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  • 1 month later...
Posted (edited)
Why ask why? Sit back, enjoy.

With a bunch of MW members actually being at SDCC, I figured there would be more and better pics.

We are talking with Merit and seeing if we can play with the F-14 more. They like the response we are getting on our website and might let us open the wings, etc for more pics. Stay tuned, NSA is networking as much as possible.

Thanks Fatalist and Sharky for linking our site. It shows us we are doing something correctly.

Ron

Edited by pcsguy88
Posted

Gah, I might be too late, but just in case:

Ask if the lower speedbrakes open too! Having just the upper one open is wrong---it'd be like having just the nosegear retractable, and not ALL the landing gear. F-14s have 3 speedbrakes, not 1--and the pilot can't pick which to deploy---they all go or none do.

Also please point out that physically, it's a 1995+ F-14A, and wholly unsuitable for any 1970's or 1980's paint scheme.

Posted (edited)
Gah, I might be too late, but just in case:

Ask if the lower speedbrakes open too! Having just the upper one open is wrong---it'd be like having just the nosegear retractable, and not ALL the landing gear. F-14s have 3 speedbrakes, not 1--and the pilot can't pick which to deploy---they all go or none do.

Also please point out that physically, it's a 1995+ F-14A, and wholly unsuitable for any 1970's or 1980's paint scheme.

NSA plans on stroking JSI and Merit some more tomorrow. :) I really hope he gets to handle it and see how well the wings work. I know they have been protective over it since the landing gear collapsed at Toyfair.

I passed your question on to him.

Edited by pcsguy88
Posted

I may be wrong, but I was under the assumption that the retractable canards were removed in the production version of the F-14A?

Posted

They were disabled on the A model, not removed. And it was years after service entry when it happened. Only later versions physically lack them.

Still, it is pointless for them to be on this model, as they were permanently locked shut by the era this mold depicts. They should be nothing more than an engraved line, not a separate part (which leads to gaps and seams).

Posted
Just got an answer to my lower airbrake question: http://www.fighting118th.com/wp-content/up...7/newf14-10.jpg

Still, I'm most curious about the paint scheme, as all the popular/famous ones will not work on this mold, honestly. (I'd snag the Black Knights' anniversary scheme maybe, but that's about it for a late-era A model)

Sorry I wasn't around to post the pics of the lower airbrakes, but you guys found them. Merit is giving us review samples of JSI's products since they liked our review style and our man NSA is a hell of a networker. Hopefully we will have a completed F-14 before they hit retail to help those of you contemplating this $230 bird make an educated decision. Keep checking back, we will be sending someone to Chicago in August to get pics of the painted version if Merit has it by then.

Jolly Rogers is still the speculated scheme of the first bird, but nobody knows if it will be high or low visibility.

Posted

That model is incorrect for *any* Jolly Rogers scheme. Though which scheme could determine "totally wrong" vs "slightly wrong". (For $230, I'd demand either "perfect" or "only very, very, slightly wrong")

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

BadCat and a few other online retailers are now taking pre-orders for the F-14. Average price is $219 w/ $30 (roughly) shipping in October. Hasn't been solidly confirmed yet whether it will be the low vis or high vis Jolly Rogers scheme.

Regardless, I think I can safely say....... FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

I'm holding out for the Su-30, but I love the look of that toy. Though if we are moving next year I might hold off, see what the job front holds.

Posted

Oh yeah, BTW, with the most recent announcements of what scheme they'll do, the mold is "totally wrong" for the scheme, as opposed to "slightly wrong" or "sorta wrong". I'll be waiting/hoping for a 90's scheme or something.

Posted

*gets his files and putty ready to fix the fail* I just hope the thing is styrene plastic. At least if they release it with the TCS chin pod, the lower sensor is still reasonably close to the original early A sensor pod.

