1/48th Hasegawa F-14A Bombcat

        VF-41 Black Aces, Op Enduring Freedom

      Everett McEwan

   One of the most important thing about scale modeling is capturing a moment in history, 

and a moment that we will all remember is September 11th, and the following revenge of our

carrier airpower on the home of the Terrorist. As soon as I saw CAM's decal sheet for VF-41,

I knew I had to build it as soon as possible as a tribute to the brave men and woman of our

Armed Forces and the victims of 9-11. 

   Picking up where I left off on my review of the cockpit (PLEASE PUT LINK HERE STEVE) the 

cockpit was joined to the fuselage halves and then joined. Like some of the of the other 

Hasegawa kits, the canopy in the F-14 kits have a seam line running down the middle that 

needs to be removed. In my one year of modeling experience I had never dealt with anything 

like this and the thought of sanding the clear parts scared me. A friend of mine (thanks Earl!)

advised me to order some Micro Mark and Novus plastic polishing kits (HERE

ARE THE LINKS STEVE:

http://www.dxmarket.com/micromark/products/80939.html

http://www.dxmarket.com/micromark/products/82462.html

To take care of any clear part problems, and WOW they worked great. If clear parts scare you 

too, then get these products it will make your life easier. You sand the seam off using 

progressively smoother sand paper (800-12000 grit) that the micro mark kit provides.

Then you polish things out using all three of the Novus pastes, I also found that the Novus 

stuff makes non-scratched canopies look even better too (cleans them up and makes them shine). 

If you are still using Future on your canopies, STOP! Use the Novus creams instead, they will

never yellow, ever. Future is still a good product for painting though.

   Construction of the upper and lower rear fuselage was simple (except I lost the panel line

of the wing glove vane that I had to re-scribe). I also assembled the wings at this time and

made a few corrections to them (missing actuators). It has been said many times that the wings

need to be updated by Hasegawa since building them flaps and slats down is a problem because

of missing parts, luckily I was doing mine with the wings swept since it will be parked on deck.

   My biggest problem was the intakes, let's just say it was a nightmare that kept getting worse 

and worse and I wanted to smash everything in a million pieces. My first mistake was trying to

sand the inside into a seamless joint, trust me it can't be done! The intakes are made up of 

four parts each, upper and lower intake tubes, the main outer part with the other half of the

inside, and the turbine face. The problem is when you join the tube to the main part, you have

a large gap inside the intake trunking and you are tempted to fill it and sand it smooth, it's

the sanding part that got me. During sanding I found that the plastic is very brittle and cracks 

and shatters under the stress of sanding, I would fix each crack and hole with super glue and 

then when smoothing it, a new crack would start, and so on, and so on. I had decided to order

two more F-14 kits from Japan around this time (the yen was down and they were half price) so

I decided to just start over with a new set and copy the parts in resin. I then did as much 

work on the rest of the kit as I could in the meantime, building up the exhaust, the vertical

stabilizers, the weapons, etc.

    A month later, I started again with the parts from the new kits and although I thought I 

was being more careful, I again destroyed them (although not as bad), mostly because the area 

near the intake lip is so thin and likes to crack. I was about to give up, when I decided to

use my third and last set with the seam roughly filled (if you look in there you will see it,

but it's not that bad) and copy those. I had only copied small parts in resin before, and this 

would be new ground for me. I found it is very hard to copy a long, large, hollow part, and went

through about $50-$60 worth of RTV silicon rubber trying to cast it. I found the only way to do 

it was to cut off the top of the intake trunk (that tube part) and cast that separately and then 

glue it on later (yes I know another seam, but I stopped caring by this point).

    Well, after about two to three months, I succeeded in making a usable intake, and was just 

happy to move on. Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of it. I had some big gaps and cracks when 

joining them to the lower fuselage but I manage to fix most of them (the other problems were in 

the tunnel so I didn't fret too much about them), although the most foreword part of the intake 

kept cracking during painting, requiring a lot of touch up.

    Back to the weapons, to make a bombcat you will need to add a few things to the kit, the 

LANTRIN pod and pylon, the bomb racks for the Phoenix rails, and if necessary, the BOL sidewinder

rails (depends aircraft to aircraft). My kit already came with the BOL winder rails in resin 

(It was the "Black Knights Milium Special" issue) but I needed the other parts. By the way, 

Hasegawa includes all the right parts in the "F-14A Lantrin" issue, I wished I had gotten that

kit instead. Next I used my Hasegawa Guided weapons set to provide the Lantrin pod and the Laser

Guided Bombs. Lastly a friend of mine was kind enough to provide me with some resin copies of the 

Eagle Design conversion set (which I then copied myself for latter use) so I could have the bomb 

racks and Lantrin pylon.

