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

[JohnS]

Nice work so far.

I don't think you should "correct" the MLG until it is perpendicular to the fuselage. Take a look at the photo below. Also, there is a brace that should fit into the small hole on the fuselage.

http://anft.net/f-14/f14-detail-gearmain-12.htm

Mark

A good tip Mark. I used that hole in the fuselage to align the strut, as well.

[JohnS]

Well, the assembly of the main gear strut plastic parts is complete. Comparing the kit parts to photos of the actual gear, I decided to make a few modifications to make the gear look a little more realistic. The mod's included scratch building the little gear arm/linkage that attaches to the fuselage, adding detail to the piston assembly that attaches to the diagonal linkage, filing down the kit vertical piston so it would fit the Aires bay connection point, and adding miscellaneous details (plastic bits and drilling holes).

Here's a pic showing the mods.

A couple of pic's of the assembled gear struts, before painting;

It's off to the paint shop next, and then I'll add the hydraulic lines and decals.

See you soon. :cheers:/>

[mikestomcat]

Looks really good.

[coneheadff]

That is some great modeling!

[JohnS]

Looks really good.

That is some great modeling!

Thanks to you both for your feedback.

[JMan]

Fantastic mods to those MLG's. Cant wait to see more!

[JohnS]

Hello again, everyone. This is my first update for 2014. Wow, how time flies.

I’ve been working away on the main landing gear adding a little more detail.

I wanted to make the hydraulic tubing and hoses as close to the actual gear, as possible. I decided to use wire for this, but after trying a number of wire materials and sizes, I settled on using .03mm round lead wire (thanks to chuck540z3 for the suggestion). This was my first attempt at using lead wire and I ended up doing a lot of trial & error. The small .03mm wire breaks easily and, because it’s so soft, is difficult to hold its shape. I wanted to use .02mm wire, but I found it just too difficult work with.

Once I got the hydraulics done, I added simulated tubing clamps using wine bottle foil, and bits of red decal material.

I also modified the little actuator assembly, between the gear leg and the diagonal linkage arm, by scratch building a new actuator using a straight pin for the actuator rod. After painting, I added chips to the paint and used black & brown washes to heavily weather the gear. The wheels and weighted tires are Wheelliant resin.

Here’s a few photos showing the additional detail I added to the landing gear.

Here’s a photo showing the nose and main gear completed.

Finally, two photos showing the gear dry fitted to the fuselage.

Next up, I’ll be working on the weapons and starting to do the final prep for painting.

Thanks for looking.

[Just4kiks]

Sorry for joining the party so late. How exactly did you make those seats? What bandaid brand did you use?

[JohnS]

Sorry for joining the party so late. How exactly did you make those seats? What bandaid brand did you use?

The bandaids for the seat cushions are a generic plastic/latex brand. I had to carefully prime them so the final paint would stick. I tried the cloth bandaids first, but found they were too thick for this scale.

[Just4kiks]

Like bandaids come in either smooth feeling or rugged and fabric like and stretchy. Which one was it?

[JohnS]

Like bandaids come in either smooth feeling or rugged and fabric like and stretchy. Which one was it?

The ones I used were smooth with a number of small perforations, & not stretchy.

Here's a pic.

[Just4kiks]

Thank you for clarifying this for me, John.

[JohnS]

I've toned down the black resin tires painting a mixture of gunship grey & flat black on the tread area and coating the whole tire with matt clear.

[Blue73]

What a great thread John, your craftsmanship is outstanding. To achieve this level of detail on a 1/48 is truly amazing!

Cheers

John

[Marcel111]

John,

Stunning work on the gear... simply wow!

Seat cushions also look really good, very inventive!

Marcel

[JohnS]

Hi everyone, and Happy 2015.

After a 10 month hiatus, I've pulled my F-14 out of storage. We're in the middle of a small house reno, so it's going to be fun trying to fit in some modelling.

Here's a couple of small updates.

I been spending some time tweeking a few things before I start preparing for final paint.

You may recall I'm using a Revell windscreen & modified Revell canopy on my model. I've done a little sculpting around the front of the windscreen to make it look a little closer to the real thing.

The model will be displayed with the canopy in both the open & closed position. I've cleaned up the edges of the modified canopy so it fits nicely in the cockpit opening when closed.

I've been looking for Revell canopy paint mask set for a while. I finally found an Eduard set on eBay last November, after a two year search. This will be a great help.

Most of you familiar with my build know I like to using scratch building methods that no one (or at least only a few) has used before. I'm at it again making the no-slip walkways on the engine intakes.

I decided to use sandpaper for the walkways. After testing various grits, I settled on using 100 grit. I found finer grit wasn't very visible after painting & courser grit looked out of scale. I sanded down the paper backing to reduce the thickness, cut them to size using a walkway decal as a template, and finally painted the grit side of the paper flat black and a coat of matt clear. If you try this method, you have to be careful not to 'break' the sandpaper after sanding the backing, as it becomes very thin & brittle.

Here's a pic of the walkways test fit on the model. I plan to permanently glue them on after painting the fuselage using white glue, and then add some weathering.

That's it for now.

Thanks for looking. :cheers:/>

Edited January 13, 2015 by JohnS

[VFA-103guy]

Nice work John!! I'm almost tempted to do a VF-74 tomcat at some point..the hard part is whether or not I want to do a fleet jet or adversary!!

