Has anyone else built Academy's F-14A 1/72? I put together a couple of 1/48 WWII aircraft from them and was very impressed. I'm quite disappointed with this one, however. I don't know if it was just the one I got but I find many pieces warped. Construction has been severely hampered by this, especially the nose/cockpit area. Last night I stuggled to attach the sparrow/sidewinder hard points. They're on but look terrible.

The odd thing is that the few internet posts I've seen said nothing bad about this one. Maybe someone left mine out in the sun or something. :-( Sorry for the negative post, I'm just really rejected right now being so close to finished.

Thanks...Kevin

Kevin,

I did the Academy 1/72 F14-A for the US Navy aircraft group build a while back. Here's a pic of it:



It was my first fully decaled and can-painted kit. My front fuselage halves were also warped. I had to do a lot of dry fitting and plain old threats of destruction to get these two pieces to come together properly. I finally resorted to gluing the cockpit assembly to the right half. Then I glued the nose cone together to help align things, then forced the off-kilter parts into position with liberal applications of tape and glue. Worked fine.

Another thing to watch out for is the front fuselage to main fuselage join. I heard that this is a common problem in all Tomcat kits of all scales so I accepted the problem and got to work. I glued the bottom plate to the forward fuselage first. I had to pry the main fuselage neck open with scrap sprue to make the two assemblies align. I also added more scrap sprue supports inside to help hold the two pieces together. Some sanding and puttying will be required here.

Main fuselage and wings had no problems. The vertical stabilizers had to be shaved a little to make them stick to the fuselage.

Main landing gear supports have to be shaved a bit to fit into the wells. Even the box art pics of the completed kit shows that the resident Academy modeler had problems in this area. I left the pin marks in the wheels bays alone, knowing that fooling around with them will be more trouble than their worth.

I found this kit a very enjoyable build in spite of some deficiencies. The Tomcat is one of my favorites, fueled no doubt by Top Gun and Robotech. Stick with the kit! Post some pics when you're done.

Hey, that really looks great! Much better than mine. Well it sounds like the issues are with the manufacture and not with my specific example. I had all of the same problems that you expressed. You're right the wings went on fine, but that nose/fuselage was a nightmare. I also had a problem with the engine intakes. They were severly warped and need too much glue. (I'll divert eyes away from those areas ). The vertical stablizers left me scratching my head too. I didn't find much flash but those ejector pin marks are everywhere. I tried to remove them from places such as the landing gear doors but I also avoided the ones in the forward landing gear bay. I didn't want to screw up what little detail that was present. I also couldn't figure out how to remove them from the fins under that rear parts of the engines. ( I don't know what they are called. They have little cutouts on them and the squadron markings go there. Do both of the cutouts really face port?)

Did you have problems making the missile decals stick? I coated them with a generous amount of Future's before application but with little luck. I'm hoping last night's MicroScale Sol is helping. For the rest of the decals I'm using the Swordsmen markings from SuperScale. The low viz scheme is probably inappropriate for a pre-Plus version, but I don't care. I'll post a pic once I'm done - hopefully this weekend.

This plane is my favorite modern aircraft too and I think that led to my frustration, being my first F-14.

It's my first Tomcat too and since I only do 1/72 aircraft for now I had to grab this when it appeared on the shelf. I've been considering getting the Italeri Tomcats but a bad experience with their Comanche (another story) turned me off.

There is a HUGE seam line at the top lip of the engine intakes where the upper main fuselage half meets the lower half. The engine intakes aren't that bad since the plastic is thin and it can be easily forced into position. The intakes have HUGE seam lines right near where the first stage compressor blades are so get the putty and sandpaper out and exercise that elbow.

M.A.T.S. was my reference site while building the F14. Those fins at the bottom house some cooling ports for the engine oil. And yes they both face port. Those nightmares of ejection pin marks inside were banished by slicing them to pieces with the tip of my blade. Careful scraping removes most of the excess plastic.

Those tiny hardheaded missile decals where a major pain. I don't have access to Future so I just painted the missiles with white gloss paint lacquer from a can. I wasted a lot of Q-Tips forcing them to stand still. I think some of the missiles are missing decals but I hid them away somewhere Those four-piece Phoenix missile line decals are a nightmare!

And another thing: if you haven't attached the engine exhausts yet you might consider attaching them with one open and another closed as you can barely see in this shot of mine:



M.A.T.S. pointed out that F-14As with their older engines were usually parked with the starboard nozzle wide open and the port one fully closed. It has something to do with engine shutdown sequences. Don't sweat it if you've attached them already because only a few know this fact.

I'll be watching this space for your pics!

I actually started the Italeri F-14 Bombcat last year, gave up, and gave it to a friend. The fit wasn't the best but I was most put off by the raised panel lines. Is it just me or does it seem like there aren't that many good F-14 kits for such a popular plane? I also hit the M.A.T.S. site quite a bit and used the squadron In Action book. I didn't realize that about the intakes. I saw another modeler do that but I thought it was a mistake! Mine aren't attached so I still can do that.

How did you go about the read on the wheel well doors? I just used a hand brush and they came out a bit sloppy. Did you have problems attaching the hardpoints for the sparrows/sidewinders?

...Kevin

Are you looking to stay in 1/72 or would 1/48 interest you? If you stay in 1/72, go with a Fujimi they are top of the line. In 1/48, Hasegawa is king with Academy right behind. I know that you are having trouble with Academy's 1/72, but the 1/48 is much nicer.

Yeah the Academy 1/48 WWII subjects I built were fantastic. For modern aircraft I'm doing 1/72 (size constraints). When I do a "D" I'll look for the Fujimi kits. I heard they're very good for the F-4 also. Here are a couple of pictures - it's finally finsihed! I apologize for the pic quality.

That's one nice Tomcat! You made the drab looking low viz paint scheme look nice! I suggest you post a couple of big pics on the Rivet Review Board.

I hand-painted the wheel cover doors. A very close look will reveal a lot of mistakes

Hi Tomcaters ,

Very nice job with Academy Tomcat 's , they look very pretty / Guys I suggest try with Fujimi products of course in 1:72 scale , All Tomcat's fleet from cat. num. 28001 are Top products - also A-6 and F-4 and A-4 Skyhawks - About F-14 from Fujimi - I love sets with version F-14 + ( known as Bombcats) and F-14 D ( VF-31 Tomccaters) - nice engraved panel lines , many parts ( with full engines ), also Gummy Tires ang PE parts .
In Modeler world I put Fujimi Tomcat's in 1st place , second is Hasegawa from K-series and new Realeses - 3rd place I gave to Revell new products - two weeks age I bought F-14D from Revell with nice decals - Lion Head from VF-213 and I could recomended this model for nice engraved panel lines / decals - and price .

Best Regards

COMAIRCARWING
PIG#35