chuck540z3 Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 (edited) Hi Guys, Here’s my very first in-progress thread, so please be patient. I’m building this bird as part of the Tomcat Group Build, but I really doubt I’ll make the July 1st deadline, so just in case, I’m posting my progress here. I’ve made this kit before, so I know all the challenges. After re-scribing the panels lines and adding a Black Box F-14D conversion and Zotz decals, I made the model below. It has several flaws (VF-103 never flew a D), but I still like it… For my new cat, I’m throwing everything I can think of at it as follows: -Aires and Teknics resin and photo-etch cockpit parts (using the best of both). -Eduard seat detail, formation lights and placards sets. -Cross Delta structural reinforcements set. (New edit) -Wolfpack F-14D airframe conversion set. -Tamiya F-16 GE-110 burner cans X 2. (New edit) -Wolfpack Late type wheel set. -Fightertown decals, #101 circa 2004. -Phoenix metal Pitot tube & AOA sensor. I’m also using the latest Black Knights kit, because it has the correct front gear door, front gun vents, targeting pod and bombs. First up is the usual pain of cutting the resin pit and dry-fitting it into the front fuselage. This Aires pit was much easier to work with than the last Black Box one I used before- and the detail is amazing. Of course the raised panels were sanded down, the refueling door was filled in and the Steel Beach reinforcement parts were added. You can also see the photoetched brass of the Teknic pit added to the sills, since the Aires kit doesn’t have this detail… Next up, painting the cockpit. This should be fun. :) Edited November 8, 2009 by chuck540z3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted March 14, 2009 Author Share Posted March 14, 2009 (edited) After several days of picky, picky painting, here's the pit before I cement it into the fuselage. I think it looks pretty darn good, but I'll bet the RIO gauges are wrong for the bombcat I'm building. Oh well, only you guys will know. I purposely painted the glareshield covers different colors. Almost black with a hint of burgundy up front and a split of weathered and newer coverings in the back. Of course the port side is newer material since the RIO and ground crew grab this part when they enter and exit the aircraft (which I recently learned from Reddog)..... Next up, the seats..... Edited April 29, 2009 by chuck540z3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
geedubelyer Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 Hi Chuck, That's some nice, neat painting on your cockpit. The canvas covers came out very well, the instuments look crisp and the display screens have a super gloss to them. Great stuff! :) I have the Aires set to paint at some stage. It certainly looks like alot of work. Shame they missed the cockpit sills though. I'll follow this build with interest. Keep up the good work. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rom Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 hello, that's an impressive paintjob! bye Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CW4 Erick Swanberg Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 dude that is awesome the cockpit is first rate Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted March 14, 2009 Author Share Posted March 14, 2009 (edited) Thanks guys. One thing that I've always had difficulty with is getting pics that actually look like the real deal. Under enough light to get the pic, things like the canvas covers come out shiny and the black on the instrument panels look washed out rather than weathered. Here’s some dry fit pics of the pit in the fuselage. Since the Aires kit doesn’t have the sill pieces, I stole some from a Teknics kit, which is both brass pieces and resin rails for the hooks, which I just placed into the holes so you can see how it will all look when done. Since I’m going to be masking the cockpit off, these hooks will go in last after painting. Note the smoothed out front of the sill using a trim pice, which isn't square like the kit. The rear sill fits great and won’t need any hardly any putty. The hose at the back of the seat, however, will need some surgery… Still, it looks pretty good. I also recommend that the tiny probe on the side should be masked off which you can barely see in the left bottom corner. This bit always breaks off if you’re not careful… One big challenge I found with the Aires kit is the canopy frame. As great as it looks, mine turned out to be a disaster because it was impossible to remove from the resin block without damage and then it didn't fit the kit canopy- not even close. I'm not sure at this stage if it is the kit or user error, but I've salvaged some parts of the Aires canopy frame and attached them to the kit frame, so it still looks better than stock. I’m calling this my first “save†of the project. Once the canopy is added, painted and the hooks are attached, you’ll never really notice….. That’s it for now. These seats are going to be sweet! Edited April 29, 2009 by chuck540z3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jimz66 Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 Chuck very nicely done on that cockpit of yours. Sweet job on the weathering and I really like the multicolor windscreen action you've got there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jack-Swiss Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 Very nice work indeed! Gotta love all those details from Aires! Cheers :D Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Paulo Jose Simas Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 WELL DONE Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rom Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 good job with the canopy! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Youngtiger1 Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 Chuck, I've always admired your VF-103 F-14D. Infact, I've saved the photos you posted a while back. I don't care if it not accurate. The detail you put into it is and the clarity is awesome. Anyway, as for this VF-101 Cat, I'll be sure to fellow this closely so that i can learn from you awesome work. Also, thank you so much for nice clear photo that you take. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted March 16, 2009 Author Share Posted March 16, 2009 Chuck, I've always admired your VF-103 F-14D. Wow , thanks Mike. I'll try to make the next Cat just as good, even for the "Rivet Counters"! The seats are coming OK, but the canopy is a bear! Stay tuned! Here's another pic of the old inaccurate VF-104 F-14D!... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Eastern Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 Very nice progress! That 'pit looks smashing! Keep it up! Alexander. