Our Generous Sponsors

GROUP BUILD ENTRY no.64
Raffle no. 55

1/72 Fujimi F-14A, VF-41 Black Aces
by Roy McKay
Midleton, Co., Cork, Ireland

Here is my second submission. It is the Fujimi 1/72 F-14A kit, built from the Bounty Hunter's boxing. This is the second ever Fujimi Tomcat I have built, and I already have one more in progress and 2 more in the stash. The build was mostly trouble-free, as long as you take your time and dry-fit a bit. One area that needs concentration is when you are attaching the forward fuselage/cockpit assembly onto the rear. All the mating surfaces have a little mould seam on the edges, and some flash on the rear fuse area. Also, the main fuse (behind the nose gear bay) needs a little widening for a good fit. A small section of sprue cut to size and inserted keeps the joins flush. A light few swipes with a fine-ish sanding stick ensures no need for filler between front and rear. As this was the early-Tomcat boxing I needed to get the later tail fairing from a buddy (cheers Hans J.). Other than that the build was no trouble.

The model was painted using Xtracolor Light Gull gray, mainly Humbrol for everything else. The decals are from the old (but excellent) Detail and Scale set for both the Sukhoi Killers, although I now have a Fujimi kit in the stash that includes these too. Very light weathering was applied, as looking at photos of the actual jet in the D&S book shows it to be very clean, with a satin-leaning towards matt paint finish. I sealed the decals with a mix of Humbrol 2 parts satin cote to 1 part matt cote, thinned 50/50 with cellulose thinner.

I was going to give it a wash, but the panel lines are enough by themselves. They are very fine, but are deep. The weathering at the wing roots is a water-based paint I got in an Airfix kit, daubed LIGHTLY on in the fully forward position along the glove root, then the wings were swept in and out, and then fully back, where I wiped off the excess with a damp cloth. When dry, the wings were removed from the kit, sprayed with matt cote in the sweep area, replaced, and placed in the fully swept position while I sealed the decals with the satin cote. Gives a very good effect for the sweep area. The undercarriage got a brush of Klear (Future) mixed 50/50 with Tamiya smoke.

I haven't added any armament to any of my GB F-14's, but that is down to time more than anything else. I also like to work on some jobs as a bunch, painting pilots is one. Painting missiles is another. I don't paint and build one ejection seat, I do about ten. I will add ordinance to these in the future, but for now it will have to wait.

I enjoyed this group build, and it has helped me get 2 more models done for my CVW-8/USS Nimitz collection. I have one more Fujimi (and one Hasegawa) 'A' on the bench, and the extension to the GB would have helped to get them finished (as VF-84), but thanks to my new job I am off to the US for the last 3 weeks of the GB, so my submissions end here.

A big thanks to Steve, ScaleAir and ARC for this GB. Hope you all like it,

Roy

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