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1/32 Trumpeter F-14D build


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Hi THX1138,

Good to see an on-line build-up of the Big Trumpeter 'Cat.

Regarding the exhaust petals, it appears as though Trumpeter have left out the pressed strengthening to each petal in the same way that Tamiya did on their F-16CJ. It is n't difficult to add if you feel like it.......it can set your model apart from others with just a few minutes work and helps the back end look more realistic. :salute:

Keep up the good work. :cheers:

:huh:

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Regarding the exhaust petals, it appears as though Trumpeter have left out the pressed strengthening to each petal in the same way that Tamiya did on their F-16CJ. It is n't difficult to add if you feel like it.......it can set your model apart from others with just a few minutes work and helps the back end look more realistic. :bandhead2:

Not sure what you mean about the petals. Do you have some examples of Tammys F-16CJ petals ?

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Not sure what you mean about the petals. Do you have some examples of Tammys F-16CJ petals ?

Hi THX1138,

The Tamiya petals are smooth in a similar fashion to the Trumpeter versions that you have here. The real engine has a recessed groove pressed into them for strengthening.

HERE'S what I mean......see the edge of each petal.

HTH

:wacko:

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I finished the cockpit and the exhaust tubes.

The managed to fill 2 of the 4 seams in the tube. Not perfect. I lost some detail. Spraying them also didn't turn out like I wanted. But I think once it's inside and the exhaust tips are attached it'll look better. I do think this is the best way to do it OOB.

Progress-9.jpg

Since more of the exhaust will be shown later, we move on.

The cockpit. I'm happy with how it turned out. I also think it can be improved. It's not my speciality and some of the other pits I see overe here blow this one out of the water. As an OOB pit it's not too bad. There's one area where I see a problem, but more on this later. Both IP cowlings should've been better, so if any aftermarket people need ideas, that's where I'd start.

NACES seats are nice, but in this scale and at this price, they also deserve more parts to be detailed.

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Progress-17.jpg

Next step in the manual is the gear. But I'll do the front wheel well first and close up the nose with the cockpit in, minus the seats.

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You are doing a very, very nice job and as you've mentioned, OOB gives you limitations, but it's a very good measure of the kit itself. The Tamiya kit has always been a struggle, but with aftermarket stuff, it can look really good. I bet there's going to be a lot of stuff made for this kit soon.

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Love your build. The stock cockpit isn't bad but not great either (not critiqing your work, just the plastic kit). Looks like the level of detail of the classic 1/48 Mongram kit instead of a state of the art 1/32 kit.

I know your trying to keep this OOB, but I'd love to see some aftermarket resin seats in there.

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If you don't mind, I'm going to print the pictures of your work on the seatbelts to use as a guide for mine, because the Trumpy instructions aren't exactly forthcoming when it comes to putting them on (come to think of it, my only complaint about the kit so far is that the instructions are rather vague on many things).

Your work on the engines is STELLAR! I started to paint one, but then decided "ah...eff this, time to make some exhaust and intake covers", so I just half-a$s chucked them together and am throwing them in there as sort of a "holder" for the soon-to-be covered exhaust petals. My second one in the stash I may try to do the engines after seeing the way you assembled them.

EDIT: BTW, I'm sure you're aware of this, but the manual says that the nose gear strut has to be in before you close the front section up. If you figure out a way to get around this situation, please do share. Thanks!

Edited by TomcatFanatic123
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EDIT: BTW, I'm sure you're aware of this, but the manual says that the nose gear strut has to be in before you close the front section up. If you figure out a way to get around this situation, please do share. Thanks!

I was heading over here to mention the front gear issue, only then to see you already pointed it out. It's not just the front gear. The main gear needs to be put in also before closing up the body. The dude at Trumpy comming up with this must have left his brain at home that day.

