The
F-14 Tomcat has long been the US Navy’s premier air defense/air superiority
fighter. When it was introduced in
the early 1970’s its main mission was to defend USN carrier fleets and task
forces as well as friendly airspace from Soviet bombers and fighters.
The Tomcat incorporated –at the time- the world’s most advanced radar
and missile combination, the powerful AWG-9 radar and the long-range “fire and
forget” Phoenix missile, which could destroy targets up to 100 miles away. The Phoenix had the ability to home in on its target without
the Tomcat flying toward the target to “paint” it, which was a capability
much appreciated and needed.
As
the years wore on, the F-14A served the Navy well, but problems with the P&W
TF-41 engine were apparent from the very beginning and got to the point where
the Navy and Grumman decided to build a new version with different engines.
The F-14B was fitted with GE F110 engines, which offered a big
improvement in performance and reliability.
At the same time, the A-6 Intruder and A-7 Corsair were nearing the end
of their service lives, so new attack aircraft would be needed.
The A-12 Avenger strike aircraft, which was supposed to be a stealth
fighter like the F-117, was suffering from delays and cost overruns and would
ultimately be canceled. The Navy turned to the Tomcat as a possible near-term strike
aircraft. In theory, the Tomcat
should have been capable of these missions; it was a long-range, swing-wing
aircraft with two crewmembers, like the F-111 and the Tornado. When I was younger and was reading about the Tomcat, I
actually wondered why the Navy had never used it as a strike aircraft.
Little did I know that would change within a few years.
I first read about the F-14 being tested as a strike platform in Aviation
Week. But it was not until I visited ARC that I learned about the
“Thief of Baghdad”. The
“Thief” was the last F-14B built and the first Tomcat used as a “Bombcat”.
The full story of the “Thief” is told in the “Stories” section on
this site by “Chunx”, an active-duty USN radar intercept officer (RIO).
Today, the F-14D serves as a multi-role fighter flying strike and combat
air patrol missions over Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
When
I got to ARC I fell in love with the site.
When Twobobs came out with the ARC “Sandbox Alleycats” decal
sheet I decided to buy one just because I enjoyed the site.
Little did I know that I would get deeply involved in a Tomcat
superdetailing project, one that would last from the heat of June to the
snows of November. At the time I had an Italeri F-14A Tomcat that I’d bought
in San Diego a couple of years back (because it had VF-84 markings-I like
the Jolly Roger markings) and I figured, oh good, I’ll just use these decals
on that, maybe a desert colored ‘Cat would look nice.
But when I saw the decals they looked so magnificent and inspiring
that I figured I’d do my best to make a really special model with them.
Then I asked around and found out the differences between the
Tomcat models. I also found
out that
the
“Thief of Baghdad” had a lot more in common with the D model than the
A model. I thought about
buying the Hasegawa kit and even had an offer or two but I wasn’t quite
up to paying that much all in one fell swoop and also had heard bad things
about the Hasegawa kit’s fit. But
the thing that deterred me was not bad fit – I could deal with that –
but the price tag. |
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TWO
KITS ARE BETTER THAN ONE
For
30 bucks I was able to buy two R-M F-14D Super Tomcat kits.
I was very glad I did-at the time. I
messed up a few parts and was able to use other parts as backups – including
the lower fuselage. I also used one
kit’s canopy (covered with tape) to mask off the cockpit area during priming
and painting.
I
also ended up buying a Black Box cockpit, Verlinden GRU-7 seats, an Airwaves PE
set, Eduard canopy masks, and an Aires wheel well set (thank you Uncle Rick!).
So where do I start? Well I
will start with the cockpit. That
was the first thing I worked on.
My
First Resin Cockpit
Before
last year I had never used resin in any model.
I was first introduced to resin replacement parts when I built a 1/72nd
scale R-M Space Shuttle with fuel tank and boosters.
Glenn Johnson of Real Space Models makes resin space kits and detail
parts, and I ordered some for
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the shuttle.
I had great difficulty gluing them on and cutting the parts off their
blocks because I knew absolutely NOTHING about resin.
I got the job done with some help but only when I got to ARC was when I
learned that I had to use CA glue for resin parts. In time I graduated to using resin ejection seats, and later,
the Black Box resin cockpit with Verlinden GRU-7 seats.
When
I saw the cockpit I was amazed at how detailed this was.
At the same time I was also even more determined to |
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get it right.
