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Victory 105 - VF103 F-14B (from AMK F-14D) 1/48


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Hello gents,

 

This will be my first ever group build participation, I usually am always off with project and GB dates but as I found this one I was in the process of building 3 tomcats in 1/48

 

The first two are started already: a Tamiya and another AMK. They were built side by side comparing Tamiya and AMK approach from a building point of view 🙂

The Tamiya is already completed as an inflight VF-84 F-14A

The AMK is in progress as a VF-2 F-14D

Both the above ones are out of the GB as they were started somewhere late 2020 unfortunately.


Luckily I have another box which is un-started and meant to be converted from a F-14D to a F-14B of VF-103

And this one meets the GB criteria 🙂

 

SbS_F14_065_GB_pres.png

Model: AMK F-14D

Decals: Fightertown Decals: Tomcats at War Pt3 48086 & Fightertown Decals Tomcats stencils 48087

F-14B conversion: bits from the scrap box from old Hasegawa Tomcats

Diorama: on the shuttle, checking flight controls (pilots and flight deck)

 

Hopefully I will get close enough to something like this:

SbS_F14_066_GB_expectedresult.png

 

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Unusual but I wanted to paint first 🙂

So I assembled the wings and painted the red under moving surfaces, assembled intake ramps (subsonic) and mated them to the bottom surface, assembled the beaver tail with closed speedbrakes and the tails.

I'll work separately on these sub assemblies until they need to be glued together. I know it's a risk but the kit fit is pretty good except maybe at the top junction between the rear cockpit fuselage and the back fuselage. but I accept to reword that area at latter stage.

 

All the top surfaces received a coat of MRP-105 as base color after a black preshading. I then sprinkled some salt and sprayed MRP smoke (MRP271) which I heavily diluted with Mr color leveling thinner. 

SbS_F14_068_GB_salt.png

 

SbS_F14_069_GB_salt.png

 

 

After the subtle smoke/salt, I painted some panels or panel lines with a lighter grey: MRP 97

 

SbS_F14_072_GB_mottling.png

SbS_F14_070_GB_mottling.png

 

MRP97 is also the colour used for the cockpit section sides.
The separation between the two grey is still quite noticeable in front of the windscreen but I'll work that out some more. I closed the AAR door and decide to leave it as it is. If it bothers me too much later i can fill the seam with superglue and re engrave it.

SbS_F14_074_GB_fwd_fus.png

 

Steps and ladder doors were just closed before painting

SbS_F14_075_GB_fwd_fus.png

 

 

The wings received the same treatment. One will have the spoilers up and the other the spoiler down as I want to show the moment flight controls are checked just before launch. Both will be dirty with flaps and slats down. 

SbS_F14_073_GB_wing.png

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IMHO, the fit will not be a problem except maybe at one spot.

 

Just like the Tamiya, this one basically assemble itself and stay assembled in dryfit. Sanding should be kept to a minimum.

Here's a dryfit with green arrows for perfect fit and the junction that may create issue in red. 

SbS_F14_079_GB_dryfit.png

 

From my testing, it appears that the red area is a problem only if something prevents the top and bottom fuselage to be pressed correctly.
Most of the time, the intake ramps are the problem and if you lose a bit of space in there you'll pay it at the red arrow.

The other possible issue is if the cockpit is not slide completely into the one piece fuselage, the rear small bulkhead of the nose gear well may conflict with the rear bottom fuselage preventing a good fit.

 

I'd say most of the time the intake ramps are the issue. we will see how I managed mine 🙂 but for the rest I am pretty confident there will be no touch up needed except at that possible red arrow area 🙂

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Thank you.

 

On 2/21/2021 at 7:57 PM, FASTEAGLE107 said:

 Is this Fightertown decals sheet still available? Can't find it in europe.

Got mine from Hannants before they closed sales to the old continent. But they are out of stock for now.

