Officially submitted into the 2005
ARC/ScaleAIR F-14 Tomcat Group Build as the very last subject (according to
Steve Filak), this Hasegawa F-14B VF-103 Jolly Rogers 'Last Tomcat Cruise' 1/72
was also the very last 1/72 Tomcat I've built since moving on to 1/48 scale.
Everything was created at a very prolific rate because Hasegawa had announce the
release of this kit in early 2005 when the Group Build was ending on July 1
2005. Through some freakish supernatural occurance, I received the kit in 12
days via SAL from Hobby Link Japan in late April! Therefore, I only had roughly
one month to finish it. Luckily, all participates of the GB was granted an
extra 30 days to finish their projects (original deadline was June 1 2005).
Click on
images below to see larger images
All
in all, I had a great time building this Cat even under major time constraints.
The only aftermarket items used for this kit were Verlinden seats-- everything
else including the decals were straight out of the box. It was painted up mainly
with Model Master acrylics and certain parts with Tamiya and Gunze Sangyo
paints. Along the way, I also picked up some tips from Brian Marbrey and
Daniel Perezvertti on weathering models. So I would love to give a big THANK YOU
to those fellas!
Finally, I believe
truly that we are a very special generation because we all got to witness one of
the most loved military aircraft in aviation history. We have all seen the
movies, read the books, and watched this extraordinary machine perform before our
own eyes. While it is a bittersweet moment, it is also a great time to salute
the Last of the Big Fighters as a world-famous identity. All hail the Tomcat!
Ming
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