Does anyone have any experience building Academy F-14’s? I’m looking for intel on their old and new 1/72 scale kits and their 1/100 scale kit.
i build one many years ago, think is again the same mold.
I remember was a good detailed kit, don’t know if the decals was good because i used a sheet from superscale, here a picture of it .
Builded it at the first of 90’ years, but not remind problems with his construction, and at the time price was very low respect hasegawa
I built the 1/72 kit a few years ago. I don’t recall any major issues with fit & it has good detail for the scale. Better plan on AM decals though.
Regards, Rick
I recently finished the 1/72nd scale kit.
Good detail, nice fine panel lines. It isn’t up to the Hasegawa kit, but on the whole, a close second.
Two points:
The wing gloves are too thick which gives the model an awkard look from the front.
The canopy has a protruding hinge thing that is just way wrong. It will have to be removed and the corresponding notch behind the cockpit will need filling.
Otherwise,the canopy fit up has an unusual feature though that makes painting easier depending on the paint scheme/markings you intend. The canopy frame that runs across the canopy bottom is a separate piece and if you intend a closed canopy, can be glued in place prior to painting. The clear piece fits into that. It gives a much better closed canopy fit than the Hasegawa one does.
I’m building a series of Tomcats, and while showing an open canopy is great with a good cockpit, it does spoil the lines of the jet. If you plan to build a closed cockpit bird, ths is a very good kit for it.
I didn’t have any serious fit troubles and I didn’t use any of the kit decals. I made it an East coast squadron bird.
Give it a shot.