1/48 Hasegawa F-14D

VF-31 Tomcatters  

by Sebastian Manfre

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       Here is my recently finished F-14D.  I used the Hasegawa kit and Black Box F-14D cockpit set.  Believe me, it was no easy task to install this set as I needed to do a lot of sanding to get it to fit right.  The markings came from CAM decals for VF-31 CAG bird.  The sheet says to paint the a/c in overall FS36375 Light Ghost Gray.  THIS IS INCORRECT!!!  After viewing some photos from one of the tomcat websites (forgot which one I was looking at, at that time) and relying on some info from my good friend Brian, I realized that the a/c BuNo 164348 was in fact overall FS36440 Light Gull Gray.  The tails, ventral fins, and canopy framing and anti-glare are all painted semi-gloss black.          

Construction:   

Construction began with the Black Box cockpit set.  All I can say about this set is WOW! Detail as excellent.  The only downfall to this set is the complicated fit.  This is due to the crew access ladders that take up some space inside the front fuselage section interfering with the sidewalls of the tub.  Some quick sanding and I think I figured it out, but ill let you decide for yourself:

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It was painted using MM enamels and dry brushed some of the details to bring them out.  The screens where painted silver, let dry, and then Tamiya clear green was applied.  Maybe not the most accurate look but I like the effect.   

            Next came the rest of the fuselage of the a/c.  Construction was pretty straightforward as per the instructions.  Some minor gap work was needed in some areas such as between front and rear fuselage and around the intakes.  Speaking of intakes, I have heard of people having trouble in this are, especially in the duck itself.  Let me put it this way, if I can do it, anyone can.  First I glued the inner portions of the duck together.  Let dry then sanded with a nail file with varying grades to it.  After this was sanded smooth, this was glued to the intake trunk.  Then this gap was filled and sanded smooth.  After, all was painted white, then masked and the exterior color was applied to give the hard edge between the colors.  Once the trunk was applied to the rest of the airframe, the entire intake was masked off with 3M blue masking tape.  There was no need to mask inside the tight duct and worry about airbrushing it because this step was already completed!                               

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            At this point, the entire a/c was assembled, except for the wings.  Having never built the Hasegawa kit, I knew I had to do it up with the flaps and slats deployed.  Using some resources from the net, and a great article from David Aungst over at cough, hyperscale (sorry Steve, but your site is still the best!) I realized that Hasegawa forgot to mold the flap hinges and actuators!!  Using David's article as a guideline, I scratch built these parts using evergreen plastic.  The under portions were triangles cut in varying size, the smaller going closer to the outside of the wing.  The tops hinges were just small rectangles cut, then sanded once glued in place on the topside of the wing.  They are not perfect, but hey, it's my first scratch building attempt ever!

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            With that completed, the model was ready for painting.  The canopy was masked with parafilm-M.  This stuff is great.  It has no adhesive what-so0ever, yet it still clings to the model!  It works by stretching it over the plastic, it conforms, and then you just cut away the unwanted part with a razor.  Then once painting is done, it comes of just by rolling your finger over it a few times!  The best part is you can leave it on for long periods of time without worrying about it.  I used my Aztec airbrush to do the work.  MM enamels were used again.  When the overall gray was done, I masked around the anti-glare again with parafilm.  I used my razor to cut out the round shape of the black and again painted away with no worries.  The tails and ventral fins were painted prior to being glued to the airframe to ease in the painting process.  After this, the wheel bays were painted white by hand.  The model was gloss coated in future and ready for decaling.

           As I stated before, I used CAM Decals for VF-31 Black tailed CAG bird.  They went on pretty good, with almost no problems.  The data also came from CAM.  Once decaling was completed the model was given another coat of future and ready for weathering.   

As usual, I weather using pastel dust mixed in water.  I did not want to go over board here as the plane was a CAG bird in a semi-gloss finish so I tried to keep it to a minimum.  I think the overall effect was worth it.  The underside of the fuselage toward the rear got a little bit more weathering as tomcats tend to get dirty here very easily.  The wheels and wheel wells were done in the same fashion.  After this the model was given a light flat coat to give the effect of semi-gloss.  The tails were left gloss because I think they looked better this way, it might even be correct? But someone may know otherwise.

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The only part of the model that has been left out so far was the engines and burners.  Here's how I did the nozzles, first I painted the outside of the nozzles with different shades of Testors MM metalizers, such as steel and titanium.  Then I painted by hand the outside part of the petals that overlap when the nozzle closes in a burnt iron color from the Gunze range.  When dried I painted over the MM metalizers in Tamiya clear orange. This part can also be done using Tamiya smoke color.  The Tamiya color acts as a sealer for the metalizer.  Now onto the inside of the cans.  The recessed areas of the inside of the nozzles were painted using MM dark and light tan.  The raised part was painted using a burnt iron color (same as a above) when dried I used pastel dust**(not a sludge wash, dry dust) I rubbed my finger on the pastel stick then rubbed my "dirty" finger across the inside of the petals from front to back.  I used shades of brown, gray and black for this.  I sealed in the inside of the petals with Testors dullcoat. And that’s it!

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About myself:

            I am a seventeen-year-old modeler from the best city in the world, NYC!  I attend High School and am in my senior year.  Honestly, I don’t know why or how I got started building models as there are not a lot of military bases or jets flying around, I guess I just sort of got hooked on it some how.  In my spare time I hang out with my friends, play ice hockey for school team, I'm the goalie!  And of course, I build modern Navy, Air Force, Marines, whatever kind of jets the use right now in the military but mostly Navy birds.

Hope you enjoyed it,

Sebastian M.

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Photos and text © by Sebastian Manfre