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F-14B, VF-74 Be-Devilers Adversary 1/48


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Thanks Ben, for your comments.

I finally decided to do a little painting. Here's what the fuel tank racks look like. I made a few nameplate decals and put them on the racks for a little more detail and realism.

216FuelTankRacks-Painted.jpg

And here's what they look like (dry fitted) on the plane.

217FuelTankRacks-Painted.jpg

218FuelTankRacks-Painted.jpg

I'm just about finished the chin pod, so I'll post some pic's soon.

:cheers:

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Another mini build completed - the chin pod.

The kit chin pod is made up of three parts - two halves and a clear lens. The kit parts are fairly accurate in size & shape. However, I found that when dry fitting the pod the distance between the fuselage nose gear well, and the line between the fuselage and nose cone, is longer than the chin pod. As a result, the pod must be placed either too far forward, or too far back, to visually line up with either the nose cone edge, or the gear bay, respectively. Also, the chin pod kit parts do not have all the correct molded panels lines. And the chin pod mod's began ...

First, after glueing the kit halves together, I filled in the panel line in the centre of the parts.

219ChinPodstart.jpg

Then the real work began;

- material was added & shaped to the rear end of the pod, so the pod could be located properly between the gear bay and the nose cone. I don't think that the length of the pod is now dimensionally correct, but it looks better when assembled on the fuselage.

- a circular plug was added to the rear end.

- the camera tube on the pod was shortened and replaced with a piece of Evergreen plastic tube, to add a thicker wall thickness to the camera tube.

- the thickness antenna on the bottom of the pod was filed down to more closely ressemble the real thing.

- new panel lines and rivet detail were added.

220ChinPodmod.jpg

Next, I made a camera (at least the visible lens part) from a piece of wooden dowel. I covered one end of the dowel with thin metal foil, and added some detail using plastic sprue. To attach the sprue, I punched a couple of holes in the foil/dowel and inserted & glued the sprue in place. I made a new front lens for the pod from a piece of thin clear plastic, so it would look a little more realistic than the thick kit lens part. Finally, I drilled out the chin pod so I could insert the dowel. I painted the inside of the pod's camera tube gloss black.

221ChinPodmod.jpg

I cut out the 'red' navigation light from the pod, and replaced it with a piece of transparent red plastic cut from a round bead. it looks a little more realistic than painting the light red.

222ChinPodmod.jpg

I glued the front new lens to the pod using three coats of Future, sanding and polishing the Future between coats so the the lens looked flush withthe edge of the camera tube. I brush painted the pod to prime it. I'll finish painting it with the fuselage, since the adversary camo paint scheme covers part of the pod.

Here's a pic of the finished chin pod;

223ChinPodfinished.jpg

And a pic of the pod dry fitted to the fuselage;

224ChinPodfinished.jpg

Well, thanks again for looking in. Next up will be the dual LAU-7 missile launchers on each side of the plane, as well as ongoing, & never ending, filling and sanding the completed parts to prepare for final painting.

:cheers:

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Looking good John! Great attention to the Tomcat's fine details :thumbsup:/>/> Yer down to the nitty gritty now... I mean, not too much detailing left to do!

/Jesse

Hi Jesse.

Yep, just the weapons stations, landing gear & gear doors left. I've got a lot of prep work to do before painting, e.g. clean up some panel lines & rivets, plus a lot of sanding. But, the end is in sight. :rolleyes:

John

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Following Guy's(geedubelyer) lead, I've put together a Table of Contents for this very long thread in Post #1. By clicking on the 'Post' links, you'll be taken to the post(s) about the listed model parts. I hope this helps for future reference. I'll keep this updated as the build progresses.

Post #1 - Table of Contents

Edited by JohnS
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi, all!

I’ve started work on the wing glove weapons stations. My plan is to have two LAU-7 missile launchers on each station, with one training Sidewinder on the port wing and a TACTS pod on the starboard. Each weapons station consists a multipurpose pylon, a LAU-7 adapter, a Sidewinder adapter & fairing, and two LAU-7 missile launchers. This configuration is shown on ‘THE HOME OF M.A.T.S. F-14 WEBSITE’ at http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-detail-crankedpylons.htm.

I decided to use the Hasegawa kit parts, plus LAU-7 launchers donated from two Revell kits.

225Multi-purposePylonsandLAU-7Launchers.jpg

As with the rest of this build, I first checked the parts for visual and dimensional accuracy. And, like the rest of this build, I found some discrepancies.

First, the multipurpose pylons.

The actual pylons are 120†long. This converts to 2.5†long in 1/48 scale. I found the Hasegawa pylons looked similar the actual parts, but they measured only 2.35†long.

