Tamiya 1/48 F-14D VF-2 OIF 2003 Final Reveal

[Zhou Kun]

Finally finished, it had been a long time I was having problems to post pictures here in ARC forum. I had posted in britmodellers before, so WIP thread is here:

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235079872-tamiya-148-f-14d-tomcat-wip

 

Also I had done similar work with the AMK kit:

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235079280-amk-f-14d-vf-213-oef-2001-148/

 

 

This work consist of three parts:

1, Tamiya 61118 F-14D Tomcat, 1/48

2, KASL Hobby F-14A/B/D Slat & Wing Flap Set (Perhaps this is the most difficult part! The flaps warped a bit, and the rails of slats and flaps did not align perfectly)

3, ResKit F-14D F110-GE-400 Closed Exhaust Nozzles for Tamiya

 

The airplane is built with some modifications on landing gears and high lift devices. The paint I used was Gunze Mr. Color, a solvent based color. Painting was done in four steps:

1) apply a layer of Mr. Surfacer 1500 primer;

2) making preshading with brownish black ;

3) basic painting, but with thinned paint so as not to fully cover the preshading;

4) weathering with Winsor Newton Oil color

 

I took this project as complement to my F-14 Tomcat collection since AMK did have some shape issues (especially at the nose section). The engineering and shaping of Tamiya Tomcat was absolutely a master piece when compared to the AMK Tomcat kit. Yet the biggest short coming of Tamiya kit was lack of details and the slat and trailing edge flaps. Tamiya chosen to achieve a enjoyable build yet AMK went on an epic build with abundant details and options. 

 

Most of the difficulties of this build lay on the resin parts. The wings took a lot of time to test fit, fill and sanding, and the KASL Hobby nozzles were too short. I later chose a ResKit set of nozzles to complete this build, only to find ResKit did not do enough test fitting with their parts. I had to cut the afterburner cans short to make it fit better to the F-14 nacelles.

 

Here comes the reveal photos:

 

Let's see if the photos show up properly...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 19, 2021 by Zhou Kun

[Night Owl Models]

If you photoshop the support rod out of the photo I would have said thats a full scale real cat, nicely done great weathering and attention to the little details is evident love the extended flap details. Do you think its too late too dirty up the engine thrust nozzles would really push it over the edge. Great model really decals are flawless and the ordanace detail is superb.

[Zhou Kun]

@Night Owl Models

One of my friend did edit this photo for me:-）No poles! As for the exhaust thing, I originally planned some slight drawing along the rivets, only to give up later on (as I preferred shiny plates rather than pale ones:-D)

Edited March 19, 2021 by Zhou Kun

[Night Owl Models]

That looks to fricken real...lol awesome!

[fireman]

Nice dio and build!