are, like I said, too small to bother me.

Edited September 24, 2003 by MechaEd

[David Hingtgen]

This is like the 3rd thread in as many months about the M0 F-14, but I'm pretty sure I mentioned the AMRAAM situation in this one...

And anyways, I think I mentioned much earlier that I was only going for structural differences. As you said, beyond that is insanely anal... (I didn't mention the bumps on the rear edge of the right v.stab, for example)

And the CGI is still too dark and too blue.

[bsu legato]

As an aside to the F-14 debate, we should harass Anasazi into making us a set of Macross Zero decals that we can in turn put onto a decent F-14 kit, as opposed to the ancient F-14 kit Hasegawa has provided us.

[DARTHTODD]

Since I'm kind of a virgin when it comes to modeling, where is a good place that I can find the Hase or Fujimi F-14D model kit? I've looked for a while and I haven't found it yet. Or does anyone know if the Revell kits are any good? I've found quite a few of these so far. Are there any good online stores that you guys know of that sell this kit? Thanks.

By the way, I've already boughten (still in transit) the Macross Zero version for the decals so I'm anxious to find one of these other models so I can get to work on this baby. Thanks again guys for all your help so far.

[bsu legato]

http://www.greatmodels.com is a good place to find nearly everything!

[DARTHTODD]

Thanks for the link! I've found a "VF-2 Bounty Hunters" version. Anybody have this or know if it's good? I'm assuming so since I haven't heard anything bad yet about the Hase F-14D's.

[bsu legato]

I've found a "VF-2 Bounty Hunters" version. Anybody have this or know if it's good?

It depends on which kit it is. Hase has a couple of kits still in production. One of them, including the Macross Zero kit, is an older kit. It's supposedly not a bad kit, but it's certainly not up to today's standards. Their newer kit is supposedly awesome.

While we're on the topic, has anybody seen the new F14 from Monogram?

[MechaEd]

Hase had two toolings for the F-14 which I will call the 'ancient' and the 'complex'. The ancient is the one in the M0 box. It has raised lines, but it builds easily into a pretty nice 'Cat. The wings can swing. Comes with weapons too: Sparrows, Sidewinders and Phoenixs. The complex is a piece of art. It has metal parts and has easily more parts than the 1/48 version. Wings can only be posed one way only tho. I've read somewhere that the 72 is actually a literal downsizing of the 48 mold. If that's true, then the problems faced with constructing the 48 applies to the 72. i.e. it'll be a REAL pain (I've built a 48 'Cat, you can read about my 'adventure' HERE. BUT, for the amount of work you have to put in, it does build up into a VERY nice 'Cat.

BTW, all the Hase 72 Bs and Ds are the new molds. In fact, all the latest releases except for the M0 is the new mold. Good luck finding the Fujimi 'Cats. They are very rare nowadays.

The Revell-Monogram tooling of the F-14D is pretty good. But the recessed lines are pretty deep. Makes it more toy-like than many would like. If you want a decent A, I'd suggest the Academy kit. It's cheap, simple to build and looks pretty good.

[wm cheng]

Hey MechaEd,

Absolutely beautiful F-14 there - definitely something to be proud of. I would love to see more pictures especially how you did the weathering - it looks great in the pictures. I picked up a 1/72 scale Hasegawa kit (the complex one) with the Jolly Rogers squad decals too - hoping to one day put it next to my Valks. I still can't decide to build it with the wings out showing all the nifty forward slats and flaps or show off the sleekness of the Cat with them swept back - any way to modify it so they can still swing?

Excellent work!!

[Dat Pinche Haro!]

wow....people sure like seein this topic lol....

i started a new one asking for views of the YF-21 so i could actually start my kit!...i wanted to do a custom paint job on it but no one can't even give me a simple link to some line art...i've looked around and i haven't found any on the net...i was wondering that maybe someone had some scans or somethin...ahh well....

[Skull Leader]

I bet it wouldn't take TOO much effort to modify the wings to keep them "swinging"

[MechaEd]

Hey MechaEd,

Absolutely beautiful F-14 there - definitely something to be proud of. I would love to see more pictures especially how you did the weathering - it looks great in the pictures. I picked up a 1/72 scale Hasegawa kit (the complex one) with the Jolly Rogers squad decals too - hoping to one day put it next to my Valks. I still can't decide to build it with the wings out showing all the nifty forward slats and flaps or show off the sleekness of the Cat with them swept back - any way to modify it so they can still swing?

