'Evnin all.

It's interesting to see all the different kits being built. Diversity for ever............
Here's a couple of photos to bring me up to date with the 1/48 Hasegawa kit with added Academy bits.

Now I'm not a great lover of pre-shading, but in this case, it works because of the tatty overall look of the 'cat' after a short period on ops. I combined this by spraying the first coat of grey, mixed with white. My reasoning was that what was left of the base colour, would be fairly well weathered by the time the airframe started getting re painted in the small areas. Panels were then sprayed with the unmixed base colour which was progressively lightened with white.
The fuselage and wings were treated the same then given a coat of gloss laquer. They were then treated to a wash with thinned enamel black along the panel lines. When dry, the excess was removed with a cloth dipped in thinners.
What I'm trying to achieve, are the streaks from various parts of the aircrafts anatomy.
It's not quite there yet, but I reckon that a touch with some weathering powders later will see it through.



The top and sides of the fuselage and the wings after the wash.



The undersides after the same treatment.

As for an Iranian Tomcat, you will definately need an 'A' variant with early gas purge vents for the gun. Also, the front half of the refuelling probe is visible on all IIAF F14's. The front panel was removed but no-one seems to know why.
F110 engines are a no no.

Looking good Ian I only hope my 1/48 kit comes out that well.

I've managed to get my 1/72 Cat into the paint bay over the weekend. The kit has been under coated with white primer and also as a departure from my normal painting I've attempted pre-shading after being given some tips from Holdfast. This is only the second time I've done this method so fingers crossed. I did get the lines a bit thick on one of the wings but we all have to learn somewhere. As always comments welcome.

Here is a small update on my Tomcat. Still some detail to paint and a few mistakes to correct, but it is looking more and more as a Tomcat ready for action

Here is my finished build for the Tomcat campaign. It is the Hasegawa 1/72 "Wolfpack" Tomcat.

The only problem I had with the kit was a badly warped cockpit that was not moulded in one corner leaving quite an area to be covered by clearfix. All other mistakes I have to take on my own shoulders

I originally wanted to show this bird flying on a clear plastic stand, but the lack of pilots made me change my mind. It is build clean without weapon stores.

It was a joy to build and paint despite having to paint it by hand. I am very satisfied with the very cool wolfpack markings. However, I made a mistake not placing the red stripe marking on the front fuselage sides far enough back towards the air intakes. This means that the front of the marking extents on the radar nose which it does not on the real aircraft. Well, you live and you learn

For the pictures I have experimented a little with different kind of lighting. That is why the pictures look a little different.

Comments welcome

Nice build there Jesper and I'll add you to the completed list. I got the base colours on my kit last weekend but unfortunately I haven't been home this week and I'm visiting my sister in London over the weekend, so there won't be much progress until after then (plus side is that I'm going to the RAF Museum at Hendon and Hannants is right next door now ) but at least when I get back it'll be ready for decalling.

@SGTJKJ - Nice build! 1/72 VF-1 Tomcats are fairly rare considering the colourfulness of the markings.

I went on the USS Ranger when she came to Sydney in 1993, and the VF-1 bird in high-vis was the highlight for me. I wasn't aware at the time that squadrons still kept a plane or two in the high-vis schemes and seeing the bright red wolf's head and stripes was totally unexpected. Thanks for the trip down memory lane...

Cheers
Wiz

@Allen: thanks for the kind words - appreciate it

@Wizard: Thanks for the nice comments. The high visibility marking was what blew me away as well. It is simply stunning and very cool markings. It was these markings making me change my mind from an Iranian Tomcat to the "wolfpack" Tomcat.

Hi guys,

Here are a couple of shots of my WIP for the Tomcat Campign.

It's a VF-84 jet from the Hasegawa kit.

Base is made from cardboard, figures from Fujimi.

Decals are not all on yet. Ditto for oil wash. Fiddly bits to be added after decaling is completed.

Hints/tips/suggestions/feedback welcome.







Mark

Good evening Tomcatters!

Modelling time have been rather limited lately but I hope this project can pick up some speed again during May!

Painting is finally underway with the gull grey already applied. I decided to return to my first love (at least when talking modelling paints) Gunze acrylics and ordered a batch.

This has caused all kinds of trouble. I have had to relearn how to thin them (they are a lot more sensitive for the thinning ratio than Vallejo and Xtracrylix for instance) and they don't really cover that well. On the other hand, they dry mirror smooth. At least when they finally harden, they tend to be "soft" for several days.





An orgy in masking... Using Tamiya tape for the demarcations and Parafilm to cover the rest of the model. When masking is finished I seal off the tape edges with a further coat of gull grey, a painters trick I learned when I helped a friend repaint his living room.

Even if I don't post that often, I follow the thread with great interest! Nice to see that there are quicker builders than me out there, good work!

Regards

Magnus

@Madcat911. Welcome aboard and great looking kit I always like to see the tomcat in its natural environment and getting ready to launch especially as the afterburners are opening up.



@ Magnus. Looking good and I can't wait to see this one completed. Don't worry about being a slow builder. I'd class my self as a slow coach as I only get to do any modelling on a Sunday (but it is all day solid).

