1/72 Academy F-14A Tomcat |
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Gallery Article by Joshua Stockdale
on Sept 12 2003 |
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VF-32 Swordsmen
The
aircraft pictured above has quite an interesting story behind its construction.
This Academy F-14A Tomcat is my third entry on ARC, and I really enjoyed
building this one, not one time but twice.
Here’s the story, I’m sure some of you can relate to this.
I bought my F-14A kit at the Wings Over Pittsburgh Air Show during the
summer of 2002. I was impressed
with the model's outcome, and construction took a couple of weeks.
I used the kit decals with markings for Navy Fighter Squadron 51 (VF-51)
aboard the U.S.S. Carl Vinson, but
this would not last long. I was
displeased with the kit decals, they were very thin and would not stick well to
the Tomcat. I planned on
refinishing the jet with aftermarket decals, but I never really got around to
it, until the following July…
Click on
images below to see larger images
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July
2003 started innocently enough. My
work bench was crammed full of projects I recently finished, so I decided on
moving my fresh aircraft and armor models to be displayed in another room.
After all of my new projects were properly displayed, I decided that one
plane needed to be moved a little to the left.
I
picked up this aircraft, I think it was 1/48 F/A-18C, and all of a sudden, two
of the three shelves I was working on fell down.
Both shelves contained a mix of 1/72s, 1/48s and 1/35s.
You can imagine the scene. There
were armored vehicles, soldier figures, and aircraft scattered everywhere, in hundreds
of pieces. It was a total mess.
One of the worst of the planes was a 1/72 A-7E Corsair that looked
like it did after I opened the box for the first time, minus the part trees! As
a bonus, pictured here is an EA-6B Prowler that I have only started to
repair. I had to glue the fuselage
and wings together during a pain staking process.
Anyway,
another aircraft that was utterly destroyed, is the F-14A of this article.
Like I said, I planned on refinishing it sometime anyhow, now it needed
to be done.
Reconstruction
went smoother than expected. As it
turned out, I had a sheet of Superscale decals I ordered from Squadron at a
discount price of $2.00! They
featured an attractive looking F-14A Tomcat from VF-32 “Swordsmen” on
“Indy”, the U.S.S. Independence. The
sheet also featured a low-visibility scheme from the same squadron.
I chose the high-viz scheme because the low-viz scheme to closely
resembled the Academy kit decals, I wanted something different.
The
first thing I did was re-glue the stabilizers
(vertical and horizontal) on the jet.
The original paint scheme had black vertical tails, while the new one had
an all gray theme. I lightly sanded
out rough surfaces and areas were I added corrective putty.
From there, I painted the aircraft overall Flat Gull Gray and used
Testors products to refinish the cockpit, radome, and exhausts.
I purchased True Details GRU-7 Ejection Seats to replace the ones damage
in the “Great Shelve Accident of 2003”.
I had to “borrow” the canopy from another Tomcat kit, one of my
derelicts, an AMT/Ertl F-14A, since the Academy canopy was literally crushed in
the accident. After several
attempts at salvaging it, I knew when to quit, and went with my spare AMT/Ertl.
In
the end, this jet turned out great. I
weathered it using a paint thinner/pastel wash, and direct pastel as well.
I changed the ordnance, too: two
AIM-9 Sidewinders, one AIM-7 Sparrow and one big AIM-54
Phoenix
. All
of these weapons came with the kit. They
are good, detailed missiles, with decals. The
decals are not that great however, just like the rest of them in the kit, but
with patience, things can be painted.
I also installed the 230 gallon fuel tanks.
Finally I elected to change the afterburner cans.
Now, I have the ones in the closed position, the first time I built the
kit, I used the open style. I
detailed the afterburners with a mix of brass, aluminum and jet exhaust Testors
paint. I added “Remove Before
Flight” flags for extra detail.
In
summary the markings on the new plane are from VF-32 Swordsmen, aircraft #212.
The pilot is CDR. Mark Errante and Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) LT. CDR. Mike
Rhine. The Swordsmen just
recently participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom using there new mount the,
F-14B Tomcat. I had the pleasure of
speaking to some of the aircrews at the United States Air and Trade Show at
Dayton
. It’s
always nice to see the aircraft up close and personal, even if the paint scheme
is different. I date the one on my
plane to be sometime around 1980.
I
am defiantly happy with this jet, it turned out great especially after the
accident it had. I get that lovin’
feelin’ every time I look at this Tomcat (cheap Top Gun joke)!
Enjoy!
Joshua Stockdale
Click on
images below to see larger images
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