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F14A Tomcat - PART ONE

Most of the detail pieces come attached to solid slag blocks in one way of another. I find the saw blade approach works best at removing pieces from slag that are attached in this manner. For very tiny or fragile pieces, I find the best saw for the job is my Dremel high-speed motor tool. I mount a tiny radial saw blade in the tool and carefully cut the parts free of their slag. I have found that this style of cutting provides the most accuracy on the cut with the least chance of damage to what can be very fragile pieces.

Of course, this cutting is not without risk. Dremel stopped selling this saw blade after a few unfortunate people lost fingers using it. The blade is extremely effective at cutting any soft material, including skin and bone. Take precautions when using this tool/blade combination. If the blade binds up and jumps, do not have any fingers in its way. A saw blade to fit your Dremel tool is still available from companies other than Dremel.

Once the pieces were cut free of their slag, I attached them into the cockpit tub in the locations indicated on the instruction sheet. See the descriptions with the individual parts (above) for any specific notes regarding the placement of the detail parts within the cockpit tub.

In the case of the main instrument panels, I assembled the rear panel (parts #6 and #8) and left the rest as separate pieces (parts #5, #7, and #12). I kept these out of the cockpit tub pending the completion of the painting of the parts. On dry fitting the pieces into the cockpit, I found the rear instrument panel sat too flat in the cockpit tub. So I added .060" strip styrene at the place where the rear portion of the panel rested. This had the effect of rocking the instrument panel so that the instruments faced the RIO's face, not his belly button.