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Revell F-14D Tomcat Build


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Back into the swing of working on the Tomcat. I've finished up the detail on the ejection seats. I'm quite happy with the way they turned out. (disregard the dust)

ejctdetail.jpg

I've also got some paint into the cockpit. I've worked on fitting it into the upper fuselage too.

cockpit.jpg

I've since pulled the cockpit out and removed the instrument panels to rework their paintjobs some. I also started to totally repaint the side consoles. I've also cut out the throttle quadrant to add one that is more realistic. If anyone has ideas for getting in and painting all of the tiny detail, I would love to hear them.

Cheers,

Dave

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Update on the last week's work...

I stripped some of the paint out of the cockpit and repainted the side consoles. Once I had the consoles repainted, I decided I didn't like the throttle quadrant so I built one from scratch.

cockpitxx.jpg

I think it came out pretty well. I also scratchbuilt the side stick for the RIO.

cockpitx.jpg

Scratchbuilding both of these pieces gave me a nice feeling of accomplishment to go with the rest of the sratchbuilding in the cockpit.

I used Colin K's technique for making colored lenses for the wing gloves. Instead of leaving them installed once they were shaped, I popped them back out and put a backing sheet behind each hole. I didn't want to mask the lenses later so I'll pop them back in when the painting is complete. The first lens probably took about 30-40 minutes to shape since I used a large hunk o' toothbrush and filed it down. The other three lenses took about 4-5 minutes apiece since I started with smaller pieces and had less shaping to do once I had the technique in hand. I definitely recommend the technique Colin K put out. There is a link to the article on the first page of this build for anyone who wants to look at it.

lens.jpg

After the lenses were done, I installed the cockpit and the Steel Beach IFR bay.

As I went to bring the fuselages together, I realized the spreader that I put into the fuselage earlier interfered with the cockpit. I installed a second spreader and cut out the center of the original one. Problem solved.

spreader.jpg

After the spreader problem was solved, I added some thin plastic sheet to the inside of most of the mating edges to add some strength instead of just leaving a butt joint. I sealed the fuselage together and have left it for now to form completely.

fuselagesealed.jpg

Here you can see the cockpit and IFR bay installed.

cockpitifrin.jpg

Hope you enjoy.

Cheers,

Dave

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exhaustinside.jpg

I put the engine exhausts together today and added strips to the inside to cover all of the crap inside and give a little more realism (I think) to the exhausts...next time I am going to use thinner sheet for it though...this is .0015 inch...next time .0010 I think

lantirnandbol.jpg

I have also been working on the LANTIRN pylon and the BOL rails. I intend to cast the pylon in resin so I have copies for other Revell birds. I still have to fish the detail on the pylon and sand the upper half of the pylon to shape. I'll cast them separately so I can use the upper pylon for a dual sidewinder mount also. Above the kit 'winder is my initial stab at a BOL rail. Failing to follow the "measure twice, cut once" rule, I somehow managed to come up with a rail that was too long. The hatched area shows the chunk I am gonna cut out. I'd really appreciate comments on the BOL rail. There is still a bunch of detail I need to add, but I think overall it is ok at the moment.

Great scratchbuilding work. BOL rail and Lantirn pylon seem so convincing (I also appreciated engine exhausts interior). Can't wait to see wheel bays and landing gear doors/legs.

Cheers,

Luca

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Not much of an update for this weekend. Spent too much time studying for a Sonar Exam and listening to the Bengals lose. Also struggled getting the car seats for the pending child to fit. Fun.

I worked on the intakes some and spent about seven hours during the entire week sanding, sanding and more sanding to make everything smooth. Rescribed after the sanding.

Did some work on the weapons so that the GBU seeker heads will bob down, but for the most part my time was spent sanding. I did strip some copper wire out of an old electrical cord I had removed from a broken lamp. I have started making replacement springs from it for the landing gear. I need to get some thicker wire to do more detail on the landing gear. I scrapped the idea of tearing out the gear bays and redoing them. Not enough motivation for something that won't be seen.

I also worked on adding a spar for the horizontal stabilizers.