Really saddened by this actually... You'd think for all the work they put into the thing on little details, they'd at least get them right. It's like if Ferrari engineers designed the best car ever made.. but decided that they'd only sell it in 3 colors: throw-up puce, baby mustard yellow, and sunburn pink.

Posted

If anyone's wondering, I've thought up a Macross equivalent for the errors:

It'd be a Milia VF-1J----if they gave it a DYRL-style cockpit, DYRL-style armor (which can't be removed), and twin strike cannons (which can't be removed), and a male pilot wearing an Ex-Gear. Yeah, it's the right type of VF-1, a J model, but every other physical/molded detail which could be wrong, is, and it messes with the timeline.

Posted

Oh, a hybrid transitionary scheme while they were doing partial repaints at sea, on the wrong mold. Even better. :p

(if you look close, you'll note that almost no two planes in that movie are painted the same--because they were changing over from high-vis to low-vis while it was being filmed, so nearly every plane is a Frankenstein of parts/schemes, with some variations never seen before nor since) That's the basic problem with using that movie as a reference---it's NOT the high-vis scheme. It's "bits of high-vis leftover since they didn't finish getting them into low-vis yet".

I would bet they actually paint it how they looked "the year before", when they were fully painted in a proper scheme, and NOT specifically how they looked in The Final Countdown.

Posted

So which one of you crazy bastards is gonna say, "Screw it!" and make a custom Skystriker out of this puppy? :)

Posted

I wonder if they might offer it as a kit, much like 21st Century did with a few of their 1/32 WWII fighters, (Zero, Corsair, Bf109F, etc.). They were the same plastic that came in the pre-painted kits just un-assembled, no paint and with a sheet of decals. They also had a crazy cheap price ($10 at Wal-Mart).

Posted

Most of my pics of that era are in books or "a website that's currently down". But here's what I can show:

Key notes:

First pic---see the separation between white and grey on the nacelles? It's very wavy, not straight.

Second pic---see the stabilators and flaps? They're white.

The above 2 notes are true for all the early high-vis Tomcats, it is the factory/delivery scheme for them all. But as the Jolly Rogers moved into low-vis, they "straightened out" (and lowered slightly) the grey/white separation line, painted the stabs grey, the flaps grey, the wing undersides grey, and finally the entire belly grey---in approximately that order. But any plane could be at any stage of repainting, and sometimes went "out of order". You'll often find that the nosecone is missing the black area at the top, abruptly "cutting off" the glareshield painted ahead of the canopy.

Century Wing's well-regarded Jolly Rogers models actually don't exactly match any scheme---they're mostly delivery, yet they have the "straightened" white separation line. Never happened from what I can tell--stabs always went grey first. Their AJ201 release fixed that though, it has a wavy line. (I don't really know any other squadron that did the "straight line" thing---every other squadron went directly from wavy white to pure grey bellies) The "wavy white line with white stabs" is THE standard F-14 scheme and it had no variations, from the very first plane of VF-1, to just before VF-111. (The Sundowners were the first squadron to be delivered in low-vis camo) There was no interim scheme---some just ended up that way due to being at sea at the change---including VF-84 and VF-41.

The short version is that any scheme variation that is not pure delivery or pure low-vis camo, is a temporary hybrid scheme that was not "intended" but merely how they "ended up for a short time while awaiting full repainting". (I hate hybrid schemes of all sorts on all planes)

  • 5 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

OMG!!! How did I miss this thread?!?!?!? OK, so ALL I want to know is when and if they are going to make a Raptor in 1:18??? SOLD!!!! Or an SR-71??? OMG!!!! :lol:

Edited by derex3592
Posted

Beautiful plane...the Tomcat, and especially the Jolly Rogers scheme was my absolute favorite plane growing up in the 80's...

I'd love to have this model, but have nowhere near the skill required to make it look good, or room to display it...

Additionally, I'd like to say I'm continually impressed with the level of real world aircraft knowledge that exists around here at MW...

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