F-14A Tomcat Atlantic Fleet Squadrons Hasegawa 1/72

This time, I will try to build a 1/72 scale F-14A Tomcat from Hasegawa. It’s a kit I’ve been keeping for years. I bought this in the past when I made 1/72 F-15E and Su-33 Flanker. When I looked at the reviews of other modelers, the parts were too fine and difficult to assemble, and the decals were small and many, so I hesitated. When I opened the box, I felt that it must be hard because there are so many parts.

First, I need to assemble the seats. 1/72 scale is small and cute. The seat belt is molded.

There are a lot of etching parts. It was quite a spirited kit. I guess it’s mainly around the cockpit and jet engine nozzles.

The assembly instructions said I could choose between using etched parts or decals for the cockpit. But since I have both of them, why don’t I use an etched part and stick the decal on top with a decal fit?
(2022/03/10)

I thought it was a bother to paint the cockpit and put it off until the assembly around here. I have to connect the front part including the cockpit before installing missiles and missile racks. Even so, there are so many parts that it’s hard…

It’s a jet engine nozzle. Using etched parts makes it look more precise.

I felt that there were steps and gaps in various parts. But now there is only progress.

The movable wings fit and adhere to the parts in either the narrow state or the open state. It looks hard to make it movable. The retractable canard wings can be selected to be in the extended or retracted state. When I looked at this picture again, I thought the delta wing condition of the whole wing looked more beautiful when it was pulled in.
(2022/03/12)

Finally, I painted the cockpit. It is easy to finish because there are many decals. I thought it would be best to apply a decal after undercoating the etched parts. I was impressed by the precision of the work, so I took many photos. When I put it in, I can’t see the inside of the cockpit very well.

The cockpit has been built into the fuselage. The etched parts interfere with each other, so it would have been better to match them properly. In the radome, there is a lot of chopped fishing weight. The instruction said 5g. I think I put about 8g.
(2022/03/15)

When I bonded the nose part, I felt that the work progressed a lot. There are gaps and steps in various places, so I want to fix them as much as possible.

We have a variety of F-14 armor options. It seems that the assembly will not proceed unless I decide around here. Some are attached to a pylon, and others are attached to a missile by gluing something like a rail under the body. When I looked at the photo, I thought the pylon was slanted, but when I looked at the assembled kit, it was properly parallel. Perhaps the air intake has a narrow shape and the camera lens makes it look like that.

Many Hasegawa kits don’t include missiles, so those who want them must buy a set separately. I was worried if the parts I wanted were in it because this was leftover when I made the F-15, but there was no problem. This time I will use 6 AIM -54 Phoenix, 2 sidewinders, and the additional tank that came with the kit. If we install a large number of the same kind of missiles, it will be a powerful impression.

I was thinking of installing only the pylon, but I didn’t have the confidence to bond the landing gear neatly after painting, so I assembled almost everything including the landing gear cover first.
(2022/03/18)

There is a parting line on the canopy, so I need to clean it.

After masking and gluing the canopy, I attached many small parts to the fuselage. The assembly is almost complete except for the pitot tube at the end of the radome. I can’t decide in what order to paint.

I painted it gloss black.

I wanted to make it look a little faded, and I added white and random bright areas. I usually make 1/48, so it’s difficult to paint on 1/72.

The basic part of missiles seems to be white. If I spray it once, the color won’t change much.
(2022/03/21)

The weather is getting warmer, so I started painting again. The landing gear is painted white.

The parts that need to be painted like the engines and the radome have almost finished airbrush painting. When I painted the radome after using silver, it became a little metallic, it can’t be helped. I’m going to blow a semi-gloss clear at the end, so my impression will change there.

I used tape to mask it and filled it with tissue paper. There is a lot of work before blowing the basic paint.

The tip of the missiles has a different color, so I masked them. This process is simple and easy.

The entire aircraft was painted gray FS 16440. It’s a kind of a lazy impression. I painted it quite thickly, so I don’t think the base coat random fading is effective. Since it is light gray, I was worried if it was colored properly, so I blew it many times.
(2022/04/01)

The markings selected this time were not instructed to attach the small “NO STEP” seal, which is common on the tail and the upper surface of the flap. But it looks monotonous, so I put a lot of small decals on it. Some of the small and narrow seals have bent a little, but they have dried out and stuck completely, so it’s a little difficult to fix. Other than that, I think I will try to retouch the part where the decal is chipped or sticking out by masking with a brush.

I thought the impression would change after I attached most of the decals, but the impression is that it is a rather plain aircraft. I wonder if a little more semi-gloss coating or inking would make it look better.

I also painted a separately sold missile and attached a decal. There are quite a lot of decals and it gives me a sense of precision.
(2022/04/05)

The F-14A Tomcat that was currently under making was finally completed. As a finishing touch, panel lines inking and coated with semi-gloss clear. Although it is 1/72, there are many panel lines. The panel line was quite shallow, so it was difficult to put inking. I thought about engraving it by myself, but I gave up because there were too many. I wish the detail was a little more precise.

It’s not really bad, but I have an impression that it’s quite hard to make compared to the Hasegawa kit I usually make. Various parts interfere and there are some burrs in the parts. Maybe it’s because I’m not good at assembling. Well, it’s probably an old kit, and it has a complicated shape and many parts, so I guess it can’t be helped.

Towards the end of the building, I tried to build another kit, and my concentration was broken in various ways, and there were some parts that didn’t work well with the painting.

By the time the Tomcat was deployed, one of its selling points was the ability to aim at multiple targets simultaneously with missiles. It’s certainly groundbreaking.

Since there are 4 types of markings to choose from, I made it with the US Navy 31st Fighter Squadron VFA-31 “Tomcatters”. It is characterized by the picture of the American cartoon character, Phillix with a bomb as a motif of a black cat. It was on the aircraft carrier, Forrestal. By the way, the first catapult launch test was conducted on the aircraft carrier Forrestal.

The F-14 Tomcat, whose last aircraft was decommissioned in September 2006, this VFA-31 Tomcatters was the unit that operated F -14 until the end.

This time, I used the 1/72 scale Air Craft Weapon III U.S. air-to-air missile set, which is sold separately by Hasegawa. 6 AIM-54 Phoenix and 2 AIM-9L Sidewinders. I think it looks better with decals. This combination of missiles seems to be a common armory for the fleet air defense mission when the maximum amount of Phoenix missiles are loaded.

The Phoenix missile under the fuselage was firmly fixed with a lot of superglue.

I can see the cockpit screen through the canopy, so it’s pretty cool.

Speaking of F-14, my generation cannot forget the movie Top Gun. I guess I was a high school student then. I remember it was a big boom. I think there were many young people who were brainwashed by that movie.

What was difficult about this F-14A, it’s a little hard to tell, and it was completed while I was struggling. It’s been a long time since I built a modern jet plane, and it might be the reason that I didn’t know how to do it. I couldn’t do a lot of small adjustments, but I think this is enough. There are many manufacturers such as Fujimi, Finemolds, and Doyusha now. I don’t know much about current fighter jets at all, but I’d like to make one if I feel like it.
(2022/04/09)