The seats were also completed at this time, but were not installed until much later. Once the forward fuselage had been completed, I set it aside for a while, and went to work on the aft fuselage.  First order of business was the wheel wells.  I've got to tell you, this was probably one of the most complicate wheel well assemblies I've ever seen on an aircraft model kit.  Be very careful in assembling these, as it will affect not only the fit of the upper/lower fuselage, but also the sit of the aircraft as well (don't ask me how I know this  ).

Click on image below to see larger image

If you have this kit, and afford some extra aftermarket parts, I'd recommend the Aires wheel wells for this kit.  It will still require some skill in assembling, but it should make things quite a bit easier.

  Once the gear  wells were assembled, the upper and lower fuselage halves were joined, and construction commenced on the aft fuselage.  The boattail and exhausts were added (another tricky part of the construction process here - I'm not really sure why this had to be a separate assembly, but oh, well.......).  The intakes were also completed and installed at this point.  To correct the intake ramps, I followed the instructions in Dave Aungst's outstanding article at Hyperscale, which describes the assembly of the Hasegawa F-14 in excruciating detail.  I highly recommend it to anyone building this kit. 

Once the majority of work was completed here, the forward and aft fuselage parts were joined, the resultant seam filled and smoothed out, and a coat of primer followed.  Now, it's beginning to look like an airplane! The wings were also constructed at this point, as well as the vertical tails.  The vertical tails were also painted and decaled at this point, but not installed until much later.  I didn't want to have to do any complex masking, and this was the easiest way to prevent that.  The wings/tail were painted, weathered, and set aside while the painting and weathering commenced on the fuselage.

Click on image below to see larger image

  The fuselage was first preshaded, and then painted in the TPS colors of FS36375 Light Ghost Gray for the undersides, FS36320 Dark Ghost Gray for the nose, and FS35237 Medium Gray for the topside surfaces.  The paint was thinned with lacquer thinner (great stuff, BTW!), and applied in very thin coats so that the preshading would still show.  In addition, some touchup spots were added to the model at this point as well. 

Click on images below to see larger images

The rear fuselage was masked off, and the exhausts were painted in a basecoat of Alclad Aluminum.  This was later weathered with very thin airbrushed coats of burnt sienna, thinned with lacquer thinner.    I developed a new technique for weathering on this one, which involved drawing in all of the panel lines with a pencil, and then blending the lines out with an artist's blending stump.  This is an artist's tool which looks like a pencil, but is actually tightly wrapped paper.  Artists use them for blending pastels and charcoals, and they sell for $1-2 USD at most craft/art supply stores.  This was done directly over the basecoat before any clearcoat was applied, so that the end result would blend with the overall paint job.     With this complete, the tails/wings were attached, and the model was overcoated with several coats of Future.  It was left to dry for 48 hours, and decals were applied.  As far as I can tell, this particular aircraft wore minimal stencils, so I left most of them off.  Everything was left to dry overnight, and the next, day, any silvering was taken care of with a careful dose of Solvaset.  Go very easy with this stuff, and apply it with a fine brush.  It's easy to overdo it, and ruin a decal permanently.

Click on images below to see larger images

Now that the major construction was complete, it was time to attach the landing gear.  These were superglued in, and given a wash of Raw Umber.  Gear doors were edged in Red with a Sharpie marker and attached at this time as well.  You'll note that some of the gear doors are somewhat misaligned.  I fixed this afterward, but unfortunately didn't get a chance to take another photo.  Just so you know I fixed it...........

Final details included painting and attaching the canopy, wing glove weapons rails, and seats.  The model was airbrushed with Testor's Dullcote, thinned with lacquer thinner, and a final dusting of pastels in select spots completed the model.

CONCLUSION:   Seems strange to sum up the construction of this kit in only a few paragraphs.  The truth is, this kit was started over three years ago, and was sidelined a number of times in favor of other projects.  You know, ones that can actually be completed!  I have to say that finishing this kit pushed my modeling skills to a new level, if only out of sheer necessity to get it done!  I recommend it to experienced builders, but the truth be told, I still maintain that the best 'bang for the buck' F-14 in 1/48 is the Academy kit.  It is not quite as detailed as the Hasegawa, but it much easier to build, and the detail can be added with a scriber, some elbow grease, and a little determination.   

Click on images below to see larger images

REFERENCES: 

• Modern Fighting Aircraft: F-14

• F-14A/B: Detail and Scale

• F-14A by Dave Aungst (Hyperscale) http://www.kitparade.com/features01/f14cockpitdwa_1.htm

• The Bones of the Jolly Rogers- http://www.almansur.com/jollyrogers/

My sincere thanks once again goes out to Steve Stohr at North American Hobbies
for graciously providing the VF-84 decals for this article.  Steve is a great friend, and if you're looking for hobby supplies, I encourage you to visit his website at http://nahobbies.com.  If you don't see it listed on the site, Steve can get it for you, and at a really great price to boot!

Steve