Hi all,

Anyone know which is the variant of tomcats, skyhawks and 'mig28s (f-5s) they use in top gun? Also are there any aftermarket decals that you can get for the maverick and goose plane?

Rich

Based on year the movie was released (1986), I would have to say the Toms were all F-14As. IIRC, the A+ upgrade didn't happen until 1987, well past the time of the movie's shooting.

The fictional MiG-28s were F-5Es. I don't believe there were any F-5Fs (two-seaters) shown, but I'm working from my (rapidly fading) memory here, so I could be mistaken.

As for the Scooters, I'll leave that to someone who is more familiar with the many variants of the A-4.

HTH.

-YL

there were actual kits of the movie aircraft with correct markings....you could prowl e-bay for them

Testors did the movie releases in 1/72. As for the A-4's there were A-4E and F with the 2 seaters being TA-4J's. The F-14's could also have been both A and B's. The squadrons of course were fictional, HTH stug

The movie, released in May '86, couldn't have featured any F-14Bs. I did a little more online digging, and multiple sources cite that the A+ upgrades weren't put into production until March '87, with the first plane delivered to the Naval Air Test Center in November of that year. VF-101 received the first operational F-14A+ Toms in '88. As an aside, the A+ nomenclature wasn't changed to F-14B until 1991.

A quick check around the internet reveals that the film's flight deck scenes were shot aboard the Enterprise (CVN-65) in 1985, so this makes the appearance of any B-versions in the movie an impossibility.

-YL

The F-14B program started in '73 with various avionics upgrades to F14A's over the life of the airframe; Furthermore, it is commonly stated that to build a speific F14A is impossible for any aircraft after it's initail 120 hour maintenace overhaul.Many of the avionics upgrades that were the B were aldready in A's of the period. The only major chang of the period was to the GE engine. Which by '85 had already occured. A good source for the F14 is the MATS website. On a different note the IR sensor on several of the airframes are diffenet on some of the birds indicating the change in in avions for the air craft so the kit purchased will be at the discretion of the modeler, also the 20mm doors are differnet between the actual A that is in kit form and is noted between the different aircraft, so the later B kit is again needed.
Now the fun fact that few outside the navy knows, all flight deck and shipboard footage was filmed on the USS Ranger. The USS Enterprise though a proud NUCLEAR carrier is shown on the ballcaps of the crew, she does not have a stack for 8 boilers. Though the big big give away to the Enterprise not being in the film is the island. Though prior to '85 the capital dome was removed, still to this day she has her orignal distintive square island. Where the Ranger has the more familiar rectangle structure we all now, along with the stack aft of the bridge.

I remember these,they were made by Airfix in 1/72nd scale and the boxes had artwork from the movie.I had and built them,then when my parents sold their old house i donated them to a local air museum - good grief,that was silly,they`d be worth a mint on E-Bay now !!.

Funny, that. The information I posted came from both the M.A.T.S. website (www.anft.net) and Tomcat Alley (www.topedge.com), as well as a few other miscellaneous pages (the FAS page on the F-14, for example). None of them cite actual production of the F-14A+/B any earlier than the dates mentioned.

This is directly from the M.A.T.S. website, with the emphasis being mine: The first F-14A(PLUS) - Block 145, BuNo 162910 - made its maiden flight in September 1986 and marked the beginning of a six aircraft (including the F-14B prototype BuNo 157986) flight test program.

I understand your point about the upgrades being made gradually over the life of the airframe, and I'm not challenging the veracity of your information, Steve. But you have to admit that based on the above, most of us landlubbers would draw the conclusion that the A+/B as we know it wouldn't have been in actual service at the time the movie was made.

All of this upgrade talk begs another question, at least in my mind. What would really make an accurate representation of Maverick & Goose's bird from the film, especially given the way Hollywood movies are made and edited? Is their Tom an A? An in-between A with some upgrades? Is the same airframe used throughout the movie? We could go on and on with this until we suck all the fun out of Rich's project !




My oops. The Enterprise info came from IMDb and another Top Gun film website. I think it's time to sit down and watch the movie again, and take some notes...

-YL

Yoni, I usually post just info about kits to build more acturate models for the film versions. The A's in Top Gun are not like the A's in Final Countdown. Which was my point. the flight line shots in Top Gun show some distinct differences from aircraft to aircraft. I grew up outside if NAS Oceana in Virginia. By the time the film was released, you couldn't walk the flight line at the annual airshow and find 2 Tomcats exactly alike.

GUys cheers for the info, its a lot more than i needed really but its all good stuff to know! I'll post some pics when i get to the project but it might be a while cos i have a gannet to finish up right now, then 3 more models that ive just bought and im going to have to put some shelves up to accommodate them all or my girlfriend will get annoyed with having to wade through models.

ON the decals front, ive heard people saying that they made them themsselves using photoshop and a particular printer, I'd be interested to know the method and stuff you need. Actually ill post another topic about it.

Cheers

Rich

Rich,

Just a quickie: there were both F-5Es and F-5Fs in the film. In the first MiG encounter at the beginning of the movie, one of the planes used is an F-5F (two-seater). The E-variant wasn't the only one used, as I previously stated.

HTH.

-YL