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F14A Tomcat - PART THREE

Click for detailed view of parts trees.

While this all sounds wonderful, it is not without a cost. There are an extraordinary number of pieces in the kit. The original F-14A kits contain 268 gray plastic, 16 clear plastic, 6 etched metal, 8 white metal wheel hubs, and 4 vinyl tires. Quite a number of these pieces (about 30) are the "extra pieces" I mention above that are optional variations on the airframe allowing the modeler to build any specific aircraft block number and weapons loading. Later releases of the kit have the number of parts climbing even higher as in most cases, Hasegawa added new options without removing the old ones. The high end of the part count is found in one of the recent release of the F-14D Tomcat (in overall black from VX-9). Because this kit includes trees of iron bombs and everything needed to make a "Bombcat", the gray plastic parts top out at nearly 500 pieces!