crackerjazz
Sr Member
I was a big fan of the F-14 since seeing the movie The Final Countdown. When Top Gun came out the shots were vastly different. I was zooming in on all of the details everytime they went in for a close shot. The cockpits looked nowhere like the bare-looking Revell F-14s I'd built -- they were busier with lots of stuff crammed inside. Later on I understood that the only way to achieve this was to get one of those aftermarket cockpits. For this build -- for the closer Tomcat -- I'm using an Aires pit.
Tom cruise seemed so happy in that cockpit - he was a pilot and Kelly McGillis was his girl. What more can one ask for? Everyone wanted to be Ton Cruise. Things may have changed now and the Tomcat's been retired. But everytime I see that movie I still want to strap into a Tomcat and get the girl.
I try to keep from singing "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" while I'm building this because that song has a tendency to go into an endless loop in your head and it will drive you bonkers.
This is the display plan.
I'm using a pair of Hasegawa boxings.
I'm using the kit cockpit for the farther Tomcat since only the underside will be visible.
Awful paintjob for the kit cockpit but I'm learning.
Kit seats on left vs. Aires seats on the right
Aires cockpit PE parts
Kit IP on left and Aires on right.
A bit better job on the Aires pit painting.
The kit figures don't easily drop into the Aires pit. So I had to cut the legs off and repostioned them to go around the lower part of the instrument panel. I'll be doing the same for the RIO.
One of the things I did was to place the head in a more natural position -- so far I haven't come across any photos of pilots seated with ramrod-straight backs as as the kit figures depict. Pilots somehow seemed to slouch a bit, with some space between the helmet and headrest.
Tom cruise seemed so happy in that cockpit - he was a pilot and Kelly McGillis was his girl. What more can one ask for? Everyone wanted to be Ton Cruise. Things may have changed now and the Tomcat's been retired. But everytime I see that movie I still want to strap into a Tomcat and get the girl.
I try to keep from singing "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" while I'm building this because that song has a tendency to go into an endless loop in your head and it will drive you bonkers.
This is the display plan.
I'm using a pair of Hasegawa boxings.
I'm using the kit cockpit for the farther Tomcat since only the underside will be visible.
Awful paintjob for the kit cockpit but I'm learning.
Kit seats on left vs. Aires seats on the right
Aires cockpit PE parts
Kit IP on left and Aires on right.
A bit better job on the Aires pit painting.
The kit figures don't easily drop into the Aires pit. So I had to cut the legs off and repostioned them to go around the lower part of the instrument panel. I'll be doing the same for the RIO.
One of the things I did was to place the head in a more natural position -- so far I haven't come across any photos of pilots seated with ramrod-straight backs as as the kit figures depict. Pilots somehow seemed to slouch a bit, with some space between the helmet and headrest.
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I slapped together a 1/32 Revell as a kid and it was nearly 2 feet long, but a 1/24 would be nice -- almost as long as the 32" Falcon! 
