Here at work I just met a guy who works on F-14’s and is about to deploy on the U.S.S. George Washington. It’s the only ship that will still have 2 F-14 Squadrons, VF-11 Red Rippers and VF-143 Pukin’ Dogs. There’s my incentive for a new project. I just ordered the Red Rippers decals from Two Bobs but am having trouble finding Pukin Dogs. Both are currently flying F-14B’s. I want to keep costs down so instead of going my usual route of Hasegawa I was thinking Academy but would need a cheap conversion option (or an alternate manufacturer to get the B variant, not Italeri).
All will be in 1/72.
PS He says that the Super Hornets are a maintenance nightmare. Airframes already cracking.
In 1/48 scale, Darren Roberts has some resin conversion parts- I don’t have his E-mail but you can find him at the discussion pages (do a member search) at:
I know Fujimi makes F-14B & D kits… but they aren’t much cheaper than Haswgawa. In fact they are probably more expensive. Revell/Monogram makes an F-14D kit. I don’t know how good it is, but most kits like that seem to come with the old parts too (ie seats and chin pod).
I don’t know of any after market engine nozzels in that scale, but if you really need it, I could make a mold of from my Fujimi kit and send you some resin nozzels.
Caine,
I read a review of the revell kit with a pic and I thought that the panel lines were enormous and the review said the fit was terrible. As for the burner cans, thanks for the offer but I have a Hasegawa B for another project that I could cast if it came to that. I may try ebay and see what fujimi/hasegawa kits go for there.