1/72 Italeri F-14B 

by Greg D. Williams  IPMS #44084

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I'm very excited to present my first ARC submission with my recent build of an F-14B.  While, like others have stated before on this subject, what more can be said about this venerable and legendary jet.  My F-14B originated from Italeri's flawed F-14A Plus kit #182.  I corrected numerous errors with the kit to convert it to an accurate "B" to depict aircraft AA-102 of VF-103 "Jolly Rogers", during Operation Enduring Freedom, 2002.  While I could have simply built the Hasegawa offering however, I really enjoy taking older kits and improve them.  For this project, I practiced my resin casting skills to produce resin replacements for the Boat Tail, F110-GE engines and shrouds,  BOL sidewinder launchers, Gun Gas vents, and Chin Pod.  Other improvements also came by way of resin for the taller UHF antennas, GPS sensors and various items for "B &D" version Tomcats.  No decals were available for my jet in this scheme, so custom decals were made by scanning a spare set, reworking them in Photoshop and printed on my color laser printer.  Painting and detailing were accomplished with Tamiya acrylics throughout.  For display, I like to model my modern military jet collection in-flight.  The finished model is displayed on my custom display stand inspired by fellow modeler and FSM author, Pat Hawkey.  I enjoyed this project, and I hope you like.    

The Italeri kit serves as the basis for the conversion.  Numerous errors need to addressed if it is to depict an accurate F-14A Plus/B.

The most obvious areas of conversion are the engines and shrouds.  I sculpted a master, poured molds and cast them in resin to fit the Italeri kit.  Also shown is the resin replacement for the boat tail.  These are a few of many replacements made to correct the kit.

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Greg

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Photos and text © by Greg D. Williams