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1/72 F-14D VF-31 Tomcatters CAG jet Operation Iraqi Freedom by Great Wall Hobby


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It's been quite a while since the last time I touched any scale model many years ago. Feel good being back. Several kits on the shelf, all are 1/72, among them is the long waited G.W.H 1/72 F-14D, thanks to G.W.H for giving it as present.

 

I will not review the kit separately, but will talk about some fix and change during the building. To give you a quick answer about the kit, from my perspective view,  good enough but not flawless.

 

The first thing came into my eye, is for a D model but no BOL and any bomb racks. The LANTIRN  is missing either, but the kit does offer you the pylon for it... I don't know maybe G.W.H would consider to offer a weapon set separately soon? No idea. Anyway, they just do what HASEGAWA did 20 years ago with no weapons in the box of any aircraft.

 

And the consequence is that I had to find the BOLs and bombs and racks in the after market, thank god, the evil HASEGAWA made some acceptable sets before... I can't say the BOL in 72nd scale of Hase is good in detail, but at least the size and shape is quite acceptable, well anyway I'd hang some Sidewinders on it. If you consider the BOL from HobbyBoss, I'd say get rid of the idea. The detail looks OK but the accuracy size and shape is offset.

 

48470591636_e442014892_b.jpg20190806154142 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48470737977_17d40d80c2_b.jpg20190806154213 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

The cockpit tub looks fine, but the seats, looking good but I will still try some resin stuffs from Aires or so...

 

48470737857_203d29c4cc_b.jpg20190806154223 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48470591576_1c7723ece5_b.jpg20190806154216 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

Edited by viperbite
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Some molding lines are visible due to the slider mold, a little sanding can easily move them

 

48470591486_7bcb2b247e_b.jpg20190806154226 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48470591446_0f13e80943_b.jpg20190806154229 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

Also the ejector-pin-holes should be filled and sanded

 

48470591356_01d78946e4_z.jpg20190806154235 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48470590891_98ce9ca3dc_z.jpg20190806154402 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

You can see I'd also filled the holes for the pylon of the fuel tank, yes, which were in wrong position

 

48470590921_4890d4753b_b.jpg20190806154358 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

The fitting of the kit is pretty good, you can see from the intakes attaching to the fuselage, not glued

 

48470591221_172fe467f7_b.jpg20190806154249 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

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About the over-pronounced bulges on the spine, here are some comparison with Tamiya, to my eye, yes there are some over-pronounced here and there, some little sanding should be useful.

48470590616_1a083a1d53_b.jpg20190806154427 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48470590656_040009ac6d_b.jpg20190806154424 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

The merging area of the spine to the fuselage should be sanded too

48470589516_bd4fb6f4a0_b.jpg20190806154539 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

Some re-scribe work should be done after the sanding, here is the result.

48470589241_e9822dd879_b.jpg20190806154559 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48470589331_8c2ec5e0e5_b.jpg20190806154554 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

Also there is some filling and sanding and re-scribing need to be done on the beaver tail.

48470735932_3cf68bde93_b.jpg20190806154535 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48470589216_5b8a78a12d_b.jpg20190806154602 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Some progress.

 

Since I decided making a small diorama that the aircraft is parking on the deck, I added some tie-down points onto the landing gears.

48470736482_a053950ac3_b.jpg20190806154508 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48470736262_c05e37661e_b.jpg20190806154518 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48470589796_38ebf70db6_b.jpg20190806154526 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

And when at the front line, the cover of ARP often removed from the aircraft.

48470735462_557d9d9d8a_b.jpg20190806154608 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

Also I spent some hours to build the boarding ladder, but in the end, I decided not using it...

48640585716_27d32d188a_b.jpg微信图片_20190829143915 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48640236543_686c582370_b.jpg微信图片_20190829143920 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

And some little work on the tail hook.

48640585791_96ca0aeb79_b.jpg微信图片_20190829143907 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

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Now I move to the cockpit and canopy again, spending hours focusing on the safety belt of the seats. Aires really made some wonderful photo-etched parts for them, but bending the cooper material part really took a lot of time to achieve the proper final look.

48640585781_454d75f71e_b.jpg微信图片_20190829143904 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48640725687_eeb569dd47_b.jpg微信图片_20190829143900 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48640236798_e5a7088624_b.jpg微信图片_20190829143858 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

Now it's the mirrors. Actually I have to remove the center mirror for the pilot, because the huge HUD added on, the handler for the pilot should be moved to the canopy from the original position on the wind-shield. I'll do that later...

48640236863_df1605e88a_b.jpg微信图片_20190829143849 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48640236828_1c6442afe0_b.jpg微信图片_20190829143851 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

I rebuilt the cooling pipes on the frame.

48640726047_b67a9e14ff_b.jpg微信图片_20190829143833 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48640237133_476ceaf4d3_b.jpg微信图片_20190829143836 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

Dealing with the fitting of Aires resin cockpit and kit canopy, especially the rear IP cover which had the most fitting problems, spent couples of nights for me. but the result is OK to me.

