The Northrop Grumman F-14 Tomcat is now nearing the end of its service career.  First flown in the 1970’s, it has served in war zones from Vietnam to the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan to the mountainous terrain of Bosnia.  Over it’s lifetime, it has gone from interceptor to advanced strike fighter.  The Tomcat has done it all.

The Terror Attacks of September 11, 2001 sparked a huge military operation known as Operation Enduring Freedom.  In November 2001, F-14D Super Tomcats of VF-213 “The Black Lions” launched strike missions deep into Afghanistan to combat the Taliban Regime and Al-Queda Terrorists.  VF-213 dropped numerous types of laser-guides bombs initially made famous during Operation Desert Strom in 1991 and one of the squadrons Tomcats, also engaged Al-Queda and Taliban troops with it’s gatling gun, marking the first combat strafing run made by a Tomcat.

Recently, Two Bobs Aviation Graphics released a series of decals featuring aircraft of Operation Enduring Freedom, including a sheet of decals for Tomcats of VF-213.  That is the focus of my article.I used Revell Germany’s F-14D Super Tomcat for this particular build.  It’s not as detailed as Hasegawa, but it is less expensive, so that was the main reason for using the kit.

Construction was straightforward.  I read an article from Darren Roberts on ARC a while ago, which gave some really good tips on building Revell Tomcats.   So, a couple of modifications were made to the kit to make building it easier. The meshing gears that allow the wings to be swept were cut off so that the wings could be built separately from the kit and added later.  Also, the elevons were cut off the kit to be re-attached later on. It was also at this time that the panel lines on the kit were rescribed.  I used a Bare-Metal Foil scribing tool.  For the most part, I used the existing panel lines as a guide.  For panel lines that were lost during sanding, Dymo tape was used to rescribe lost panel lines.

Next step was to open the refueling probe door on the right side of the nose.  For combat operations, the doors were removed, as they tended to jam with the numerous air-to-air refuellings' undertaken during missions.  So, the door was removed and a small bay that houses the refueling probe was built out of sheet plastic.  A refueling probe was made out of brass wire.  The whole bay and the probe were painted gloss white.

Next, a True Details cockpit was painted and detailed.  The cockpit displays were modified slightly so the cockpit would represent that of an F-14D.  Photo etched CRT screens were added (one in each cockpit on the right vertical console).  Apart from that, all the raised detail was dry brushed and the cockpit tubs were glued into the upper fuselage.  The nose gear bay was assembled as well and installed in the lower fuselage.  Finally, a piece of plastic tubing that would receive wires glued into the elevons was glues into the fuselage and the whole model assembled, filled and sanded.  Tail fins were also added at this stage.  The wings were assembled as well and the whole model was ready for painting.

Painting consisted of Light Ghost Grey overall (H308 from Gunze) along with a Medium Blue/Grey anti-glare panel (H337).  The fin caps on the Tomcat were painted Gunship Grey (H305) and then the whole model was clear coated with Gunze Gloss Clear

Next, I took some Model Master Gloss Black Enamel paint and mixed up a panel wash.  The wash was applied with a fine brush into all the panel lines and allowed to dry.  Then, I soaked a Q-Tip in some thinner and proceeded to wipe in the direction of airflow and clean up the excess wash.  It created some nice weathering streaks.

The Two Bobs decals were really nice to work with.  They are very thin though, so you must not leave then too long in the decal water.  They came off the sheet very quickly and care had to be taken when applying them.  A little Micro Sol was used in places to get the decals to snuggle down. I chose to do the Commanding Officers aircraft (Modex 201).  This F-14D flew more than 30 missions over Afghanistan and was also the F-14 that was involved in strafing Al-Queda and Taliban troops during one mission.With the decals applied, another gloss coat, followed by a flat coat and some more weathering was done to the model.  Landing gear was attached to the model, as was the photo etched HUD, along with HUD glass made from clear plastic sheeting.

Next came the weapons and fuel tanks.  Fuel tanks were taken from an Academy F-14 Tomcat kit and added to this one. The right glove missile pylon was modified to carry a LANTIRN Laser Targeting Pod, as this Tomcat was outfitted to drop bombs.  Bomb racks were scratch built using Evergreen plastic and sway braces were added from a Revell F-18 Hornet kit.  Two Sidewinder and one Sparrow missile were used from the kit.  I also added two GBU-16 laser guided bombs from a Hasegawa weapons set.

With all of these sub assemblies done, they were added to the kit, along with the elevons and wings.  Finally, the canopy, windscreen and the resin NACES ejection seats were added, along with pitot tubes and the model was finished.

All told, I put probably 30 hours into the kit from start to finish.  Rescrbing took the longest, but the results were well worth the extra effort. A final touch to the kit was a display base painted to look like a section of carrier deck, along with a scratch built tow bar and a crewman pulling a load of missiles across the deck, along with a set of Navy Pilot Wings.  The crewman is from a Hasegawa Navy Pilot/Deck Crew set and the Sidewinder cart was scratch built by me a while ago.  The Sidewinders were found in my spares box.

All in all, this was a very satisfying build.  With a little extra effort and work, a simple kit like this one is turned into something that one could easily mistake for a Hasegawa kit if they don’t look carefully.  It won’t be long until the Tomcat fades into the history books when the F/A-18 Super Hornet replaces it.  But, with a good number of kits available, F-14’s will continue to exist on modeller’s shelves for sometime to come.

FLY NAVY!!!!!

Photos and text © 2005 by Colin Kunkel

www.carrierbuilders.cjb.net