Here's a closeup of the front wheel well

Progress-18.jpg

It latches on to both the sidewalls of the well. Which you cannot do anymore when the well is fixed inside the body. It will make the gear superstrong, I admit. But a sidewall-slide-in-afterwards would also have done that. :rolleyes:

It means all the body work, filling, scribing, sanding, preshade and painting needs to be done with the gear attached. No way I'm doing that.

Here's plan A.

I do it the normal way, leaving off the gear. I then sand off the pegs on the gear that would otherwise pop into the sidewalls, trying to leave a bit a flesh on the pegs. I then try to pry them in afterwards and just glue the sucker in.

Plan B is that there is no Plan B.

Edited by THX1138
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I was heading over here to mention the front gear issue, only then to see you already pointed it out. It's not just the front gear. The main gear needs to be put in also before closing up the body. The dude at Trumpy comming up with this must have left his brain at home that day.

It latches on to both the sidewalls of the well. Which you cannot do anymore when the well is fixed inside the body. It will make the gear superstrong, I admit. But a sidewall-slide-in-afterwards would also have done that. :rolleyes:

It means all the body work, filling, scribing, sanding, preshade and painting needs to be done with the gear attached. No way I'm doing that.

Here's plan A.

I do it the normal way, leaving off the gear. I then sand off the pegs on the gear that would otherwise pop into the sidewalls, trying to leave a bit a flesh on the pegs. I then try to pry them in afterwards and just glue the sucker in.

Plan B is that there is no Plan B.

My original plan is to go with the instructions because I thought the nose gear doesn't get much into the way of painting. I didn't realize the main gears also need to be glued in place first.

Now I'm re-evaluating my options.

Terry

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Hi there,

I did some more test fitting of the nose gear bay inside the nose halves, and now I'm not 100% convinced if your approach of cutting off the gear pegs will work. Look closely at the nose gear bay cut-out on the nose halves. The opening where the strut goes in is actually narrower than the rest of the cut-out. Which mean the very wide structure of part J31 and the metal rod won't fit through the smaller portion of that opening.

This is what I mean:

warning.jpg

I suppose you can shorten the metal rod in order to get more wiggle room, but you will sacrifice even more rigidity.

I don't mean to offend, I just think this may help you make a more informed decision.

Cheers,

Terry

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Progress-18.jpgPlan B is that there is no Plan B.

Can you cut the plastic on the strut just above (technically below) the ring where the 2 flat parts meet the strut and slide that part off of the metal part?

You could then glue that part into the well, close up the fuselage and later slide and glue the main strut (with the metal insert) in place.

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My original plan is to go with the instructions because I thought the nose gear doesn't get much into the way of painting. I didn't realize the main gears also need to be glued in place first. Now I'm re-evaluating my options.

I haven't decided just yet either. The main gear looks easier to attach afterwards compared to the front gear. I'm doing the main gear wells today to make sure. So perhaps attaching only the front gear and leaving off the main gear is the best compromise.

I did some more test fitting of the nose gear bay inside the nose halves, and now I'm not 100% convinced if your approach of cutting off the gear pegs will work. Look closely at the nose gear bay cut-out on the nose halves. The opening where the strut goes in is actually narrower than the rest of the cut-out. Which mean the very wide structure of part J31 and the metal rod won't fit through the smaller portion of that opening.

This is what I mean:

warning.jpg

I suppose you can shorten the metal rod in order to get more wiggle room, but you will sacrifice even more rigidity.

I see you point. It will be very tight indeed. I wasn't planning on sliding it in from above. The idea was to turn it 90 degrees, align it, and the prying it back 90 degrees to snap it in, obviously damaging the sidewalls a bit. So still not 100% sure. Where are the Tamiya designers when you need them ? ;)

Can you cut the plastic on the strut just above (technically below) the ring where the 2 flat parts meet the strut and slide that part off of the metal part?

You could then glue that part into the well, close up the fuselage and later slide and glue the main strut (with the metal insert) in place.

That's just briljant !! :coolio:

This might very well be the best solution.

