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GROUP BUILD ENTRY no. 18
Raffle no. N/A

1/72 Hasegawa F-14A, VF-111 Sundowners
by Andy Mullen
Chesterfield, UK

This is the 1/72 Hasegawa "Atlantic Fleet Squadron " Kit [E14 #00544], with markings from CAM #72059 and True Details GRU-7 Seats.

The kit was built out of the box, with the only additions being the True Detail seats and the overhead ejector handles on the seats and the CAM markings.

The construction was started on the 1 Jan 2005, and was a little frustrating in the amount of parts required to finish, or should I say "fiddleyness". It got to the point where I concentrated on finishing the easier two older boxings first. Once they were completed, I restarted where I had left off. For the cockpit I used the PE that comes with the kit for the side panels, and carefully painted the Instrument panels.

After most of the major construction work was completed, I used various Alclad II on the leading edges, gun, and engines. These were then masked off, the canopy area was then sprayed Flat black. When cured, the whole kit was sprayed with Humbrol #129 (FS26440). The tails and ventral fins were not glued on as yet and the Ventral Fins and the tail tips where sprayed with Humbrol #153. After a few of light coats of Klear (Future) were sprayed, the decals were applied .

The shark mouth was a pain to apply, and I was concentrating so hard on getting it on without wrinkling, that when it was finally on, I realised it was too far forward. No amount of Micro-Set or water would move it. Even though the CAM instructions recommend the Hasegawa Tomcat the Tail markings are slightly out along the bottom requiring some trimming and touching up.

Once decals were on, cured and cleaned, another few of light coats of Klear (Future) were sprayed. I then removed the masking from the Alclad areas and the canopy.

An enamel wash of Humbrol #32 and thinners was liberally applied and then cleaned up with kitchen towel damped with thinners. I also went over the engines with a Tamiya Smoke and thinners. The canopy had the PE from the kit added and all the landing gear, doors, seats and antennas were added.

Copyright 2005 by Andy Mullen

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