i have two of the monagram f-14d kits and the markings/paint schemes are a little boaring. does anybody know of some good nsawc or farris schemes i can do these in?
Don’t know if it would be of interest, but the Iranian Air Force used F-14’s, which had some very unusual coloring for a Tomcat.
There’s a few profiles here that look interesting.
One of my favorites was the Bounty Hunters paint scheme circa 1997. I think they were VF-2 or 3. They had rockin’ Red White and Blue thing goin’ on.
I just took phil’s link, which is awesome, and they have it there. It’s VF-2 1996. Sweet link![tup]
ja kick arse site, dunke. looks i will have some fun makeing some nsawc birds.
TwoBobs may be my favorite source for decals for interesting color schemes. I’ve bought several sheets of Navy adversary aircraft markings (A-4s, Tomcats, F-18s, and Vipers), though I confess I’ve not actually built any of the kits and used them yet.
Anyway, they have several colorful F-14B/D markings options available on their site, in addition to a sheet of what look like F-14A adversary markings (as the ones in the link a few posts up show). If you want to ignore the differences between A- and D-model Toms, you might also be able to find their earlier NSAWC Tomcat sheet on Ebay or somewhere (it has the Flanker lookalike shown in the link, if I remember correctly).
how can i back date an f-14d to an a?
The most obvious difference is the engine nozzles. The A’s had P/W TF-30 engines, whereas the D’s (and A+?) were powered by the GE F110.
The basic airframe is the same, but I believe there are some differences in the gun vents and antennae placement. There are also differences in the cockpit panels.
Aside from the aforementioned, most other differences will probably not be included in your model.
I think the Monogram model of the D has a A cockpit
For what its worth my personal favorite was the Black Bunny scheme. DEAD SEXY ! An all black cat with playboy bunny logo on the tail. Testors released that kit back when I was in high school.
Yeah, the Black Bunny was nice. Or you could pull an “Eddie Miller” (aka “what if”) and do an F-14 in Blue Angel markings.
F-14A
This one looks pretty sharp. I may have to do it myself 
If you’re using the Monogram F-14 (kit #4729-R-4200), use the older-style gun cover, part #106, instead of the newer one (part #25). Skip using the whole extra sprue of parts for the F-110 engine and just use the old-style (TF-30) engine nozzles that are included in the kit, parts #35 & 29. Also, leave off the LLLTV chin pod. And, yes, as rsog2000 mentioned, the one area in which Monogram didn’t update the old moldings for the “A” to the “D” is in the cockpit; the cockpit is actually an “A/B” cockpit, even in the newer “D” kit (the “A/B” had the older analog AWG-9 radar system, the “D” has the newer digital AN/APG-71). Unfortunately, that’s about all you can do “out of the box”; anything past that requires some minor surgery, as Phil_H said.
As for some “different” paint schemes, the NFWS paint schemes are the best; see FSM back issue Volume 19, no. 3, under “Research Data: Navy adversary fighters”, and the following article, “Painting Special! The Navy’s colorful adversary Hornets”. Most of the article is about adversary Hornets, but there is one photo of an old F-14A in a blue Flanker scheme that looks good, and there are 3-view paint schemes on the last 2 pages of the article.
I’m right in the middle of building an F-14A and an F-14D at the same time; my “A’s” going to be an adversary at NFWS with a blue “Flanker” scheme and an AN/APX-95 TACTS pod (Hasegawa kit #X48-8) on the starboard AIM-9 station. The “D’s” going to be a “Bombcat” of VF-213 (Super Scale sheet #48-328) with the current (well, not anymore!) low-vis sheme, carrying two GBU-24’s on stations #3 & #6, and two GBU-31 JDAM’s on stations #4 & #5. This was the combination used during Operation Restore Hope. The starboard AIM-7 station (#8) will have a LANTIRN pod (AN/AAQ-14) and the port Sparrow/AMRAAM station (#1) will have an F-15E nav pod (AN/AAQ-13). F-14’s never carried the AN/AAQ-13 nav pod (they were never “wired” for it), but I thought it would look cool!
They tested the F-110 on the A+; the -110’s were installed on the B and the D models. The main difference between the B’s and the D’s is the radar: B’s still had the old analog AWG-9 (same as the A’s), but D’s had the all-digital AN/APG-71, a “navalised” version of the AN/APG-70 in the F-15E Strike Eagle. This conferred an air-to-ground capability on the D, which the A’s & B’s did not have (the AWG-9 was strictly limited to air-to-air engagements), hence the nickname “Bombcat”.