1/48 Revell F-14D Tomcat

by Jeremy Gould on Dec 30 2003

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Introduction
I had been out of modelling for about 10 years (I used to mainly build armour and the occasional aircraft), but still enjoyed the odd visit to a model shop. It was during one of these visits a few years ago that I spotted this kit on special offer for £5.99 at my local Modelzone shop here in the UK. I have always had an interest in aviation and especially naval aviation, so I instinctively bought the kit. It remained stored for about two years
and it wasn't until my family and I moved into a bigger house that I had a convenient place to make it. I managed to start the kit approximately a year ago and was originally just going to build it out of the box, but my previous penchant for aftermarket extras led me to the Hannants website where an Eduard detailing kit and a decal sheet were purchased.

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The Kit
This kit has been reviewed many times before. It's the Revell of Germany boxing of the Revell Monogram kit. I would describe the fit as average overall.
The modifications made are (not including the Eduard additions):

1. Horizontal stabilators cut off and repositioned for that 'relaxed' Tomcat look.

2. Fully re-scribed with Bare Metal Foil scribing tool and sewing needle in pin vice. This is not a task to be taken lightly; the Tomcat has a huge surface area. Rivets were represented with 0.5mm drill.  An old part built 1/72 Hasegawa F-14A came in useful as a reference for adding missing panel lines, or correcting existing ones.

3. Boarding ladder moved to correct position. The cut-out provided in the kit fuselage is too far aft. If I had noticed this before cutting the kit I would have modelled the aircraft with the ladder stowed. The whole area was remodelled with plasticard. Suitable pieces of brass wire and plastic rod were used for the 'plumbing' in the ladder well.  The ladder provided in the kit was heavily modified (I didn't like the one included in the Eduard set), by drilling lightening holes in the sides and grinding away the moulded top steps. The Eduard steps were used. 

4. TARPS pod and fuel tanks added from an Italeri F-14B kit.

5. Radome re-profiled. This is a terrible moulding.  Even after reshaping it is still a bit too pointed for my liking. A blunt sewing needle used in the scribing process is used as the Pitot tube. 

6. Late Tomcat fin plates added to the vertical stabilators. The kit depicts the early style fins. 

7. Rear engine fairings re-profiled (squarer) to depict an F110 engined Tomcat. The kit fairings are only suitable for an F-14A. 

8. TCS drilled out and clear sprue plug inserted for the lens.

9. Nose gear doors amended. This entailed adding an ECM bump and scribing a grill on the port door. The starboard door had the antenna removed and the existing grille filled in. 

10. RHAWS antenna bulge added to each of the forward wing gloves. Done with scraps of sprue and filler. 

11. Wing sweep mechanism entirely removed, so wings could be painted separately and added last.  

Painting
A standard three-tone TPS was applied using Xtracolour paints and a Badger 200 airbrush. 10-20% white was added for scale effect. A custom mix was prepared for the mid grey section of the nose cone. Photographs taken of F-14s during 1993/1994 showed this area had a slight bluish tinge.

Decals
The decals are from Yellowhammer sheet 48-002 for BuNo 164601 assigned to VF-2 'Bounty Hunters', part of CVW-2 on board the USS Constellation during late 1993. VF-2 have just given up their F-14D's and become VFA-2 flying the F/A-18F Super Hornet. The USS Constellation (CV-64) has recently been decommissioned. I'm not a big fan of just making colourful CAG/CO aircraft; I don't feel that they are representative of modern USN carrier aviation.
The Yellowhammer sheet appealed to me because of this. However, there are problems. The nose modexes looked too big for my liking. Luckily the correct size 102's could be cobbled together using the kit decals. Also the Yellowhammer sheet appeared to have the wrong style of wing modexes. Once again the kit decals could be relied upon to provide the numbers in the proper sloping font.

Weathering
The decals were sealed with Humbrol Mattcote after which heavily thinned black enamel post shading was applied. The 'spot priming ' was then done with various shades of Humbrol enamel (not lightened for scale effect) applied with a brush and an airbrush. Panel lines and rivets were highlighted with a mechanical pencil and after a bit more post shading (mainly on the underside) and 'spot priming' a further Mattcote was added.
Some black dry brushing was added on the top of the engine intakes to simulate crew footprints and scuff marks. 
I am of the opinion that there is very little that you can do to mess up a modern USN scheme. If you make a mistake, simply cover it up with some 'spot priming'. Many of the touch ups that you see cover slips of the pencil, or lightly sanded off bits of dust that stuck in the paint. The decisions about where to do the touch ups were sometimes made for me.

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Conclusions
It is very unlikely that I will never make another Revell Tomcat. I'm more than happy with the results, but the time and effort taken on the project was immense. Having said that, it has polished up some of my rusty modelling skills, so on the whole it has been worth it. This was the first time that I had fully re-scribed a model. After this, the thought of re-scribing the Revell A-6E, EA-6B and F-8E doesn't seem so bad.

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References Online:

Books:
-Grumman F-14 Tomcat, Jon Lake, Aerospace Publishing, ISBN 1-8740-2341-7
-Tomcat Alley, David F Brown, Schiffer, ISBN 0-7643-0477-1
-Tomcat! The Grumman F-14 Story, Paul T Gillcrist, Schiffer, ISBN 0-88740-664-5
-Combat Carriers, Tony Holmes, Airlife, ISBN 1-85310-857-X
-Supercarriers, Tony Holmes, Osprey, ISBN 1-84176-026-9

Jeremy

Photos and text © by Jeremy Gould