Anybody know? The reference pictures I’ve found look like a flat, but I’ve seen others that look pretty glossy. I’m building the old Testors kit, and the box-art (and we all know how trustworthy that stuff is) has it in flat. I’ve tried emailing the PR dept. of VX-9 but haven’t gotten a response. Anybody have any ideas or seen one up close?
it appears to be semi-gloss to gloss… depends on your angle…
Hi John,
Paint it semi-gloss. It is gloss but it would look unrealistically shiny in scale
I saw the VX-4 F-14 Tomcat at George AFB in late '87. It was painted gloss black and was highly polished. When standing close, you could see your reflection in it. The leading edge of the wings were natural metal and was polished to a very high shine. It was the cleanest aircraft I ever saw. Even the AB eyelids were polished.
Just to confuse things, I have photo refs of three different F-14A Black Bunnies (at least in the crew names). Two were gloss black and one was flat black.
I don’t know which kit you have but the Testors/Fujimi kit I bought back in the early nineties(and still haven’t finished, I should probably get on top of that) calls for it to be flat black. For what that is worth.
I saw the F-14 at an airshow and it is a gloss. I think it is the most impressive scheme on any F-14. The F-4J in that paint is cool too!
Saw this aircraft at Point MuGu in California.
It is definitly Gloss Black
I saw one of those birds at South Weymouth NAS at an airshow- it was very shiny, but it was also raining cats and dogs. An F/A-18 did a hell of a low show, though. Really tore the place up good. DW Blackwell, MMC(SS), USN, Retired