The part where you cut is deep inside, so not very noticable anyway. And what's even better, there's 2 front gear struts in the kit. One for the launch squat down position, and 1 for the normal. So I can do a test, or if I screw it up I'll have a spare :crying2:

P.S. Too bad the 2 braces with the pegs (parts J27) don't come in 2 versions too. I have them glued and painted on already, so it'll be a pain to remove them to re-attach to the 2nd strut, should I need to do that. Good point for anyone that hasn't gotten to this step yet.

Edited by THX1138
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I think I cracked it, due to Maker's excellent idea. I chopped the gear in half :explode:

So now I can fit the part between the 2 sidewalls.

Progress-19.jpg

And the I slide in the rest of the gear with the metal inside afterwards.

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I'd already painted the gear, so it needs some touching up. And like I said, there's 2 front-gear in the kit so you can screw it up once.

In the meantime. Some more progress pics. I decided to close all the nose panels. This means the surface of the nose is not going to be smooth. Trumpy should've included an extra left-side of the nose. The panels on the refueling probe actually fit quite nice.

Progress-21.jpg

Progress-22.jpg

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I think I cracked it, due to Maker's excellent idea. I chopped the gear in half :thumbsup:

So now I can fit the part between the 2 sidewalls.

Progress-19.jpg

And the I slide in the rest of the gear with the metal inside afterwards.

Dude that is a brilliant arrangement. Too bad it's too late for me to do that now. Oh well, I'll try that on the F-14A when Trumpeter releases it.

Cheers,

Terry

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Hah! Beautiful workaround on the nose gear issue...that's the way I'll be doing mine. I haven't done any gluing or painting as far as gear goes, so I shouldn't have a problem pulling this one off :thumbsup:! My only obstacle now will be the main gear struts...

Edited by TomcatFanatic123
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Thats a great move on the Nose gear issue... I was contemplating the possibility of drilling out the the pivot area to accept a trunion pin that could be installed later. Should be doable in that scale. But that way looks tons easier

Dave

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Some more issues. The exhaust tunnels have a mediocre fit.

This is the joint between the front section and the mid. It's not yet glued in on the shot. I can probably get rid of some of it when I glue it in. Gonna need super-extra-mega glue to make it stick though. Or else it'll need a bucketload of sanding and filling.

Progress-23.jpg

This is the joint between the mid and rear, where the bottom fins attach. It's a better fit then the other one

Progress-24.jpg

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I found a way to get the outer engine tunnels to fit better then you can see above. You just have to cut away the interlocking pegs, so the outer-tunnel has more room to move to the right position so it lines up with the back end of the tunnel. Dryfitting is mandatory with this kit. And to glue in the outer-tunnel will not be easy. But not yet.

The inner-intakes. They can be made pretty much seamless, with some filler and sanding. The instructions tell you to put in the intakes together with the actual engines, after you've put in the outer-tunnels. This means there's almost no room to do the sanding. So I put them in beforehand.

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But, when I dryfit the intake tunnels, the back end doesn't line up with the engines anymore.

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No worry's though. I remove the front engine fan and just fit it directly to the intake. The line up problem is now hidden.

Progress-29.jpg

Progress-30.jpg

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But, when I dryfit the intake tunnels, the back end doesn't line up with the engines anymore.

No worry's though. I remove the front engine fan and just fit it directly to the intake. The line up problem is now hidden.

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll do the same when I get to that part.

Great progress, by the way.

Cheers,

Terry

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I found a way to get the outer engine tunnels to fit better then you can see above. You just have to cut away the interlocking pegs, so the outer-tunnel has more room to move to the right position so it lines up with the back end of the tunnel. Dryfitting is mandatory with this kit. And to glue in the outer-tunnel will not be easy. But not yet.
If you haven't glued the intake tunnels on yet, be sure to check that they sit at the correct angle.

Looking at the build on LSP (pg.7 bottom) it appears that the intakes tunnels are positioned too vertical.

The upper and lower leading edges of the intake should be parallel to one another and the side walls should be angled out more.

Here's a great front view for reference.

:jaw-dropping:

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