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Continuing to paint the sub assemblies, I made the anti-slip walkway on the top of the intakes:

 

SbS_F14_076_GB_antislip.png

 

trying out a new product for that. I usually use Rust Oleum texturized paint but this is way too thick for 1/48. So when I found out this product I immediately thought about walkways and thermal coating for US navy bombs.
Using the decal as templates, I masked the walkways and applied a bit of paste in the center.

 

SbS_F14_077_GB_antislip.png

Then using an old brush I painted the walkway texture.

 

SbS_F14_078_GB_antislip.png

The product remains liquid long enough but is very elastic once dry, so masks should be removed as quickly as possible otherwise it may lift from the plastic on mask removal. That's usually not a big deal as it easily mate back to the plastic and offer an irregular walkway pattern simulating tear.

If texture is found to be too coarse, it can be sanded a bit.

 

SbS_F14_084_GB_antislip_final.png

Walkways were quickly painted with Gunship grey before masks removal and then the edges were fading in with the fuselage base colour. Still some more work required but I will leave that for later paint corrosion control. 

 

 

 

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On 2/23/2021 at 5:24 PM, crackerjazz said:

Big fan of your action displays and realistic final products, Red Dog! : )    Excited to see what magic you work into your F-14s : ) 

Thanks mate. This one might be a bit less dynamic than usual. Hopefully the catapult pose will help in that matter a bit... 🙂

 

Work continued on basic sub assemblies.
Bottom fuselage has been assembled with intake trunks, boat tail with closed speed brake, engine trunks and intake doors.
The whole was preshaded in black then painted with MRP-38 

 

SbS_F14_080_GB_bottom.png

 

Tails were also assembled, pre shaded in black, painted with MRP-241 and spot post shaded with a lighter tint and immediately decaled, this is always a great motivation factor. I must say, these FighterTown Decals are great. Super thin and sliding perfectly with absolutely no carrier film visible.

 

SbS_F14_082_GB_tail.png

 

The MRP-241 painted bladders received some shadows (MRP Smoke) and highlights (XF-57 Buff)

SbS_F14_083_GB_bladder.png

 

And the reason why I wanted to start painting before assembling was to be able to weather the inner top and bottom wings before attaching them on their respective spars

 

SbS_F14_085_GB_weathering_wing.png

 

This was done with Starship filth hand brushed in the pivot direction. 
Note the tail flap colored grey higher than the full flap position and scratched through the red simulating the friction of the moving parts
(Yes I lost an hinge ...)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks Guys & welcome Curt

 

I started converting the cockpit IP from F-14D to B

Initially I wanted to used the Hasegawa bits but to keep the better AMK glareshields I finally decided to use the AMK IP as a starting base.

 

SbS_F14_091_GB_cockpit.png

The pilot IP was flattened right and below the center screen

 

SbS_F14_092_GB_cockpit.png

The RIO panel was cannibalized from the Hasegawa to salvage the top part which was mated to the AMK part.
The right side of the big square screen was flattened as well.
The Round screen was replaced with the big square one as the F-14 were upgraded to Lantirns. So Victory 105 should have the square screen.

 

SbS_F14_093_GB_cockpit.png 

The PE instrument from Airscales were added to the F-14B IPs (center). The outboard ones are for the D model I'm building as well

 

SbS_F14_094_GB_cockpit.png

Finally FighterTown stencils decals were applied to the converted IPs

 

 

 

 

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The blisters typical of the B model were also added from the Hasegawa bits:

 

SbS_F14_095_GB_ECM_blisters.png

 

And to finish the B conversion, old GRU-7 resin seats & pilots are being worked on.
Pilots are from the scrap box as unfortunately AMK doesn't provide them - which is weird considering the huge flexibility of their tomcat poses.

Helmets decals are custom made, flight suit decals come from the Fighter Town stencil sheet

 

SbS_F14_096_GB_pilots.png

 

More work needed on these two little guys...

