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F14A Tomcat - PART THREE

Hasegawa's 1/48 Scale Tomcat Described
Do you want the short version or the long one? Anyone that has ever built (or tried to build) one of the Hasegawa 1/48th scale Tomcat kits can attest to there being lots you can say about them -- both good and bad.

The short version is this -- on the good side, the Hasegawa 1/48th scale Tomcats are the most detailed and accurate Tomcats of any kits on the market today, bar none. This is a strong statement, but in my opinion, it is true. On the bad side, the kits are quite a challenge to build due to their many complexities and fit issues. Over the years, I have actually not seen many of these kits finished. If you ever try to build one, you will find out why many have never been finished. I would bet most end up broken after being thrown against a wall. You really have to want to complete the kit to put up with some of the issues it presents.

If you do not care to read all the gory details about building these kits, you can back out of this posting now and wait for my future postings that will show my completed Tomcats. Otherwise, read on...

I acquired my first Hasegawa F-14 kit when it was originally released in the middle 1980s. It cost a whopping $60 back then and is still generally in the same ball park for its price today. On the heels of Hasegawa's very well done F-4 Phantoms and A-7 Corsairs, I was sure that the F-14 kit would not disappoint me and plunked down a half-week's salary (at that time) without any hesitation. The kit turned out to be a mixed blessing.

The original two releases of this kit provide all necessary components to build any F-14A from the middle of the block 75 aircraft (starting with BuNo 159421) up through the last F-14A to be produced (a block 140 aircraft, BuNo 162711). Re-releases of the kit with different parts allow the building of earlier F-14A Tomcats (prior to BuNo 159421) as well as F-14A+/B/D Tomcats and "Bombcats". The only Tomcats that Hasegawa does not provide a kit for are the twelve prototype / pre-production aircraft (BuNo 157980 through 157991). Over the years, I have acquired many of these kits (I have expensive taste). Most everything I write here about constructing these kits applies to all the kits, collectively.