*COMPLETE* The Final Countdown Zero dogfight diorama - Part 1: 1/72 Academy F-14A

[JNordgren42]

Now that the cockpit is done I can start making progress on the main show. Today I glued up the nose section, put some primer on the intake tunnel parts, and started test fitting the fuselage. The fit is quite excellent, but there are a few minor problem areas to sort. One odd spot is the boat tail between the engine nacelles. It's both over engineered and under engineered at the same time. They made both parts separate, but completely unkeyed, making it difficult to align correctly. A simple strip of styrene glued to the inside where the joint is sorted it, but it seems like it would have been an easy inclusion to begin with. The other issue is that the landing gear doors aren't designed to be modeled closed. So for the nose gear, I trimmed all the hinges off put them all face down on a strip of masking taped and glued them together with a strip of styrene. Once that dired I ran some thin Tamiya cement on the outside seams and I'll re-scribe to get good lines. I'll do something similar for the main gear.

Nose glued up, seams are minor to nonexistent and will be easy to clean up.

Fuselage fit is great!

Fuselage to nose seam is very minor and should almost go away once glued.

Bottom nose/fuselage seam. Virtually invisible.

Primer on the intake tunnel parts.

I can't fathom why they didn't put some sort of alignment tabs in this area, but it's an easy fix.

Nose doors trimmed of the hinge points and glued together with a strip of styrene.

Nice fit on the exterior. Some quick clean up and scribing work and they'll be good to go.

 

[Analyzer]

Looking good!

It is annoying when aircraft models only give you a gear down configuration

 

[JNordgren42]

I got a little package from Ukraine this morning! My resin Sparrows and Sidewinders from Reskit. They're really beautifully molded and the overall quality on everything looks top notch. I ordered them on July 5th, so that's just over 3 weeks to arrive from a war zone. I honestly am happy to support the Ukrainian people any way I can and I wouldn't have raised a fuss if they never arrived. The details are fantastic and a big improvement over the kit ordinance. I had to buy both AIM-9D's and AIM-9L's because for some strange reason they loaded one of each on the filming birds. I also need to figure out what to do about the AIM-54's. An AIM-54A is period correct, but no one seems to be making them any more. Hobbylinc Japan says they have a couple of the old Eduard ones in stock, or I may just order the current Eduard AIM-54C's from somewhere in the U.S. I really wish Reskit made a Phoenix, because their Sparrows and Sidewinders are fantastic and very reasonably priced.

Very nicely packaged:

AIM-7E

Fins and body are resin, with PE nozzle for detail:

The decals are very comprehensive and nicely done:

Kit part for comparison. The Reskit missile is much crisper and more detailed and the fins have a much thinner cross section:

AIM-9L

Resin body and aft fins in one piece and brass PE forward fins and nozzles. They also come with protective caps for the seeker heads which is a nice touch. I won't be using them since I'm modeling it in flight, but it's nice to have them for an arming diorama.

Very nice decals on these as well:

The Reskit 'Winders just blow the stock ones away:

Fin closeup. The rollerons are tiny at this scale, but you can still just make out the detail:

AIM-9D

One piece body and aft fins, brass front fins and nozzles:

Same great quality on these decals as on the others:

The resin missile blows the kit part out of the sky again:

Fin detail is just phenomenal on these as well. Also note how much thinner the profile is:

 

[JNordgren42]

I assembled one of each of the Sidewinders, they look great! The PE canards really look much better than the plastic ones. I may try to chop up some microscopic bits of plastic to glue on where the canard attachment hubs are, it's the one detail that the resin missiles don't have that the kit ones do.

Resin 9L & 9D:

Resin and Plastic 9L:

The PE canards are much thinner and better shaped than the plastic.

9D resin vs. plastic:

PE canards are much better again.

Tail end, the D & L are virtually identical:

PE nozzle on the resin gives that last little bit of detail and the fin cross section and rolleron details are much better.

The Sparrows will take a bit more, the resin fins need careful attention to detail to trim up for attachment.