    If you ever build a modern Navy jet with bombs, you must remember that they have ablative 

(fire proof) coating that gives the bombs a rough texture, I of course had to modify my Hasegawa 

LGBs to show this. It was a simple method of using 3M adhesive and Baby powder to create this, 

I used this same method for the wing walks as well (as I did on my A-6E). I also used some side-

winders from a Revell kit, that I modified by drilling the holes for the proximity fuse.

    Next, I painted the plane using Testor's MM Dark Ghost Grey overall and then weathered it 

using chalk pastel sludge (powder mixed with water and soap). I went to town on the weathering 

after studying several photographs of the VF-41 Tomcats, as they got very dirty during the

cruise (mostly the upper surfaces because people would walk around on them), the most recent 

photos in International Airpower Review really show this well. But I found that as soon as I

started to decal on top of it (the grey stencils not the black decals), I found I had darkened 

the overall paint job a little too much as the decals almost looked white on top of the weathering,

so I added a little more weathering over them, but they were still too white. In the end I decided 

there was nothing I could do about, and they don't look so bad, I did tell Armagan at CAM about it

as well and he said they went off of FS numbers for it, and I think all my weathering probably 

darkened the base paint too much. When decaling I tried a technique that Ted Taylor had recently

talked about online, after gloss coating with future I used some very fine sandpaper (12,000 grit)

to smooth the areas I was decaling over even more, since nothing silvered I guess it worked. On 

the subject of Decaling I had to make one of my own, a first for me, and it was easy. CAM's decals

were dated 2000, and where missing one thing that was applied to the tail for the 2001 cruise, a 

small stencil saying "Last Tomcat Cruise 1976-2001" because right after the return from Afghanistan,

the aircraft were sent to mothballs at ARMARC, so this was a historical cruise even without the 

strikes that they flew. To make the decals I made a large master of the words using MS Paint and 

then I used a photocopier to reduce it the right size, then taped a piece of blank decal paper on

to the paper (over the copy to ensure the right placement) and copied again and after it had dried I

applied some micro-sol liquid decal film over it. The reason I started with a large size font was if 

I print a smaller font, the curves are jagged (printers print one line at a time) so when you use a 

photocopier you can reduce it to a very small size and maintain the shape of the letters. I was 

nervous applying them but they went on just like all the other decals and in the end you can't 

even tell which are CAM's and which are mine.

   With all of that done I could begin adding the "fidlly parts" from the landing gear doors to the

bombs to the PE ladder to the exhaust nozzles to the canopy. After I was almost done I realized I had

forgotten the pitot tube on the nose, Dhooo! I realized that this part would break off very easily if

I used the plastic kit part (which was crude anyways) so I decided to fashion one using a metal sewing

needle for strength. I tried to taper the tip as the real one would be, but after I was unsuccessful I 

just went ahead with it as is. I simply glued it in with superglue and built up the nose join using

more superglue around it, and then sanded the area smooth and repainted the area. I also added the 

windshield rain removal vents with three small pieces of plastic tubing, and the yaw string (it really 

is a piece of string on the real plane) with some sewing thread inserted into a small hole and painted 

grey to match. 

   On the windscreen I added small dots with a very fine tipped marker to represent the rivets/screws 

found on the real plane. Almost done now, one last step though, I had some Remove Before Flight tags 

from Verlindin that I wanted to try (first time use). I found that they were pretty easy to use and

sure dressed up the plane, I added them to the cockpit and ejection seats (should have done it before

I glued on the canopy) in the spots where they safed the ejection system. I also added one to the tail 

hook area (I think it safes the chaff/flare ejector) and I fashioned the sidewinder wrench/safety pin

from florist wire and a RBF tag each. I also made the sidewinder seeker head caps from some plastic 

tubing that was cut and capped off with a piece of plastic sheet sticking out which I drilled for the

wire that holds it on (I think it's really a bungie cord that goes around the nose fin on the real

thing).

    I had planed to build a carrier diorama base (I have PE tie down stars) and show the Pilot and RIO

stopping to sign a Sept. 11th message on a bomb (I was going to make a bomb hand truck) that ordies were

wheeling by, but after a five month struggle I felt it can wait. I will still build this at a later date

since I want to give the plane the correct historical setting, and will send you all some pictures then.

Right now I have to get back to my A-4 projects starting with the TA-4J and as soon as Cutting Edge

releases the A-4M conversions I will build the A-4AR.

    It feels good to be done with this beast, and although it was tough it was worth it. This kit has a

reputation for a reason, but don't let that stop you, give it a try. I already can't wait to build my 

F-14B (VF-102 Diamondbacks) and my F-14D (VF-213 Black Lions) both as Op Enduring Freedom aircraft. Hope 

you all like it, next up a fun build of a 1/72nd F-18A in Two Bobs Aggressor paint job. Happy modeling :)

Everett

References

F-14 Tomcat by Airtime Publishing

International Airpower Review Vol 3

F-14 Walk Around by Squadron

F-14 Lock On by Verlindin

http://www.navy.mil/

http://www.news.navy.mil/index.asp

http://www.anft.net/f-14/

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