I started off simply enough, by airbrushing the cockpit MM Acryl flat
gull gray. I used MM Acryl Aircraft
Interior Black for the consoles and soon got the consoles looking right (to my
eyes). I drybrushed flat white to
accent the raised detail, and used red to paint certain buttons and warning
markings where appropriate. I got
to work on the seats and panels, and soon had the seats brushed with aircraft
interior black. I had intended to
use the Black Box seats, but I had a hard time finding one of them and I thought
I’d lost it. So I bought some
Verlinden GRU-7 seats, and I am very glad I did.
The Verlinden seat belts were easier to recognize and work with, and the
ejection seat handles were done with copper wire, which to me looks better than
the BB kit’s molded rings. (Thanks
Brian M.!) |
Once
I painted the seats in their proper colors, I tried a Tool n’ Tips article to
do the instrument panels, with mixed results.
I tried to paint the instrument panel scale black acrylic, then a dark
gull gray enamel, then use a cotton swab with thinner over the raised detail. It worked somewhat but not fully, I ended up being very
careful with a small camel hair brush and doing lots of touch up to get the
instrument panels approximately right. I
used gull gray for the overall panel, and aircraft interior black for the
dials…I also used some clear parts cement to make them look more like glass
dials. I also used yellow zinc
chromate on some computer screens and brushed over them with Tamiya clear green
(on one screen I just did Tamiya clear green over interior black and it looked
different but I was not unhappy with the look).
I experimented with a wash of very thin interior black or Tamiya smoke (I
forget which) to weather the cockpit floor a bit.
I also used a mixed blend of paint to get a purple color, which I brushed
on the cockpit coaming. Unfortunately,
that did not last (more on that later). Finally,
I finished the seats by brushing the cushions olive drab and the seat belts
medium gray, then used red Dymo labels to make the prominent red warning
placards on the headrest sides (and pressed inward to get a little white out).
I glued the aforementioned copper wire handles and painted them, then I
sealed the whole deal up with Dullcote. At
this point I was very pleased with my first resin cockpit and looked forward to
putting it in the Tomcat. The heat
of August was now upon us and I thought that I could get the thing done in time
for the Gathering in September.
Now,
The Hard Part
Little
did I know what I was in for. For
starters, when I test fit the finished BB cockpit into the Monogram top
fuselage, it simply would NOT fit. The
Monogram kit had molded in cockpit coaming and that needed to be cut.
I did a hack up job on the first kit, so I bought a second kit and was
very happy that I made better cuts with it.
At this point I also turned to the process of scribing the panel lines.
Again, on the first fuselage, I made a hash of the job, using a dull
scriber tool. I got a Bare Metal
Foil scriber and that worked much better on the first and second fuselages.
But as I had done a better job cutting out the cockpit coaming on the
second fuselage, I decided to use that as the Thief’s fuselage.
I finally managed to scribe most of the fuselage halves as well as the
wings and horizontal stabilizers, and finally some detail on the vertical tails.
I was pleased with myself when I found some more raised detail on the
sides between the wings and stabilizers. However,
it was hard to reach, and I decided that what I’d done was good enough.
I also had to use putty and sandpaper to fix some errant scratches that I
made with the tool. Finally, I
managed to glue the BB cockpit into the R-M top half without too much trouble.
I put some putty around the back of the cockpit to seal up an unsightly
gap and painted it over, and I thought that I wouldn’t have too much trouble
with the rest of the kit, if only I could figure out what to do with the nose
wheel well. The R-M cockpit floor
and wheel well are molded in, and so I could NOT use it with the Black Box
cockpit – I had to do long, laborious sanding and cutting of the BB
cockpit’s bottom to even contemplate trying to build the R-M nose wheel well,
but I had a feeling it would turn into hash.
At this point I wondered why I didn’t get a Hasegawa kit.
But I found out about Aires’ wheel well set and I thought that would be
the answer to my problems. So I
ordered it from Uncle Rick in Canada (GREAT SERVICE!) and got it in the mail.
I shot gloss white into the nose wheel well, and used the small
camel-hair brush to paint silver bands and other details….I used a wash of
greatly thinned interior black and I was ready to go.
Blood,
Sweat and Tears
At
this point, I glued the nose well into the R-M bottom fuselage.
Before I did, I had to cut out the thin aft portion of the well and that
took some doing, with a newly-acquired X-acto knife.
This knife also had a razor saw blade which came in very handy when
cutting out the resin parts. But I
would need LOTS more than this X-Acto knife to get the two fuselage halves to
fit after putting in the resin nose wheel well.
I
had to cut out the long thin part of the wheel well to get it to fit with the
main part of the well. That was the
first problem. I did a test fit of
the two fuselage halves. They were
NOT even close to fitting. Ouch.
