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GROUP BUILD ENTRY no.41
Raffle no. 38

Academy 1/48th F-14B, VF-11 Red Rippers
by Todd Wehrenberg (toadwbg)
Dubuque, IA, USA

The Lowdown:

* Kit: Academy 1/48th F-14A Tomcat converted to a B
* Decals: 2Bobs VF-11 Red Rippin' Muthas
* Steel Beach Accessories Bombcat Conversion (ECM bumps, Rear instrument panel square screen, Bomb racks, gear doors), FLIR pod & Pylon, also resin drop tanks
* True Details Resin Cockpit (with above square screen added)
* Hasegawa Weapons set D GBU-16 LBG
* Misc. spare box Weapons
* Hasegawa Burner Cans for the GE engines
* HobbyDecal Weapons Stencil Dry Transfers
* 2Bobs Air-to-air weapons decals for the Sidewinders
* Acrylic Rod for in-flight display with Pine base


The number one reason for joining the group build was to have fun, which I accomplished! However, this did turn out to be more work than I expected due to all the A to B conversions, kitbashing, and other special modifications I made. Once I started down the dark path- I tried about everything! Also, the Tomcat is just a complex model!

Just to do something different, I decided to model my Tomcat in-flight. I don't see many Tomcats done this way and I found out why- The model wasn't designed to have the gear up! This was a pain to close up, but it did work out nicely.

There were several medications (eh, modifications) required to bring this up to a B model:

* Engines- The squared off engine fairings were done with a little tape and green squadron putty. I believe the engine fairings are a carbon-epoxy composite on the real aircraft and needed to have all their panel lines removed- I used a combination of filler putty and superglue here. I used some leftover Hasegawa burner cans for the Engines and these were about am diameter larger than the mating Academy fairings, but are hardly noticeable when installed.
* Gun Vents- I just puttied over the grills and than cut myself some pretty triangles.
* Cockpit- since I was canopy closed, I didn't sweat the small stuff, just added the square PID screen from the Steel Beach Bombcat conversion (I believe made by Darren Roberts). I used the True Details cockpit, which although very nice gets all but hidden with a closed canopy. 
* The bombcat racks from Steel Beach were strait forward. I used Hasegawa GBU-16s. I drilled out holes and added pins between the bombs and racks for a superior strong fit. I would up doing this with all the missiles, outboard pylons, and fuel tanks.
* Forward Gear door- just isn't to size with the Academy! However the Steel Beach gear door was designed for the Hasegawa kit.
* ECM bumps and antenna were a mix and match of the Steel Beach set, sheet styrene, and kit parts.
* Steel Beach Resin targeting Pod and pylon on the right glove vane. Pretty straightforward. Again I drilled holes and used pins to help secure these on.


Building was a little difficult- lot of seam lines to clean up. The intakes on my Cat are quite imperfect, but I'll live with them. I have yet to find the perfect Tomcat kit in terms of fit, it's just a complex aircraft. Although others claim the Academy to be superior to the Hasegawa, I might call them a draw.

Other Special Modifications, experiments (and goofball buffoonery!):.

