1/48 Hasegawa F-14B

[a4s4eva]

Everyone who builds modern Jets needs a F-14 in their cabinet so I've finally built up the courage to tackle Hasegawa's offering.

I've been collecting aftermarket for a quite a while, but until I actually got it all in one spot I didn't realise how much I actually had.

Now obviously I'm not going to use all of this :)/>/> and I'm not sure which aircraft I'm going to model, but VF-103 is the early favourite.

Here's the base kit. It's decal sheet is printed by Cartograf which is good as I definitely want to use the stencils. I think the same aircraft is on the Fightertown decal sheets which gives me some spares for the inevitable stuff up.

I'm also using this build as a reference and for inspiration, it's outstanding. Although I'm going to go to level John has.

First of all I fitted the gun vent. The fit is, to be blunt , crap.

This is the best image I've found of the vent ( the lower one). Thanks to the owner (whoever you are). I'm not sure how I'm going to scribe this. Is there an aftermarket option?

I've run a scriber over the panel lines to deepen them slightly. I find the panel lines on some Hasegawa kits can be a little shallow for my taste.

Originally I was going to use the Avionix F-14B set, but it was pretty disappointing from an accuracy and detail quality perspective so I went with the Aires set. You can see a photo comparison with many of the issues here.

The biggest (most visible) things in the Aires set that needed correcting were the rear cockpit Tactical Information Display (TID)

The pilots HUD

and the Lantirn Stick controller. For this I used a grip from the spares box , originally from a Hasegawa F-4.

As I'd already fitted the Avionix Tub, fitting the Aires one was pretty simple. There wasn't much grinding of the kit required, I just attacked the tub with my rotary tool removing the resin where it fouled on the kit pieces. I did thin the rear of the steps a little though.

This page has a good set of photos showing you what you need to remove from the kit and resin to get the tub to fit

[a4s4eva]

I did get a bit carried away with the sanding stick and knife so I've got some filling to do. But I'll wait until the tub is glued in place before I fix this.

For a bit of break from playing with the resin I decided to paint the front wheel well. This need to be fitted before the front fuselage is put together so it has to be done sooner rather than later. The details isn't Aires, the to be honest I can do without the hassle Aires wheel wells bring

It's simply Tamiya flat white with details picked out with Vallejo paints. I also added a couple placards from a Eduard F-4 Placard set

To be continued.

[Harrier/Viper Fan]

Looks amazing, good work on the resin pit i have read that it can be a bit of a hit and miss on the fitting. I really need to get a 1/48 F-14 just can't make my mind up between the Hobby Boss and the Hase kit.

[jimz66]

Off to a great start. If you have trouble fitting the landing gear bay like I have, try sanding the top of the landing gear bay BEFORE you sand through the floor of the cockpit. I always run into that problem....

[Matt Walker]

Is it going to be done for Illawarra??

:-)

[a4s4eva]

Is it going to be done for Illawarra??

:-)

Yeah, in 2014 :)

[SERNAK]

You have quite a collection of "goodies" there!!!!!!

How much did it cost you to get all these things??

[a4s4eva]

You have quite a collection of "goodies" there!!!!!!

How much did it cost you to get all these things??

Don't really know (and to be honest I've never thought about) . They've been collected over time. They'll all get used (or sold eventually)

[a4s4eva]

The Aires Seats have seat cushion detail that whilst isn't wrong, is not really common. So, stealing an idea from John S's build on ARC I decided to simulate the more common cushions with sticking plaster.

I wasn't happy with the first go so peeled it off after painting and tried a couple of different brands. The one on the left is to coarse for 1/48, but may be good in you want simulate fabric in larger scales

After airbrushing the seats with nato Black I picked out the details with various Vallejo Paints. Decals are from a Afterburner decals F-14 sheet. I bought one of their F-14 sheets primarily for the stencils. I gave the seats a wash with the black Tamiya enamel wash. This worked well to bring out the details in the straps. A fine Gundam Marker was used for the stripes on the ejections seat handles. I should really have replaced the PE hand grips with wire are they are a bit one dimensional (it looks worse in these big photos)

Next task was to add the cross detail self adhesive detail set to the front fuselage. This is a great idea for certain raised detail. I'd like to see more aftermarket like this

I had a go at scribing the vent detail. I still wasn't happy, but I think I could have pulled it off with a bit of a tidy up. I was thinking decals maybe the easy answer

And then I noticed

Doh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I've got those huge gouges to get rid off, and it's got to smooth for the decals....

[DesTROYer]

Great work so far mate. Well done.

[Manuel J. Armas S.]

Wow just amazing, maybe you can get the Photoetch from Dream Models...

[a4s4eva]

Whilst I was waiting for the filler to dry in those gouges I was working on the cockpit Tub.

I started by painting the entire tub Gunze H305 (FS36270). I find tha the correct colour, FS36231 is way to dark for 1/48th scale. The Black is Nato Black from Tamiya.

All the detail was picked out using Vallejo Acrylics, except for the yellow which is Humbrol 24 , Trainer yellow (the only Yellow paint I think looks the correct shade of yellow f that makes sense).

A grey enamel wash was used to bring out the detail and some dry brushing was done with a grey.

As the Aires Cockpit has the wrong HUD for a F-14B I decided to use a HUD cover, it's not glued on so it's a little crooked in these images

Finally, here's a close up of the instrument panels

Edited May 25, 2013 by a4s4eva

[Rodney]

Looking great! I'll be following your progress with great interest.

Rodney

[a4s4eva]

Been a while since I updated this here. I'm a bit further along than this post shows but here we go.

