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GROUP BUILD ENTRY no.5
Raffle no. 5

1/72 Hasegawa (old tool) F-14A Tomcat.
VF-84 “Jolly Rogers ”
By Don Ryan
USA

Here is my first entry in the F-14 Tomcat Group Build. It is an “old tool” Hasegawa 1/72 F-14A. The kit is actually quite good for its age and goes together much easier then its newer brother. It was built pretty much straight from the box, although I did deviate from the kits instructions by not adding the wings until the very end, after the kit was painted and decaled. This makes the construction phase go much smoother without having the wings getting in the way of seam clean up.  

Cockpit detail is lacking, with the instruments being represented by decals. The kit comes with a full load of weapons appropriate for an F-14 from the 1970s through to the early 1990’s. In my opinion, the modeler would be better suited replacing the weapons with those found in the Hasegawa Weapons sets though. The rest of the kit is pretty well detailed. The landing gear and gear bays, the engine exhausts, and the seats are all well done. Many modelers shy away from this kit because of the raised panel detail. However, the fit was exceptional for a kit of its age and very few panel lines were lost due to sanding and/or filling.  

Any cockpit shot of the F-14 shows canvas or fabric type covers over the back of the RIO and Pilots instrument panels. These are not represented in the kit and must be added by the modeler to add realism. I fashioned my covers from facial tissue cut roughly to shape and soaked in a white glue and warm water mixture. Take your time forming the tissue to shape (you have lots of time!). Once the tissue “covers” are dry, you can paint and weather them to suit. I think they look very convincing.  

I pre-shaded the model with a dark gray paint prior to the application of the overall FS16440 paint scheme. It is hard to see in the pictures, but the pre-shading created a nice subtle hint of weathering. The markings came from the new tool Hasegawa “Atlantic Fleet” squadrons F-14 (a future project). They are for a VF-84 “Jolly Rogers ” F-14A Tomcat from 1986 as flown off the USS Nimitz.  

Well I hope you like my “Jolly Rogers ” F-14. I have enjoyed sharing it with you. I highly recommend this kit to anyone interested in building a 1/72 F-14!  

Regards,

Don

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