I couldn’t glue the well in yet. I
started a laborious attempt to sand the cockpit floor down while at the same
time sanding and cutting the nose well to the bare minimum height that would
work. I ended up cutting just a bit
too much and had to use plasticard to fill in gaps on the top wall.
But that was still not enough. So
I sanded and cut some more from the BB cockpit floor until I was nearly to the
cockpit floor and the seats. After
what seemed like a thousand test fits stretching out over a week and beyond, I
glued the wheel well in….and I was ready to glue the fuselage halves in after
the well dried. I got the wings
together and glued them in the nearly full swept position (based on the pic of
the “Thief” on the ground…besides I like the Tomcat’s wings swept a lot
better than straight). But then more problems struck.
I got the back half glued correctly….but the nose section wouldn’t
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together well. There ended up
being almost no gap on the right side, but a very unsightly gap on the left
side, and I had to use Evergreen sheet styrene to glue some panels to cover that
gap. Puttying and sanding, and more
sanding, and then rescribing on the sheet styrene, finally got the left side of
the Tomcat’s nose looking acceptable. Then
I found a big, ugly “step” near the point where the cockpit and intakes
converge….lots of puttying and sanding finally got it down to the point where
it wasn’t too noticeable.
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I also
glued on the Phoenix pylons on the bottom of the fuselage, and the bomb racks on
the center portion of the Phoenix pylons (where there’s a small boxed area),
and later ended up cutting the aft pylons off because I only had 2 bomb racks
(thanks to Charlie Arsenault for the racks!) and they were glued on the forward
pylons. I glued the tail fins
onto the bird and that went well, and I dug out the Testors F-14A chin pod and
glued that on. Finally, I dipped
the canopy and windshield into a bowl of Future mixed with a couple of drops of
MM Acryl Gold and was happy with it.
At
this point, I was finally ready to prime and paint the bird.
I used the second kit’s canopy and windshield and masked it and taped
it onto the plane to cover the BB cockpit, while painting the frames on the
first canopy and windshield. I
sprayed coat after coat of gray primer and sanded and sanded some more and
applied some putty until I finally was pleased enough with the look to start
airbrushing the Thief’s colors.
Paint
Experiments
I
looked at the Thief of Baghdad’s paint scheme on the Twobobs instruction sheet
and I wondered how I would do the base sand color as well as the other two
colors. At first I figured I’d
use Tamiya buff color, but then I looked at it and didn’t like it at third
glance. So I decided to take the
plunge and buy Humbrol colors, because the Twobobs sheet had a Humbrol mix
listed for that color. I ended up using a Pace salsa jar to mix eight tins of the
marked Humbrol colors until I got the proper mix.
I then brushed the sand color onto the frames of the canopy as a test.
I was happy with how the paint laid down and brushed, so it was on to
airbrushing the Tomcat. But first I airbrushed light ghost gray onto the craft, and
had to get several coats before I was satisfied.
I
then sprayed some dark ghost gray to cover an area between the nose tip
and the air intakes – the dark ghost gray strip was above the light ghost gray
and below the sand/brown colors. Once
I was satisfied, I cut out some paper masks using Fiskars Paper Edgers I got in
the scrapbook section of Roberts Crafts in Orem (they are a surprisingly great
store chain for local modelers). I used blue tack to affix the paper masks on the sides of the
bird, then I sprayed the Humbrol sand color onto the Tomcat.
At first, I tried to use the double-action airbrush, but it didn’t
cover a large area well, so I used the single action airbrush and was satisfied
after only a couple of coats.
The
Tomcat finally began to look more like the Thief of Baghdad and less like a
sorry lump of plastic sitting next to the decal sheet.
At this point I began building subassemblies, like the afterburners and
the glove pylons, as well as spray painting the landing gears, doors, and other
parts. I also used Tamiya clear
green diluted with Tamiya thinner to tint the front windshield.
As the time for the Gathering (in late September) was rapidly
approaching, I bought Hasegawa weapons sets and an Airwaves PE set (that was a
bargain at 8 bucks) and began to “push” to get the bird ready.
But I had an unexpectedly hard time figuring what to use for the two
brown colors and I ended up using Earth Red for most of the brown areas and
Leather lightened with white for a couple of areas.
I spent the better part of an entire day masking the splintered areas,
and initially I had good success spraying the earth red and leather onto their
respective areas. However. I had to do some touchups and with the touchups I
didn’t mask the plane enough and ended up getting overspray on some sand
areas. It got to the point where I
had to do repeated masking and respraying, and the problem was finally solved
when I masked lots more of the plane than the immediate area I was doing.
