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1/48 Hasegawa F-14A


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Hi Joe, you could almost be building a Trumpeter kit looking at the work you have done/are doing on these kits. Agree, the cockpits look great, especially with the realistic poses of the aircrew. Surgery on the RIO(?) looked painful. When you need any inspiration or motivation just look at this photo:

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The spacing may not be to scale, but it will look dramatic as if taken with a long lens. These cats are going to look spectacular when completed.

Regards

John.

 

 

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On 4/26/2017 at 10:44 PM, Darren Roberts said:

Great work, but it reminds me once more why I don't ever want to touch another Hasegawa Tomcat if I can help it.

Hi Darren, thanks!   I picked up a Tamiya cat kit --  it certainly is a beautiful.  I'll be using it for comparison and reference.

 

On 4/25/2017 at 11:47 AM, Brian P: Fightertown Decals said:

Exhausts look amazing. Surprised how much work they took to fit. I've never had that issue. The are 'handed' tho. The left won't fit on the right and vice versa. Hate to suggest, your fit issues look like that's what caused it...

Hi Brian, my world collapsed when I read that.    I should have studied the manual more closely.  I was trying my best to position the cans where the panel lines would align with the ones on the body -- that was tough.  

 

Hi John, thanks for the kind words and encouragement - they mean a lot!  Hey Mr. Happy, thanks!   Hope my description helped -  just make sure to shake the Alclad bottle well.

 

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I was planning to make the horizontal stabs movable but couldn't figure out how to do that without losing the 3.5-degree droop.  So I had to fix them in place.   At first I was going to draw a template to make a jig using the profile at that section.

 

Then I figured it would be easier to just use a notched piece of plasticard. 

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I held the card at the end while pushing on the stab while the glue dried.  I used ultra gel to give a bit of repositioning time but still have a quick drying time.  I counted a full minute before releasing my grip and the fin was solidly in place.

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Attached the other fin:

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3.5-degree anhedral.   Was pretty happy with the results.  

 

For the F-14 that's in a steep bank I was planning to attach the stabs in this position:

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I used the guide as well to keep the anhedral uniform.

 

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And here's a picture of the new cat:

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I've been looking at the Tamiya parts intently.

 

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I'll be using them sort of like a guide for my Hase build.  

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Awesome project CJ! If I had caught this project much earlier, I would have suggested a mirror image of what you're doing. The Carrier Break goes to the left, and you could have had the lead just flashing the speed breaks. Been wanting to do this same thing, but with S-3s in a force perspective over a Carrier in smaller scale below the aircraft.

 

Tracy

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On 2017-06-20 at 7:25 AM, crackerjazz said:

It's taking shape! ...

Brings back memories of the 2006 Oceana Air Show.  It was the last time I saw F-14's in flight, before they retired.

 

VF-31's four jet demonstration had the two Tomcats behind the leader banking in formation.  My old 2006 photo/camera didn't do that fly-by justice. :angry:

 

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On 4/25/2017 at 9:14 AM, crackerjazz said:

Hi Fefster, thanks!  Yes the kit requires loads of patience. Great progress on your cat!  Are those alignment tabs in the back?   Hi, Janissary, Stalal, thanks for the kind words!  I primed the nozzles with Tamiya light gray primer, and marked areas of the middle ring and the petals here and there with a sharpie marker, then hand-painted the whole thing with Alclad polished brass.  I couldn't get an even color because of the hand-painting and the primer lifts in spots so I have to re-dab it.   The sharpie black kind of mixes with the lacquer paint so I have to brush on and re-dab.   I try not to get too much on but the Alclad is forgiving in that it kind of levels down thinly as it dries.   For the insides of the nozzles I used acrlylic white and tried weathering one with soot and gray Tamiya weathering master powder.  Still experimenting between that and straight black though.

