History
Alot
of things are told about the F-14 so I won't go in to that.
Kit
Well,
when I opened the box the amount of parts, the level of detail and the crisp of
the details just took my breath away ...... Owh God, I hated every bloody part
of the Hasegawa 1:48 F-14.
I
will never, eeeeever, build an F-14 again!!
Let
me give you a little history lesson:
1995
Academy F-14A
1997
Monogram F-14A
1998
Italeri F-14A
2000
Hasegawa F-14A+
2001
Academy F-14A
2001
Hasegawa F-14A
Lets
start off with the Academy kit before 95. Straight from the box....that's
without the decals and I finished it in a single weekend. After a few weeks I
thought it was funny to paint it all red...with watercolors..... Screw up number
one
I
bought the Monogram kit for a few bucks (12 Euro). Screw up number two, just
hated the fit of the parts.
Italeri:
Just don't say a word. Ferris scheme doesn't work if you have just one picture
Screw up number three.
Project
And
now the true drama.
SOMEONE,
WHO WILL REMAIN ANONYMOUS BUT WHO WE ALL KNOW BY THE INITIALS H.D. persuaded me
to join in with a group of so called “enthousiasts” who had the idea to
build a very VERY large display of a particular Carrier Wing. The project
started more than a YEAR ago and everybody had the idea to build one (or two) of
the eight aircraft. I started with a F-14A of the Jolly Rogers
Unfortunately
I owned a F-14A+ "Well, what's the problem?" you could say. The
engines and the tailfins are different. So I posted some messages and decided to
trade the different parts with a person from the US. Well, that didn’t work..
Long story which I will not ventilate here.
To
get a little bit on schedule again I decided to build the Academy kit. Well,
that "process" s*cked just as bad!! It was not just the kit, but the
frustration working with it.
After
a few weeks, owning a bad F-14A of academy and an incomplete Hasegawa bird....I
decided to buy a new F-14A.......that's what I thought.....the "new" A
types of Hasegawa all have the new fins that they didn't had in the seventies
(at least, not on my JR).
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GO
Damon GO |
I
finished almost all of the main parts, painted them etc etc until I just had the
fins left....I was planning to save those until the end of the project.
The
display....aaaah yes, well, the design was really cool. I spent many hours
working in the backyard with a good friend of mine. After a few weeks working on
the displays....EVENING IN, EVENING OUT...I could just....well, SHOOT this
specific H.D Pure frustration, irritation, blue glued fingers and little sleep.
The
'tarmac', or 'aircraft carrier deck strip' if you will, had to be designed and
created too. It took me more than 22 hours to draw all the necessary lines,
drill the 150 tie down holes by hand and drill the 600 holes for the streched
sprues. Pure frustration and Irritation. Especially when my so called
"friends" managed to find a way to drill those same 150 holes in 10
minutes!!!!!!!!! ARGHHHH. Well, it took me less than 10 minutes to kill all of
them (in my mind).
Aaaah,
ready so you say? Noooo, what where you thinking!? Someone had to paint
ALL of the patches that are in the top corner of the large display. It
took me almost a complete night to make sure the patches would be ready
to glue into the base before the start of a large scale modeling event
in the Netherlands....when my so called "Friend" said:
"Well Laurens, I think it's better to wait with gluing the patches
on. We don't have the time to spare". Pure frustration and
Irritation. |
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Our
own nationals where coming. Spending pounds as Dutch Guilders at the UK
Nationals at Telford couldn't avoid that. Some models and displays had to be
finished. Well, in the days between the UK Nationals and our own Nationals
something strange happened. For the first time in my life I actually saw a few
"big mouth" modelers WORK on their models. They had to finish a
particular Academy F-14 of the Black Daisies and a A-6 of the Black Panties.
Well, the builder of the Daisy actually DID build his own F-14, unlike the Black
Panties "owner".....a "not-to-mention-but-F14-hater-person"
had to build a A-6 within three days!!!! He succeeded. (I have to say that the
work H. D had to do would be something my girlfriend and I could benefit from in
the near future :-) )
Aaaaah
yes, almost finished.....the display....the carrier deck......the F-14....the
F-14? Hmm, wait, the fins......They must be black but I had some bad experiences
with gloss black.....
"I
will do that for you my F-14-hating friend"....said the great bear.
While
momma bear made some more chocolate milk and cookies great bear sprayed the fins
black. The fins looked ok but this so called inexperienced "F-14screwupper"
wasn’t good enough to handle the large decals....
Adding
a Su-27UB to the bet the great bear, the superb modeler who won Gold at this
years UK Nationals, would create the perfect fins for
me.......................................returning to the great bear I saw some
great fins....pure black with no silvering (there was but he almost started to
cry when I mentioned it). "Is this it? Is this the moment I have been
waiting for? I've had nothing but problems with every F-14 I tried to
build....YES....this could be it!! The first F-14A 1:48 without any problems!!!
Without a single error….. Without a si........wait a minute........say it
isn't true......
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
You STUPID great Bear we all know by the name of H.D What have you done?!??!?!?
..............................I won't tell, you just have to find out for
yourself
(That
means you have to shut up Erik!!)
Well,
just look at the pictures. Never a F-14 Again……..for a while
Laurens
Ps:
Despite all the
problems, I had one of the best times with my six good friends! We had some
great laughs, great drinks and some nice models too. Next will be a Phantom
project and I can't wait to build again with these guys :-)
Thanks Huub and
Ingrid for your great support in the past few weeks!
Also many
thanks go out to Rob, Frank, Erik, Joop and Jeroen
And finally,
many MANY thanks for my international modeler friends: Homer from the US and
Richard from the UK. Your words have been a great support for me. Thanks!
Also
many thanks to everyone who helped but who I forgot to mention :-)
Click on images below to
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