 

[Analyzer]

Having glued on tiny plastic canards on Hasegawa detail sets, I cannot image having to work with PE that tiny (simply because I find CA glue not as easy to work with compared to the plastic glue as far as working time)

It does make a nice visual difference though

 

[joberg]

Wow...defo crisper parts for sure

 

[JNordgren42]

Having glued on tiny plastic canards on Hasegawa detail sets, I cannot image having to work with PE that tiny (simply because I find CA glue not as easy to work with compared to the plastic glue as far as working time)

It does make a nice visual difference though

These were not bad to assemble. The missile bodies have slots to position and receive the PE fins. I just put a drop of thin CA on a scrap of plastic then dipped the edge of each fin into it with a pair of tweezers. Pop it into the slot and make sure it's straight in the second or three it takes the glue to set. I did the opposite with the nozzles. Dipped the back of the missile in the CA and then carefully set the ring with the tweezers.

 

[JNordgren42]

I haven't had a lot of time to build the last couple of weeks, but I managed to get a solid several hours in today. The the hard to reach bits of the intakes are painted and the main fuselage is assembled. One thing that was really bugging me were the super chunky trailing edges of the intake bleed air exit doors on the upper surface of the fuselage. They look extremely toy like and out of scale on an otherwise excellent model. Thankfully a Flex-I-File strip fits perfectly in the opening and I was able to sand them down to something more reasonable. The intake parts took some care and finesse to reduce gaps, I had to use a toothpick to spread the back half apart ever so slightly and I had to carefully sequence the glue joints with adequate drying time between each stage. But my patience was well worth it, there are almost no gaps or misalignment, and what little snuck through should be easy to deal with.

I also assembled one of my Reskit AIM-7E Sparrows, the fins are very finicky to trim down and glue, but the result looks fantastic.

The first of two assembled Reskit AIM-7E Sparrows.

Compared to the kit Sparrow:

The bleed air door out of the box on the left side, and after some quick sanding work with the Flex-I-File on the right.

The Flex-I-File strip just fits in the gap.

Both bleed air doors sanded down, it looks SO much better!

Fuselage glued up, the nose is just test fit right now.

Top side:

Test fit of the tail fins. It's really starting to get that signature Tomcat look!

 

[JNordgren42]

It's still slow going, but I'm gradually making progress. I sanded down the ECM antenna fairing bulges on the wing gloves since this is a fairly early Tomcat (they definitely aren't on any of the filming birds) and I got the starboard main landing gear doors glued in. There was lots of trimming, sanding and test fitting involved, but I think I got a pretty good fit, escpeccialy considering that the kit was not designed to be closed up. I also glued some styrene strip to the inside of the gear wells to help get everything aligned correctly and to provide more bonding surface.

ECM antenna before sanding.

ECM antenna after sanding.

Main gear doors all glued up.

Styrene strips glued in the gear well.

Wheel doors glued in. I also glued a small styrene strip to the bottom of the inboard door to give the strut door a more solid connection.

Outer surfaces of the trimmed doors compared to stock. It's hard to see but I had to very carefully shave down the lip of the outboard wheel door where it meets the inboard door to get a proper fit.

Underside of the trimmed doors vs. untrimmed.

I think I did a pretty good job getting everything flush.

 

[Analyzer]

Closing those gear doors up sure was a pain, My least favorite part of the build

Although I did leave the bulges on mine. Not sure which variants had them, but I just went with an out of the box build

at any rate, you did a great job getting rid of them

I know it is too late for this project, but if you ever feel the need to build another 1/72 F-14, especially one in landed mode or in take off configuration with slats and flaps, GWH (Great Wall Hobby) makes an excellent model

I recently got one and it is amazing, it even has position-able intake vents for subsonic vs trans-subsonic flight, radome can be positioned opened/raised. Basically just about anything that opens/closes, moves is configurable

The only thing missing is pilot figures

 

[JNordgren42]

Closing those gear doors up sure was a pain, My least favorite part of the build

Although I did leave the bulges on mine. Not sure which variants had them, but I just went with an out of the box build

at any rate, you did a great job getting rid of them

I know it is too late for this project, but if you ever feel the need to build another 1/72 F-14, especially one in landed mode or in take off configuration with slats and flaps, GWH (Great Wall Hobby) makes an excellent model

I recently got one and it is amazing, it even has position-able intake vents for subsonic vs trans-subsonic flight, radome can be positioned opened/raised. Basically just about anything that opens/closes, moves is configurable

The only thing missing is pilot figures

It was between this and the GWH. I went with Academy, because I'm building it buttoned up in flight and all the bells and whistles would be wasted on this project (and would have made for a more difficult build). I'd like to build a version on the catapult at some point and I'm sure I'll use the GWH when I do.

