1/48 Academy F-14A Bombcat by Ray Yeo (Seiya)

ARC Header file blank

1/48 Academy F-14A Bombcat

by Ray Yeo (Seiya)

--------------------

Birthday-announcement banner

Happy Birthday to ARC Members "Bill Ficner", "Matt_S", "Lancer512", "JayBee", "J.W.", "Parrothead", "Jan Wagner", "HS-4Grandson", "bottomgun", "9A4Tc", "jguenver", "Shorty84" and "Team 4R"!!!

Gal mainpage Ad above main pic

Gal mainpage Ad below main pic

Hi guys, I am please to share with you my first completed aircraft kit - a 1/48 Academy Bombcat a.k.a 1/50 Fujimi copy. This aircraft was done right out-of-the-box. I did not manage to use any detail up parts for that I am saving them up for my Hasegawa's. This kit is mainly a test subject for me to get used to aircraft building and preparation for my next few aircraft projects.

My review for this kit is that it is buildable, but at the same time it still lacks the details and the shape is inaccurate. This is fine for me as long as it looks like a Tomcat. I will figure out on a more detailed one on my next attempt.

Click on images below to see larger images

The pain for me on this kit is the panel lines and the fit problem on the nose. I had a hard time correcting the nose. The nose fits - top and bottom, instead of a rounder look eg: ( o ) it was roughly angled eg: < o >. I have to hold hard and compress the sides to get back the correct shape again eg: force--> ( o ) <--force.

On the other hand, because of the intensive molding of this product. Most of the panel lines on the kit was faded upon purchase. The surface where the panels should be is flat though you can still see faded lines. I have rescribe all the panel lines from the mid torse down to the tail and also on the nose after the intensive sand to correct the fitting problems.

Finally after all this work, I am satisfied with the completion of this Academy F-14.

Thank you gentlemen

Ray