However, there was one area, when I ran out of Tamiya tape, I used Pactra
tape on (the right intake) and the Pactra tape let me down and allowed some
bleed of leather onto the sand. So
I ended up scratching the extra leather areas and brushing sand onto the area.
I also used a pencil eraser to erase some overspray on some areas (thank
you Danny Deters!) I also had to do some touchup on the boundary between the
sand/brown colors and the grays, with a bottle of MM Acryl Dark Ghost Gray –
using drybrushing the ghost gray onto the boundary to soften the edges a little.
Finally I was satisfied with the entire camouflage finish, but the
Gathering had long passed. About
four days before the Gathering, as I looked out the window and saw rain, I
realized I wasn’t going to have the Tomcat ready in time, and I relaxed.
I took the JSF to the Gathering instead.
But after the Gathering was over looking at the Tomcat made me want to
finish it. And when I finally got
the camouflage finish fully ready after my brother’s wedding, I was ready to
do the final push just in time for the first snows of winter.
The
Final Push
There
had been some overspray on the cockpit coaming, and I no longer had my purple
mix, so I mixed medium green and zinc chromate and painted that on, and it
looked acceptable. Once that was
done, I painted the earth red on the canopy frames in the areas that weren’t
sand colored, and I painted the Airwaves PE set interior black, with the mirrors
being Aluminum with black borders. I
used tweezers and a small amount of 20 second CA to get the mirrors onto the
canopy, and I also got the two canopy side panels glued on all right without
fogging as well (Future is GREAT for canopies, and that’s what I use it for
– that and sealing in masking tape on areas where I want a sharp line).
Now I was ready to put on the decals, so I sprayed several gloss coats
onto the bird, then put the decals on. Most
of them went on great without any trouble at all.
One exception was the left black “checkmark” decal in the shape of
the lower ventral fin. Fortunately,
I got that straightened out – the decal split and I had to guide the two parts
together carefully. I got on all
the decals except for the crewman’s name and the lower “false canopy”, and
I sprayed on dullcote coats until I was happy.
I
built up the landing gear and started work on the armament, and drybrushed
interior black on the main wheel wells to weather them a bit.
I sprayed the afterburners Metalizer stainless steel and dipped them in
my Tamiya Smoke bottle for weathering, and ended up liking the look. I painted the aft portion near the burner cans gunmetal, then
glued on the burners themselves. For
the area near the gun port I used steel and had to mask and brush the area twice
as the first time the paint peeled off (an unusual reaction to painting too soon
on a freshly glossed surface?). I
realized I had to paint the area before I could put the “Thief of Baghdad”
decal on the nose section, but only after I’d already put the gloss coat on!
That’s one mistake I won’t make in the future.
But the steel area turned out OK after additional drying.
Most of the slime light decals worked great but the wingtip slime light
decals wouldn’t go on for me at all even if I used Microset.
So I painted the slime lights on the wingtips doped linen (thanks Darren
Roberts!) and I like how they look. I
painted the lights aluminum then Tamiya clear red or clear green over the
aluminum– I didn’t get the glove vane lights because I wasn’t up to
masking them and wasn’t clear where they are.
But I got the other lights just fine. I also ended up painting the TV
lens on the chin pod aluminum, and covering it with clear parts cement.
I
glued the landing gear on one night. I
had to cut off the round tab on the top of nose gear to get it to fit in the
Aires well. The two main gear
struts (also from the kit) were tough to get into the kit main wheel wells – I
couldn’t get them perfectly straight no matter what I tried.
I guess the struts on the Tomcat are meant to be slightly angled?
I hope so, because there’s an angle to them!!
And when I saw my Tomcat sitting on its gear for the first time it looked
to me like it was slightly squatting on its tail end but I guess that’s normal
for that bird? Ah well, there
wasn’t anything I could do about it, and I’d put so much work into it that I
did NOT want to ruin anything or start all over.
Finally, I lost not one but TWO nose gear lights and ended up having to
use a light from a Hasegawa weapons set….even though I have a pair of Tamiya
tweezers I still have a tough time with small parts.
I
then put on the gear doors – the main gear doors next to the glove pylons are
from the kit, but the other two doors that enclose the main gear wells come from
the Aires set. The main nose gear
doors also come from Aires, but I had to cut out the two aft nose gear doors
from the R-M kit sidewalls as I’d lost those Aires doors.
The small thin aft door on the nose wheel well – I don’t remember
where I got it from. In many cases
the Aires doors looked better than the kit doors because they were thinner and
more detailed. However, the two
main gear doors from the kit fit better in that particular area; the Aires doors
were just too small. Before I glued
the doors on I brushed semi gloss white because the white finish sprayed months
earlier was too light, I could see the yellowish resin in some spots.
