1/72 Hasegawa F-14B

Gallery Article by Kin Wong on Aug 4 2009

 

Hi, everyone! I'm back again with this Hasegawa 1/72 F-14B.

As all of you know, the Hasegawa F-14 is the best in both 1/72 & 1/48 scale. For Hasegawa’s  F-14s mold used over 25 years…

I had collected some of the Hasegawa Tomcats, this is the first one I've built. 

OK!  Let’s start.  Since this is first Hasegawa Tomcat, I build it OOB. Just to know what the kit provides & to find out any problems.

First I used Verlinden’s 1155 F-14 Tomcat detail set to replace original one. I used the Hasegawa PE parts..  They fit well. 

Since the gun bay was opened, I use Verlinden’s gun barrel, but not in round, better replaced with plastics rod. 

As I said, the mold used for many years, panel lines are lost at many places. Some friends said re-scribe them all, but when I checked the plane, Hasegawa provided very fine panel lines. Re-scribing the panel lines would have required a lot of work. For this time, I tried to leave it & see what will be.

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Accurate Hasegawa provided a very crispy detail. But some places you must pay attention: you must assemble the rear body (A11 + B11) first. Then dry fit (K3+K4) make sure the tail parts in same lever.  For the two air intakes, paint them first, they fit very well, but when you install two intake to body, you need some putty.  When you attach the nose, do not cement the (B10 & B12) first. If you follow the instruction, after you attach the nose to the rear body, you need putty & sanding… 

For the Nozzles, the kit’s interior has no details. Better change to Dr. Pepper’s Resin Nozzles. 

For this Tomcat, I only masked the black color parts, others just airbrush free hand. It is not very hard, just reduces the pressure.

I use oil paint to line & used a dry tissue paper to wipe the exceed oil paint… 

I do not like to pre-shade, especially using black as the shade, it too hard. If you really want, maybe try darker grey… 

Hope you will like my Tomcat.  I started this Tomcat at Dec-08, first time plan decal it for Xmas. Unfortunately, it just finished in April, so the red hat is gone.

There also is a mistake on the Hasegawa decals - ‘Phoenin’

Kin Wong

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Photos and text © by Kin Wong