226HasegawaMultipurposePylons.jpg

The pylons included in the donor Revell F-14 kits were the correct length, but they didn’t look quite right. They were also moulded together with a Sparrow missile adapter. These would require some major surgery to modify.

So, I decided to rework the Hasegawa pylons. This included cutting the pylons in half, inserting a .15†spacer (made by laminating 4 pieces of .030 thick plastic), adding more plastic to increase the pylon height, and finally adding panel line and rivet details.

227MultipurposePylonsReworked.jpg

Here’s a pic of the pylons dry fitted;

228MultipurposePylonsTestFit.jpg

Next, the LAU-7 launchers.

The actual launchers are 110†in length, or 2.3†in 1/48 scale. Checking my kit parts, I found the Hasegawa launchers were too short at 2.2â€, while the Revell parts were spot on at 2.3â€.

229LAU-7LauncherComparison.jpg

I’ve decided to use the Revell launchers for the rest of the build. I’ll be scratch building the LAU-7 adapters, the Sidewinder adapters & fairings, and launcher detail. I’ll cover these in my next update.

Thanks again for looking.

:cheers:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Continuing work on the wing glove weapons stations …

In an effort to replicate the weapons pylons and LAU-7 launchers as close as possible & as shown on THE HOME OF M.A.T.S. F-14 WEBSITE at http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-detail-crankedpylons.htm, I started by cutting up the Hasegawa kit parts to make the upper LAU-7 pylons.

230LAU-7LauncherPylons_zps112e34bb.jpg

After cleaning up the pylons and scribing the panel lines, the pylons were attached to the multipurpose pylons described in my last post.

231PylonsaddedtoMultipurposePylons_zpsc55c3583.jpg

Next, I made the Sidewinder adapter fairings using laminated Evergreen plastic including scribing panel lines and adding details using small drills.

232SidewinderAdapterFairing_zps50e6ce5f.jpg

Now that the pylons were finished, I cleaned up the 4 Revell LAU-7 launchers, filling in moulding cavities, adding material, and sanding down areas to make them more visually acceptable.

233ModstoRevelRails_zps5acd745f.jpg

Details were added by adding material, scribing panels & doors, and drilling openings.

234DetailsaddedtoRevellRails_zpsf8ba4474.jpg

Finally, I made nameplate decals. These include a silver & black part number nameplate that goes on the top of the launchers and red warning nameplates that go on the launcher sides.

235WingGloveWeaponsPylons_zpsc8b5dd59.jpg

And the end result … a pic of all the parts dry fitted, before painting.

236WingGloveWeaponsPylons-dryfitted_zpsc4e521c6.jpg

Next up, I’ll be priming the pylons (they’ll be painted along with the fuselage later), and finish paint the LAU-7 launchers & apply the decals. Once that’s complete, it’ll be on to the final assemblies in this build – landing gear & gear doors.

Thanks again for looking. :cheers:

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Simply stunning attention to detail! Wow!

Any chance you can be persuaded to go with the 4x Sidewinder loadout, seeing as you're doing 4x LAU-7's? ... as seen on this VF-74 Tomcat?

Oops, never mind, you're doing an adversary Tomcat, even better.

:worship:/>

Marcel

Edited by Marcel111
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi again!

Here's a quick update on the weapons pylons.

I've primed the multipurpose pylon assemblies (they'll be painted with the rest of the plane), finish painted the launchers, and applied the decals.

Here's a couple of pic's showing the pylons dry fitted;

237WingGloveWeaponsPylons-dryfitted_zps5f14be9e.jpg

238WingGloveWeaponsPylons-dryfitted_zpsbb4e3af7.jpg

And finally a pic comparing the model pylon to a pic of the real thing;

239WingGloveWeaponsPylons-dryfitted_zpsfb88df95.jpg

Now it's on to landing gear.

:cheers:

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Very nice attention to details John! :thumbsup:/>/>

What are you planning to park on those launchers? As an Adversary, you might consider this setup with a TACTS pod and CATM-9 missile on the same pylon:

ARC pic of TACTS pod/ CATM-9

Thanks Chuck!

I've got a TACTS pod and Sidewinder ready for paint. I'll be putting them on the port pylon (just like in the photo), and will leave the starboard launchers empty.

Also, I'm in the process of darkening the launcher tracks to make them closer the colour of the graphite used to coat the actual tracks.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Outstanding job John ! ...a lot of work done and effect is great...scratching is so easy for you :coolio:/> I can not to wait final effect :woo:/>

Thank you!

I'm plodding along working away at the gear bay doors. I purchased the Aries bay set, but I found some dimensional issues with the Aries door parts. So, I've decided to use a combination of the Aries parts and the Hasagawa kit parts. I'm scratch building the inside detail for the kit parts. I'll be posting more pic's soon.

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