Tamiya 1/48 F-14A Gypsy 204 Desert Storm Cat

[RichB63]

Stunning!

[my favs are F`s]

Oh I'm late to the party, but I'll follow from now. What to say... it shapes into a tremendous build. Keep it up! The intakes' details are my favorite part so far. 

[Drew T.]

Thanks for the nice words everyone!  I’ve made a few more areas to detail before moving on to painting.  F-14s use a string in front of the windscreen to measure the amount of sideslip when landing.  I replicated this with very thin stretched sprue.  Note that I roughly tape over the cockpit to keep debris out and eliminate risk of damage during construction.

 

 

I am using Quickboot’s TCS and wanted to replicate the mirrored appearance in the scope.  I first painted the front section behind the lens black.  I then used my Anyz chrome decal sheet and punched out a circle and  applied it in the center of the lens area.  Once that was dry, I punched out a tiny black circle from a black decal and applied it in the center.  I then installed the lens.  Once I’m done with painting, I might add my Hasegawa holographic film to the outer surface of the lens.

 

 

I did a bunch of detailing on the landing gear, mostly following what Kris Sieber did in his F-14 build.  It’s not glued in place in the photo, I’ll wait until final assembly before doing that.

 

 

 

I used Quickboot’s Pheonix rails since they add missing detail from the kit rails.

 

 

I also installed the rest of the Quickboost naviation lights. 

 

 

They include some of the area surrounding the light, but for the tail fin lights, I didn’t want to go that route, as I was afraid of sanding away surrounding surface detail. Instead, I cut off a hunk of the red and blue resin from the set and glued it in place of the light. I then trimmed and sanded down the chunk until it was even with the surrounding surface.

 

 

Right now, I’m starting to lay down a base coat of Mr. Surfacer 1500 black primer.  Stay tuned for the next update and thanks for looking!

[Thadeus]

You are keeping the overall quality quite high. Very nice work.

[Drew T.]

Thanks Thadeus!

 

It’s been a while, but I now have everything pained.  To build an initial patina on the gray camo, I started with a base coat of black Mr. Surfacer 1500 and applied a speckled coat of white by spraying through a dryer sheet.

 

 

I then sprayed a highly thinned coat of Mr. Color C308 light ghost gray on the underside and C307 dark ghost gray on the top.  To add more texture, I sprayed a very highly diluted black as well as white paint in an irregular pattern.  Another very light coat of the light and dark ghost gray blended everything in.

 

 

 

I made masks and painted most of the markings.  For the dark gray, I used Mr. Color C301 Euro 1 Gray.  For the light gray on the sword, I used Mr. color C315 Light Gull Gray.  These matched up with the Bullseye decals very well.  I elected not to use most of the stencil decals, as my reference photos often do not shown them

 

 

 

 

Since Gypsy 204 was not on this decal set, I was on my own for the bureau numbers.  They were to small to make masks for, but I found a set of stencil number decals on Ebay that looked about right.  I could not make out the font type in photos, and the size and font seems to vary from jet to jet, so I had to use my best guess.  The decals are black, but I’ll lightly overspray them with light ghost gray to match them up better with the dark gray markings. 

 

 

The Wolf 3D chaff and flare dispensers were installed.  They look very nice and since the are multiple parts, they can be easily painted before assembly.

 

 

I usually paint wheel wells before painting the rest of the model, but I did the opposite this time since masking the wheel wells is always a pain.  Masking the surrounding area to paint the wheel wells is easier.  I added many various Anyz decals to the wheel wells and landing gear to liven things up.

 

 

 

 

I also painted and decaled the missiles.  Decals from Reskit and Eduard never seem to stick well for me and tend to silver badly.  I had to use several rounds of Solvaset and even airbrushed Mr. Color Leveling Thinner over them to get them to melt into the paint, but I finally got them to settle down.

 

 

In Kris Sieber’s book, he explained how he was able to achieve a rough finish for the non-skid areas on each side of the cockpit.  Following his instructions, I sprayed a light coat of black Mr. Surfacer 1500 over the masked off areas to seal off the masking tape.  I then used a deerfoot stippler brush and applied the Mr. Surfacer straight from the jar.  I continued to blot and poke at the surface with the brush as the paint dried to achieve an in-scale rough appearance.  Once dry, I lightly sanded with 2000 grit sandpaper until the surface matched reference photos.

 

 

At this point, I just need to spray a thick coat of clear gloss over the decals and sand it down to blend them into the surrounding surface.  I’ll then apply a matt overcoat and start weathering!

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Drew

[usmcski6502]

A dryer sheet? Genius! And what a great low-cost alternative to many of the aftermarket options out there! Can I assume it’s a USED dryer sheet? (I’d be worried about residue with a fresh one, and I’d assume a used one is more distressed and would lead to a more random pattern). Do tell…

 

Looking forward to the finished ‘Cat, keep up the great work!

