Well, this is the last kit I finished but it was a couple months ago (I think). Review away please-any constructive criticism appreciated.

Very nice!! I was wondering how you got the heavy bird to rest on such small struts!!! When you gonna show us some pics of your model, BTW??? Many of us have seen the real thing before... #:-)

One thing I was just wondering with my nuts&bolts-counting thinking cap on, was is the fit of the canopy on the real bird. Another nit-picking was a possible seam just behind the canopy...

The F-14 is an all-time favorite, this is one beautiful specimen!!!

:-) Nice looking F14 Tin_Can, like the weathering. Having it flying gives it a certain presance. Makes me want to do a modern subject. :-)
Mal

This is a great result and I just love the presentation you did !
Now, my problem is i can't realy find any criticism... maybe one, but that's probably the most nit-pickiest one you'll ever hear #:-) : shouldn't the petals of the jet exhausts be more closed when the plane is sweeping it's wings back to go into high speeds ?

Thanks for the kind words.




Your right about the fit of the canopy...it was absolutely horrible. Took quite a bit of white glue to seal all holes.




You may be right. I'm not sure what the correlation is between sweep angle and exhaust closure percentage. Part of the reason mine looks the way it does is because of the mounting posts and the position of the linkages inside of the model for the sweep mechanism.

Outstanding looking weathering... Looks like that bird has been out for more than a Sunday drive

Outstanding job. One of the best Tomcats I have seen in a while. I too love the base and would be very interested in how you got the plane mounted on it

This is a fine looking F14. I just traded an armorama-er for 2 tanks to get an F14 with bunch AM stuff, can't wait to get start on this big baby....

Yours definitely will be an inspiration of my coming Cat project. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for all the kind words.

The attachment of the model to the base was based on a WAG and it turned out ok. I wanted the model to be angled up so I basically guessed where a good point to shift the weight aft on the plane to get the nose up and drilled a hole about midway on each engine housing. It turned out 'ok' but if I did it again I'd probably move the holes forward 3/4 of an inch or so. The mounting poles are 3/16" (?) brass rod that were slid into holes drilled in the base. The base cost me a whopping $1 at Michaels and the bass rod was maybe a $1.

The panel line shading was done using an airbrush and I used several different shades of gray both lighter and darker than the base color. The 'dirty' areas just below the canopy and along the walkways were done using black pastel chalk.