48640586376_909dc99db7_b.jpg微信图片_20190829143808 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48640237258_35841d682c_b.jpg微信图片_20190829143826 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48640726187_2ba82661dc_z.jpg微信图片_20190829143819 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48640726157_dd89181b68_z.jpg微信图片_20190829143822 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

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Great work! A couple night to you of fitting that resin would equal a month to me. What are you using to attache the PE to the canopy? I use very small dabs of white glue or if I have Future'd it, maybe even super glue. That's like the scariest part of my build. As is masking. You make it look easy!

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Thank  you guys for your kind replies. Now I'm moving on to the LANTIRN pod and the adapter. I've the HASEGAWA pod also I've the one from Academy's new F-15E, at the first glance, A's detail is better than H's, but A's shape of the intake for cooling is off. To me it's much easier to add some rivets than to correct the shape, So I chose H's.

48640237363_16727b1fd8_b.jpg微信图片_20190829143802 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

I cut the pod front and rear part half to make some pivot regarding some ref pics.

48640586416_a353c2cac2_b.jpg微信图片_20190829143758 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48640726327_a3788b2438_b.jpg微信图片_20190829143736 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

Not like the 15s or the 16s, the pod hangs just below the wind root, it's too obvious to see if there are no vents at the very back of it, so I decided to add them. The rectangle one is 2mm*3mm 

48686576937_d9859ccdfb_b.jpg20190906112413 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

I used 2 different size of grills, 0.3mm and 0.5mm. Since there might be two layers on the real thing.

48686062008_59b47978b8_b.jpg20190906112406 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48686061948_8e745a71d5_b.jpg20190906112409 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48686405886_cf253e7048_b.jpg20190906112416 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

The 0.5mm was put in the lower layer.

48686405846_92f37e14e4_b.jpg20190906112420 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

Then the 0.3mm on the upper layer.

48686405811_08e37a2b31_z.jpg20190906112434 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

The other one is a rounded vent just below the intake. 

48686576707_43cbf21bb0_b.jpg20190906112438 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

I used the punch to cut a 2mm grill of the 0.3mm net sheet.

48686405726_9999b7865f_b.jpg20190906112442 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

48686576622_2fa17a34c9_b.jpg20190906112446 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

Well, the grills are of course off-size in 72nd scale, but adding those will increase the visual detailing of the model.

48686405636_a6725b982c_b.jpg20190906112450 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

 

 

 

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19 hours ago, afterburner said:

Great work! A couple night to you of fitting that resin would equal a month to me. What are you using to attache the PE to the canopy? I use very small dabs of white glue or if I have Future'd it, maybe even super glue. That's like the scariest part of my build. As is masking. You make it look easy!

very small amount LOCTITE 460

 

 

1 hour ago, jenshb said:

Nice work!  How do you attach the circular grille ont he pod without clogging  the mesh?

a tiny drop of super glue

Edited by viperbite
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  • 2 months later...

Some updates...

49067999718_1342062b8a_c.jpg20191115174930 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

49067999838_c69bb3ae95_c.jpg20191115175022 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

49068725387_9686537e08_c.jpg20191115174959 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

49068725422_4a796bfde2_c.jpg20191115175007 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

49067999813_ef7305bdc4_c.jpg20191115175014 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

49068518346_e89d85e152_c.jpg20191115175044 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

49068725667_c45d2f14d0_c.jpg20191115175051 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

49068000043_5f08a778c1_c.jpg20191115175058 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

49068725802_8e7fd7287f_c.jpg20191115175708 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

 

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Also I made a custom LAU-138 BOL pylon from the Hasegawa kit and casted some resin parts. But I'm quite sure that GWH will release another kit with the BOL, just can't wait till then.

49068518626_88819a7d5b_c.jpg20191115175715 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

49068518666_dec4c4fe2d_c.jpg20191115175724 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

49068000348_67f850d31d_c.jpg20191115180315 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr 

 

49068725942_748fbce9d8_c.jpg20191115180301 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

49068518796_6085c9c7b9_c.jpg20191115180339 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

49068518246_01bf2826f8_c.jpg20191115175029 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

49068725572_8e3779c329_c.jpg20191115175036 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

Spent couple of days to paint the seats

49068000063_a9c41fe2be_c.jpg20191115175106 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

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Holy cow, excellent work especially at that scale !!

I love that you added the clear pieces for the lights, this will look so much better in the end. The boarding ladder and tie-downs are models all by themselves, very impressive.

Steve

"TOMCATS FOREVER, BABY...!"

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On 11/15/2019 at 11:23 PM, A-10 LOADER said:

Holy cow, excellent work especially at that scale !!

I love that you added the clear pieces for the lights, this will look so much better in the end. The boarding ladder and tie-downs are models all by themselves, very impressive.

Steve

"TOMCATS FOREVER, BABY...!"

Thank you Steve. Continue with the tub

49093040391_b1d3bd9ca6_c.jpg20191120093618 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

49093040156_483f6ea0fd_c.jpg20191120093104 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

49093040236_3b05886d41_c.jpg20191120093129 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

 

49093040301_4a56d9c1cc_c.jpg20191120093159 by Brent Jin, 於 Flickr

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