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BUILD ENTRY no.102
Raffle no. 93
1/72 Fujimi F-14A,
VF-11 Red Rippers
by Kristian Amadori (KRI76)
Linköping - Sweden
This is my third and last entry for the Tomcat Group Build 2005.
Even if it was the very first Tomcat I started for this GB, its way to
completion has been full of problems to be solved. The kit itself isn't too bad even if the
number of pin marks in places almost impossible to reach is out of this world! The part brake down is very similar to Fujimi´s but the quality is not as high. I
don't think I will buy another Academy Tomcat in the future...
I added some details to the cockpit and bang seats; instrument panels are decals from a spare Hasegawa decal sheet and the pilots come from my spare parts box. The idea I had for this build was to represent an F-14 kneeled on the catapult ready for launch. I will eventually build a diorama with this a/c, but not now: I need a rest from Tomcats.
The biggest problem I had to solve was the paint scheme. I have Carpena´s decal sheets (high and low viz) dedicated to the USS Forrestal during
its cruise in 1990-91, but the decals for the VF-11 Cats weren't the ones I wanted. I wanted to do a Tomcat with the same paint scheme as in Verlindens Lock-On Nr.14. So I started creating with Corel Draw my own decals using the pictures I had as reference. But I was missing pictures of the nose right side. And I
couldn't find any anywhere! That resulted in a loooooooong stop for this build. At the end, when I felt that time was running by, I ordered CAM´s decal sheet for this aircraft in 1/32 (the only that I know there is for this subject...) and used it as a last reference to complete my art work. Well, printing decals, painting, applying decals, weathering completed then the job. As a last note: this is by far the dirtiest aircraft I have ever done: looking at the pictures in the above named Lock-On I noticed that this a/c was really really dirty!
I hope you'll like it.
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