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 Hello Chuck and good to see your in progress-thread! I am looking forward to seeing your continued work, the cockpit is already looking sharp! Too bad about the Aires canopy problems, I still haven't pulled my parts out of the bag to see how they fit but I sure will have to sometime soon. Still waiting for my Eduard interior set to arrive in the mail. Not sure about its quality but perhaps this set will help a little in replacing the cockpit sill details that are missing from the Aires set. Still, I am not too hopeful... Keep it up! :) Cheers, Anders Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gervais8 Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 Anders, Great build. Can't wait to seee more. RG Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted March 19, 2009 Author Share Posted March 19, 2009 (edited) SEATS! Tiny, tiny seats with even tinier seatbelts and tiny stuff I have no idea about. Here's the details: Aires seats that came with the cockpit set. Eduard F-14A seat detail set (32-504) Eduard F-14 Tomcat placards (Self adhesive, 32-605) Some Aires photo-etch bits Tamiya kit overhead ejection hoops The Aires seats are super detailed straight out of the box, so other than cutting them off the blocks, there really isn't much clean-up. The seat cushions have super deep pleats- so much so I used white glue to tone them down. I know most F-14 seats are flat and crappy after being replaced several times, but I wanted to keep some detail, so I left some of the grooves. So here they are- too bad a lot of the detail is lost when they're placed in the cockpit! Edited April 29, 2009 by chuck540z3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jack-Swiss Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Reaaaally beautifl seats!!!!! outstanding job! Cheers Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Brian P: Fightertown Decals Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 (edited) I picked up a seat of the Eduard PE placards and ejection seat markings and promptly tossed them. I thought they looked weak and 'fake'. Against our decals for the ejection seat stuff there was no comparison... You, however made them look good -brian Edited March 19, 2009 by Brian P: Fightertown Decals Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aggressor Supporter Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Nice seats and cockpit. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted March 19, 2009 Author Share Posted March 19, 2009 I picked up a seat of the Eduard PE placards and ejection seat markings and promptly tossed them. I thought they looked weak and 'fake'. Against our decals for the ejection seat stuff there was no comparison... You, however made them look good :lol: -brian Thanks. As far as the Eduard stick-on placards are concerned, they are a little too thick, but they make up for that with excellent detail that no decal can replicate. As tiny as some of the fonts are, you can actually read many of the words. Having said all that, I wasn't aware that your decals (which I'm going to use) had the seat markings included. I guess I can still use them, since the placards are very easy to remove. We'll see. Right now, I've got some wheel bays to attack and with such great examples from other current builds (rom, geedubelyer, r0t0rdr1ver & Anders come to mind), I've got a very hard act to follow! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Henk Koppelaar Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Hi Chuck Beautiful detail on the seats. Especially because the positions of the seltbelts are different. Thats better than two excactly the same seats. Keep up the good work Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share Posted March 20, 2009 (edited) Cockpit Update! I just found out that Aires now makes an F-14 BBBBB cockpit! A few months ago, when I was buying bits for this build, Aires only made the F-14A pit in 1/32, so I was "making do" with what I had. Now I'm not sure what the A to B changes are in the kit, but I'm assuming ( & hoping), its only an upgrade of the RIO instruments to support bombs. Anybody know? If this is true, all I need to do is repaint the RIO instrument glareshield and replace my current one made for the F-14A. This can all be justified since I've got another 1/32 F-14A in the stash that's destined to become an "A" anyway. I just bought the new Aires F-14B kit today (below). Yes, I'm nuts, but it does give me another kick at that cockpit canopy I (may have) screwed up. I will report on my A vs B findings, likely in about 2 weeks when the kit arrives. In the meantime, I've got a lot of rescribing to keep me busy while I wait..... Edited March 20, 2009 by chuck540z3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Brian P: Fightertown Decals Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 The only difference between the Aires A and B cockpits are the IP instrument clusters - PE parts. Pilot upper left and RIO left and right. It's a scale up of the 1/48 designs. There's no Lantirn/PTID update. Now if they get around to doing the D in 1/32 - that would make me a happy camper! -brian Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share Posted March 20, 2009 The only difference between the Aires A and B cockpits are the IP instrument clusters - PE parts. Pilot upper left and RIO left and right. It's a scale up of the 1/48 designs. There's no Lantirn/PTID update.Now if they get around to doing the D in 1/32 - that would make me a happy camper! -brian Thanks. It also looks like the overhead ejection hoops are on the seats, unlike the A pit which only has some wire supplied for you to make your own. I found the Black Box/ VMD Studios/ AVionix/ Whatever F-14D pit to be pretty good, with superior canopy hooks (the ones beside the seats) to Aires (there are none) and Teknics (small brass ones with poor resin rails). To make the perfect 1/32 cockpit, you need all 3 kits or be Pete "Pig" Fleischmann. :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
geedubelyer Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 Thanks. It also looks like the overhead ejection hoops are on the seats, unlike the A pit which only has some wire supplied for you to make your own............... Hi Chuck, I'd check that first. :lol: The picture on the front of the -A box also shows these hoops but as you say, they are not included in the set. I suspect that the -B seats are the same. As an aside, could n't you use the Tamiya kit parts for the seat hoops? They don't look too bad from what I've seen. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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