¹⁄35

F14A Tomcat - PART TWO

1.
First things first -- I construct the cockpit. This is a judgement call for any modeler. Know your abilities and work within them. I am a firm believer in painting cockpits and cockpit pieces prior to assembly, but only to a point. I have an easier time with some items if they are already attached in place. To this end, I will attach throttles and control sticks into place before painting, as long as I can get at them after they are in place. I have read reviews where the author completed assembling the cockpit and locked it into the fuselage before they painted it. I have no idea how they made it work at that point...

In the case of the Black Box Tomcat cockpit, I attached the throttles, control stick and most all the other "little details" into the cockpit tub before starting painting. The only items I kept separate were the main instrument panels (front and rear, upper and lower) and the ejection seats. All the fit issues were completely worked out, though, so that all these items needed was to be glued in (after painting).