F-14 from the top gun film

[BAM'n'IVM]

Nice going!

I am getting ready a tomcat and a 1/48 Tom Cruise.

Then a 1/32 pilot figure should do nicely for the crazy little guy.

[madcow]

I'm getting 2 F-14A's in 1/72 just for this. Maverick and Iceman F-14's are certainly something different.

Ricardo

[Brian P: Fightertown Decals]

Jared - you are correct on the star points for VFA-213. They do point to the center. If you go back to page 6, the testors decals for the squadron badges are pretty dead on! They also, at least on the box, show 107 which was actually painted with mavericks tail badge (Seen at beginning of film when Mav is helping Cougar get back to the ship)

And I agree with your thinking on this decal as to printing VFA-213 and letting the builder paint it over if they want.

Should I even inquire as to helmet decals...

-brian

[jolly old roger]

I can't remember, did they use actual squadron markings or not. If they used actual markings there should be no copyright problem.

yes they did. I have one of the old kits with the decals in it for 1/72, and 1/48 scale. both are unbuilt right now. :D java script:emoticon('', 'smid_30')

:blink:

[Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy]

Yeah, I've got one too...actually the airframe itself is in the paint shop, getting a commemorative what-if scheme, but the decals are still intact and being saved for any special occasion I feel called to use them for....granted, they're not as perfect as I think the ones coming out of THIS project will be, but....

[Jared Bishop]

Oh one more, but I'm sure you got it already - Ice's 104 on the starboard side the tail badge is pointing the other way, so the bolt is high on the left (aft) and low on the right (forward).

Same deal on Mav's 114, eagle faces forward.

-bp

I know in the film they actualy mirrored some scenes. But if it's that way on actual fighters then ok.

[Daniel_B]

Oh one more, but I'm sure you got it already - Ice's 104 on the starboard side the tail badge is pointing the other way, so the bolt is high on the left (aft) and low on the right (forward).

Same deal on Mav's 114, eagle faces forward.

-bp

Except that this pic shows it facing aft:

[Vesper]

Print a pair facing fwd and 1 facing aft, then the modeler can choose

Ves :D

[Jared Bishop]

go it

[Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy]

Print a pair facing fwd and 1 facing aft, then the modeler can choose :D

Ves B)

There ya go; works for me!

[Brian P: Fightertown Decals]

LOL - yep, there's another example of the different paint jobs on different airframes. Looking at a picture with both the 104 and 114 jets showing their starboard sides (non-gun side and not flipped) and the eagle is facing forward.

Just picked up the Wings magazine with BIOs Topgun filming article. There's a great shot of the forward fuselage of 104C (w/ tom cruise in the backseat) and it has Ice/Slider's names but not callsigns on the rails, and the cool thing is you can see underneath that there were other names painted previously...Seem to remember Merlins name on the rear canopy, same side in the shot from the camera mounted on top of the wing glove vein as it's rolling and following an F-5, but Mav/Cougar helmets in the cockpit. AP hancock - can you help out with a screen shot of that, or teach me how and I'll capture and post it.

-brian

[Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy]

Me, personally, I'd definitely, without question build mine with both emblems facing/pointing toward the nose.

One neat thing about all this is, the movie *did* copy reality in one crucial, overlooked area: For everything that should be standard/constant/assumed, it turns out there's always proof of something to shatter every preexisting theory!

[Daniel_B]

Just picked up the Wings magazine with BIOs Topgun filming article. There's a great shot of the forward fuselage of 104C (w/ tom cruise in the backseat) and it has Ice/Slider's names but not callsigns on the rails, and the cool thing is you can see underneath that there were other names painted previously...Seem to remember Merlins name on the rear canopy, same side in the shot from the camera mounted on top of the wing glove vein as it's rolling and following an F-5, but Mav/Cougar helmets in the cockpit. AP hancock - can you help out with a screen shot of that, or teach me how and I'll capture and post it.

-brian

I'll try to find that, sure. I didn't take notice of the helmets, but I definitely remember seeing Mav's/Merlin's names on the rails in one of the shots (during the climax) taken from the camera mounted to the top of the fuselage.

I haven't watched the featurettes since first getting the special edition DVD last year, but I seem to remember a film taken during one of the briefs before a 'movie shoot' flight, where as one of the final notes, the lead pilot (Bozo, I think?) mentioned that they'd be using the movie helmets, and he'd be playing Merlin! So who knows--there might even be a shot or two in there of Merlin in the front seat.

