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F14A Tomcat - PART THREE

I was still unhappy with the look of the flaps. After some extended investigation, I found out why. Hasegawa molds the wing flaps, themselves, incorrectly. They are too big! Hasegawa molded their pieces on the assumption that the flaps are a fowler style flap that slides back as it comes down. The truth is that the flaps are a slotted type that merely pivots down with the "eyelid" doors retracting to reveal a slot between the wing and the flap. No sliding back occurs. The bottom line is that the Hasegawa flaps are too long in their cord by about an eighth of an inch, the width of the "eyelid" doors.

After some investigation on how best to fix the problem, I initially came to the conclusion that fixing the kit pieces would be harder than just creating new flaps from scratch. Then I looked more into the scratch building effort and decided I really was not up for that, either. After further scrutiny of the kit pieces, I found that simply cutting off the leading edges of the pieces and filing them back to air foil shapes would work. So, that is what I did.

I cut the kit wing flaps following the scribe line that defines the "eyelid" doors (when the flap is retracted). Then I filed the leading edges of the parts to re-create the proper airfoil shape. I fixed the scribing that was lost during this process. I machined in the attachment points for the hinges that attach the flap to the wing. Lastly, I added the bumps on the upper flap surfaces that attach the actuators to the flap.

Inboard, Topside

Outboard, Topside