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20 minutes ago, Mr Matt Foley said:

When did the F-14D carry Litening? Excuse my Tomcat ignorance.....I'm more of an Eagle guy...

No Litening for the Tomcat - they used the LANTIRN targeting system starting around 1995 in the fleet. They had done LGB drops prior to that, but always with another aircraft doing the lasing.

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10 minutes ago, andrew.deboer said:

No Litening for the Tomcat - they used the LANTIRN targeting system starting around 1995 in the fleet. They had done LGB drops prior to that, but always with another aircraft doing the lasing.

 

Copy that. Thanks for the quick response.

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VF-2 got Lantirn in late 97. The decals in the kit are for OIF in 2003. They did have Lantirn and square PTID in 2003. If you want to put a TARPS pod on your jet, then you have to switch out the RIO left side console to the TARPS box. All D's were TARPS capable but the controls utilized the same box space in the cockpit. You can physically load both TARPS and Lantirn, but you can only use 1 system at a time. 

 

VF-2 200 did carry TARPS some during OIF. It also carried bombs and used LANTIRN. Just depended on the mission of the day. A cool loadout was 'armed SCAR' TARPS pod and 2 mk-82, and they did drop those bombs on TARPS missions. 

 

If you want VF-2 low viz, I'm sending a sheet to print that has 1997 cruise option and 2003 OIF cruise option markings fit to the Tamiya kit. Should be available by US NATS early August. 

 

Brian 

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Brian...you made my day! I actually want a low viz 2003 bird. Please put me on the list for a decal sheet

Very useful information...especially the requirement to swap out consoles. I would not have thought about that being required.  Last question...what's the deal on the all black painted cockpits, please?

 

cheers

Uwe

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Black cockpits was for NVG 4th gen ease of use, as I understood it. The panels would be all black and some of the some the lower sidewalls would get it if they removed the seat for MX. The leg and quarter panel sides were a mix of painted black and left gray. I know some of the VF-2 birds had black cockpits. The paint weathered, chipped and was patchy. By 2005 last cruise all the jets has black or some form or black. For OIF, black would work. 

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7 hours ago, anj4de said:

I'm not sure exactly, but I'd guess it would have been '97 or '98 maybe? LANTIRN hit the fleet in '96, so it would have been a couple years later. I'm sure someone has a definitive answer. You might go by the paint scheme. It seems that the scheme with you have pictured was when they had LANTIRN capability. There are some earlier schemes that would be non-LANTIRN. Again, this would be a guide to go by, not a hard and fast rule.

 

Edit: Just read Brian's response. It's good to know I wasn't far off! 

Edited by Darren Roberts
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7 hours ago, anj4de said:

I just read my response and realized I didn't communicate very well. It should say "no EARLY D's had the LANTIRN". Sorry about that.

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Thanks Brian and Darren...great help!  I also just ordered the 4 basic colors in Tamiya's new LP range, I am curious if they are good. I have Gunze Mr-Color and MRP, like both even though the MRP are a bit on the expensive side being as thin as they are...

 

cheers

Uwe

Edited by anj4de
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5 hours ago, anj4de said:

Thanks Brian and Darren...great help!  I also just ordered the 4 basic colors in Tamiya's new LP range, I am curious if they are good. I have Gunze Nr-Color and MRP, like both even though the MRP are a bit on the expensive side being as thin as they are...

 

cheers

Uwe

I just sprayed Hitaka Orange (Lt and Dk Ghost Gray) and was impressed by that as well. Mr. Color and Mr. Paint are fantastic.

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I have this kit on pre-order and would like to do "Christine"  (159600)in the colours of VF31. I saw a decal set on line but not sure if its still available. I believe it was originally and A but converted to a D. Longest serving F14 in the USN.

F-14D-Christine-696x440.jpg

Edited by Launch
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2 hours ago, Launch said:

I have this kit on pre-order and would like to do "Christine"  (159600)in the colours of VF31. I saw a decal set on line but not sure if its still available. I believe it was originally and A but converted to a D. Longest serving F14 in the USN.

F-14D-Christine-696x440.jpg


I believe 159600 was done on Brian's VF-31 last cruise sheet which has been OOP for a while and is difficult (and expensive) to find. 

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Fightertown Decals 48065 Felix's Final Fight and Farewell had Christine and lots of others from OEF/OIF/LAST cruise. 

The new Tamiya sized sheet low viz I mentioned above will have last cruise 102, 111, 112, retirement 102, 112. 

 

I'd post a picture but Photo bucket is a major POS and won't let me post... I'll put it up on Facebook this wknd. 

brian. 

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...started my -D now, so far business as usual. Parts fall together as experienced on the-A model already. I was tempted at first to use the Quickboost transparent resin navigation light inserts for the fuselage but opted out, too much cutting for too little effect. It would be nice though if the various decal providers could include those on their sheets. It would simplify things a lot. The masking set from New Ware has those included for painting but as small as they are red/green decals would do the trick even easier...

Brian, I am looking fwd to the new decal sheet...this time I want a low viz bird, I think it captures the -D area and missions best. F-14A versions IMHO look best in the earliest gray over white colors. Can't get that Vietnam VF-1 No.105 out of my head, one day...! 🙂

 

cheers

Uwe

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On 7/10/2018 at 2:43 PM, Brian P: Fightertown Decals said:

Fightertown Decals 48065 Felix's Final Fight and Farewell had Christine and lots of others from OEF/OIF/LAST cruise. 

