Hello all!
I’m an infrequent visitor so forgive me if you’ve knocked this around before, but can any of you give me a short review of the Tamiya 1/32 F14-A and F4-J kits? Or direct me to a site that has them? Raised or engraved panel lines? Just build my Revell models and save my money or…??
Thanx for your input!
Howie Belkin (I can’t only build 1/72!)
The Tamiya F-4J kit is awsome. One of the best kits I’ve ever seen. Metal landing gear, recessed lines, detailed cokpit, loads of detail. Highly reccomended. The only aftermarket I might reccomend is resin ejection seats and decals.
The Tamiya F-14 is a mixed bag. Overall it’s an impressive kit, but lacking in some areas. For example, the cockpit has only decals for instruments- blasphamy in this scale! Panel lines are a mix of recessed and raised. Not a great deal for the price. I don’t personally own this kit, but other people’s reviews has kept me away from it.
Go to www.aircraftresoucecenter.com and check out the Gallary section for some reviews of these kits.
Personally- I do not own the Tamiya F-4J, but I have seen it. Not only is it enormous but the detail is phenominal. As to the Tomcat, the cockpit is abysmal- especailly at the price. The raised detail can be sanded down and rescribed.
For the bucks- I’d opt for the ‘Black Knights’ version. Updated and more expensive. For a hell of a deal I’d go for the Revell Germany F-14A. It also has it’s quirks but OOB the cockpit can made a beaut with a little scratchbuilding and some good painting. The seats are nice for the scale. The only thing I don’t like is that both burner cans are full open, and molded thick. I have a friend that bought the Teknics cockpit, airframe mods(for a D model) and some killer decals and made what I consider the most incredible kit I have laid eyes on. I have the kit in the stash and it looks nice in the box. When I can allocate some funding from the Sec of Treas (wife) to the hobby budget, I’ll give it a shot. I have the big Tamiya Viper and I am more stoked about this kit that that. I also have preference for Tomcats… Hope I haven’t droned on and on. I used to only build 1/72 for space reasons. Then I moved to 1/48 for detail. Then I saw my pal’s big ****** Tomcat.
Hi Howie,
The Tamia F-4 kits are awesome, but they still have a few issues. Some are actually non-issues, depending on how picky you are about your Phantoms. 
As has been mentioned, the seats can stand to be replaced. The afterburner nozzles on the J, E, and EJ kits are much too small in diameter. I replaced mine with some from a Revell F-4 kit, but CAM also sells some resin ones. The wing tips are angled up too much, something like 25 degrees. They should only be 12.5 degrees. I eyeballed them and filled the gaps with styrene strip. No way I could get that half-degree built in. The fuselage is covered with raised panels that need to be sanded off and rescribed. And finally, the intake ducts don’t match up with the rest of the intake parts. I used Seamless Suckers resin intakes to fix this.
There are quite a few build articles over at Large Scale Planes and the Aircraft Resource Center.
HTH.
Ben
Thank you all. Before I posted my inquiry - when I first went to Large Scale Planes and the Aircraft Resource Center - I guess I didn’t know how to navigate my way around. After hearing from all of you and knowing there was a lot to be found, I found my way around! Lots of great stuff!
It looks like you can build a great model if you want to make the effort… decisions,decisions!
But thanx again to you all!
Howie