Although I put lead in the nose, I figured, just to be safe I'd stick some lead in here. Especially as I'm going to use resin exhausts

And here's the pit fitted to the cockpit. I did spend a fair bit of time sanding the tub to get the fit as good as I can. The resin rails do actually sit below the cockpit sills. The tricky bit, which I didn't achieve is to get the rear deck flush with the sills. The square of plastic on the nose is to ensure the nose doesn't split, it's probably not required but I thought I'd add it just in case.

The large gap at the end of the tub seems typical of the Aires Cockpit/Hasegawa F-14 combo. I filled it with plastic card. A bit of card was used on the right as well

Rather than try and clean up the seam behind the cockpit with filler I removed any rough bumps and burrs and covered with with a piece of 10 thou card

Bought the mesh at the NSW show this year. Decided to use it to "mesh up" the vents on the underside. I just used scissors to trim to size and stick it on top of the existing plastic. I then used normal Plastic cement to stick it in (if you use enough the plastic goes sticky enough to hold the mesh)

I'm not a fan of butt joints - anywhere. I added some thin card to the rear of the engine tunnels for the intakes to mate to. I'm using intake blanks so this won't be seen

Added the front of the intakes, including the ramps, just to see how they fit. Didn't bother with the other side.

The intakes were added, a few clamps and glue was all that was needed. Without the tunnels these fit pretty well

[Cobus]

Nice work! I am roughly at the same spot with my Hobbyboss F-14D, would've loved to get mine's interior as good as yours...

[a4s4eva]

Thought I'd add a little a bit of detail inside the vents using some plastic rod, card and solder. This only took about 15 mins and I only added a bit of red to the pipe going to the actuator.

All for this, left side

Right side.

Anticipating a nasty join between front fuselage and the rear assembly I ignored the instructions and attached the top piece to the front fuselage, rather than joining it the bottom fuselage first and then trying to attach that assembly to the front fuselage.

Prior to this I'd added some card to the top fuselage, and cut holes in the resin pit for these to go through, allowing them to be glued to the front tub. The card also provides a stronger more sure bond between the 2 parts

I also put 2 cuts vertically down the rear of the resin pit, this allowed me to flex the front fuselage out to match the contours of the top fuselage. I also used a piece of sprue as a spreader to keep the front fuselage as close to the contour of the top piece.

One of the disappointments with this kit is the amount of warped sprues. I've had this kit for a while, and it's been in my garage which gets hot (about 45 deg C) in the summer but I don't think that should have caused this amount of warping.

I tried to straighten some of the parts by soaking in hot water and clamping the piece to a flat surface. This was only marginally successful.

Once the top part had set I attached the lower fuselage. This seemed to go together quite well... However this was a bit of wishful thinking, as I was going to find out later. I also attached the lower beaver tail to the lower piece first. This seemed like a good idea at the time.

[Aigore]

Awesome work! :D yeah, a few clamps in the right places is what that kit needs. :P

[a4s4eva]

Awesome work! :D/> yeah, a few clamps in the right places is what that kit needs. :P/>

Thanks :D

[a4s4eva]

Advice from mates at my model club was that the join of the lower forward fuselage cover always results in a step at the rear join. You can also see the spreader in this picture which stops the lower edges of the front fuselage assembly from curving in to far.

First dry fit seemed to confirm this advice

The rear of the front gear bay appeared to be a problem. But this was actually quite flexible and bent down. That is stuck up like this actually made it a bit easier to ensure that it located into recess in the lower fuselage piece.

And after some sanding and dry fitting I ended up with an excellent join. The only issue was a little bit of a mismatch a the front outer edges. The white bits of card filled a gap between the lower piece and landing gear bay. They also ensured good alignment along that seam.

The join was good enough that it didn't need cleaning up. Plus as the weapons pallets cover much of it. These Pallets are from Wolfpack and are very nicely detailed.

Edited June 13, 2013 by a4s4eva

[a4s4eva]

Here was the first of the big problems I found with my approach of fitting the top and bottom pieces separately. Fitting the lower Beaver tail first was a bad idea and certainly compounded the problem.

After a fair bit of thought I decided to press on and fill the gap. I first dry fitted the Aires Exhausts to ensure the diameter of the exhausts was correct.

Then I glued the upper beaver tail to the lower trying to keep the contour between the 2 pieces as straight as possible .

I cut a piece of card and glued it into the void.

Unfortunately the forward piece ended up a little lower than the rear piece so some serious filler was needed to try and restore the correct contours.

A final coat of Alclad primer was used to fill small scratches and valleys. Once dry this was polished with a various polishing sponges.

Edited June 15, 2013 by a4s4eva

[Darren Roberts]

That's looking fantastic! I hear you about the fit of the NACA vent. One of these days I'm going to do a replacement part that fits better. For your slime lights, Steel Beach has a set of vinyl slime lights that are a dead-on match for the color.

[Daniel_B]

My method for avoiding major steps in the fuselage is to join the upper piece to the nose, like you did, then join the upper beaver tail to that. Then add the lower fuselage, and finally the lower beaver tail. Too late to help you on this one, but maybe if you ever build another you can give that a try.

[coneheadff]

Looking great so far!!!

Every one who started/finished one of Hase's Cats knows what you're going through :lol: Keep up the great job!!!

One question to everybody...Is that kink at the beaver tail-fuselage joint by purpose or is that a strange Hase construction? I just can't see it from pictures.

[a4s4eva]

Thanks Gents, good to know I hadn't made a real stuff up somewhere along the line

[a4s4eva]

That's looking fantastic! I hear you about the fit of the NACA vent. One of these days I'm going to do a replacement part that fits better. For your slime lights, Steel Beach has a set of vinyl slime lights that are a dead-on match for the color.

Thanks Darren.

I've been looking at some of your stuff at Sprue Bros. One question re the bladders, What is the difference between the light grey and dark grey sets?