This is a diorama of my friend, CDR Emory Brown USN (ret), making his milestone 1000th carrier arrested landing aboard the USS Nimitz in 1980.  At that time, CDR Brown was CO of VF-84 Jolly Rogers.  I have modeled this plane to be as exact as possible to the plane CDR Brown was flying that day.  I have made F-14A #201, Bureau # (BuNo) 160380.  I put Cdr Brown’s info on the cockpit, as well as his Radio Intercept Officer’s.

I used Hasegawa’s F-14A kit in 1/48 scale, along with Superscale’s VF-84 decal set for the F-14A.  For the base I used a resin kit from Just Plane Stuff.

The Hasegawa kit is well detailed with engraved panel lines and options for positioning the wings and flaps etc.  I experienced the usual and well discuses fir problems with the cockpit in this kit.  The cockpit goes together nicely until you attempt to install pilot figures.  Although the figures are included with the kit, it seems to me that no one at Hasegawa ever actually tried to make the kit with the figures installed, because they simply DO NOT FIT!!!  I had to do extensive modifications to both figures, from sanding and repositioning the arms, to removing the feet all together.  I sanded a good amount of the base of each figure off in order to be able to close the canopy.  I also had to omit several large pieces of interior cockpit detail in order to button it all up.  Luckily, none of the removed or omitted details are visible on the completed model

The biggest problem I encountered was fitting the completed cockpit section to the fuselage.  There is a lip left once you fit the two sections together that is close to 1/8 of an inch, huge when dealing in this scale.  Sanding sticks proved futile until the final finesse work, so I ended up using medium grit sand paper to get things close to matching up, and then finished with my Flex-I-File sanding sticks, and a bit of squadron white putty.  I had sanded off a good amount of surface detail on the cockpit and fuselage in the process, so I had to re-scribe some panel lines and rivet details.

 

The rest of the kit went together without much of a problem, except for a few areas where the instructions were a bit vague.  My suggestion is plenty of dry-fitting, especially with the intakes and the landing gear assemblies.

A note of caution: there are 2 air vents on the top of the fuselage just aft of the cockpit.  These vents are a different color than the fuselage, so I left them off until I had the aircraft nearly complete.  I applied a bit of super glue to the vent piece to be installed, and positioned the vent over the hole on top of the fuselage, when to my horror, the piece slipped out of my tweezers and fell into the abyss of the fuselage where of course my trusty super glue fixed it in place where it landed (out of sight of course) so I had no chance of simply shaking it out.  After trying every conceivable option, I finally had to carefully cut out a large section of the belly of the plane to locate and remove my lost air vent.  This was a nerve racking process to say the least, as the model was near completion.  Once the vent was secured where it belonged, I replaced the section I had cut out, and filled the gaps with evergreen styrene strips and squadron putty.  After a bit of sanding and some fresh paint on the area, I was back in business.

I used a combination of the kit decals (which are very good quality) and the Superscale set for VF-84 Tomcat.  The Superscale set came with the correct plane # 201, as well as the BuNo 160380, saving me piecing together different numbers.  The Superscale set came with different pilot and RIO names than what I needed, but I was able to cut apart and carefully piece together “CDR EMORY BROWN” & “LT ERIC BENSON” from the supplied canopy decals.  The Superscale decals are very high quality, but also very thin, and react quickly to decal solvents, so make sure you know where you want to place them to minimize moving and ultimately marring the decals.  Yes, I know this form my experience ruining a couple of the decals, luckily the few I ruined were generic markings that were also supplied with the Hasegawa decal sheet.  Once I finished applying the 100’s of tiny “NO STEP” decals and the rest of the plane’s markings, I coated the entire model (except for the metal sections and the clear parts) with clear flat. 

I weathered the model lightly with a very thin wash of black artist’s oil paint, and re-coated that with clear flat once it was dry.

The base is a resin kit with photo etched brass tie-downs from Just Plane Stuff.  This is a simple kit, but highly detailed for just a small deck section.  It has a textured surface to replicate the non-slip coating of a real carrier deck, and raised weld lines to replicate the individual steel plates that make up a carrier deck.  I painted the deck and markings with Mode Master Acrylics, and weathered it with thicker darker black artist’s oil paint to simulate tire marks and grime in the tie-down wells.

I was very happy to take on this project, since it was a break from my usual construction of 1/350 scale ships, and 1/35 scale WW2 armor, and I had wanted to model a Tomcat from the Jolly Rogers squadron for some time.

I think the most rewarding aspect in the completion of this project however, is the personal touch.  I have developed a strong friendship with Commander Brown, who has since commissioned me to build several more ships and planes from his career.  As a Marine Sergeant, and Operation Enduring / Iraqi Freedom veteran,  military history (even if it is squid history) has always been an important part of my life, and the personal reward I feel having helped a fellow brother-in-arms relive part of his own military experiences is immeasurable.  I look forward to working on future projects with Commander Brown.  It is a heartwarming event, when a simple hobby can create friendships that bring 2 veterans of different generations, different services, and different wars, together over a common interest.