Nothing really worthy of a picture at the moment. Sorry.

Progress has slowed while I await the arrival of more resin casting supplies. In my slow period I have resized some line drawings for a 1/48 Revell MiG-25 Foxbat and begun prep work on that kit. Yeah, I know, I'm sick. I'll start posting pics of her once some worthwhile work is done. Hopefully I'll have photo worthy work done on the Tomcat soon too.

Cheers,

Dave

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Thanks for the comments Colin.

Work during the week was sidelined by, well, work. Gotta study to get through my current school. But the building keeps me sane. I have also started on my MiG-25P Foxbat too. I should have an update for that tomorrow.

Here's another Tomcat update...got some casting supplies in the mail yesterday so I should get some of my pieces made for this one shortly. Most of the recent work however has been on detail items. I'll skip showing pictures of boring stuff I painted. I have been painting the bombs...some of the yellow stripes are done, but that was after the pictures were taken.

bombs.jpg

I decided to paint one of the -12s in a different clor scheme, but I haven't decided if I'm gonna keep it that way. And, yes, there will only be three bombs.

I also trudged through some detail work on the landing gear. I shredded the electrical cord for a broken lamp to get some wire to use for the hydraulic lines. I know that the lines I put in aren't perfect, but it was very good practice and I think they came out pretty well. Besides the hydraulic lines I also did the springs on the landing gear. Besides the ones on the MLGs, I also did the small one on the scissors on the NLG, but I hadn't put it on by the time I took the pictures.

legdetail1.jpg

legdetail2.jpg

legdetail3.jpg

The MLG springs were done by wrapping the wire around thin plastic rod and then cutting to length. You can actually see the rod in the super-close-ups. At a normal distance you can't see them at all. The NLG required a much smaller diameter spring. I didn't have thin enough plastic rod, so I improvised a jig out of some old sprue and wrapped the wire around another piece of wire. The result was pretty good I think.

wirewrap.jpg

I only used the thin even piece that you see in the picture since the spring is pretty short too. I did a long wrap just so I could use the nicest part.

It was a pretty challenging thing to do, but I am pretty happy with the results. Now to paint them.

Hopefully I'll have some more of the Tomcat to show tomorrow, along with the Foxbat.

Happy Veteran's Day

Cheers,

Dave

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  • 2 weeks later...

The slow going of the Tomcat build continues...school(work) continues to dominate my time right now, but I have been doing a bunch of the PITA little items right now...

I've been working on painting the exhaust cans and will provide a photo when they are done...

I've attached the nose and the intake trunks and have painted the landing gear bays...

I finished the work on the fairings around the exhausts...

I added detail to the canopy and still have a little bit to add...

I've measured and drilled holes to mount the War Eagle drop tanks...

I've cleaned up the mold lines on the aforementioned drop tanks...

My resin casting supplies showed up and I started making some molds. I started out with a very rough mold using the two bomb racks that I made from scratch. I cast two sets from this mold so that I had the original and 4 resin copies. Using those six, I started putting together a setup for a new mold so I could cast larger quantities.

bombrackpourplan.jpg

I should have this one done by morning. The rubber for the first side is drying right now and I should be able to flip it and make and dry the other side of the mold overnight.

I need to make a mold for the LANTIRN pylon too.

Next on the list is getting a primer coat on to it and fixing all the flaws. Along with that I'll start work on the HUD.

Hopefully a lot more work will be completed over Thanksgiving and I'll have some nice pics next weekend.

Cheers,

Dave

Edited by parche
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Pretty busy day on the model building front. After work and lunch with the wife I retired to the basement to get to work. For the Tomcat, I worked on casting a bunch of bomb racks, not only for this kit, but for later ones too. I have a stack of 1/48 Tomcats waiting for me. Six at a time isn’t too bad I guess. I was somewhat surprised by the amount of flash, but the repro quality of the racks themselves made me very happy.

racks1.jpg

racks2.jpg

I also started working on scratchbuilding a second BOL rail. Once the second one is finished I will make a mold for them and cast a few sets. I figure I will make the mold for the BOL rails together with the LANTIRN adapter so that One cast will get me a full set for a bird.