 

Semper Fly,

 

Ski

[A-10 LOADER]

As usual, very nice work Drew.

Steve

 

"TOMCATS FOREVER, BABY...!"

[Andrés S]

What amazing work I've seen here. A lot of attention to detail and a lot of modeling skills.

I like your work. 👍🏻

 

Andrés.

[Drew T.]

On 7/24/2025 at 12:15 AM, usmcski6502 said:

A dryer sheet? Genius! And what a great low-cost alternative to many of the aftermarket options out there! Can I assume it’s a USED dryer sheet? (I’d be worried about residue with a fresh one, and I’d assume a used one is more distressed and would lead to a more random pattern). Do tell…

 

Looking forward to the finished ‘Cat, keep up the great work!

 

Semper Fly,

 

Ski

 

Thanks Ski!  Yes, I used a used dryer sheet.  I did also try a fresh one.  I didn't have problems with residue, but a fresh one gives a more regular pattern that didn't look right to me.  A used one gives a more natural pattern.  The other bonus to using a dryer sheet is that it more easily confoms to curved surfaces better than more rigid aftermarket products.

 

On 7/24/2025 at 10:38 AM, A-10 LOADER said:

As usual, very nice work Drew.

Steve

 

"TOMCATS FOREVER, BABY...!"

 

Thanks Steve!

17 hours ago, Andrés S said:

What amazing work I've seen here. A lot of attention to detail and a lot of modeling skills.

I like your work. 👍🏻

 

Andrés.

 

Thanks Andrés!

[RichB63]

More amazingness from Drew...I love it!

Rich

[Drew T.]

On 7/27/2025 at 7:43 PM, RichB63 said:

More amazingness from Drew...I love it!

Rich

Thanks Rich!

 

Over the past 2-3 weeks, I’ve been busy weathering this thing.  This is probably the most involved weathering process I’ve done on a model, but seeing how grubby modern US Naval aircraft get, I wanted to do this one right.  The first step was to give everything a coat of Mr Color GX114 super smooth clear to give the oil paint weathering a “sticky” surface to adhere to.  I then worked in small sections by dabbing on some Abteilung Starship Filth and working it in with naphtha thinner.  Using reference photos as a guide, I went heavier with the oil paint in high wear areas, like around the boarding steps and the top of the fuselage.  I also used straight black oil paint in some areas just so the weathering doesn’t all have the same brown tint that the Starship Filth gives.  To give further texture to the weathering, I took a soft sponge dampened with naphtha thinner and dabbed it on the oil paint for texture.  This provides an interesting patina similar to using the salt technique with airbrushing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To create the iconic circular wear pattern shown on the wings of aircraft with swept wings, I first masked off the area with masking tape and applied a uniform thin layer of black oil paint.  I then dampened a brush with naphtha thinner and brushed in circular wear lines.  I also used addition oil paint to paint on the darker wear lines.  With the long working time afforded by oil paint, I could work in a smooth arc to match reference photos. 

 

 

The air bags were weathered to match period refence photos.  The color of the airbags seemed to vary from plane to plane, but they appear to me to be a light gray/brown color around the Desert Storm era.  The stripe that wraps around the fuselage just ahead of the vertical stabilizers was often painted on the airbags, but would wear off on the section that rubbed against the wing.  I replicated this look by not spraying the strip in this area. 

 

 

 

I’m hoping it doesn’t look like I’m overdoing the weathering, but many photos from the Desert Storm era showed that these birds got pretty grubby with the high tempo of missions they were flying during combat operations.  Interestingly, I read that one of the reasons Tomcats never got any of the MIG kills during the conflict was that the Iraqis were quite familiar with the powerful AWG-9 and long-range Phoenix from the previous war with Iran.  As soon as the Iraqis detected the Navy’s Tomcat’s radar, they would turn tail and run away before they could get  a kill. 

 

I still have a ways to go with the weathering.  I still haven’t done any weathering on the underside.  Before starting that, I “locked in” the weathering on the upper surfaces with another coat of GX114.  I also still need to spray “touch ups” that are so iconic on Naval aircrafts, but I wanted to do this over a weathered surface so the touch ups would look cleaner and more recently applied.

 

As always, thanks for looking!

 

Drew

[A-10 LOADER]

Nice work Drew, she's looking great.

When the Tomcat's airbags are new, they are a light tan color, as they get worn and dirty they become much darker.

Steve

 

"TOMCATS FOREVER, BABY...!"

[RichB63]

Extremely realistic finish…bravo!

[Drew T.]

Thanks Steve and Rich!

[Bob Beary]

I am building the same model and using the MCC seats as well. I am using the kit seats as a paint mule, but I am not satisfied so far with the colors.

 

Would you mind sharing what paints and colors you used on your seats. They look incredible.

 

Thanks,  Bob

[Drew T.]