[JohnS]

Nice work John!! I'm almost tempted to do a VF-74 tomcat at some point..the hard part is whether or not I want to do a fleet jet or adversary!!

Thanks Brian.

When i decided to build a Tomcat (really not a difficult decision), I wanted to pick a unique jet and a squadron that I didn't know too much about. This way, I felt I would need to do a little research during the build, and learn something in the process. I came across the VF-74 Adversary jets and found that there isn't too much information readily available. I had my challenge. It's been a fun build so far and it's given me a chance to add to my Tomcat library as well as learn a lot more about the jet in general & specifically VF-74..

[JohnS]

Hi again, everyone.

As I’m getting a little closer to completing my Tomcat, I’m starting to think about how I’m going to display it. I decided that I want to keep it simple, by having a couple of scale flight crew figures standing next to the plane to indicate just how big the Tomcat really was.

Here’s an update on where I’m at with the flight crew. I’m focusing on the flight crew’s helmets, first.

I found photos of two VF-74 flight crew in Squadron Signal Publications book “F14-Tomcat Walk Around - Walk Around No 3” showing the helmets & flight suits worn during the ’93 - ’94 Adversary years, and that I could use as a guide. Here’s a pic of the helmet graphics;

I ordered the Hasegawa 1/48 U.S. Navy Pilot/Deck Crew ( http://www.hasegawausa.com/product-pages/hsgs1886.html ) as it has examples of the standing figures. Here are pic's of the two helmets ('A' & 'B') & figures ('C') I’m using from the set, still on the sprue;

I found that the helmets in the Hasegawa set were modeled after the USN helmets used in the ‘70’s & ‘80’s, with a housing covering the visor in the up position.

As a result, I needed to do a little surgery to duplicate the snap-on visor used with my Adversary jet in the ‘90’s, that eliminated the visor housing. I also replaced the head on one of the figures ‘C’ with a head wearing a helmet ‘A’. I painted the helmets white with grey & black liners, as best I could. Man these things are small! Here’s a pic of the result;

The ‘B’ helmet was painted with a grey visor cover while the ‘A’ helmet’s visor was painted gloss black.

Next, I made decals of the helmet side panels & graphics, as they are just too tiny to paint.

And, here a few pic’s of the end result;

Side View

Back View

Although it was a lot of fiddly work, I’m pretty happy with how the helmets turned out.

Next up, I’ll be painting the flight suits.

Thanks for looking.

[ChippyWho]

Excellent work! Wouldn't it be great if decal makers included helmet art on their sheets...? I know some do (Fightertown's superb Renegades sheets spring to mind), but they're still in a tiny minority!

(Edited 02/09/2015 to correct my crass mis-attribution -thanks Brian!)

Edited February 9, 2015 by ChippyWho

[JohnS]

Excellent work! Wouldn't it be great if decal makers included helmet art on their sheets...? I know some do (Afterburner's Renegades sheets spring to mind), but they're still in a tiny minority!

Thanks for the comments. I agree, decal sheets including helmet art would be nice.

[crackerjazz]

Wow that's some fine work you're doing. Great stuff!!! :)

[Brian P: Fightertown Decals]

I love watching this thread. Great build and great work on the pilots. Another HGU-55 starting point is the Hasegawa F/A-18E/F kit pilots, Tamiya F-16 pilots of if you can get them, Shull24 made some awesome head/helmet sets. I think Mike Reeves Two Mikes was working on them as well.

Posted Today, 04:09 PM

Excellent work! Wouldn't it be great if decal makers included helmet art on their sheets...? I know some do (Afterburner's Renegades sheets spring to mind), but they're still in a tiny minority!

Actually, that would be Fightertown Decals Renegades sheets. And something we've done on almost every sheet we've made is to include helmet markings and patches. 48052 VF-74 (1985-1994, including the only accurate profiles and markings for the adversary jets) has both patches and helmet markings. John - you should have that sheet. I do like the Be-Deviler head in your reference picture.

Edited February 9, 2015 by Brian P: Fightertown Decals

[ChippyWho]

Actually, that would be Fightertown Decals Renegades sheets. And something we've done on almost every sheet we've made is to include helmet markings and patches. 48052 VF-74 (1985-1994, including the only accurate profiles and markings for the adversary jets) has both patches and helmet markings.

OMG, that was a Richter Scale klanger!!! Of COURSE I meant the excellent Fightertown sheets.

My profound apologies, Sir: I have corrected the original bloop.

[JohnS]

I love watching this thread. Great build and great work on the pilots. Another HGU-55 starting point is the Hasegawa F/A-18E/F kit pilots, Tamiya F-16 pilots of if you can get them, Shull24 made some awesome head/helmet sets. I think Mike Reeves Two Mikes was working on them as well.

Actually, that would be Fightertown Decals Renegades sheets. And something we've done on almost every sheet we've made is to include helmet markings and patches. 48052 VF-74 (1985-1994, including the only accurate profiles and markings for the adversary jets) has both patches and helmet markings. John - you should have that sheet. I do like the Be-Deviler head in your reference picture. ...

Thanks Brian. Yes, I do have that sheet. My bad! I think the sheet you sent me was pre-production at the time, & the instruction sheet wasn't available. I guess I'm going to have to get new glasses. Those helmet decals sure are tiny.

Is the instruction sheet for the 48052 decal sheet still available? If so, can you let me know where I can get one?

Thanks again.

John

Edited February 9, 2015 by JohnS