I also worked on the wing tip lights and the tail light. Out came the toothbrushes again. I used some rather large scrap chunks of the brush so I had to sand a bunch. The nice thing about the brushes I have been using is the fact that the liquid cement doesn’t mar them at all. Instead it works nicely to smooth the surface and give it a glass-like finish. Thanks again to Colin for the technique to use.

Wingtips.jpg

I also managed to work on the exhausts. I think they came out fairly nicely. There are some minor touchups on them that I want to do.

exhausts.jpg

Final job for the day (on the Tomcat at least) was getting a coat of grey onto the fuselage to show trouble areas and act as a primer.

After banging away on the Tomcat for a while I turned my attention to my Foxbat…

Cheers,

Dave

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Thanks for the note Luca, I’ll take a look at the link.

Little work on the Tomcat recently. I continue to work on little bits here and there and I just pulled the fuselage out of the paint box to get a look at the rough primer coat I put on it. Found a few spots that need some work. I was hoping to get on to the TPS colors this weekend, but the items that need fixing will probably preclude that. Oh, well.

primerside.jpg

I have also been making a mold for the LANTIRN pod adapter. I decided to rework my BOL rails, too. I’m still working on the landing gear.

She’s so close to the stretch run I can almost taste it. Trying to hold back the urge to start rushing things which is why I have been doing more major things on the Foxbat in my other build.

Well, that’s all for today.

Cheers,

Dave

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Well, another tough road to hoe with the Tomcat. I have continued to slowly move ahead, but I didn’t reach my goal of getting to the TPS paint scheme this weekend. I found an error in some of the panel lines so I spent most of my time working on that. I finally cast the LANTIRN pylon adapter. It came out OK. There was a significant air bubble at the lower forward tip of the upper part of the pylon. The rest of the casting was fine. I think I’ll build the bubble up with super glue and sand it to shape. I did a little work on the mold to eliminate anything that could have held the bubble in. I’ll make another casting to rule out a further problem with the mold. You can see the first cast here:

lantirn.jpg

I’m gonna try to finish up the landing gear detail tonight and attach the Phoenix pallets to the bird. Hopefully TPS work can start tomorrow. We’ll see. I guess I have been slightly more interested in my FOXBAT build because of all of the problem solving and “engineering†that has gone into it. Hopefully I’ll be able to clean the Tomcat up in the next week though.

Cheers,

Dave

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Spent most of the working time today fixing the large bubble in the LANTIRN pylon. I've also been running a pen through the panel lines for some preshading and hope to throw some LGG on tomorrow. Did some detailing of the landing gear today too. Not much and nothing worthy of pictures...sorry.

Cheers,

Dave

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Parche, really great Job on that TOMCAT, but why you don`t reshape the noze? look some pictures.

And Congratulations. :D

I currently have an almost-finished R/M Tomcat sitting literally 6 inches away from a Hasegawa Cat in approximately the same state of completion, and there is almost no noticeable difference in the noses of the two. The R/M nose might be very slightly more pointed than the Has, but you really have to look closely to notice. It's certainly nothing like that problems of the Academy nose B) . Honestly, once that weird amorphous blob is sanded down at the tip, it looks fine--to me, anyway...

Really enjoying following your progress, Dave. Looks great so far, especially all the scratchbuilt stuff!! B)

Daniel

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bombrackpourplan.jpg

That castings look really good. One question (probably a stupid one): What side do you pour the resin in? I presume on the right-hand side and let the resin "rise" into the actual molds.

I never worked with casting resin (yet!) and don't know about the viscosity of the resin. How thin is it? Do you pour it or do you inject it? How well does it flow? Lost any casts to bubbles?

Okay, those were a couple of questions... :cheers:

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That castings look really good. One question (probably a stupid one): What side do you pour the resin in? I presume on the right-hand side and let the resin "rise" into the actual molds.

I never worked with casting resin (yet!) and don't know about the viscosity of the resin. How thin is it? Do you pour it or do you inject it? How well does it flow? Lost any casts to bubbles?