The new Tamiya sized sheet low viz I mentioned above will have last cruise 102, 111, 112, retirement 102, 112. 

 

I'd post a picture but Photo bucket is a major POS and won't let me post... I'll put it up on Facebook this wknd. 

brian. 

 

So 48065 will be the new set that will have Christine? when are you expecting them?

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52 minutes ago, Launch said:

 

So 48065 will be the new set that will have Christine? when are you expecting them?

48065 is an older sheet maybe from 2014. They way I read he has a new sheets coming soon. The NEW Low Vis Sheet will include 111 plus others..

Edited by viper730
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2 hours ago, viper730 said:

48065 is an older sheet maybe from 2014. They way I read he has a new sheets coming soon. The NEW Low Vis Sheet will include 111 plus others..

That is correct. 

 

I expect to have the High Viz and Low Viz sheets for IPMS NATS early August. 

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Hey Guys-

Just wanted to pass along a few rules of thumb for time periods when stuff started showing up on the F-14D.

 

1. LANTIRN came about in 1996/7, with VF-2 receiving the first fleet mods, followed by VF-31. You can tell from a picture if a jet is modified for LANTIRN by looking at the spine for the small dome GPS antenna. If the dome is present, the jet is LANTIRN capable. Just because the jet has had the LANTIRN mod does not mean it HAS to carry LANTIRN on station 8B, or be configured with the LANTIRN Control Panel (LCP) in the port-side RIO cockpit. The LCP took up the same real estate as the TARPS control panel, so they were swapped freely. Furthermore- especially in the first few years of carrying LANTIRN, there were fewer pods/LCPs available to each squadron as there were more squadrons that needed them. Often times we would fly non ground attack training missions with the pod and LCP removed. Generally we had many more pylons than pods, so we would have an empty pylon or nothing at all hanging on 8B if we didn't have a pod for it. I cannot recall us ever carrying a missile pylon or rail on 8B on a LANTIRN-modified jet.

 

2. After the Delta jets got LANTIRN, there was a period of time pretty much up to late 2001 where the square PTID display was NOT installed. We only started receiving them in the D community when the A squadrons started transitioning to Super Hornets. PTID was a requirement when we started hauling JDAMs, so that is a good rule of thumb for whether it should have a PTID or not. We took VF-31 to sea in 1998 and 2000/01 with LANTIRN and the round TID. 

 

3. I have spent a lot of time in a lot of F-14D cockpits. Of all of them, I have been in one/maybe two of them that were painted all black. Both belonged to VF-213 in the very early 2000s (pre-OEF). Every single other jet I have sat in- all the way to the very end of Tomcats, had the standard gray tub. I know they tried all-black briefly, but the cockpit would get hotter than hell on the flight deck in the Gulf, so they were repainted to gray. NVG mod had nothing to do with the color of the cockpit tub going black. 

 

4. The ROVER antenna and GBU-38 were only carried on VF-31 and VF-213 aircraft during the last F-14 cruise. No other squadron (except test birds of course) carried the GBU-38. No other squadron *flew* with ROVER except 213 and 31 for just a few months on the last cruise. I stressed "flew", because yes, a stricken VF-101 aircraft was modified as proof of concept prior to the mod team coming out the the TR, but this never flew. It didn't even have engines at the time.

 

5. Hockey puck antenna on the back side of the starboard vertical fin cap... right under the anticollision light. Unique only to the D... as well as the side panel all the way aft on the port side by the horizontal stabs.

 

6. All fleet F-14D aircraft were TARPS capable.

 

Happy modeling, folks... I plan on picking up a couple when the feeding frenzy dies down a bit. Having fun building my early VF-111 Tamiya "A" kit at the moment...

 

Edited by Neeko
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53 minutes ago, Neeko said:

 

3. I have spent a lot of time in a lot of F-14D cockpits. Of all of them, I have been in one/maybe two of them that were painted all black. Both belonged to VF-213 in the very early 2000s (pre-OEF). Every single other jet I have sat in- all the way to the very end of Tomcats, had the standard gray tub. I know they tried all-black briefly, but the cockpit would get hotter than hell on the flight deck in the Gulf, so they were repainted to gray. NVG mod had nothing to do with the color of the cockpit tub going black. That was all about cockpit interior lighting and control panel lights.

 

 

 

 

I was going to say much the same, NVG mods have more to do with the interior lighting and control panel lights then the color of the cockpit.

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5 hours ago, Scooby said:

 

I was going to say much the same, NVG mods have more to do with the interior lighting and control panel lights then the color of the cockpit.

Good to know. I had always agreed with this. But friends at -31 had said on a few occasions that that was the reason for going black. I remember when VF-11 first got NVGs and they had a few issues getting the NVG lights settings correct. 

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5 hours ago, Brian P: Fightertown Decals said:

Good to know. I had always agreed with this. But friends at -31 had said on a few occasions that that was the reason for going black. I remember when VF-11 first got NVGs and they had a few issues getting the NVG lights settings correct. 

 

Next time the opportunity exists to catch up over beer, I'll explain why cockpit tub color doesn't matter.

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