 

[JNordgren42]

Woot! My new air compressor arrived and I am closing in on being ready to to shoot some primer on the fuselage. I'm sure I'll have a few areas that need attention once I get some paint on it, but that's standard SOP so I'm not worried. The compressor is an inexpensive Chinese made one, but like the airbrush itself (same brand), I'm happy with the quality for the money. It's reasonably quiet and there are no discernable leaks out of the box. On a full air tank it will go for well over a minute continuously at 20 PSI before there is any discernable pressure drop (with power shut off). It will do about 25 seconds continuously before the auto-start kicks in with the power on. I'll have to spray in the garage until I get a spray booth, but I'm excited to get some paint on this model soon.

Amazon link:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZQM6R83?ref=ppx_pt2_dt_b_prod_image&th=1

 

[edge10]

Whatever happened to this build?

 

[JNordgren42]

Whatever happened to this build?

It's just taken a bit of a pause with life happening (I know, how dare it!). I plan on getting back to it after the holidays. Also, hopefully Reskit will have released their resin AIM-54A by the time I get back to it so that the level of detail on the Phonenix will match the Sidewinders and Sparrows.

 

[JNordgren42]

ResKit released their AIM-54A's and I ordered a set, I'm excited to get back to this project.

In other news I got some awesome vintage Douglas Aircraft promotional prints from my father in law and hung them up in my hobby room. Now I just need a decent desk and chair.

 

[Analyzer]

Those missiles are perfect!

Very cool prints

 

[JNordgren42]

Those missiles are perfect!

Very cool prints

The prints are amazing, he gave me a whole folio of them. There's some photographic ones as well and some Convair & Republic subjects. I've got more wall space so more of them will definitely go up.

 

[Analyzer]

Great stuff indeed!

There is a Sea Dart on display at the local Willow Grove airbase (Naval AIrstation and joint Reserve Base)

Wings of Freedom Aviation Museum

wingsoffreedommuseum.org

They used to have a Zero and F-14A, but they relocated the Zero to the Smithsonian when I was a kid and the F-14 was sent to some other naval airbase

 

[JNordgren42]

My Reskit AIM-54A's finally arrived. Some wag at one of the postal agencies the package went through decided to put a customs stamp directly over my address and it caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth at the USPS. It was sent from Ukraine on Feb. 7th and arrived in New York on Feb 20th (pretty good for shipping from what is a war zone). From there, it took 5 days to get to San Antonio, and things started going south. I'm in Seguin (about 45 minutes east) and instead it went to Medina which is about the same distance northwest of SA. From Medina, it went back to San Antonio, and sat a few days. Then they sent it to the USPS International Distribution Center in Chicago. At this point I was worried there was something wrong, so I contacted USPS customer service and the (very friendly) rep looked at the captured images of the package and saw the stamp. She told me they had initiated a return to the sender because the package was undeliverable and that unfortunately there was no way to override it. I contacted Reskit service who were also very friendly and let me know they would re-deliver the package at no charge if it was returned to them. At this point someone at the USPS must have removed their cranium from their sphincter and actually LOOKED at the package with a MK1 Eyeball. The stamp definitely made my address difficult to read, but it wasn't totally obscured (probably impossible for a machine though). It came back down to the Dallas area and milled around various distribution centers for several days, before making its way back to San Antonio and finally to my house. As I said, quite the adventure. Reskit was awesome throughout and kept in contact with me, even sending me an email when it headed back my way to Dallas. And the shipping issue was in no way their fault.

With all that behind me, I'm very pleased with what I received. I expected fantastic quality based on the Sidewinders and Sparrows I got from them and I was not disappointed. The detail and casting quality are fantastic and the 3D printed nozzles and hangers are very crisp without any issues. I'm looking forward to getting back to the build this weekend and working towards completion. I've got the rest of the paint I need on order (from a US vendor, so hopefully there won't be any shipping issues, fingers crossed ). Here are some pictures of what's in the box:

All of the parts for 4 missiles:

Decals are excellent, as usual:

Side by side with the stock kit part:

Closer view of the individual part trees:

If you look closely you can even see detail down in the bottom of the nozzles!

 

[Analyzer]

Those look great for sure!