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1/48 Scale F-14 Super Tomcat Prototype


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*sigh* yes, it IS the Fujimi kit. :cheers:

The good news? It's not as bad as it could be :)

The bad news? It's worse than it should be :o

One one hand, the kit has a decent mix of raised and lowered panel lines (the entire nose section has recessed panels, which is nice... the entire top of the fuselage has raised panel lines, which isn't so nice). In typical Fujimi fashion (this is true of their 1/72 kits also), the engine fairings are too short... the afterburner cans should extend BEYOND the broad part of the beavertail, but in the case of Fujimis, they only just reach it. Not a whole lot I can do about that without seriously modifying the rear of the fuselage.

I'm not sure which prototype I'm going to build it as. Each version would require some sort of modification to be correct ( :cheers: ), If I wanna build it as the original B prototype, all I really have to do is saw the chinpod off. However I would then have to make a couple of custom decals for the tailfins. If I wanna build it as the A+ prototype, all I really have to do is to square off the engine fairings and I'm good to go. If I want to make the D prototype, I'll have to fix the engine fairings, TRY to make some NACA ducts on the gun, and add the dual chinpod. I'm leaning towards the A+ proto... it'll take the least amount of work to make accurate.

Some dryfitting of the main body parts show that there actually seems to be a relatively decent fit all around.

Edited by Skull Leader
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now HERE is a change of pace... the instrument panels are glued to their respective coamings, NOT the cockpit tub! This required a bit of a rain dance on my part to insure their alignment while I closed the nose halves, but I aligned it pretty well, apparently! There is no raised detail on the panels, but there ARE conveniently placed "guide marks" to help align your decals properly.. (for whatever that's worth). I initially planned to put aftermarket seats in this thing (and I may still if I can work it out), but the bottom of the tub is angled especially for the mutant seats included in the kit. There is no rear bulkhead wall for the forward cockpit, just this huge gap running underneath the RIO's instrument panel coaming... so I'm going to build one out of styrene. I'm also going to cover the "CPU" behind the RIO's seat with styrene (I don't know what they were thinking). My hope is that after some minor modifications, I can at least make it look as good as an OOB revell/monogram. We'll see!

Edited by Skull Leader
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The canopy is neat in one way, but a total pain in the Hornet in another way. The bottom of the canopy frame comes as a seperate piece from the canopy itself. While this creates an ease for painting, it adds to frustration for building, as you want to make sure it's perfectly aligned. My plan is to leave the sprue piece in place in the middle until I glue the frame to the canopy itself.

To other Fujimi 1/48 builders, BEWARE! The RIO instrument panel coaming very much gets in the way! You have to sand down the sides of the coaming considerably before you get a good fit (and it needs to be sanded in 2 areas. one for the frame, and another for the canopy glass) Be sure and do a lot of dryfitting with the canopy frame and glass until you achieve a comfortable fit.

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OH GOD!!! ~slams head on wall~ Poor Skull Leader. I'm having a fit with mine too. :cheers:

Items to note:

1) Wings are stiff...when the top and bottom halves of the fuselage are glued together. Move the wings sparingly or you might have a re-glue job on your hands.

2) tailerons will require CA and talcum powder or a liberal usage of putty. Nice little gaps between the tailerons and the main fuselage, even when fit. Or sand to fit if you can. This is soft plastic...so a little sanding goes a LONG way.

*1 - glove-vanes tend to PUSH up against the top half of the fuselage and if not careful, the fuselage could separate. Had it happen to me once. So had to re-Tenax the top fuselage together and hold it down with an unaltered-clothespin. (handy little things).

Geez, Skull Leader, we should commiserate together on our joint builds of this Fudge-ME...F-14...

Ah FRACK!!!! :cheers:

Oh, BTW, don't bother with the aftermarket seats for this POS. I think we'd have a headache and a half putting in some seats that deserve to be in a better kit into something that isn't worth the time or the effort to put GOOD stuff into.

Edited by The_Animal
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Wow I'm struggling with mine too. I just started the jet intakes and the wing assembly. I tried to shoe-horn a Revell cockpit tub into the foward fuselage but no go. the kit's too narrow towards the back.

I must say you've done a great job with your cockpit! Maybe I'll just t ry to build it OOB.

Keep us posted....

Animal and I will need the group therapy...

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I'm thinking of trying the FSM Dec issue trick of using green confetti cut to size to fit in the CRT radar screens. That's about all I'm doing aftermarket on this kitty. :D I'll save my tricks for the Revell-Monogram/Tamiya/Hasegawa cats. :crying:

Ah, I know...let's start the Fujimi 1/48 F-14D Tomcat Builder's Commiseration Society...

Anybody else working on this 'Cat in this build???? :thumbsup:

Edited by The_Animal
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I thought about building it as the P/W prototype except for 2 things: 1, I've already modified the engine fairings to GE engine standard, and 2, I'd have to make some custom decals for the tail (that picture provides only one of a couple of variations that the original B prototype wore... when it became the A+ prototype in the early 80s THEN it switched to the "Super Tomcat" markings seen on it). That's actually the same plane (BuNo 157986), just at a different point in it's life.

It's been decided, I'm building it as the A+ prototype in the late 80s when it first began testing for the IR/TCS chinpod. I'd go ahead and build it as the D, but I don't wanna try to make NACA gun vents for the gunpanel.

To the rest of the Fujimi 1/48 society.... remember boys.. no points for second place ;)

Animal, I messed with the swing wings just long enough to decide that I'm gonna cut the damn things off. There is too much sanding that has to be done in too many different places for me to mess with that. It's gonna be built in the parked position with wings swept.

