This is the first time I’ve posted my work. This the Hasegawa 1/48 scale F-14D. I used alot of aftermarket add-sons. Special thank you too VF Decals and Sprue Bros. for there help in making my Tomcat a success.
Simply awesome. The Grim Reaper decal is awesome. I haven’t attempted a modern jet yet and when I see work like yours I get the instant urge to build one just like it, but then reality sinks in when I see the level of skill and detail you’ve applied. Thanks for sharing.
That’s mighty fine the weathering looks great.
Nice work! I especially like the subtle panel line work you did.
Absolutely Beautiful! Nice job.
AO, very nice build on that tricky Hasegawa kit. Nice touch using the intake covers. Those intakes are a real bear. I’m curious to know what aftermarket items you used. There is definitely a resin pit in there, Black Box perhaps? The deck section is a nice touch, as is the pilot & in desert flight suits. I think you can’t go wrong with VF-Decals & Sprue Bros.
My only comments are stemming from the fact I actually photographed that actual aircraft in OCT of 2004. It looks like you painted it overall ghost grey. 164 was in the 3-tone tactical scheme. Take a look at theses pics, & you can see the demarcation line of the medium gray upper surfaces & the dark ghost sides:
Also, notice how small the ECM fairing on the glove vane is, & that it doesn’t extend that far back along the leading edge of the glove vane.
There two things about this aircraft that make it an interesting individual subject to model, that you have to have proof for people to believe you.
First, the outside skin of the boarding ladder was gloss gull gray:
Also, the corrosion control guys painted the national insignia upside down on the left wing:
Still, overall a good build.
Chris Ishmael
Great looking bird Tom… a nice 1st post. Keep "em coming.
That is a goood loooking bird!!! Keep up the good work![swg]
Looks good from here AO. Very nice build.
Regards, Rick
Great looking model, nice work.
Jerry
AO,
That is one righteous Tomcat you built! Your detailing is absolutely magnificent, especially the 'pit ,which I am guessing is BB! I fondly remember the roar and spectacle of F-14’s departing NAS Miramar in the 80’s when Top Gun was still there! What a show those boys put on! I especially like the crew pre-flighting the a/c in your diorama, great touch! Thanks for sharing!
Brian [C):-)]
Fantastic looking build! Man, I should just shelve my F-14D done as VF-31 CAG, black tailed…that is an awesome looking Turkey!!
Where’d you get the BOL rails and LANTIRN pod? And what office is that?
Thanks for sharing, that’s one to be proud of!!
Mitch
Thanks for all the comments guys, really. I enjoyed building it, but man was it a pain in the 6 o’clock somtimes. The aftermarket conversions I used took alot of time getting them to fit correctly. I made the mistake of adding resin wheel wells - never again.
I’ll answer some of your questions…That is a BB cockpit and I also added the BB Bombcat upgrade kit, (48001). The upgrade came with the Bol LAU-138 rails and included the RIO’s stick for the Lantrin and the larger DDI. I was ticked when I opened the kit and it came with the LAU-9’s. She sat in the hangar bay for awhile too waiting for the go-no go for the decals. E-mailing back and forth with VF decals and Sprue Bros. I finally got my hands on the VF-101 decals totally by luck. If my wife new how much I spent on this she’d kill me - oh well, what she doesn’t know what hurt her right fellas?
The intake covers are from Steel Beach. I thought they would suck to put on but they actually went on without a problem. My biggest concearn was the glossy look they had. Luckily when I applied the dullcoat the shine went away. I added F-14 anniversary decals from a 1/72nd scale kit to add a little extra detail to the covers.
This was the first time I weathered with chalk pastels too. I bought a thin, wide, stiff brush from a craft store. Shaved some of the chalk off with an exacto balde and worked the “dust” into the recessed panel lines. I also picked up an artists eraser, one of those erasers you kneed? I either erased the excess or pulled it back to resemble oil stains.
As far as the painting and the discrepencies noted in relation to the actual modex, I didn’t have access to the actual a/c, (you could’ve posted those pics about a month ago). I was at Oceana in 04’ for the airshow and watched the demo. I am a former F-14 mech, so the work you see here is from personal experience and alot of photos/books/magazines. I did paint the a/c with the 3-tone gray scheme, unfortunately because of the light in my kitchen it doesn’t show very well in the photos, but it is their. Thanks for giving me your input regarding the discrepencies, I do appreciate them. I’m sure between the personal experiences working on the Tomcat like MA Cooke and I along with your photos, we could note several more like the TERS on the weapons rails. All TACAIR assets actually fly the improved triple ejector rack or ITER. Those are just regular ol’ TER’s Maybe when I get to the 1/32 scale version I’ll get it right. Regardless, thanks!
like the FOD covers on the intakes, and the reaper is just the coolest
jim
AO,
Great job on the -14. As far as the TER’s, the only way you can tell a TER from an ITER is that the ITER doesn’t have teh switches in the back, other than that you can’t tell unless you pick it up, it’s about 40 pounds heavier. At first I thought I was looking at pics of a real bird, again, great job.
