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I love
seeing F-14's come up on ARC's daily updates, since it ranks as one of my
favorite aircraft. When the group build came up, I figured I might as well
enter the fray. I decided to build both the Academy and the Monogram
Tomcats, putting one in overall gull gray and the other in TPS. I won't go
into great detail about the basics of each kit, but I will cover some of the
things I did.
The first project was the Academy F-14.
The
first project was the Academy kit. I used the True Details set to replace the
kit cockpit, which isn't all that bad. Although it's designed for the Monogram
F-14, it fits quite nicely into the Academy kit with a little work.
After finishing construction, I got to my favorite part of building a
model...the painting. I used MM Acryl paints, since I like the way they go
down on the plastic. I especially like their non-toxic
properties. The decals are from Aeromaster for VF-211 Checkmates. I didn't
quite agree with the time frame and colors that the instructions called out
for, which stated that the a/c was from 1982 and was overall gull gray. The
markings they provide on the sheet are from after VF-24 disestablished and
VF-211 took over the checkmark on the tail. That would be about 1995 or so. I
also saw this particular aircraft at an airshow, and it was in the TPS.
Another thing I added was the FOD covers. I used a vinyl material similar to
what the Black Magic masks are made of. You can find it at a company that
makes signs for windows. It comes in a variety of colors, and when dull
coated, takes on a very realistic look.
The second
project was Monogram's F-14.
| Every
so often I have a moment of insanity when I begin to scribe a model, and
when I come to my senses, it's too late. I've already started! That was
the case here. It was good practice, though. Again, I won't go into detail
about the building process.
Everything
was built box stock except for the panel lines and FOD covers, which I've
already covered (no pun intended!).
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I used MM
Acryl paint and CAM decals, which are for VF-33 Starfighters. I did
some work to the markings, since I wanted an all-black tail. I cut strips
of yellow decal film to make the AB on the inside of the tail, and used a
star from a US National Insignia to fill in the star on the tail. The
markings on the FOD covers are slightly fictitious, but that's what
modeling is all about.
This the
first a/c in a series of models with black tails. My goal is to build all
of the different manufacturers F-14's in 1/48, and put them all in black
tails. Let's see, that's one down and 5 to go.
Darren
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