Making caps is pretty straightforward. You need to have a DVD-ROM drive, but unless your PC's like 5 years old or more, you should have one. Put the movie in and start playing it--I use PowerDVD, which came pre-loaded on my comp. Get to the spot you want and pause it. Now, with PowerDVD, you'd press the 'C' key--with another program, it might be something else. I think 'Prt Scrn' will also work with most anything. Close that program and open up an image-editor like Adobe Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, etc., create a new blank image, and hit 'Paste'. Voila--done! (If your DVD is widescreen, re-size it to 740x405 to get the proper dimensions.)

HTH, :huh:

Daniel

[Brian P: Fightertown Decals]

Daniel - thanks for the tips. Tried for about an hour, but my 6 month old sony Vaio laptop just won't do it. I finally managed a screen capture off of media player, but when I pasted it in, I got a blank screen. I'm buying a new computer anyways...

What I did see in those 'over the glove vane shots' was Merlin's helmet in back and pretty sure the canopy rail reads LT JG SAM WILLS,(always thought it was Mills for some reason) MERLIN. Now for the front, pilot is wearing a Maverick helmet, but can't make out the pilot name on the rail - looks too short to be Mitchell and Maverick. My thinking on that day it was Cougar... But looks like more evidence points to a constant changing of names. ref - Chapter 2: 00:08:32 was as close as I could get to an exact frame.

Hoping to see some actual ref next week...If nothing else this thread and research is fun and since I'll I'm doing the last week and maybe next is modeling.

-brian

[Daniel_B]

Brian, unless I'm not looking at the shot you're referring to, it's definitely Merlin sitting in as Maverick's RIO, not Cougar. Both have the same color helmets, but Cougar's has blue trim on it, and Merlin's has yellow:

Speaking of Cougar, Jared, this is for you: a shot of the 203 MODEX on Cougar's jet. It does look slightly italicized, along with being pretty chunky and thick-looking:

Some of the various right-side tail art, which are much harder to find than the left side:

Notice on the Iceman one, the MODEX on the nose is 104, but on the wings its 106. The photo in "Bye, Bye, Baby" shows it the same way. But that's nothing--check this out :D :

(Both are caps from the same--continuous--shot, of Ice and Slider launching for the fight at the end of the movie)

104 on the nose, 213 on the flaps.

Personally, when building a model, that's where I'd part company with accuracy--I'd want all my MODEXes to match... :blink:

Daniel

[Brian P: Fightertown Decals]

Daniel - That (the 3rd shot) is exactly the one. I did make a typo about Mav/Cougar a few posts up - I'll go fix it. As for the actual pilots, it definitely is Mav/Merlin, names on the rails are Merlin and from what I can tell, Cougar. Thanks for pulling all these screen shots!

I love the caps you pulled with the different modex/flap #'s. Just goes to show that there were a lot of different jets marked up. They did have 3 separate filming units in different locations at different times, and then they doubled and tripled up on the boat trips... I'll bet you the art department had a good number of vinyl markings and stencils and whenever they were going to film, slap those markings and repaint the canopy/numbers and off they go. It definitely was set up that Mav was 114, Ice 104 and from there, all bets were off. Having been in production, things can move so fast, that it can end up just throwing something up fast and shoot!

Good luck trying to convince a modeling judge who thinks he knows the movie that these markings Jared is doing are "accurate"! I'm with you Daniel - I'm going for fictional accuracy, not actual accuracy! But then again...

-brian

[Daniel_B]

Daniel - That (the 3rd shot) is exactly the one. I did make a typo about Mav/Cougar a few posts up - I'll go fix it. As for the actual pilots, it definitely is Mav/Merlin, names on the rails are Merlin and from what I can tell, Cougar. Thanks for pulling all these screen shots!

If you have "Tomcat Alley" by David Brown, the entry for 160694 shows it with '114' on the nose, the peeling remnants of the fictitious VF-1 insignia on the tail, and the accompanying text says it served as the camera ship during filming and bore the names of Maverick and his new RIO Merlin on the canopy rails. To me, looking at that (3rd) cap, it's almost impossible to read the pilot's name, but after 'LT.', I think I can make out 'Pete'.

Oh, and I didn't really make this clear in the last post, but the point of that cap Iceman's 104/106 was to show the right-side tail and back up what you'd already said about the direction of the lightning bolt: upward and back toward the tail's top rear corner, no matter what side.

