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F14A Tomcat - PART THREE

a build story by David W. Aungst
The kits provide all of the following right in the box. This is quite a list by any standard.

  • Finely engraved panel lines throughout the entire kit.
     
  • Raised cockpit detailing. Through the use of separate insert pieces, Hasegawa provides accurate instrument panels for each of their Tomcat kits. They just substitute different instrument panel pieces.
     
  • Optional position boarding ladder and steps. The ladder is constructed using etched metal pieces to form the vertical sides. There are no plastic pieces in the kit to replace these metal ones, so you must use these etchings if you intend to construct the model with its boarding ladder extended.
     
  • Very well detailed landing gear. The main landing gear legs are each composed of nine-pieces. The nose landing gear leg is made up of thirteen-pieces including alternate pieces to allow you to "kneel" the aircraft as it would be seen for a catapult launch. The only things that the legs are missing are some wiring harnesses. Apparently, Hasegawa intended to leave the wiring harnesses up to the modeler to add as super-detailing items.
     
  • White metal wheel hubs with rubber/vinyl tires. Included in most of the kits are alternate wheels with varying spoke patterns to model the different wheels used across a wide range of Tomcat production blocks.
     
  • Complete, fully detailed wheel wells.
     
  • Optional position swing-wings. In support of the optional position wings, Hasegawa provides alternate wing glove bladders. These bladders inflate and deflate as the wings sweep forward and back. They fill the slot that the wings swing in and out of, thus preserving the aerodynamics of the fuselage. The alternate bladder pieces allow for either fully inflated bladders with the wings all the way forward or fully deflated bladders with the wings in over-sweep (as they would be while parked on the carrier deck). The kit allows for the wings to be positioned at any sweep angle, but the bladders would need to be reworked to whatever partial inflation level they should be to fill the wing slot.
     
  • Optional position wing flaps and leading edge slats. Attaching the flaps in the lowered position does require the positioning of the wings to be fully forward.
     
  • Optional position horizontal tails.
     
  • Optional position speed brakes on the top and bottom of the "beaver tail". The speed brake wells are appropriately detailed with the correct ribbing and contours.
     
  • Optional position tail hook. Actually, if you build it right, the tail hook is functional and can be raised and lowered on the completed model. I do not build my models as toys, so I glued the tail hook in the position I wanted it (raised).
     
  • Optional open and closed engine exhaust nozzles with complete afterburner interiors all the way in to the flame holders and turbines. Even in the F-14A+/B/D kits with the new engine exhaust pieces, this option is still provided allowing the model to have opened or closed engine exhaust nozzles.
     
  • Full engine intake ducting back to a representation of the engine faces. The contours of the ducting are not truely accurate, but to have some form of ducting with an engine face is better than a blank wall or, worse yet, an empty hole.
     
  • A complete compliment of weapons pylons allowing most any air-to-air weapons load to be modeled. Unfortunately, though, no actual weapons are provided in the kit -- nothing -- not even a couple Sidewinder missiles. This requires you to steal weapons from some other kit or purchase some of the Hasegawa weapons sets. And, a gripe of mine with the Hasegawa weapons sets is that the Phoenix missiles are in the "smart bombs" set while all the other air-to-air missiles are in a set of their own. This requires you to buy two weapons sets to model a Tomcat with all three missile types on it, as if the Tomcat kit did not cost enough already. A couple Hasegawa special release "Bombcat" kits do include air-to-ground weapons, but no air-to-air weapons are found in any of the kits to date.
     
  • A TARPS reconnaissance pod. This is a big plus that Hasegawa could have easily ignored. A full conversion to the TARPS configuration also includes a fairing over of the middle front Sparrow missile well. The later Hasegawa releases include the part to do this on the C tree (part C51). The kit instruction sheets make no mention of this part or where it goes, but that is its purpose.
     
  • Open access doors with a representation of the 20mm Vulcan cannon in the left nose. The real point here was that Hasegawa needed to provide the gun covers as separate pieces because they are different from one F-14 version to the next. The actual representation of the 20mm Vulcan cannon is rather poor, being nothing more than raised detail inside the gun bay with no extra pieces to provide a true representation of the 20mm Vulcan cannon. Several after-market companies provide replacements of the gun bay interior that greatly improve the look (if opening gun bays is your "thing").
     
  • Finally, they provide what can only be termed as "extra pieces". This includes all sorts of antennas and airframe variations that provide the modeler with the ability to build most any Tomcat in existence. Like the TARPS pod, these are a big plus that Hasegawa could have easily ignored.

About the Author

About David W. Aungst (DWAungst)


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