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Hasegawa 1/48 F-14B help


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Hello everyone,

 

I started to build a Hasegawa f-14B a few years ago (approx 4-5).  Never finished it, but packed it up nicely and now I would like to get to finishing it.  I know the new 1/48 F-14 Tamiya kits are spectacular but I don't want to throw this kit away as it's partially completed and in very good shape (a used aftermarket F-14B accurate interior and seems I already made a few enhancements (GPS Dome, stengthening plate around RIO's boarding step) but I'm fairly sure there are many others changes that are necessary.

 

I do remember that the Hasegawa F-14B was not entirely accurate, and in order to get a real f-14B there were a number of items that needed attention on the kit to make it a real F-14B.  I know a few years back someone wrote a great 'how to' article on building the Hasegawa F-14B into a  'true' B variant. Can someone please point me in the right direction, I tried searching but for some reason I can't find it.

 

I'm using the Hasegawa 1/48 Kit #09677 "Jolly Rogers Last Flight" as a baseline.  I do have great Fightertown aftermarket decals that I'm going to use on the build (VF/VFA-32 CAG's Swordsman, Gypsy 100).  I'm also going to use Fightertown's F-14A/B/D Tomcat Data Detail Decals.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers gents!

 

-Greg

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Since you are building a VF-32 B model, you'll need the SparrowHawk HUD. Phase Hanger Resin makes this as part of their LATE A/B cockpit upgrade set however it's for the Tamiya kit so, not sure if it would fit the Hasegawa kit.

Steve

"TOMCATS FOREVER, BABY...!"

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I got the cockpit covered already... can't remember the resin kit I got for it... I was like 4 years ago or so.  I'm more interested in the exterior details at this stage.

 

Thanks for chiming in A-10 Loader... always appreciated 🙂

 

-Greg

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Hi Steve, believe it or not the kit does not address all the true B features.  Just a few examples are:  Hasegawa omitted the GPS Dome and strengthening plate around RIO's boarding step... Not even sure about some of the ECM blisters that appeared on the B variant just on the outside of the air intakes and under the wings...

 

-Greg

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2 hours ago, lgl007 said:

Hi Steve, believe it or not the kit does not address all the true B features.  Just a few examples are:  Hasegawa omitted the GPS Dome and strengthening plate around RIO's boarding step... Not even sure about some of the ECM blisters that appeared on the B variant just on the outside of the air intakes and under the wings...

 

-Greg

Depending on time frame will determine if the aircraft had the GPS dome, the dome didn't come around until the late 90's and not all B's got them at the same time.

 

As for the strengthening plate around the RIO's step, not all B's had it.

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5 hours ago, lgl007 said:

Ah... thanks GW8345... that gives me food for thought.  What you are saying is that it was really a mixed bag on who got what when.

 

Cheers!

 

-Greg

Yes and no

 

For the strengthening plate around the RIO's step, it depended on the airframe, some needed it, other's didn't

 

For the GPS Dome, usually the aircraft were upgraded one squadron at a time and not all aircraft within the squadron got the mod at the exact same time. Usually it would take took a few months to rotate all the aircraft through the mod so you would see some aircraft within the squadron with and some without, this is due to the squadron being in the middle of the mod process.

 

When I was in VF-143 we transferred several of our jets to VF-32, none of the birds we transferred to them had the dome or the strengthening plate so it depends on what time frame you are doing (I'm not familiar with the FT sheet you have, I'm mostly a 1/72 scale guy).

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G'day,

 

I believe that that the articles you mentioned were authored by Dave Aungst over on Hyperscale given the timeframe (4-5 years agao).

 

Also very worthwhile reading is the  In Progress section  thread started by Lucio Martino (Improving the Hasegawa 1/48 Tomcat) which deals with the kit assembly sequence as well as improvements for accuracy,

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

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