Okay, those were a couple of questions... :D

The only stupid question is the one that isn't asked...

I started playing with resin about 15 months ago or so...my first few casts were horrid because I tried to do things with pieces that were too complicated or the piece was too darn big for the mold. The biggest obstacle to having a good product is not planning out the layout of the mold

You are right about where the resin is poured in. It goes in on the right side and rises up through the mold. This works to force most of the air out. The resin I use is the CR-60 from MicroMark. When mixed for use it is near the consistency of water so it works well at filling little gaps and forcing air out.

One thing you can't see in the particular picture you "quoted" was that I cut some wider cone shapes at the outlets at the top of the bomb racks (you can see what I'm talking about in pics that show a finished set of racks). The extra cone provides a bit of extra resin volume so that if there is a minor leak somewhere in the mold, the actual bomb rack area stays full of the resin until it sets. Now if there is a large leak somewhere, this isn't gonna help and I would end up with a "short shot" if you will.

The more molds I have made, the better they have gotten. I still make mistakes however. The LANTIRN pylon mold for this particular build had a horrible air bubble in the first cast from it. I inspected the mold afterwards and found a very thin piece of rubber that overlapped from one side of the mold which had made a pocket to catch air. I cut it out, but I haven't yet done another cast. The bomb racks on the other hand have been perfect every time.

If you have the cash, try getting the starter set from MicroMark and give casting a shot. I tried it on a whim and now I cast a bunch of different things. I have been making parts for my TOMCAT and FOXBAT builds with the intention of making molds for later kits. This has led to some non-preferred shapes for a simple scratch-build so that I have preferred shapes for casting molds.

HTH,

Cheers,

Dave

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Manuel,

I hadn't intended to reshape the nose other than minor smoothing at the tip that was already done and some shaping to fair it to the fuselage (which is still being fiddled with...new baby has been eating up all the modeling time :D ). Like Daniel said, I think the R/M nose isn't bad. I compared it with the Hasegawa kits I have and only decided to do relatively minor work on it.

Cheers,

Dave

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finally back to work on the Tomcat...nothing real exciting, but I have been marking in all the panel lines with a micro pen. I should start the TPS scheme after I let the pen work dry a little. Hopefully I'll have some pics once the first bit of the TPS scheme is on.

Cheers,

Dave

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm continuing what has possibly become the longest paint job I have ever done. It has been frustrating because of my total lack of organization with it. Ugggh....hopefully it will be done soon ...maybe the model gods will show up and finish it for me :rolleyes: .

Cheers,

Dave

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Well, the end of another weekend and I managed to make some headway on the paint job. All the major parts are done although I do need to make another check for blemishes. I might make my goal finish time yet... (ha, whatever)...

Here's the fuselage as the final coat of DGG dries...

catinpaint.jpg

and here are the wings and other surfaces...

partsinpaint.jpg

Not necessarily the most exciting photos, but not exactly the most exciting part of the build as far as I'm concerned (I normally hate painting...much more interested in the "body work").

Cheers,

Dave

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Peeled back the masking on the fuselage and found a great paint job underneath. I was pretty excited when I saw it. I've decided to use one of the sets of Steel Beach BOL rails on this bird since I haven't had the time to finish my scratch ones. I also wanted to move the build along to try to reach my deadline. Some painting is still required on a bunch of detail pieces, but I'm much more comfortable about the timeline now that the fuselage paint is done. The upcoming long weekend will help too.

Pics will follow on the weekend.

Cheers,

Dave

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Ahh, the Tomcat...bane of my existence...just kidding... actually my Sparrow missile has been kicking my butt all weekend. I keep torquing part of the paint job on it. I have been doing a bunch of the touch up work on the fuselage along with painting other detail items. Hopefully she will be up on her feet tonight. I was hoping to start the markings today, but that fell to the wayside as models took a backseat on my long weekend. Oh, well, those are the breaks. Hopefully I'll get some pics out tonight.

Cheers,

Dave

Edited by parche
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