I thought it might be for that there was no secret as it was mentioned over on the Bulldogs Forum courtesy of Bigskip (he also provided Sam's editor with the photo)

No problems on the extension it sure is a big bird, just keep us informed on you progress.

Allen

Sam and Allen: That really was some ring! And the background on the engagement photo wasn't bad either!

Stefan: Thanks for the kind words! I look forward to see what your Tomcat looks like!

After having spent the afternoon in the front seat of this one:

...it is time to continue with the weathering on the Tomcat. I use water soluble oil paint to add some dirt and grime, rather more than I had planned from the beginning. I might have gotten a bit carried away in the process but I will be able to tone down the weathering overspraying it with gull grey if I need.


(My friend Henric is a gliding instructor so he keeps an eye on my flying from the back seat, my license isn't valid anymore...)

Regards

Magnus

While I did not have a chance to join in on this GB I am in two other albiet one loose GB for the F-14's and Magnus I have to say I really like that VF-114 bird she is looking sharp. Can't wait to see her finished. Well done.

Hi everyone,

I have enjoyed seeing all the great work put into the Tomcats so far. I signed up a while ago and while waiting for the oil wash on my A4 Skyhawk to do its thing I started on my Tomcat. It's the Italeri kit in 1/48 scale. I choose this because it's identical in parts layout to the 1/72 kit
I built for 'Duel in the Sky' and would make for a quicker build, here is the progress so far. The comparison between the Tomcat and Skyhawk is immense. Not to worry the Skyhawk has only a final flat coat and the canopy to finish.



Sincerely,
Brian

Looking good Brian, do you think you'll get the Cat done in time or will you need an extension?

Hi
Looks like iam going to miss out , just not going to get it finished on time and iam afraid to say ive lost interest in trying.
Everything was going well got it primered, thought id give preshading a go, again looking ok then things started to go wrong a few weeks back.
My first attempt at painting had to be removed, the paint just didnt seem to want to cover well unless i layed it on thick which just looked terrible, so out came the oven cleaner, paint came off easy enough and so did various parts then more parts until basically everything was coming loose.
I dont know what was wrong with the paint as ive used that make before with no trouble , i guess the oven cleaner reacted with the glue in some way.
Ok i cleaned up the parts, repainted the cockpit etc stuck it all back together tried painting without the primer, looking better, then the final straw the canopy, get it out of the bag and not only does it have a mould seam down the middle but a nice stratch aswell.
The thought of trying to get rid of these is just to much at the moment, i know there are products available and articles on this site on how but with my modelling time limited and having spent to much of it on this project i am going to put it away and concentrate on other things.
Anyway hope the rest have better luck and i look forward to seeing all the completed builds.
cheers
Peter

Sorry to hear the unfortunate demise of your Tomcat Peter. I hope that eventually you will win the battle of wills and get it completed When you do please post some pictures.

Only six days until the "official" end of the campaign and only two participants have requested an extension, if any more need one please post here or PM me. Here's the updated table of progress.

I am joining the other two builders who require an extension! I really need an extra week (or rather, what I am after is the first weekend in september).

Regards

Magnus

No Problem Magnus, we're currently looking at a two week extension so (all being well) the awards ceremony will be sometime around then

Hi!

Two weeks might be enough for me too!

Tonight I painted the Light Gull Grey topside, and now it looked fine!

Last time I discoverd I had been too sloppy with the sanding and polishing and there was several fine scratches left around the nose and spine joins.
I used a brush and applied a quite thick coat of dark grey paint over the scratched areas.
When I sanded back the paint down to the plastic, the remaining paint showed up in the scratches, acting as filler.
Now, under the second top coat nothing can be seen of those annoying scratches.

Next up is masking and painting the fins, strakes, spine and nose black.

After all masking and painting everything will speed up, as I don´t have very much parts left in the box!
After all, decalling Is my favourite part of a build so this stage will be done soon enough.

All landing gears are done and so are all weapons, so It will be a quick assembly towards the end.

Pics coming soon....

Cheers!

Stefan E

I'm cutting it close but maybe a day over the deadline (thank goodness for the extension ) everything is done except for attaching the canopy, the pitot tube (as they'll be the bits I keep breaking off if I put it on now ) and building the TARPS pod. All that is left after that is sourcing some sparrows and sidewinders from the spares box.

After having some months off modelling i have finally got back in the mood and over the worst of my depression so the tomcat has had more work done to it. Got all the weathering finished so its just a case of matt varnishing and attaching all the bits and pieces. Only managed to get one picture of it today:

Sam

Thats a good looking cat, nice change from all the grey ones, and my black one.

Nice to see you back at the coal face.

Andy

Hi all

Nice work everyone!

I'm still in but I am going to have to take advantage of the offer of an extension. Lots of reasons not many good excuses...

I will post some pics once done.

Cheers and thanks
Wiz

Well it's been a while since I've posted but I have completed a F-14A, but I've hit a slight hitch.
A couple of weeks ago after a day out my camera fell out of my truck when I opened the door and smashed on the road.

Allen, I will be taking it to the Medway show on 1st - 2nd September and will see if one of the Bulldogs can take some pictures for me to post if this is alright with you?

