I must say upon opening the box of Italeri’s F-14 B I was pretty much pleased with what I saw. But a closer inspection of the kit just revealed an F-14A with exhaust nozzles that were totally wrong in shape and size. 

All was not lost. The general fit of the kit is quite good and although the nozzles were completely wrong it could be fixed with a little bit of putty  and plastic sheets. 

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To fix the problem with the nozzles I used the ones supplied in the kit as a bases on which to work on. Adding  several layers of Tamiya putty and some plastic sheet, I was able to build a platform where I could attached the correct looking exhaust from Revell-Monogram’s F-14. But, before this could take place, a lot sanding is required as well as some cutting. 

The cockpit was a little bit sparse, and incomplete. What I mean by this, is that just behind the pilot’s seat there are no back walls. This needs to be fixed. The seats are molded without Face Blind firing handles. You need to add this. 

One thing that I like about this kit is the options given to you. There is a selection of sensors, weapons, tarps pod and fuel tanks. Also the kit decals are quite good. You get two options as to what aircraft that can be built. They are VF-74 and VF-154. I don’t think that VF-154 fly the F-14B, so I chose VF-74, the Bedevilers. 

Painting was done using a Lenco 301 airbrush. The colours used were from Gunze Sangyo. The entire plane was airbrushed with H307 (FS 36320). Weathering was applied by using various shades of gray. When everything was dry I coated the plane with Testor’s Dullcoat.

Lawrence