 

I am still in awe with the cans. Can you explain the marker more? Do you just randomly stipple little dots (is that what you mean 'here and there'), or do you randomly choose rectangular sections and fill in those sections with the Sharpie, or something else? Also, do you hand brush Alclad wet, or is it more like dry brushing? Please explain more? I was lost after the 'Tamiya light gray primer' part :) 

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Hi Steve, Tracy, thanks!  Wow, cool photo, John!   Better than I'll ever be able to take on a moving object!   The arrowhead shape of the Tomcat is such an awesome sight in the air.    Hi Janissary, you're right in your description -- just random dots.   Just to darken the Alclad when it mixes in.   I handbrush it wet.   Towards the rear it's more like poking motions with the brush to mix the black dots in and lift the primer.    Towards the fairing it's more like broader and longer strokes.   I may sound so sure about what i'm doing but really I can't approach the task without some trepidation.    So I tried it again today on the Tamiya nozzles to see if I can still do it.  Sometimes I doubt myself even if I`ve done it before.    Here's how it went:

 

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Painted the insides with Tamiya TS-27 Matt White

 

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Primered.   Couldn't find the light gray.  I used the gray this time.

 

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The dots would be more sparse on the fairing side.

 

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Slower, broader and longer strokes for the fairing panels.

 

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Weathered the inside with some Model Master flat black.

 

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Hope that helps, Janissary!   By the way, don't let the Sharpie dots dry up too much.  Don't leave it on for several hours because it will be harder to mix into the paint.   Paint one panel at a time and don't forget to breath in between  :rolleyes:.    

 

 

 

 

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You're welcome.   Some progress on the canopies.   I tried to attach the bowed PE part for the mirrors but couldn't hack it so I gave up.   I just painted the inside of the frame, cut the mirrors and glued them on one by one.  

 

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Hey, thanks, Steve.  Same here, and the stainless steel Hasegawa PE is so difficult to cut.  MFAF, thanks! 

 

Worked on the other canopy.  Was experimenting with various materials for the lightning strip.  First I tried brush strands which I painted and tried gluing on with CA but they just wouldn't stick and I was afraid of fogging up the canopy if I use more glue (which I read can happen even if the canopy was dipped into Future).   Also tried paper but couldn't cut them into really thin strips.  Finally I settled on painting them on.

 

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Edited by crackerjazz
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Some progress on the figures of Tomcat 2.   I lost a Hase pilot figure ---  had to make do with the head with a visor and attached it to the Tamiya figure.  Tried my best to sculpt an arm and the hand holding the grab handle out of apoxie sculpt (really envy other modelers' sculpting skills).  Also had a bit of trouble fitting the figures into the Aires cockpit. Then I remembered Aigore's suggestion long ago to cut the legs off...

 

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Hey, Steve, thanks!    

 

I've been experimenting a bit with masking fluid.

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It peels off so nicely.

 

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I heard it's difficult to remove if you leave it on for too long, though, (like a couple of days), so I still resorted to masking tape.

 

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It looks like there are more hurdles coming up, the canopy "overhang" being one one of them.    It shouldn't matter for a parked-Tomcat build but doesn't look good on an in-flight cat.    How did you guys take care of this?   I'm thinking about gluing on some alignment tabs inside but has anyone tried sanding the area down?     I also noticed that the other canopy fits just a bit better -- it still has the overhang but not as bad as this one -- maybe Tamiya tried to fix it?  This one's from the earlier boxing, if I'm not mistaken.

 

Edit:  wouldn't use the masking liquid anymore.   I know it's supposed to be just liquid latex but it seems to have attacked the canopy's Future coating in some spots.  It doesn't look like the future was lifted -- just marred the spot and made it somewhat blurry.   

 

Also, one thing I'd do differently with the other canopy is instead of spraying the outside with primer, I think it should be black first.  Reason being that the canopy is thick and at an angle the gray primer shows.   I wanted to start over for this canopy but there's no way I could remove the primer now.