Edited by Skull Leader
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I realized that the engine fairings are too small for either the Academy or the Revell burner cans!!???? :lol: :woo:

This kit is so off scale it's incredible!!!!

Mine is being built as an inflight model because I don't like the kit landing gear and the farther my eyes are away from that cockpit the better.

BTW the swing wing mechanism squeaks on my bird enough to rattle my dental fillings

Living the dream!!!

Jotter

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Animal, I messed with the swing wings just long enough to decide that I'm gonna cut the damn things off. There is too much sanding that has to be done in too many different places for me to mess with that. It's gonna be built in the parked position with wings swept.

Skull Leader,

I actually messed with mine long enough to get MINE TO FREAKIN' WORK!!!! :thumbsup::worship: It's connected to the glove vanes AND I clamped the thing down with clothespins and brushed it first with Tenax and then with CA and left the damned thing to sit for about an hour and a half before I messed with it. Thank god I had something else to work on while I was waiting.

Jotter,

I don't particularly care for the landing gear either, but I figure what the heck.

I'm building it with the GE engines, and if it's inaccurate...whoopie...This is JUST a testbed on a large scale for the techniques I'm learning.

It's gonna be an F-14 "BUSTER"...y'know like on Discovery Channel's Myth Busters, that hapless mannequin.

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Spent a little time on the rear-end of this thing. In addition to the removal of the chinpod (which I plan to add an IR/TCS chinpod from a R/M kit), I added some putty to the rear to even out the (what will eventually be) black part of the engine fairings. I also scribed in the correct side fairings and sanded off the excess material (where the R/M doesn't have enough material to work with, the Fujimi has too much). After a little more work, I might actually be able to make this a proper-looking bird!

Since the panel lining is mostly still white (except for some tamiya putty dust), I outlined the new engine fairings in black micron pen.

Edited by Skull Leader
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Good luck man and nice work so far. I'm building the Testor's boxing of the Fujimi kit which must be a model of the prototype bird. My fuel tanks are rounded with fins. ugh.

So far I've got the foward fuselage done and i'm working on the tail tonight.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Spent some more time hacking away on this thing, working on the glove-sealing plate area and on the forward nose. First things first... as-is, if the wings are swept back, they angle upwards in a most annoying way (much like the dragon 1/144 tomcats do, or at least mine did). so I spent the better part of an hour trying to zero in on exactly what made it do that. I eventually realized that the inflatable part of the sealing plates was the problem. The rear half of the bag was molded as if the Tomcat had it's wings deployed while the forward half was molded as if the wings were swept. The end result? In either mode it really wouldn't look right. Since I'm gonna build it in a wings-swept/parked position, I had no qualms about grinding away the offending styrene in order to make them sit more flat. Using Kstater94's dremmel, I grinded a good portion of the sealing plate off. Here's a good comparison of an "undone" side versus my angst-ridden grinding:

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After working those up, I turned my attention to the forward fuselage. I puttied and sanded down the seam on the bottom rear piece. I also filled the radome with some clay and glued it in to place. Should be a relatively easy seam to clean up so I'm not too worried about that.

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one of my next projects will be building a rear-bulkhead for the Pilots section of the cockpit. After installing the RIO's panel coaming, I realized that there's a wide open space underneath it. This shouldn't be a difficult item to build. Once I get an idea for some detail to add (I'd like it to be more than just a flat wall)

(disclaimer: I'm also gonna build a panel to cover up that stupid looking CPU behind the RIO's seat... that's why it isn't painted)

Edited by Skull Leader
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an overall shot of progress so far. (just fit in to place, no glue) It's coming along pretty well, I'm finding lots of areas where I can do small things to make the kit better... I DO still get plenty frustrated with it (just ask John, he heard me mumbling about it all night!) but there is hope! Or.... at least... that's what I keep telling myself... :P :cheers::cheers:

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an overall shot of progress so far. (just fit in to place, no glue) It's coming along pretty well, I'm finding lots of areas where I can do small things to make the kit better... I DO still get plenty frustrated with it (just ask John, he heard me mumbling about it all night!) but there is hope! Or.... at least... that's what I keep telling myself...  :worship:  :worship:  :worship:

This I can confirm!

there were several times that I had ask Jeremy if he was talking to me, or himself AGAIN...

:worship:

I think the Fujimi kit is getting to him...

Edited by kstater94
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So tonight I tackled the idea of making a rear bulkhead to go behind the pilot's seat. My concept was derived from the Aries cockpit set (I had John take a picture of the rear wall of the pilot tub for the kit he's building so I would have an idea to work from). I'm here to show you how 20 minutes, some sheet and rod styrene, and some glue can take a once-non existent wall and present something that busys up the cockpit a little. (these pictures make it look like my tools are rusty, but I promise, I work with safe, clean materials! Never use a rusty x-acto blade! :thumbsup: )

First I cut a base piece for the bulkhead itself. I used .04 thick styrene.

100_0296.jpg

Using some strip styrene of the same thickness (.04), I cut a center panel and layered it.

100_0298.jpg

Using some .04 rod styrene, I made some rods to run vertical on either side of the center panel (like the Aries tub)

100_0300.jpg

Now it's starting to take shape. This was originally all I was going to do with it.

100_0301.jpg

I decided to "busy" it up some more on either side to flesh things out a little. Using some scrap strip and rod styrene, I cut some rectangular boxes out and another small rod. (this photo didn't turn out to well)

100_0302.jpg

I also cut out a little fuse panel to go on the starboard rear side to finish it off (again, like the Aries tub)

100_0307.jpg

I sanded to fit and glued the sucker in to place. I'm quite happy with it!

100_0309.jpg

Edited by Skull Leader
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