* I've mentioned the gear up- a real pain. I cut away a lot of the molded in gear well which improved things. I used sheet styrene in a couple of places. A lot of putty and Superglue were used as well. I wonder how much better the Hasegawa kit would do with the gear up? I stuck my finger to the model at one point in this operation....
* The Phoenix Pallet on the left wing glove was a kitbash of the lower Hasegawa pylon and the upper the Academy Pylon. I did the drill and pin thing for a superior hold to the airframe.
* The wing pivoting gears were cut off and the pivot hole cut open so I could add the wings after painting. I basically did the wings & tails as subassemblies and added them later.
* After I had closed up the intakes to the fuselage I discovered- ACK! I forgot to put in the compressor blades! Some strong fingers and a few drops of superglue down the intakes solved this problem- but just by the hair of my chinny chin chin! I didn't think the intake walls would take any more without rupturing! I "discussed" my buffoonery of the week on the ARC discussion boards, where 4 out of 5 modelers suggested putting intake covers on. That would NOT be a good thing on an in-flight model! LOL! One very wise individual mentioned that the compressor blades would be spinning when in flight and not truly visible- additionally compression of the air creates a moisture vapor cloud obscuring them most the time. Oh well.... I thought about stuffing some cotton in there for an effect.
* I actually lost my entire right wing at one point for a couple of weeks. Eventually it turned up :)
* Cockpit- all that work put into the True Details resin pit and it's mostly hidden with the canopy closed. I wound up doing major surgery on the Academy pilots legs and arms to get them to fit (I felt like a chainsaw murderer)!. I also took some artistic license on the helmet painting. The True details resin seats were very nice but I painfully had to cut off all the nice seat belt detail to get the pilots in. The ejection seat pull handles is black wire with a yellow pencil used for the stripes. I found out AFTER I closed the canopy that this particular airframe had a HUD, oh well.....
* I cut out the where the gray lights are molded into the panels and replaced them with clear styrene and superglue. This looked a lot better than the molded in stuff. I colored with Sharpie Pens. The only ones I didn't do where the ones on the fuselage sides- I wish I would have though :(
* Pitot tube in the nose was replaced with tube and rod. The tip of the nose was re-shaped with some putty and looks better than the unmodified kit profile.

Painting. Weathering, Decaling, and other fine stuff

* Painting done per the 2Bobs instructions of the 3-tone TPS. I did use some varied tones of the base colors for some variation based on some pictures I found of this aircraft.
* I did the majority of my wreathing before the deals. I primarily used a regular mechanical pencil to draw in the panel lines. I even drew in all the rivets Give them a smear of the finger and you got some nice panel line weathering. This particular aircraft was fairly well maintained per pictures with not the usual "pig-pen" filthy look. I also used some chalk pastels on the usual leak guaranteed underside.
* After a brushed coat of Future, decals went on without a hitch. I gave the tailplanes about 3 coats of future before putting on those beautiful Red Ripper Hog-Heads and than another 2 coats over it again.
* I used 2 Bobs new air-to-air missile decals on the sidewinders. I didn't have great success but I can't really blame 2bobs as it's just tricky to drape decals over such a small diameter. My particular sidewinders from the spare box had raised rings in a couple of places that complicated this. What I did do still looks good overall. I think a little learning curve is needed to perfect getting these on.
* For the LGB I did the olive fins/gray body scheme as that seems to be most prevalent. I just used a yellow prismacolor pencil for the yellow stripe which looks good to me. The "anti-flammability" texture on the LGBs is just a nice rough sanding and some dry brushing to bring out the look. Looks good to me in this scale. I used orange paint for those small stencil rectangles on the fins applied with a small brush. 
* The Phoenix uses decals from the spare box for the stripes and the Hobby Decal transfers. These I really like and just took a little getting used to. I am sold on this technology for stencils!
* I added the green tint to the front center canopy with some food coloring and future mix
* Used white Elmers glue for the chin pod lens and future over that.


Display

* I wanted to do this in-flight but didn't want to do 2 rods up the cans. So I drilled out 2 1/8" holes in the rear Sparrow missile tunnel, inserted 1/8" Brass tube. than put corresponding pins in the 1/2" Acrylic Rod. The Rod connection is fairly well hidden in the tunnel between the 2 engines.
* I used a 1/2" Brass busing at the rod- base interface for a tighter fit.
* The base is pine, bought at Hobby Lobby. I screwed up drilling the hole and haven't got a new base or fixed this one yet. I'll get around to it eventually.
* Photographs from my Sony Digicam don't do the weathering justice, just doesn't show up well. I'm a pretty poor photographer any way :(

In conclusion- this turned out to be quite a project! Larger than I had initially planned, but hey it just evolved on it's own! I tried a lot of new techniques (pins, scratch building, lights, cockpit) and chose the path of pain (gear up) in a few locations. Would I do it all again- probably not with the Academy kit. I've built both the Monogram kit and Hasegawa kits also and would stick with Hasegawa in the future (I have 3 more in the stash too!). 

Hope you enjoyed reading this and seeing my pics. The background is typical suburban back yard patio!

Todd "Toad" Wehrenberg

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