F-14B Tomcat - 1:32 Trumpeter

[Guest]

Finally found some time to get back to modelling.

A few shots of the Ejector Seats, have deviated from the kit colour scheme and used internet photos.

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A few details of the Master Detail Pilot Figures, a bit of cleaning to do, and don't know why they have used a white metal casting for the head.; as you can see from this trial fit photo the Pilot is sitting too high so some major surgery needed on his rear.



Fitted most of the cockpit and primed with Tamiya Light Grey Surface Primer. I plan to keep this colour as the background colour for the cockpit (it's darker than the photos suggest), again I will be using internet photos instead of the Kit colours. Incidentally, the cockpit colour instructions is poor, and you are left guessing what colour to use.



Cheers Derek

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[Guest]

Hell that is some kit and well presented, Will be watching this come together

[Ian M]

Funny that. While shuffling some thing like 2000 posts around the forums, I saw this one and wondered what you have been doing with it.

Good to see you back at the bench.

hope all is well.

Ian M

[Guest]

Nicely work so far!

Nice to see you modelling again too!!

Cheers. Polux

[flyjoe180]

Nice work so far Derek

[Guest]

Thanks for your comments Lads.

Unusually for a Trumpeter 1/32 Kit, have been pulling my hair out at the instrumentation Panel Dials. Overall the mouldings for the cockpit and seats are quite good. The small dials however have a raised facia which is quite good but the Decals for the dials have been grouped together on the backing film. How these are supposed to bed into the facias I do not know. They are so small that for me, it is impossible to cut them out individually.

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What I ended up doing was paint where the decals should have gone with black gloss paint, and with a fine sewing needle scratched the dial face to represent the dial needle.

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Going to assemble and paint the Pilot figures now.

Cheers Derek

[Guest]

Yes....they look so small

But is an excellent work too!!!

You have many patience

[flyjoe180]

Nice way around those tricky decals Derek. It all looks good so far.

[Guest]

Thanks Polux and Joe.

A few shots of the finished Tub, amazing how you see the little bits you miss only when you photograph them. Cheers Derek

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[papa 695]

Looking good Derek

[Guest]

Thanks Ian,

Have been concentrating on the undercarriage and wheel bays.

In order to comply with the configuration I want, have used the short nose undercarriage strut. Have also cut-off the launch bar and repositioned it in the retracted position.

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Here's a view of all three struts

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Finally a few shots of the sub-assemblies ready for priming.

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Cheers Derek

[papa 695]

There's some serious detail painting to do in those Derek looking forward to seeing it

[tr1ckey66]

This is one monster of a kit!

The cockpit and pilots look great. Looking forward to seeing the rest of this big bird build!

Cheers P

[Guest]

Thanks Ian and Paul.

Have almost finished the nose wheel well, still to do some dirtying, but will tackle all three landing gear together once fitted.

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Have fitted the cannon, so that the muzzle is visible, have closed all of the panels, as I don't want to spoil the lines of the aircraft. Must say I am disappointed with the fit, will wait until the forward fuselage is all together before filling in and cleaning up the seams.

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I have just cemented the engine intake ramps to the intake side walls rather than trying to fit the actuators, which for me seems an impossible task.

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In order to get the ramps parallel to the intake lip means this ramp edge will be sticking out, but this is not a problem as it goes into a recess.

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Must say I am disappointed in this kit so far, a lot of poor fitting, poor assembly illustrations and a lack of painting instructions. Thank god for google.

Cheers Derek

[Guest]

I like to coat my canopies with Klear well in advance of needing them or masking them, so the Klear has plenty of time to cure. Trumpeter, as usual, have a longitudinal seam; however this canopy has two widths of seam at each position, which made me google photos, and sure enough the thicker seam is present on the actual aircraft. I have therefore only cleaned off the thinner section.

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I was planning to fully detail the engines, but unfortunately I do not have a lot of spare time at the moment, so have just painted the essentials, here you see the Intake, Trunking and Engines fitted. All quite good fits.

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The next couple of shots show the main undercarriage fitted, this was an excellent fit, they clicked together into the fuselage.

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One point to bear in mind; for me it was not clear where the cylinders Items K2 and K6 fitted, so I left them off and fitted them later, which means I will have to hand paint them later. With hindsight it is possible to fit them with the rest of the wheel bay, and paint the lot together. See grey cylinder in photo below.

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The two halves of the fuselage were brought together, this was a good fit.

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The underside stabilizers were a bad fit into the slots on the fuselage and needed a lot of filing/sanding, still to fill the gap. I am leaving off dressing up all of the joints on the model until assembly is complete.

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Cheers Derek