Hey all

I was looking to get my Childhood favorite the F-14 and got a Rev mono and it looks like [auto-censored] so I decied to get a good represention and have read the pros and cons of the hase and HB. so I was wondering I can get 2 1/48 Hasegawa F-14's one A and 1 D with Black box cockpits for 70$ or should I get a HB F-14A for about the same??

Euge

Eugene, the Hasegawa kit is not a bad baseline F-14 model. However, the molds are a little long in the tooth and there is some flash on the sprues. Most Hasegawa boxings do NOT come with ordnance so you will have to equip it elsewhere. If you wanted to depict an A, B or D Bombcat (post '95) you will need some additional parts to make the conversion, such as bomb racks, LANTIRN pod, new Sidewinder rails, etc. There are a ton of conversion parts out there but you just have to round them up. Also, the Hasegawa D-model chin pod is under-size. You can get a resin one or use the Revell D-model chin pod because it is sized perfectly. If you use the Black Box cockpits in the Hasegawa, be prepared for epic sanding and grinding. The Black Box cockpits are molded large and you need to remove a substantial amount of excess to get them to fit. However, the quality of the molding is top notch and they look great ONCE they are installed. I have not built the HB Tomcat but I have heard it builds up into a good representation of the Turkey and ordnance is included in the model. Hope this helps.

Best wishes,

Ian

Ian

Thanks I have 3 planned, but first two are pre 95 birds both A's with TF30's, I think ill get them and see if someone wants to swap for an A cause I don't think the hase D can be an A.

If you can get a Hase F-14 kit and black box cockpit for $70, please tell me where you found it. If your budget is limited to $70 per kit, I suspect your options are limited to HB.

Or wait for us at AMK to release our new tool F-14.

:)

Italeri did a F-14A Tomcat in 1/48 scale kit number 2667 not a bad kit not too expensive either you're limited to three aircraft 2 from 1975 1 from 1976 but with the kit being cheap you can throw some after market parts at it. Easier to build compared to the old revell kit though the mechanism to make the wings deploy is very flimsy it snapped on my build so I gave up on the kit. Not to sure if the planes dimensions are spot on I'm not a rivet counter, but it looks like a Tomcat so that was good enough for me.

If you can find the original, early boxing of the Monogram F-14A with the yellow lightening bolt markings, I forgot the VF, against the orange sky background the kit will be better. Get as early a kit as you can find, they are out there. Not only will the moldings be better but they are cheap too. Monogram/Revell screwed up the molds in later versions and really mucked up the lines of the nose. The molds must have been going south so they did some really lousy repairs to them.

That sounds interesting, which version first and when?

Looking forward to seeing a current production standard Tomcat in 1/48.

I am currently building a Hasegawa Tomcat, actually an F14 Bombcat with all the necessary updates which are readily available.

As one of the respondees mentioned there are a number of extremely well detailed replacement resin cockpits available, Aires, Black Box etc.

I began the project armed with a replacement tub and removed all the necessary plastic from the Hasegawa forward fuselage parts to enable it to fit.

Unfortunately there is NO WAY you can make it fit properly, despite grinding the resin to wafer thin thickness.

Disappointed with this, I resorted to using the Hasegawa tub with resin seats and scratch building some of the wiring and various tubing, replicating the resin parts detail as best I could.

I used only the instrument/cockpit fascias and shrouds and once added to the (Fitting) tub it looked almost as good.

I have no idea why most resin cockpits suffer like this as they are expensive items to buy.

Further building of the Hasegawa Tomcat requires patience as some of the alignment between forward fuselage, intakes and engine cover sections leaves a lot to be desired but they do fit with care.

There are a number of on line and published sources available featuring how to best tackle the Hasegawa Tomcats which I believe are the most accurate renditions of this awesome aircraft.

I have seen and photographed F14's all over the world, NAS Fallon, Decimomannu in Sardinia, NAS Ocean etc and the Hasegawa Tomcats do represent the aircraft well, probably the best of all kits available at the moment.

However, the news of a new 1/48 kit from AMK sounds interesting!

I have an HB 1/72 F-14D and it has some flaws. I think they include the cockpit frontpanels of the A models, but D model decals. No way in hell you'll get those to fit.

Eugene, if you can wait AMK kit should be a killer considering what they have done and they know how to make it detail oob.


Martin, I just need you to help a brother out and do an A-10 in 1/32. Trumpeter did the iconic bird and they messed it up for us all. In fact, they mess up on almost every kit they produce, thats a whole another story. If not A-10, then how about new Tornado or a Harrier?

I'll pass on Tamiya's offering of the F-14. Got burned with their F-16 with all the ejector pin marks in vital places Spent far too many hours cleaning all those up

I only own one F-14 at the moment - Eduard's Danger Zone boxing of the Hobbyboss kit, so I have room in the stable.

The quality and innovation I've seen on your MiG-31 makes your F-14A a must have.