 

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Edited by crackerjazz
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On 2017-06-20 at 7:25 AM, crackerjazz said:
16 hours ago, crackerjazz said:

... It looks like there are more hurdles coming up, the canopy "overhang" being one one of them.    It shouldn't matter for a parked-Tomcat build but doesn't look good on an in-flight cat.    How did you guys take care of this?   I'm thinking about gluing on some alignment tabs inside but has anyone tried sanding the area down?  ...  

 

I had a similar problem on my Hasegawa build.  I ended up spending way too much time fixing the problem.  I tried carefully sanding the canopy, but the overhang was too wide & I ended up removing too much material.  The canopy cracked.  To fix the problem, I glued thin strips of plastic over the cracked area & tried sanding it down again.  After many hours of sanding, puttying, & sanding, it turned out okay.  Lesson learned - If your going to try to sand down that area of the canopy, be very, very careful.

 

Here's photo of my repair.

 

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I found if you close the canopy you can't add the inner rails and have it fit. I cut off the rails just forward of the rear deck and just add the PE to the clear canopy or a scratch defroster like you made. So much easier than sanding the outside of the canopy. 

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6 hours ago, crackerjazz said:

Beautiful save, John!!! I hope i can pull it off that nicely. Beautiful defoggers! What material are those lightning strips and what glue did you use?  Using CA glue would be a messy affair. 

Thanks!  That canopy repair was the worst part of the whole build.

 

Those lightning strips were adhesive PE parts included with the CrossDelta Anti-Skid Walkways & Formation Lights set.  I ended up removing the PE strips to re-polish the canopy after the repair.  I replaced the PE strips with dark grey decals, cut from spare decal material in the parts bin.  I applied the decals to the inside of the canopy.  The PE strips were a little too wide & thick & the decals looked more realistic.

 

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I used CA glue for the repair for added strength, & masked the rest of the canopy to prevent glue damage.  

 

4 hours ago, Brian P: Fightertown Decals said:

I found if you close the canopy you can't add the inner rails and have it fit. I cut off the rails just forward of the rear deck and just add the PE to the clear canopy or a scratch defroster like you made. So much easier than sanding the outside of the canopy. 

 

Brian is right.  I'm afraid I caused most of my own pain since I wanted to display the model with the canopy in both the open or closed positions.  I cut off the plastic rails (as Brain suggested), but I glued the PE rails to the rear deck instead of directly to the canopy.  I glued my defoggers to the PE rails using wine bottle foil as attachment points.

 

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To make matters worse, I added foil canopy guides to the fuselage.

 

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So, I not only had to modify the canopy to conform to the shape of the fuselage, but I needed to reshape the canopy to clear all the added parts.  It was a lot of work that could have been prevented if I hadn't been a stickler for detail & wanted to add the defoggers & guides.

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Thanks, Brian!  I've removed the rails completely but strangely the canopy still wouldn't fit.  I think it's the canopy's shape on this older 1980's kit (as opposed to the new 2000's boxing).   I may just have to try sanding it. I'm also tempted to try pinching the canopy so it conforms to the sill then nail it in place but I'm worried it would just push the sill outwards, or if doesn't do that then the canopy might take the brunt and start developing those little silver stress lines (horror of horrors).   

 

Excellent stuff, John, thanks for the descriptions.  And thanks for pointing out that rounded section of the canopy!  I'm guilty of being a stickler for details, too -- I know.  It prolongs the suffering : (

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Yeah, man, and half the year's over and my New Year's resolution to finish a build in months and not aeons has faded : (

Some progress on canopy 2.   I repeatedly testfitted the older boxing canopy and the newer one and have come to the conclusion that there is indeed a difference between the two.    Did my best to shave off some material to relieve the overhangs.

 

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The top one is the older canopy.   Just look at the size of that overhang.   The 2 other photos are from the newer boxing and was relatively easier to fix.

 

 

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I couldn't really totally fix the overhang on the older canopy so I'm thinking about using 5-minute epoxy to force the canopy flush to the sill.   And I'll make sure to fillet those corners.

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