DutyCat Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 Ok, so I walked into the LHS here in Jax (Hobby World in Orange Park) and there, sitting on the shelf was the Trumpy F-14A. Just one. I knew Trump had a D out(easily resisted), but I didn't know about the A. Markings were VF-111, 84, and 1....all old school classics from the 70's which any true fan of modern Naval Aviation prefers. I managed to walk out and not impulse buy. I thought about it for about a week, read a little bit about the kit on line, then decided to go for it. I went back in and it was still there so I snagged it. Then I felt guilty about it because it was expensive and Christmas is coming up. I said to myself, "Well, I can give it to my wife to wrap up and put under the tree as my main Christmas present." Then we went out shopping and started looking at watches, so I decided to hold off on that idea so I can get a nice watch. I guess I'll just live with the "self indulgent purchase" guilt. So the kit sat hidden in the closet for several days, and then I finally decided to open it and see what was inside. Here are my impressions. Overall, it is a wonderful piece of plastic engineering. There are 492 parts, all nicely detailed. Cockpit is good OOB. No need to pony up for resin unless you really want to go to that extra level of detail and superior relief than resin offers. Aires has one for $60 or so, but that is over 1/3 the price of the kit and will put you at over $200 invested before you ever start snipping sprue. It is nicer, but as I said, the kit pit is serviceable and will look fine. The kit has provisions for open gun compartment, radar, and an avionics compartment. All nicely done. Two complete engines are provided,with a molded accessory package than can be glued on, and separate fan ad burner can assemblies. Not much engine body detail. It will all be hidden anyway, so I am not sure why Trumpy even molded them as complete units. There is no provision for having an engine access panel open. I guess you could rig up a trolly for an engine change diorama (ala Fujumi 1/72), or to display an engine separately. The intake fan assemblies are not really authentic looking, but will look fine from a distance. Tires and wing sweep badder cushions are black, rubberized plastic. I could have done without either of these in favor of plain old polystyrene. Phoenix missiles have three little molded ridges around them which are inaccurate. Two are small and located between the fins and not too noticeable. One is forward and very obvious and should be removed. I am not going to hassle with the rear ones. Sparrow and Sidewinders look good at first glance. What criticisms I have seen on this kit mostly involve the angle of the intakes, which apparently do not have the correct lower outward cant so typical of Tomcats. This is inexcusable and detracts from what is otherwise a very fine kit. There are some threads online about how to correct this. I am not sure how bad it is. I hope they are not straight up and down. Wind flaps/slats are separate pieces, so you could put this thing on a giant catapult base (although where would one display such a monster?). However, I did not notice a provision for depressing the nose gear and lowering the launch bar. All the panels, etc are bordered with rivets. They look nice, but on the real aircraft they are really VERY small and not easily seen. I certainly would not put a wash over them. So all in all, a worthy large scale kit of a very worthy subject. I have built the Revell and have seen the Tamiya kit up close and this one is far superior overall to either of those Sorry, no pics at this time. There are sprue shots available online if you search from them. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
galileo1 Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 (edited) Nice overall review, Duty. As much as I love Tomcats (have over 15 1/48 Hasegawa ones), I don't own a single 1/32. Why? I wanted to get the Trumpeter one but as soon as I read and saw the issues with the intakes, I held tight and didn't buy it. That issue alone was enough for me to not get it despite the fact that I'd love have a big Cat on the collection. I don't think the issue with the intakes is actually "fixable" though. From what I read, it seems people are just swapping intakes (or something to that end) to make them look passable. If something changed recently about this then I haven't heard about it. Rob Edited November 23, 2011 by TOPGUN Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Zactoman Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 What criticisms I have seen on this kit mostly involve the angle of the intakes, which apparently do not have the correct lower outward cant so typical of Tomcats. This is inexcusable and detracts from what is otherwise a very fine kit. There are some threads online about how to correct this. I am not sure how bad it is. I hope they are not straight up and down.Yes, they are very bad OOB. A correction set is in the works: Trumpeter 1/32 F-14 Tomcat, How long have we wait... (more pics here) While not perfectly vertical, the kit intakes are not at the correct angle and the top and bottom edges are not parallel giving the plane an odd look from the front. The corners of the intake opening are too square and they did some strange shapes on the surfaces behind the lip transitioning towards the rear of the intake which cause the outer edge to bulge downwards and the bottom panel to be almost parallel to the ground. The stock variable ramps end up being parallel to the ground rather than to the intakes themselves. Several modelers have swapped the ramps from left to right and this helps, a little... The correction set will address all the issues and include the ramp actuator details which can be seen through the duct on the top of the wing/fuselage. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
galileo1 Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 (edited) Yeah, I just stumbled onto that thread, Chris. Man, I now need to get me one of them Trumpy Tomcats. Rob Edited November 23, 2011 by TOPGUN Quote Link to post Share on other sites
f5guy Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 Yes, they are very bad OOB. A correction set is in the works: Trumpeter 1/32 F-14 Tomcat, How long have we wait... (more pics here) While not perfectly vertical, the kit intakes are not at the correct angle and the top and bottom edges are not parallel giving the plane an odd look from the front. The corners of the intake opening are too square and they did some strange shapes on the surfaces behind the lip transitioning towards the rear of the intake which cause the outer edge to bulge downwards and the bottom panel to be almost parallel to the ground. The stock variable ramps end up being parallel to the ground rather than to the intakes themselves. Several modelers have swapped the ramps from left to right and this helps, a little... The correction set will address all the issues and include the ramp actuator details which can be seen through the duct on the top of the wing/fuselage. Once again you save the day Chris ;0) Fred. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
THX1138 Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 Need to get on Trumpies side on this one. The intakes are indeed the kits worst mistake, but I don't think it spoils the kit. It's still damn nice to build and looks like a Cat just the same. Great to see Zacto working on a fix anyways. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darren Roberts Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 If you don't want to spend a great deal on aftermarket, but you still want to spruce up the cockpit, Steel Beach has a small resin update that includes a throttle handle, flap lever, and rudder pedals. If you don't want to bother with the intakes, you can also get a set of intake covers, though they're the canvas style, which probably wouldn't be appropriate for the time period you want to do. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dave Williams Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 The kit does have an optional compressed nose gear with the lowered launch bar. At least both the B and D kits do, but I'm sure the A kit has the same options since both nose gear parts are on the same sprue. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RiderFan Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Zacto's replacements look great and are probably the better option, but you can actually fix the intakes yourself. That's what I did. It just takes a little work. The intake ramps are mislabled on the instructions so they have the left one on the right side (and vice versa). So switching those fixes the ramps. The intakes themselves though need actual modifications. I have a build thread (below) that shows how I did it (although there are probably a bunch of other ways) http://s362974870.onlinehome.us/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=231813 thanks David Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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