Update on my build. The decalling started yesterday (as a departure of the norm for me I'm doing VF-111 "Sundowners" rather than VF-31 "Tomcatters" ) and hopefully will be finished by the end of the Bank Holiday weekend (here in the UK) progress pics to follow.

Hi all! I took a wrong turn at Historicus Forma and ended up here so I hope you don't mind me joining this campaign. Actually I've built my fair share of planes and when I saw this tribute to the F-14 it reminded me that I had some nice Zotz decals of the Sundowners "Miss Molly" that I'd been wanting to use for some time. Here's a couple of shots of the cockpit before I put it into the fuselage.




GB

Hi Gary and welcome aboard the campaign. The cockpit looks cool and can't wait to see this build progress. What scale and kit are you using the decals on?

Heheh I guess I should have mentioned that I'm working with Revell-Monogram's 1/48 F-14A.

GB

Progress report on My 144 scale Black Cat.

It needs weapons, washes and a nice satin top coat, and i need to get a set of 144 scale eyes - i seem to have been fitted with 48 scale ones.








Andy

Looking Good Andy, I didn't manage to get as much done as I hoped. Some other models took over the workbench this weekend. I did mange to get it decaled and a coat of clear on it so now (hopefully) next weekend I can get the weathering started.

Allen, your'e way ahead of me! Nice paint scheme.

With a bit of luck I might get decalling started the coming week.

One of the first foreign (foreign for me at least, remember that I am from Sweden!) modelling magazines I ever read was FSM. They always stated how many hours they had spent building a kit in their reviews and it was seldom more than 15 hours. I spent almost two hours masking and painting the rear air brake area... I must be a slow builder.



My Cat is starting to look rather snappy now I think, grey over white goes well together with the "Aardvark orange" on the wing, stabilizer and fin tips. All orange areas should have black borders, I will probably use black decal stripes.



Masking and painting masking and painting masking and painting. It feels as if it never ends...

Regards

Magnus

An update.....................at last

Only a few details left to do.


IAN

Say hello to Zot!



Finally time for some decals and the aircraft quickly turns a lot more attractive! This CAM sheet ranks among the best ones I have ever used. Thin, in register, opaque, responds to set and sol, what else is there to ask for? I will be busy with these for a few more nights, there is quite a lot of stencilling in addition to the other markings.

Those dark "puddles" is due to the Gunze paint not withstanding Micro Sol very well. Using Tamiya clear in between would help but I try to avoid too many coats of paints and varnishes. So now I have three choices:

1) Polishing the paintwork hoping that the "puddles" are on the surface.
2) Touching up using Gunze paint.
3) Weather them into the finish, hoping that it looks as if that was what I intended...

Wolfpack: Nice work, that "scruffy" look is just right!

Regards

Magnus

Finally and at last. After all that arm wrestling and canopy problems, Victory 103 is ready.
It's not the best one I've finished, simply because the canopy did not want to play. Oh for a vac-formed replacement!

Anyway, enjoy the pics and thanks for looking.

IAN

Very Nicely Done Ian Hopefully I should get mine close to completion this Bank Holiday weekend now that my "queen of washes" (Camogirl) has done the panel lining for me

Don't forget people to post a couple of Pics of your finished entry in the "official" campaign gallery Found Here

Hi guys,

I've finally managed to get down to finishing my Tomcat. The photos are here below.

Comments/feedback most welcome. Enjoy!

















Regards,
Mark

Nicely done Mark, I always think the old Cat look better when it's on the launch rail. Hopefully I'll get mine finished over the week while I'm visiting my Grandparents as there not much to do in the evenings.

Wow some nice looking birds. I've been plugging away at my RM F-14A. I used a Model Master rattle-can to do the over-all grey but I was really disappointed with the results. The spray was very coarse and the coverage very think. Some of the panel lines were all but lost (I didn't scribe any panel lines so I'm talking about the raised detail). At any rate I started weathering/detailing with Model Masters Sea Grey and Dark Gull Grey. I have to go over the panel lines yet and there's quite a bit of touching up needed. I also noticed that I popped a seam when I placed the wings in for the pictures .




GB

Helllooo, anybody home

@Jesper, Mark, Ian, Magnus, Andy and Allen;

Wow, what a lovley bunch of cocon...., no Tomcats!

I´m happy to see so many of my beloved F-14 at the same time!
Seems like we don´t have to argue about the most popular markings, eh?

I´m working away hard on all the seams on my cat.

Constant bad fit slows down this build to a crawl, but despite this, it´s processing anyway.
Seams on the upper side is done, now I have the underside left.



When I´m not struggling with the kit, I take a read in this book;



This book Is a absolute MUST for all Tomcat lovers!

Not so much for the modeller, but lots of beautiful pics and many stories told by the men and women that flew and worked with the big cat during It´s lifetime.

RECOMMENDED!

Cheers!

Stefan E

I've Finished it!!!!





I've really enjoyed building this. I've added another 144 and a 72 scale tomcat to my stash on account of this campaign, thanks for running this Tomcat31 and Camogirl.

Andy