Build number 2 about 70% complete.

Ciao
Luciano

Lucky

I'll be there on Sunday, i'll try to remember the camera, if not it may have to be a phone photo.

Andy

Hi Littorio,That'll be fine, I'm sure one of the Bulldogs will be able to get you some photos of it we have (currently) two weeks extra, so it shouldn't be a problem

It's been a bad summer for me modelling-wise - kind of lost motivation but I knew this deadline was looming so I kicked myself in the tail and here is my finished Miss Molly.




She had been mostly finished for awhile - just a few fiddly things that I kept putting off.

GB

Hello everyone,

Gary, nice looking 'Miss Molly'. Camogirl, I look forward to seeing the Iranian Tomcat finished, that’s definitely not something you see very often. If the reports can be trusted, several Iranian Tomcats shot down around a dozen Iraqi planes each during the nine years of war between them.

I am glad we have the extension! I almost have the cockpit finished. I plan on pre-shading the model Saturday.









Sincerely,
Brian

I shall start and finish my entry today .
See my build blog here .
Oh well "into the breech my friends" as someone once said .
Andy

A very nice build there Gary, I know what you mean by lack of motivation, I've been there before (for nearly a year) I've added you to the completed list.

Brian, your cockpit looks really good and can't wait to see the finish bird as I liked your Skyhawk. One question is the ejection handles molded into the seats as the don't look right to me? The only reason I ask is i have this kit but keep bying the Hasegawa offering as it looks better in my opinion

Andy, you are truly crazy and can't wait to see the finished result.

I've finally found some Sparrows and Sidewinders so I'll get them painted and attached by the end of the weekend.

Unfortunately I am going to have to bow out at the last possible minute. I was planning on putting the wraps on my 1/144 kit when I got home today from the IPMS Nats, however, while I was away, my basement flooded and my wife had to move all of my stuff out of the room (My build room) and as such, I can't get it done. All she needed was a flat coat and some washes. Oh well. Life goes on. Thanks. "Q"

Hello Allen, the seats did not come with them. I used the smallest size plastic rod I had and heat them under hot water to make the loops. I figured with a Pilot and RIO added they would blend in more. At least I hope so.

One other thing to add. In my opinion, the wing sweeping setup is VERY POOR! the cross bracket between wings is way to flimsy and should be beefed up or replaced with some other form of something. The setup is exactly the same on the 1/72 model and it is fine for that size and weight but not in 1/48th.

Brian

Hi all!

@Gary;

Wow, GOD GOLLY; MISS MOLLY!

Beautiful model, Sundowners have always been one of my favourite squadrons!
Exactly these markings was among my options for my 1/32 build you can see here!
I choosed between VF-84 Jolly Rogers, VF-111 Sundowners and VF-142 Ghostriders.
As you know VF-84 won the toss this time, the others will probably be in 1/48.
I already have a Revell 1/32 Tomcat in VF-1 Wolfpack colors, two F-14´s in 1/32 is well enough!

@Sam;

Your Iranian Tomcat will be a stunner!
Nice to see you´re back up and running (building) again!

Now, here´s an update on my own F-14 build.

I missed the wire (deadline) and did a "bolter" this time, so I will go around and make a new try to trap next week!

Now on to the pics;

I had some ugly scratches, so I brush-painted on a quite thick coat of paint and sanded back.



I repainted the Gull Grey;



..and now it was smooth as silk!

Time to mask the topside for the antiglare and corroguard leading edges.



I airbrushed the antiglare and spine with gloss black.



On the leading edges I used Alclad2 Dark Aluminium.



Then it was time for one of the most exciting moments, demasking!

I can tell you, It took some time to skin this cat!

After the demasking work, a beautiful Tomcat arised!
Some touching up needed in places but nothing major, phew!







You can see the piles of masking tape on the table!

So far, so good, no "Crash and Burn" yet!

Next task will be a gloss coat and decals!

Until then;

Cheers!

Stefan E

Brian, Thanks for the info, it's certainly something I'll have to keep an eye out for if I ever get round to building mine. Also your right about the swing mechanism, I think manufacturers try to make them too toy like and succeed, the only kits that I've found to work really well is the 1/32 Tamiya kit (it's an engineering masterpieces with several gears and screws) and the Hasegawa kits (1/72 has separate wings which are placed either fully forward or fully swept, and the 1/48 are also separate and fully sweepable but don't work in unison)

Stefan, Your cat is certainly taking shape, it looks like it'll be a stunner when it's finished, I'm hoping to build my 1/32 kit and convert it to a 'D' using the technics sets when the swing wing campaigns gets of the ground

My Tomcat is finally finished today but unfortunately I forgot to take my camera, so I'll get some shots of it tomorrow night.

I'm currently PM'ing those that we have heard nothing from as to weather they have kits on the go as such I'm tracking those that have requested an extension and (assuming the non starters throw a curve ball) I will award the ribbon once the last person has finished. There's no real rush to finish as I would rather see the kit rushed and messed up. After all we do these for fun.

Heres an updated campaign table:



Cheers
Allen