IYAOYAS, Reddog
Great looking model. Just one question, where did you get the flight deck? If you tell me you made it yourself than I am impressed.
That’s one very nice looking Tomcat. Well done!
Mark
AO, not to hijack your thread, but I have some questions that being a former AO, I know you would know.
What are the weapons carts/trailers /dollies actual designation like the one below? Do you know of any resource on-line that would have dimensions on them? I’ve downloaded plenty of pics from navy.mil, but I’m looking for some specific measurements. I’m looking to scratch build several passable carts for a ship board weapons loading diorama.
What time period did the switch begin from yellow to white?
Also, when weapons loading is going on, can other maintenance actions can be performed or does the aircraft belong to the solely to the ordies? Is it permissible to have several types of ordnance around the aircraft during loading , say ‘winders & Sparrows, & -54’s? Do the rules change when inert munitions are being loaded for training missions?
If I remember correctly, there are two sections of AO’s, squadron & ship’s company. I’ve seen pics with ordies wearing a red vests over the dk. blue jumpsuit, & the ordies on the flight deck wearing red jerseys with solid green or camo pants .
Any help you can give would be appreciated.
Chris Ish
Bernie,
Nop! I didn’t scratch build the flight deck section. That’s a Verlinden 1/72 scale flight deck. Originally I had planned on building 3 1/72 scale Tomcats from my former squadron and parking them with GSE and ground pounders all around them but it never evolved. Anyway, it’s made of resin and the detail is really cool! The padeye’s are very realistic. The jet blast deflectors can be positioned in the up position. I’d have to look for the issue but there’s a FSM mag with an S-3 diorama that has the same flight deck portion.
Chris,
The"skid" itself is an Aero 21C or Aero 21 “charlie” with an ADU-475 missle adaptor used for transporting A/A missles. The change from the GSE being painted white instead of yellow began in the early to mid 90’s. Here’s a good web sight for you to check out:
http://www.tpub.com/content/aviation/14023/index.htm
The sight has alot of unclassified tech info regarding the AO rate. As far as measurments go I’m not sure. Regarding other activity going on around the a/c during weapons loads, no! Only the ordnance load team and some safety and quality assurance troops are on the a/c at that point. If your planned diorama involves ordy’s actually loading the AIM-54C or GBU’s you will need to look at the bomb hoists we use. One is called the AERO 14C and the HLU-196. The hoists make loading a 500, 150 or 1,000 pound piece of ordnance a little easier to load. As you’re aware there isn’t alot of room underneath the Tomcat.
As far as dress and the difference between Ships Co. and Squadron, I’ve done both. The red vests are called “float coats.” The float coat is mandatory for all personnel on the flight deck and even some on the hangar bay level. The vest has a bladder in it with 2 CO2 cartridges in a small pocket on the upper right side of the coat. If the Sailor falls overboard it inflates. It also has a strobe light and reflective material on the shoulers and waist. Normally when underway or at sea we’ll wear BDU trousers and the red jersey. I also wore blue coveralls. When in port or aboard the NAS I wore dungarees and or the coveralls. I almost never wore dungarees when working in my shop, coveralls all the way!
AO’s aboard an aircraft carrier are a big part of the crew, (I’m not just saying that because I’m an AO either). Without us the ship is a cruise ship and the aircraftmight as well belong to United. The weapons dept. is made up of non-squadron troops, attached to the CV or CVN. The weps. dept. is made up of 4 divisions, I’ll give you a brief idea of what each one does. G-1, G-2, G-3 and G-4. G-1 is flight deck. These are NOT squadron AO’s. They are tasked with overall control of what weapons are issued to what squadrons. They issue the weapons and take them back once the a/c returns. G-2 handles small arms aboard ship including the ships armory. G-3 handles the magazines, building, testing , etc. of all A/A and A/G weapons. G-4’s AO’s work with other non-Aviation rates to maintain the weapons elevators magazine sprinkler systems and firefighting equipment.
AO’s are also assigned to the Aircraft Intermidiate Maintenance Dept. or AIMD. They perform a higher level maintenance that the squadrons cannot perform. The Carrier Air Wing or CAG also has Ordies. One of there jobs is arming and de-arming the a/c when it’s on the cat and once it parks. Last is the squadron of course. They upload and down load all the ordnance. Perform maintenace on the gun system or M61A1 for the Tomcat. We also perform several other maintenance evolutions involving the weapons system and missle launchers like the LAU-92, LAU-9 and the LAU-138 and the LAU-93. We also load the ECM countermeasures, i.e. chaff and flares.
Phew! That’s alot of info. I hope that helps you out Chris, let me know if that helps and if the web page helps you out. By the way, I’m guessing you’ve been to Calverton, what’s the Grumman museum like?
- Tom