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F14A Tomcat - PART THREE

Background
With apologies to Tom Cruise, the real star of the movie Top Gun is the F-14 Tomcat. It is probably the most widely recognized and capable Naval air superiority fighter of the modern era (my opinion, with further apologies to all the Hornet lovers out there). With a design dating back to the early Seventies, it remains one of the US Navy's premier aircraft, even today.

The original Tomcat design was for a pure air defense fighter employing long range Phoenix missiles to protect Carrier Groups from any perceived aerial threat. Shorter range Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles give the Tomcat close range armament. For the traditional dogfight, the Tomcat is also equipped with the ubiquitous six-barrel Vulcan 20mm rotary cannon. Later developments have introduced a reconnaissance role to the Tomcat using the Tactical Air Reconnaissance Pod System (TARPS). The most recent developments from the 1990s have now added ground attack to the Tomcat's list of missions.

Hasegawa was quite late in releasing a Tomcat in 1/48th scale. Rumors had been flying for years about them finally doing it. With a growing line of F-4 Phantoms, A-7 Corsairs, and F-15 Eagles, it only made sense that they would continue the line by including the F-14 Tomcat. Finally, in the 1980s, a decade after the F-14 entered Fleet service, they released a 1/48th scale kit.

This posting is another part in a multi-part posting on the Hasegawa Tomcat. In this posting, I will describe the kits and discuss the issues with constructing the kits. In future postings, I will highlight my completed models of the Tomcat (I now have three) and discuss things specific to each project.

This story re-published with the permission of the David W. Aungst.