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1/48 Tamiya F-14D --> F-14B VF-143 Dog 100


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Having moved the "Aces High" Spitfire to the "completed" category, like a young child anxious with anticipation and unable to sleep on Christmas Eve, I dove into this one head-first.

 

I've ordered Fightertown's 48083, and purchased the A model "H" sprue. Also pending is the Eduard A model IP's plus PE seatbelts.

 

All I can say so far is....WOW. I have got to add 2 or maybe 7 more of these to my stash.

 

 

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Edited by MA Cooke
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42 minutes ago, crackerjazz said:

Following along.  Where'd you purchase the H sprue from?   

 

ebay....seller had several individual sprues for sale. Apparently I need sprues "K" and maybe "N" as well from the A kit....not sure what I'm gong to do about the IP hoods, though, short of just buying the entire A/M cockpit (Eduard makes one).

(I did just order another Tamiya D, that's how enthused I am about this one so far. I woke up at 3:15 unable to sleep, itchin' to get back to my workbench.)

 

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  • MA Cooke changed the title to 1/48 Tamiya F-14D --> F-14B VF-143 Dog 100

So I got started, and WOW! I mean WOW!

And my Fightertown decals, and Eduard IP's came yesterday. Thank you Brian Plescia!

I still have to figure out the front IP (hood) cover. (Don't know it's official name, under the windscreen area....)

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1 hour ago, crackerjazz said:

Nice!  Those pre-painted parts make light work of cockpit preparation, don't they.  It's one of the stages I always dread.  What did you need to figure out about the hood cover -- the color?

 

Not so much the color - but how different are the two between the A (or A+, B) and the D models? I found sprue H for the Tamiya A kit, but I was told that I'd need another sprue for the correct hood. Wondering how much the rivet counters will explode if I use the D kit's hoods....

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9 hours ago, crackerjazz said:

Ok I see what you mean.  I'm looking at the Daco book and they're all different so it looks like you'll have a little chopping to do : (    Does Eduard have the B?  The HUD can probably be scratchbuilt.

 

You lost me at "scratchbuilt."

 

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11 hours ago, crackerjazz said:

Ok I see what you mean.  I'm looking at the Daco book and they're all different so it looks like you'll have a little chopping to do : (    Does Eduard have the B?  The HUD can probably be scratchbuilt.

 

Good 'nuff for guh'ment work. The hood/cover from the D kit plus B panel from Eduard. I'm 52, I just lost two PE seatbelts....there's only so much I'll fuss and fuss.

 

I either have to fight to paint molded-in seatbelts, or fiddle with PE and have them go "ZING!" off into empty space.

 

 

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What year F-14B are you depicting?

 

-  2003 article about the new Sparrowhawk HUD the F-14B's were getting.   I've been looking at DCS F-14B vids and none of them have the new HUD, so maybe you're good using an F-14A cockpit if you're doing older pre-2003 F-14Bs?  

-  This pic shows an F-14B with the new HUD under a red cover - a real time saver  : )    But the RIO's screen is square  : (   (I guess they go hand-in-hand?)

-  An old discussion here.

-  And the DCS F-14B

-  A Britmodeller thread  (not much about the HUD but great F-14B reference nonetheless)

 

Edited by crackerjazz
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For the 2002 VF-143 jets, they were pre-Sparrowhawk HUD. So it had the standard A coaming. The B pilot panel had a different instrument cluster on the upper right. But using the A panel is good enough if you’re happy with it. 


The RIO panel has the Lantirn PTID display snd left side hand controller. had coaming as the A. Up to you as far as how detailed you want to get. Phase Hangar makes the parts. You could cut out the PTID from a D and add it to the A panel. You could put a square piece of plastic over the kit A TID Fishbowl and and sides. You could use a Eduard piece - just depends on how accurate you want to get. While it’s a bit different, you could use the D left side panel with the hand controller. Or use the A part and add a stick. 

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4 hours ago, Brian P: Fightertown Decals said:

For the 2002 VF-143 jets, they were pre-Sparrowhawk HUD. So it had the standard A coaming. The B pilot panel had a different instrument cluster on the upper right. But using the A panel is good enough if you’re happy with it. 


The RIO panel has the Lantirn PTID display snd left side hand controller. had coaming as the A. Up to you as far as how detailed you want to get. Phase Hangar makes the parts. You could cut out the PTID from a D and add it to the A panel. You could put a square piece of plastic over the kit A TID Fishbowl and and sides. You could use a Eduard piece - just depends on how accurate you want to get. While it’s a bit different, you could use the D left side panel with the hand controller. Or use the A part and add a stick. 

 

Thanks Brian. I just said "heck with it" as far as combining Eduard panels and hoods/glare shields, and just bought the PH Late A/Late B cockpit upgrade set.

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4 minutes ago, Brian P: Fightertown Decals said:

For the pilot one, you can just use the stock A.

 

Stock A what......hood/glare shield? I don't have that, I have the D kit, and one sprue (H) from an A kit.

 

Sorry to be so dense.

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I haven't decided if these go in "The Tomato" or Dog 100. Aires resin seats with Eduard prepainted PE. (The belts came with an A-model IP set, and I lost one of the Aires belts.)

 

The shoulder belts will be shaped and secured once the anchor point under the headrest dries.

 

 

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1 hour ago, phantom said:

Put it in which ever canopy does not close the best. Then you can have one open one closed.

 

Honestly, I've had so much grief with The Tomato (Hasegawa kit) that I'm about THIS FAR (fingers almost in a pinch position) from putting some form of cover inside (or maybe over) the canopy, to hide the disaster inside (and save the good seats for another build).

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Again, I'm absolutely STUNNED at how the Tamiya D is just falling together. I did make a couple goofs - assembled fan onto intake ducts, then installed those BEFORE I masked and painted the forward intake sections. D'oah!

 

Other than that....incredibly smooth.

This is a couple nights ago....I'm masking sub-assemblies so the glue has bare plastic to weld.

 

 

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23 minutes ago, crackerjazz said:

Very cool!   Was it the 1500 grade Mr. Surfacer primer that you used? 

 

And I wasn't too meticulous about covering every single square mm of the surface - with all the marbling and tonal variations (guess which modeling site I got THAT from?), I figured it ultimately wouldn't matter.

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OK, a few pics NOT blown out. I did a lot of light ghost grey (36375) last night, covered many of the rear fuselage panel lines, then applied maskol. After re-watching Doog's vid on the basics of black basing, I re-primed in black. Since the upper fuselage will see some fading due to sun exposure, I marbled with dark ghost grey (36320), and also applied some of the dark to the undersides. It seems the undersides get quite dirty, so I'll also do some marbling with medium grey (35237) there.

 

I raided a Hasegawa A+ kit for the TCS chin pod, but could only find one half. I've ordered the Quickboost resin pod, and as of now the forward fusealge is only ~ 80% primed in black.

 

I'm finally getting the hang of low pressure (13 to 15 psi) and really thinned paint (I start at 2:1 thinner to paint, then add drop by drop until it works.)

 

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Edited by MA Cooke
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