Excellent work!!

Hi!

Thanx for the compliments, esp coming from you. Your kits are a total inspiration for me. For the weathering... I used an oil paint wash thinned with turpentine. It dries to a semi gloss and best of all, any mistakes or if I overdid the weathering, I can just earse it with an eraser and do it all over again.

I also make sure I weather it according to how air flows on the aircraft... so top and bottom surfaces would be front to back, side fuselages will be up and down. One thing though, I do preshades so the weathering enhances the panels... without preshades, the oil wash would be pretty subtle.

As for the 72 'Cat... I haven't seen many built... I have 12 boxes of them lying around in my stash and I haven't dared to start one yet haha... so i can't tell you offhand whether it can be made to swing... interesting question though, I'll look at the instructions tonight. One thing that I am sure of is that if you want to show slats and flaps down, you can NEVER sweep the wings. The way they molded it, unless you can make hinges so that slats and flaps can slide in and out, there won't be a way to be able to swing the wings in and out and STILL have slats and flaps down. Pity. <_<

You can probably tell I'm a Tomcat phreak hahahaha

[wm cheng]

A Tomcat phreak is a good thing - so am I, its my favorite bird of all time (real that is) I realise the forward slats will be a given, they'll stay out, but the rear flaps must be an easy thing? no? make a hinge by adding pins to the ends like the Yamato 1/48 flaps right? Well, I haven't thought it out yet - still concentrating on the task at hand - new waterslide decals for my 1/48 VF-1S and then the 1/72 YF-21 to finish off.

[DARTHTODD]

Didn't know that the Hase kit's wings can't swing.....that kind of sucks. Does anyone know if the Revel/Monogram or Academy kits wings can swing? (for a F-14D?)

[David Hingtgen]

1. The VF-2 kit is one of the newest and best of the D's, AFAIK.

2. Yes, it IS that much work to change the wings! Redo the entire leading and trailing edge with scratchbuilt flaps, essentially. (Because unlike most fighters, F-14's have fowler flaps, not simple flaps) F-14 flaps don't simply pivot up/down, they move in/out, and have cove doors and eyelet doors that retract and extend in sequence with the flaps. F-14's have the most complex flaps I know of of any plane, even compared to something huge with triple-slotted flaps.

[MechaEd]

Didn't know that the Hase kit's wings can't swing.....that kind of sucks.  Does anyone know if the Revel/Monogram or Academy kits wings can swing? (for a F-14D?)

Most pics I see of stationary 'Cats have their wings swept anyway, so allowing it to swing is simply a gimmick. In fact, correct me if I'm wrong (since I've never served on a carrier ), on a carrier deck, the only time the wings will be swept out will be during launch, with landing gear down, flaps + slats extended, rear stabilizers up... the whole shebang.

Edited September 26, 2003 by MechaEd

[David Hingtgen]

The wings are out whenever the plane's going slow or has little energy (manuevering lingo). Takeoff, landing, approach, low-speed passes, air combat, etc. Flaps/slats are another issue.

Anyways, the problem with the hase kits is that they're always out with the flaps FULLY down and slats out. THAT combo is only for landing. Not takeoff or anything else. (the flaps are only partly down for a carrier launch IIRC, with fully deployed slats--landing speed on a carrier is far more important than takeoff speed--full flaps just add drag, not lift) And it's a lot more work, since there's like 24 support struts for the extended slats... It'd be fine if the wings were locked swept, since that works for ground, high-speed flight, etc. But wings out WITH the flaps fully down? Only landing. (or maintenance, but not very often at all).

Edited September 26, 2003 by David Hingtgen

[MechaEd]

Can't keep a good thread down

Anyway, I dun think it's gonna be that easy to make the wings swing. I for one, wouldn't go through the trouble <_<

http://www.1999hobbysearch.com/dbimages/us.../10023350z3.jpg

http://www.1999hobbysearch.com/dbimages/us.../10023350z4.jpg

[David Hingtgen]

Which kit are those the directions for? Reminds me a LOT of the 1/72 Fujumi F-14A kit (which was actually the last F-14 I built). IIRC, the Hase's have a more complex gear/wheelwell area, among other things. (I must admit, I've never built a Hasegawa F-14---F-14's in general are hard to build, so no matter how cool they look, I stay away from them in favor of F-15/16/18/Tornado)