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4 hours ago, Red Dog said:

The blisters typical of the B model were also added from the Hasegawa bits:

 

SbS_F14_095_GB_ECM_blisters.png

 

And to finish the B conversion, old GRU-7 resin seats & pilots are being worked on.
Pilots are from the scrap box as unfortunately AMK doesn't provide them - which is weird considering the huge flexibility of their tomcat poses.

Helmets decals are custom made, flight suit decals come from the Fighter Town stencil sheet

 

SbS_F14_096_GB_pilots.png

 

More work needed on these two little guys...

Great progress !

The decals on the helmets are nice touchs

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Thanks Guys,

 

I do Victory 105 in 2004. The FighterTown sheet provides marking for Victory 110 in 2004 and Victory 105 in 2002. If I can reuse most of everything I do have to remake some decals. The pilot names from the FighterTown sheet are not the ones on my reference pictures and there is no helmet decals either. So yep I had to print these myself.

 

In the meantime, the sub assemblies are now glued together. As expected the biggest issue was the fuselage joint line just aft of the canopy needing a bit of sanding. The rest was pretty good and required just very light sanding. 

 

I tested both canopy option. The first one was the plastic frame with the two transparency which presented the advantage of not having seam lines. Problem is that closing this one requires quite a bit of modifications as the frame seems to be too long. Fitting was a big problem and the part was discarded. It's basically done for open canopy.

The second options is not quite better. If the full transparent canopy fits better when closed, there are ugly seam lines on both sides of the transparency. These are very subtle but once I saw them there was no turning back.

The seam lines were sanded away then the canopy underwent a long session of fine sanding and polishing.

SbS_F14_097_GB_assembly.png

Test fit of the pilots in their seat with closed canopy.

 

The gear legs were also assembled, painted and I used lots of stencils decals from that Fighter Town sheet

SbS_F14_099_GB_Gear.png

These will be detailed a bit more in due time.

Since I built the Tamiya A in flight, I will reuse the main wheels from the Tamiya kit as the F-14D wheels are not accurate for this project.
There is also a rather big difference in size from the Tamiya to the AMK nosewheel. 

 

Something important to note when building the AMK kit regarding the nose gear. It's very tight to insert into the hole in the well. If it goes unnoticed, it can screw the stance of the tomcat (especially when kneeling on the catapult) with a too long nose gear. either enlarge a bit the nose well hole or sand a bit the top of the nose gear leg to ensure it goes all the way.

 

Finally, the last part of the B conversion was salvaged from an old Hasegawa kit:

SbS_F14_098_GB_TCS.png

 

 

 

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Thanks gents,

 

Next order of business was having a bit more fun with weathering.

I wanted to make the heavy weathering on the top fuselage trying a new technique. 

I started by applying starship grime and Dark grey navy wash with a brush in center of some panels, alternating color variations. 
Before the paint dried, I tapped the paint with a sponge bit with only vertical movement avoiding side moves. 
Work was done panel by panel leaving some untouched and varying the intensity from one panel to another

SbS_F14_104_GB_Weathering.png

 

I worked my way up towards the cockpit going lighter (well trying anyway) on the weathering.

Then did some corrosion control paint on the panel edges with the base color

 

SbS_F14_101_GB_Weathering.png

 

 

The area behing the cockpit received some oversprays of heavily diluted MRP smoke to darken the area rubbed bt the flight crew clothing when entering and exiting their office.

Lighter shades were painted were the Grumman ironworks logo will come. Invisible from the picture but the wing glove for the name of the carrier received the same treatment:

SbS_F14_103_GB_Weathering.png

I need to redo the joint for the nose as it snapped off as I was holding it and better finish other areas as well

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Red Dog,

 

Let me  use a very old saying hear to describe your work. Trick build man :coolio: (Translation from Dinosaur lingo: Very cool build Red Dog)
 

Keep’ em coming on those updates.

 

Take care,

 

Mr.Happy  

 

 

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