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Black Box
48047 F-14A/B Bombcat Set
for 1/48 Hasegawa F-14A Tomcat
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Although I own a few of the Black Box cockpit sets, this is
the first I have built, and I gotta' say WOW! It's relativity easy
and turns out like a million bucks, it sure does pay for itself
if you consider the time and hard work it saves you.
You begin by sanding things down, I didn't sand the base
enough (lost the line when I sanded the sides) and had to re-
sand later, so stick to the directions since it is needed for
the nose gear well. The reason I was sanding the sides down was
so I could save the kit's boarding ladder wells, Black Box tells
you sand them off, but you can sand holes in the side of the pit
if you want instead, it's your choice. Painting comes next, of
course the base color is first, I chose Light Ghost Grey which
was airbrushed on and allowed to dry. Next I masked the panels
and airbrushed black, also airbrushing the instrument hoods and
the rear deck at the same time. After sealing with Testors Flat
that was it for airbrushing. Next came the hand painting, mostly
dry brushing all of the switches and some black (along with a
fine tip pen) for the instruments.
| Around this point I did find one glaring error in this set though, but it is easily fixed, the LANTRIN hand controller for the RIO is not present in the parts or the instructions. This hand controller interestingly comes from spare parts that were made for the | ||
| canceled A-12 project (by the man who is now Vice President, Dick Cheney) and were pulled out of storage for the Bombcat. I started by drilling a small/shallow hole for the stick in the correct area and then chopped off the top of a F-18 control stick and glued into place (the Hasagawa kit gives you two for the Two seater even if it is a F-18C kit). Another option is using the Eagle design Bombcat conversion set which has the hand controller included in it (I received the set after I had finished the cockpit). |
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| You replace the lower section of the RIO's panel with the new part (the set still includes the old part-the radar hood) which is a large 8 by 8 flat panel display that is the other difference of the Bombcat cockpit (this part is also included in the Eagle design conversion set). The set also includes four ejection seats (two each of the GRU-7 and the NACES) allowing you to build either the A or B version. | ||
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The fit of the parts are problematic in a few spots, mostly
the sides of the rear deck and the front instrument hood (which
I think is too big and out of scale), but test fitting will show
you where you need to adjust things. For the rear deck I used
some plastic strips and filler to create a smooth seam (also
with the Eduard PE parts on the pit sides) all in all not really
that bad. I found after everything was glued in and it was too
late, that the tub was too far back mostly because I used the
rear deck as a locator. I realized this by looking at reference
photos when I began to check the fit of the canopy, on the real
aircraft the instrument hood is set back from the canopy edge,
but I found that on my cockpit it was even with it. I decided
that if I moved the pilot's center counsel back a hair by
removing it and sanding the back down I could then move the hood
back (it needs to be forward of the lower panel). This worked,
but now I have a small gap on the two side panels of the tub,
but I can live with it since I would rather have the hood in the
proper place. On looking at the hood in the canopy it looks a
little too big in comparison to my reference pictures, so I
shaved down the base of it as much as possible to lower it's
profile. No matter what, it is worth the fudging, because it
looks so nice and detailed. Later I added some of the Eduard
Photo etch parts such as the canopy latches, canopy Handles and
the windscreen frame.
Despite the lack of the hand controller this set is a must
have for anyone building a Bombcat, it really saves a lot of
work and looks great. I am so satisfied with this set that I
have since bought one more of these for my F-14B, and the F-14D
set for my upcoming Op Enduring Freedom Black Lion's F-14D (Two
Bobs is doing the decals) please nobody tell my girlfriend Lisa,
she said I can't buy anymore stuff till I build it all. Now if
only the rest of the kit was this easy!
| click on pictures below to bring up larger pictures | ||
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