Thanks Bob!  I used Mr. Color paints, with many of the colors custom mixed.  They brown on the outer seat cushions is C530.  The yellow on the pull handles is C329.  For the green on the inner seat cushions as well as the grays on the top section of the head rest, I custom mixed the colors.  The gray on the top of the head rest and the seat belts have a tiny bit of green in them to match reference photos.  Unfortunately, I can't remember the exact colors I mixed together and I didn't measure the ratios, I just played with the mixture until I got something that looked right to my eye.  I tried not to get too hung up on color matching photos since the colors of the cushions and belts seems to vary from seat to seat.  I even tried to vary some of the colors slightly between the two seats just for visual interest, but after an oil wash and light drybrushing, it's hard to tell.  

[Bob Beary]

Thanks Drew, that's good information especially about varying the color from front to backseats.

 

Bob

[Mr.Happy]

Getting close Drew.

 

As mentioned before thank you for your in depth descriptive synopses of your on going updates on your build. 
 

You might consider writing or orchestrating a ‘how to’ book on building the Tomcat.

 

Best of continued success on your build.

 

Mr. Happy

[Drew T.]

Thanks Mr. Happy!  I’m too lazy to write a whole book on this project.  Plus, Kris Sieber did a really nice book on his Tomcat and did much more scratchbuilding than I have.  I followed many of the techniques he used in this build.  

 

I have the bottom of the model mostly weathered now.  Between the layers of dirt streaking with the oil paint, I applied a coat of clear flat to protect the previous layers of weathering.  I also went ahead and sprayed some touch up with a roughly 60:40 mix of Mr. Color C308 and C338.  I found a couple of photos of this exact plane during Desert Storm, so I'm trying to match the weathering as much as possible to these photos.

 

 

 

 

I also installed the covers on the AC fans so I could weather them with the underside.  They look very nice, but are super delicate.

 

 

I also used oils to discolor and weather the hoses in the nose gear bay to match reference photos.  I started with a layer of yellow ochre and then a layer of starship filth.

 

 

I went lighter with the weathering on the underside of the wings, as they don’t appear that dirty in reference photos.  I also added some light streaking where the underside of the wings rub the airbags using the same technique as I used for the top of the wings.

 

 

Most of my reference photos show fluid stains on the underside of the external fuel tanks, so I duplicated this look with oils.  I also used them to add general grubbiness to the tanks.

 

 

I still need to add some corrosion control touch ups, but I’m getting close! As always, thanks for looking!

 

Drew

[Mr.Happy]

Saaaaweeet!

 

Mr. Happy 

[GW8345]

On 8/20/2025 at 11:06 AM, Drew T. said:

I’m hoping it doesn’t look like I’m overdoing the weathering, but many photos from the Desert Storm era showed that these birds got pretty grubby with the high tempo of missions they were flying during combat operations.  Interestingly, I read that one of the reasons Tomcats never got any of the MIG kills during the conflict was that the Iraqis were quite familiar with the powerful AWG-9 and long-range Phoenix from the previous war with Iran.  As soon as the Iraqis detected the Navy’s Tomcat’s radar, they would turn tail and run away before they could get  a kill. 

Drew, you are not over doing the weather, keep doing what you're doing, the weathering is spot on.

 

And that is a true statement that the Iraqis were deathly scared of the Tomcat, that's how VFA-81 got their Mig kills. The Migs were running from VF-74 and VF-103's Tomcats that were doing a fighter sweep ahead of the strike package and ran right into the F-18's while they were looking over their shoulder trying to get away from the Tomcat's. 

 

GW

[Drew T.]

Thanks Mr. Happy and GW! 

 

I’m on the home stretch now.  I have completed the touch ups, using my reference photos as guidance.  The corrosion control touch ups seems to vary from plane to plane and era to era, so I tried to stick to Desert Storm era photos, VF-32 specifically.  However, the touch ups looked to stark to me against the highly weathered finish, so I blended them in slightly with additional oil paint weathering.

 

Also, I decided I wasn’t happy with the Reskit exhausts since the closed nozzle was slightly undersized and resulted in a step when attached to the model.  However, I had the old cast resin version of the exhaust which Reskit has replaced with a much nicer 3D printed version.  I tried that and it’s a much better fit.  The burner can is also much nicer, but the detail is hidden deep inside the model when installed. 

 

Anyway, here’ a few pics.  Next post will (hopefully!) be the finished product!

 

 

 

 

[A-10 LOADER]

Very nice Drew, she's looking splendid.

Steve

 

"TOMCATS FOREVER, BABY...!"

[Bob Beary]

Drew,  As I mentioned earlier, I am building the same model (Jolly Rogers CAG bird) with a white underside. Would the pylons also be white?

 

I am planning to leave the fuel tanks grey for contrast.

 

Also, the horizontal stabs are not "sided" as such. There is a molding at the very tip (which looks like a trim tab actuator). The molding is somewhat more pronounced on one side than the other. Which side is the top surface?

 

Thanks,

 

Bob

[BastianD]

Very convincing piece of art so far!