anj4de Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 (edited) Hello all I have now worked on the HB Tomcat for three days and I believe I have a fix for the totally wrong intake apperance when looked at them frontaly. The following pics I borrowed from Anders Isaksson's build threat a while back, I hope he does not mind. This what the intakes look like when assembled out of the box: This is what the Hasegawa kit intakes look like...and btw also the ones from Tamiya and Monogram, maybe others as well but I only have those kits! So when I got a really cheapish HB -B Tomcat kit (35EUR) I thought I would give it a try to figure out where the issue lies. The good thing was that I had a 70% build up Tamiya to look at and also a spare sprue D from that kit that a German dealer had in stock. It has the intakes and, which is also good, the fwd Phoenix pallets on it! Those will come very handy when the build progresses. So I went ahead and took a slide rule, lots of pictures and the HB and Tamiys kit parts and compared them. I soon found out that the error was not in the HB fuselage parts (was quite a relieve) but in the intakes themselfes and also in the ramps! The outside of the intake part at the height of the air opening is about 1,5mm higher then on the coresponding Tamiya part (see picture) On the darker HB part you can see my scribed line, material above this line would need to go! So I took an intake and removed this material and test fitted it to the fuselage. The result looked prommising already... What was still wrong though was the angle of the variable ramps in the intake. In order to fix this I did alter their position to an "on the ground" setting and also changed the angle in which they mount into the duct by cutting off the outside attachement points (see picture) The now open inside of the intakes, another design flaw by HB, I closed with a piece if white styrene. Test fitting now revealed that the inside intake ducts were too high...so I made them lower by cutting a wedge into them, re-glueing then and sanded them smoth Another issue with the HB kit is the slightly curved belly...it should be flat. This might cause issues when fitting the Phoenix pallets...but I am not there yet! After the variable intakes were mounted and sanded a bit I finally was able to install the modified intakes. I found the following method to work best: 1. First only glue in the back and inside of the intake. This will leave a noticable gap where material was removed before. 2. When this joint is dry force the outside of the intake upward and use thin CA glue to fix it. There is quite some preasure on it, hence quick drying CA is best. 3. Finish the seams with extra thin Tamiya If you did your cuts before precisely the fit will look like that that in the end. I then filled and sanded a bit more on the inside of the intakes (not finished yet) and gave the whole thing a coat of Tamiya primer. I think the result was worth the effort and once you know what to do where it will only be a matter of maybe an hour to apply that fix. The end result looks like that... Whether this fix will be a pro argument to buy the HB kit or not is left to the individuel, the kit has more issues that I have not tackled yet like the nose shape and the too long LG legs, but it might help someone who has already bought the kit way back when it was released for crazy money...which he could not get back if he tried to see it again! All in all...it was fun to work on it so far BUT the Tamiya Tomcat has since made the HB offering obsolete. This fix might also be applicable to the larger Trumpeter brother if you do not want to go through the expense of purchasing Zacto intakes...even though they are difinitely worth what is asked for them! I am not sure about the 1/72 or 1/144 kist since I have not seen those, it's not my scale! cheers Uwe Edited November 17, 2017 by anj4de Quote Link to post Share on other sites
murad Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 your guess re phoenix pallets are correct, that curvature will cause the aft of the pallets remain aloft. also make sure you check the long. alignment of the underbelly, mine was skewed pretty noticeably, infact entire fuselage halves were skewed... nothing can't be fixed with carefully gluing bit by bit but still something to check for. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Zactoman Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 Nice job in tweaking your intakes to something more presentable! 11 hours ago, anj4de said: This fix might also be applicable to the larger Trumpeter brother if you do not want to go through the expense of purchasing Zacto intakes... While chopping and tweaking the intakes can help improve the terrible angles when viewed from the front, there are other big shape issues that are even more apparent in 1/32. My intake set addresses those issues as well as including corrected bypass ramps, internal bypass details, detailed fuel tank pylons and accurate surface detail. While the price may seem high, if you consider what you are getting and compare to other resin products, it's a big bang for the buck. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jonathan_Lotton Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 Zactoman, Have you considered doing the same intake set fix for the 1/48 kit? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dnl42 Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 13 minutes ago, Jonathan_Lotton said: Zactoman, Have you considered doing the same intake set fix for the 1/48 kit? Zactoman, Repeating the above, just in case you missed it Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Space Tiger Hobbes Posted November 17, 2017 Share Posted November 17, 2017 (edited) Hat trick. Same question to Zactoman. X4. I'd be happy with something less complete internally and cheaper. Edited November 17, 2017 by Space Tiger Hobbes Quote Link to post Share on other sites
anj4de Posted November 17, 2017 Author Share Posted November 17, 2017 (edited) Hello Zactoman I in no way wanted to criticise your product or the price asked for it. If I ever go down the route of building a 32scale Tomcat I will get a set from you...no doubt. I was more trying to point out again that the Trumpeter and HB kit are from the same CADs and hence share the same issues... On getting a set made for 1/48...I really think it would be a waist of effort. Having to talk money again, if you add the price for an intake set to the price of an HB kit you can easily buy a Tamiya Tomcat to start with and by doing so have all the other HB issues wiped out as well. If additional Tomcat products are needed then it would be a corrected nose cone for the Trumpeter bird! Since I do not believe in a new tool Tamiya 1/32 Tomcat anytime soon this would be an investment in the future... cheers Uwe PS: Original post edited :-) Edited November 17, 2017 by anj4de Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Space Tiger Hobbes Posted November 17, 2017 Share Posted November 17, 2017 On the other hand, thousands of us have HB F-14s and thousands more will continue to buy it as long as it's on the market and perhaps a simpler correction of the intake minus some of the internals might be more economical and would sell well to those who like the HB's other features. Simple as that. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Starfighter1974 Posted November 27, 2022 Share Posted November 27, 2022 (edited) Bardzo proszę o again wklejenie linków ze zdjęciami przedstawiającymi funkcję wlotów powietrza do modelu samolotu F-14 Tomcat z zestawu Hobby Boss w skali 1/48. Niestety zdarza się, że linki wygasły, a zdjęcia się nie ładują. Zdjęcia pomogłyby mi wykorzystać wloty w moim modelu samolotu F-14. Edited November 28, 2022 by Starfighter1974 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gwen Phoenix Posted November 29, 2022 Share Posted November 29, 2022 Pics aren't working for me Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Starfighter1974 Posted December 4, 2022 Share Posted December 4, 2022 On 29.11.2022 at 14:32, Gwen Phoenix said: Fotki mi nie działają Unfortunately, the pictures don't work for me either. Can someone repost these photos? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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