Right building a 1/72 F-14 I made a rookie mistake, and that is knocked the pitot tube on the nose off. So I did some looking to see if 1/72 Tomcats do have that on or not. And all the ones with few exceptions do. So I decided top scribe a new one from a piece of sprue. An it turned out great, but the problem I’m facing is how to get it on the nose without falling off? I can’t just glue it on because a simple bump will knock it off again. I thought of drilling a hold through the nose, but I don’t know if I can drill that small? Or I thought of of making a so called cover such as the end be a cone shape, with no inside, and put it around the nose so the nose gradually comes down to the pitot tube. But I can’t figure out to to make that, and will it look bad or ok?
At 1/72 I wouldn’t worry about it.
The F-14 had a pretty short and stubby pitot tube, you’d hardly notice it missing in 1/72.
Right. I’d just sand it smooth and forgeddaboudit.
Even for show quality?
You might try heating the point of an ordinary straight pin, holding it in a pair of pliers. Push it into the nose, then trim to length. Paint it to prevent rusting! In 1/72 scale, it should look fine.
Shoot ,I feel so dumb [bnghead] That’s a great idea thanks
Or you might replaced the pitot tube with a piece of stretched sprue.
you know, this might be a good time to get some scratchbuilding skills together. What if you removd the nose and fabricated the radar dish and bulkhead? There is probably a lot of reference material out there…
Good idea F-8fanatic, but I’m still a noob at modeling even though i’ve been doing it for over 15 yrs. So I might pass on that til I get better, and have a larger scale to work with.
Sad to say i tried adding a straight needle into the nose but it is just such a fine tip that its hard to push something into because if you slip you’ll go to one side which’ll ruin that part. So I can’t do the straight needle after all but any suggestions would be of help.
Maybe try heating the tip of the needle first?
i fixed my starfighter by sanding a flat spot on the tip of the nose and replaced the pitot with a steel sewing needle-no paint necessary, they don’t rust (mines 15 years old and still bright). i drilled the appropriate sized hole on the flat tip, put some superglue inside using a fine guitar string then pushed the needle in, checking it for alignment. it set in seconds and then i faired it in with some miliput. better than what came with the kit and it’s survived cats, small kids and several house moves. hope this helps.
Time to buy a set of wire gauge drill bits!
If not interested in the entire set get these useful sizes: #70, #74, #78
#80 is the smallest but it breaks to easy to last for hobby use. Get quality bits as the cheep ones often are not sharp! Grr![:@] If there is two twisted burrs forming then the bit is a winner. After the hole is drilled fit a SS fine hypodermic needle for the pilot tube, it is the correct color, will not rust and has a correct hole in the end. No need to glue if fit is snug, this way it can be removed for transport.[H]
These basic drill bits will serve all applications in plastic as the hole can be enlarged by gently twisting a new #11 hobby blade, using the tiny #70 as a pilot hole. Eventually you will want more selection, start with these first.
Well I went back and tried to put a hole in the nose but failed, but then decided what if I use the exacto knife to make a hole. So I twisted it straight on the nose and got the hole deep enough for the straight pin. Now the problem is I sanded a little too much of the nose flat, just a minute size. But I wonder if I could use putty to wrap around the straight pin and form the cone going to the point, i.e. pitot tube.