Our Generous Sponsors

GROUP BUILD ENTRY no.44
Raffle no. 41

1/72 Italeri F-14B, VF-32 Swordsmen
by Justin Davenport
South Jordan, UT USA

I needed some inspiration to get back to serious modeling after a year of being "slack". As those who know me know, the Space Shuttle and the space program inspire me a lot. When Twobobs came out with 1/48 and 1/72 decals for an F-14B painted up with memorial markings to honor the Space Shuttle Columbia astronauts, I snapped them up. When the group build came along, I was just getting back to wanting to build models again. So I figured I'd build the Columbia Memorial bird.

In December 2004 I got myself a 1/72nd Italeri F-14B (The box says A Plus) and a set of resin GRU-7 ejection seats from True Details and as soon as the New Year started, I got to work. The resin seats were a very tight squeeze in the pit but I got them in and finished the pit, then the nose section. The main body came next - I sprayed white in the intake areas and wheel wells then finished the intake and glued the wings in the swept position (I like my Tomcats with swept wings, they look faster and take up less space). Some trouble happened when I glued the nose section to the body, as the fit wasn't very good. I ended up using lots of 20 second CA and doing lots of sanding to get it to look decent. 

I painted and glued the canopy on, then masked it and the wheel wells and got the bird ready for a rattle can's worth of Painter's Touch gray primer. After the first couple of coats, (and more sanding!) a few weeks passed before I was ready to break out the airbrush and get Polly Scale light ghost gray on the bird. But alas! My Iwata airbrush just wouldn't spray. I ended up buying a new needle and cleaning the brush out some more with lacquer thinner. Then it worked. And the dark ghost gray came on. Then Polly Scale haze gray (their equivalent of medium gray, as far as I know - it looked fine to me) came on the topsides. But some of it ran, so I had to touch up. A metal color came on for the burners. Then on came the Tamiya clear gloss for the decals. Some of it pooled on a few locations (too much spraying, I tend to be a little aggressive that way) and I had to touch up with my paintbrushes when I was done. The decals came on all right, except I lost a couple of decals right after I cut them up (the carpet monster!) and one just slid right off when I applied it (and got lost to the same carpet monster). So I got some replacements from Twobobs. It seems with me that I need two of everything just to finish a project successfully (the Thief of Baghdad, my current Airfix space shuttle, etc.)....anyway, some Polly Scale flat coat was airbrushed on until I was satisfied. Then came the landing gear doors and assemblies, tail hook, and Sidewinders. Also SNJ powder for the leading edges, masked with Tamiya tape. (That stuff is indispensable!). Here she is! Someday a 1/72nd IDF/AF Viper in Ilan Ramon's markings and a 1/72nd Space Shuttle Columbia will join Gypsy 107 on my shelf. 

Back to Group Build Main Page            Return to the ScaleAIR Home Page