Unintentional "masterpiece" kits...

[TomcatFanatic123]

Well, I was working on my Trumpeter Tomcat a little bit today (as I have been since Dec. 27th), and I got to thinking about this kit. Honestly, when it first showed up in my stash, I was in the process of working on an Academy Sea Knight, and since I had just went through a bad experience with a Hasegawa F-14, I didn't even want a Tomcat kit within spitting distance at the time. Despite that, I couldn't turn down the mighty Trumpeter Tomcat, and when I opened up Christmas morning, I thought, 'I'm going to shelve the Sea Knight...I have got to get this thing started!' But, I made myself a promise...this kit will be OOB only. Nothing special, just everything OOB. That was all well and good up until I decided 'OK, I'm just ordering some JDAMS, I want to make this a Bombcat' (file that under "aftermarket"). Then I decided 'I really don't want to jerk with the inakes on this thing, so I'm going to cover them, but this is going to be a Tomcat during cruise, and a Tomcat on the flight deck during a cruise wouldn't have intake covers on'. OK, fine, if the a/c is going to have covers on it, that means it's going to be down in the hangar deck, so there won't be any weapons on it. So that turned into modifying the weapons pylons to look, well, "empty" (for those of you unfamiliar with the kit, Trumpeter kind of expects you to hang the 'explodie-thingies' on the a/c, because if you don't, you get all types of funny bulges and locator pins on your empty weapons pylons that don't look anywhere near the real thing). Then after scratchbuilding something resembling an empty shoulder LAU-93 pylon and both BOL rails, I tackled the backwards (yes, backwards) LANTIRN pod. Wasn't too thrilled with that, so I tracked down a Teknics pod and used it (more aftermarket). Then after following THX1138's absolutely stellar build here on ARC, I found out that the Aires exhaust for the Tamiya kit will fit this kit perfectly, and look better than the kit exhaust anyway (more aftermarket). Followed a build over on the Large Scale Planes forums, and that builder was wiring the gear struts...yep, you guessed it, 'that looks easy enough. I'm pretty sure I can do that' (more scratchbuilding). Then another crazy thought pops into my head: 'why not throw a little bit of wiring in the main gear bay?' (even more scratchbuilding). Then last week I go and order the Legends Productions NACES seats (aftermarket yet again). Yeah, I think that's it. Oh wait...I forgot the Steel Beach cockpit update set to use the SSU box and throttle out of (I can't use the rudder pedals since they're impossible to get to now) and the Fightertown decals VF-31 sheet. The amazing thing about this whole story is that I actually can't believe I'm still working on the same kit after almost 5 months. Usually I get tired of a kit after a month or two, and if it's not done, it gets shelved.

Anyway, after that epic saga, I just wondered if anybody else has had a kit that has become an "unintentional" masterpiece...one that you were just going to keep simple, but then found yourself scratchbuilding on and/or ordering aftermarket for on a weekly basis.

Edited April 30, 2010 by TomcatFanatic123

[geedubelyer]

That's an interesting tale. I'm sure your Bombcat will look a million dollars when you finish it.

I can't say I've never gone that route though. I tend to buy the kit and as much aftermarket as I can at the same time. That may sound extravagant but compared to many, I only buy a few kits and then not very often. Very few kits give me what I need straight from the box (a Tamiya F-16 or Spitfire might break that rule) so I expect to put in a fair bit of aftermarket and scratch building.

Good luck with the remainder of your build. I hope you maintain your enthusiasm to the end and finish your big Turkey

[Aigore]

That´s what I call "building by accident", one starts with a project adn you don´t have any pretentions or plan for that matter for the build.You just build it and when the need arises you order suff for it...it´s a very relaxed form of building. My F-2 was such a project.....it just sort of grew on its own involving lots of scratchbuilding and tubing....

That´s when bulding is fun no matter how long you build on the project

[loftycomfort]

For me, it's more of the opposite - I started out with grand plans, then gradually scale back on the level of ambitiousness.

Like geedubelyer, I usually start with a kit and almost every conceivable aftermarket accessory available. Sometimes I may even have plans to scratch build details. As the build progresses, I start to realize not all the AM goodies fit or work, or the scratch building plans are too daunting for my skills level. The end result is I may ditch the resin or give up the scratch building entirely.

Have fun with your Trumpeter Tomcat. I just finished mine so I know how challenging that kit can be. In the end I'm sure you will be pleased with the results. Good luck.

Cheers,

Terry