Here's one more of Maverick's. This is actually of one of the models used to film the flat-spin sequence, not a real a/c, but you can see that on it, the bird faces aft:

If I had to think up some kind of logic to make sense of the two versions, I'd probably decide that the backward-facing one is on the Maverick/Goose jet, and the forward-facing one is on the Maverick/Merlin.

Daniel

[Brian P: Fightertown Decals]

Daniel -

"To me, looking at that (3rd) cap, it's almost impossible to read the pilot's name, but after 'LT.', I think I can make out 'Pete'."

I'll agree with you on that, and I looked at that shot in the movie for a long time. But what comes after 'Pete' looks too short to be Mitchell and the callsign seems too short for Maverick, but "Cortell" and"Cougar" look like they might fit but aren't that much shorter.... Bill and Pete are awfully close that blurry.

I'm REALLY hoping between Tony's pics/book and if I can get the art director to call me back we'll get some clearer idea of these things, but the research/supposition/timelines and the good ole pause button and frame advance on the dvd player are giving us a great time and loads of tidbits! Keep it up guys!

[Slide]

YAY!

an excuse to buy/build more F-14s!!

[Darren Roberts]

With all this talk of the movie and all the little details, I thought I'd give my little tidbit I found. For the upcoming FSM article in the November issue, I did a Monogram kit up in Topgun markings. I wanted to do Mav's jet, so of course I had to watch the movie to gather reference. When Mav/Goose go flying at Topgun for the first time, you'll notice that 104 is shown in the flying sequences. You can catch glimpses of the "VFA-213" markings on the tail even, which is supposed to be Iceman's markings. Since I like how badly this plane was weathered, I chose to do that one. I wanted to at least stay consistant with Mav's tail markings, though, so I put the "VF-1" markings on instead of Iceman's "VF-213". Please forgive me for this inconsistency! <_<

Edited August 20, 2006 by Darren Roberts

[Darren Roberts]

If you have "Tomcat Alley" by David Brown, the entry for 160694 shows it with '114' on the nose, the peeling remnants of the fictitious VF-1 insignia on the tail, and the accompanying text says it served as the camera ship during filming and bore the names of Maverick and his new RIO Merlin on the canopy rails. To me, looking at that (3rd) cap, it's almost impossible to read the pilot's name, but after 'LT.', I think I can make out 'Pete'.

There's also a picture of Iceman's jet in the hangar, and if you look at the ventral strake, you can see VF-111 still painted on it.

[Daniel_B]

There's also a picture of Iceman's jet in the hangar, and if you look at the ventral strake, you can see VF-111 still painted on it.

Yep, I noticed that. However, the 'VF-111' text isn't visible in any shots in the movie, so I'm guessing the photo was taken while the jet was still in the process of being prepped for filming--existing markings being painted over, new ones applied.

And I love your model! Now the rest of us want one.

Daniel

[madcow]

One thing I noticed on the film (not that's important for the topic). No one is wearing flight gloves. Is this normal?

Ricardo

[Vesper]

No, most driver wear the nomex gloves (I'm guessing that everyone got away with it because of the whole 'using cockpit mockups for the in-cockpit filming' idea), if you notice during the flat-spin ejection seq., Mav's not wearing the gloves while in the mock-up but when they switch to the ejection scene his stand-in is, along with full face mask and visor.

Ves

[toadwbg]

With all this talk of the movie and all the little details, I thought I'd give my little tidbit I found. For the upcoming FSM article in the November issue, I did a Monogram kit up in Topgun markings. I wanted to do Mav's jet, so of course I had to watch the movie to gather reference. When Mav/Goose go flying at Topgun for the first time, you'll notice that 104 is shown in the flying sequences. You can catch glimpses of the "VFA-213" markings on the tail even, which is supposed to be Iceman's markings. Since I like how badly this plane was weathered, I chose to do that one. I wanted to at least stay consistant with Mav's tail markings, though, so I put the "VF-1" markings on instead of Iceman's "VF-213". Please forgive me for this inconsistency! :D

'Can't wait for you FMS article Darren. Great work.

Question, don't take this as critisism: I know the TPS scheme has a lot of color variation, but your bird almost looks like an old-fashioned camoflage pattern in some places. Is this how the birds from the film really are also? I assume you have references and duplicated the look as best as possible. Please elaborate.