I also used a red paint pen (from Staples) to paint the door edges.
The
false canopy was a challenge, because the nose gear is down on my plane.
I ended up painting the aft nose wheel doors gunship gray, as well as the
section aft of the wheel well. I
used decals for only the main nose gear doors, and even then aft of the false
frames I overpainted the area gunship gray to make it consistent.
I put on the crewman’s name (Hoyenga) on the left main gear door as per
the instructions and then brushed some flat coat onto the door to seal the
decals in. Finally, I glued the
nose gear doors in and that completed the basic construction of the plane,
except for gluing the canopy on and rebuilding a couple of ejection seat handles
out of wire (the two on the front were lost during the various masking and
painting jobs). Within short order
that was done.
The
Armament
I
have several Hasegawa weapons sets in 1/72nd and 1/48th
scales, and these sets came in very handy in this project, even the 1/72nd
set! (I’ll explain in just a
moment). I used the kit Sidewinders
and painted them with Polly Scale Blue 23 (USQM 3-1) – at least that’s what
it says on the bottle – I didn’t catch the FS number or actual name of the
color from the hobby shop, I just asked the guy what to use, he produced a
bottle, and I paid for it. I used
scale black and aluminum for the nose section and fins, and white for the tail
fins with aluminum guidance vanes. On
the left pylon, I cut out the Sparrow molded into the pylon, because I saw
pictures of an ACMI pod and an inert practice Sidewinder on the left side of the
actual “Thief” (in Chunx’ article). I
didn’t know how I was going to get the ACMI pod onto the bottom of the pylon
but I figured I’d find a way. I
pondered what to do with the right pylon, but thought about what they’d carry
on it if they only carried one ACMI pod (I thought aircraft only carried one of
them).
Click on
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So I figured I’d do the
other pylon with an inert Sparrow on it. (Later,
Brian M. advised me that often it’s common for both pylons to have Sidewinder
rails on the side and on the bottom, in place of Sparrow rails.
Thanks for the info! I used
a spare Sidewinder rail and lots of putty to get the job done.
I like the look of the bird with an ACMI pod on one side and the Sparrow
on the other anyway). For the
Sparrow, I used light ghost gray with semi-gloss white for the nose section,
scale black for the fins, and a
blue stripe in the front and an earth red stripe in the back (closest I had to
brown). Tamiya tape came through for the stripe masking with no
problems. Besides the air to air
missiles and ACMI pod, I also used two Mk. 83’s from the Hasegawa weapons set,
and painted them in the same blue color as the Sidewinders, with the aft fins
being light ghost gray and the fuses aluminum.
The ACMI pod is International Orange with aluminum stripe, scale black
nose cone, and a gold and aluminum tip.
Finally,
I mentioned that even the 1/72nd scale Hasegawa weapons set came in
handy for this 1/48th bird. Here’s
why: during the masking process, part of the nose pitot tube broke off of the
Tomcat. The larger part of the tube was still there, but I needed to
replace the smaller “needle”. That’s
a very common problem in building models, I understand. I finally cut off the top part of the nose tip and glued in
the needle from a 1/72nd ACMI pod, and that looks GREAT.
A vast improvement over the kit pitot tube.
Conclusions
Would
I do this again? Maybe yes, but NOT
with a R-M 1/48th scale Super Tomcat kit.
If I want to do another Thief of Baghdad it will be in 1/72nd
scale, or a 1/48th scale Hasegawa kit.
But that won’t happen anytime soon.
I’ve got a NSAWC splinter Tomcat decal sheet and I might just use it on
the Testors F-14A kit I have, the one I was originally going to do the Thief of
Baghdad decals on before I learned more about the Tomcat.
I badly need a sanity build, in fact I built a Mig-21 and a Caravelle
during this time and the Mig will also be featured on ARC.
Building and finishing the Mig helped me get inspired for the final push
on the “Thief”. But now that
the Thief is sitting proudly on my shelf, next to the TV, I am going to do some
“sanity builds” without PE or resin! I
learned LOTS from my first big foray into advanced aircraft modeling.
Will it be enough to make a really special bird for the Nationals in
Oklahoma City? I think so!
I haven’t determined what that bird will be yet, but with a couple of
months off for the holidays, I will be inspired to start around the new year.
Many thanks to Steve Bamford, Danny Deters, Brian Marbrey, Darren
Roberts, Matthias Rabiller, Charlie Arsenault, Jason Van Lint, and LOTS of
others on ARC for their support and encouragement.
Happy
Modeling!
Justin
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