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GROUP BUILD ENTRY no. 103
Raffle no. 94

1/48 R/M F-14B, VF-103 Jolly Rogers
by Jeremy Housdan  (Skull Leader)

Materials Used

1/48 Scale Revell/Monogram F-14D kit

1/48 Scale Revell/Monogram F-14A kit (for the seats)

1/48 Scale Hasegawa Pilots (2)

Twobobs VF-103 60th anniversary sheet

Steel Beach F-14B resin retcon set

Steel Beach LANTIRN upgrade kit



I wanted to build a standard line-bird of the VF-103 from the TwoBobs 60th anniversary decal sheet. Seeing as how I’m not into bashing up a 40+ dollar kit (read: Hasegawa) for my first ever (seriously built)1/48 scale model, I bought the Revellogram kit knowing full well it was going to need some serious mods. I used putty and tape to fill in the correct style engine fairings for the GE F110 engines (characteristic of all service F-14Bs and F-14Ds) and I salvaged the GRU-7 ejection seats out of an old Revellogram 1/48 F-14A I mangled as a child (the seats are actually pretty detailed for an OOB pair). I also found the pilot that came with the kit to be pathetic, so after some advertising, ARC member “Sabre” was kind enough to hook me up with a pair of Hase 1/48 pilots to use! (Thanks Sabre!). Although the pilots took some serious modifying to use (the RIO lost most of his lower legs, the pilot got off a little lighter) they still looked considerably more detailed than the originals.



The TwoBobs decals went on beautifully…very thin and surprisingly strong. I would gladly order more of his sheets for future builds (and I may!) I’ve never worked much with aftermarket stuff before on models, but Darren Roberts’ detail sets have worked nicely on this kit!



After completion I’ve noticed there are still a few things I didn’t correct:

1. Forgot to do the GPS dome
2. This tomcat would’ve had the new “Sparrowhawk” HUD upgrade… I didn’t include that
3. LANTIRN pod should be the same color as the airplane



I really enjoyed putting this plane together… they’re my favorite low-vis markings that the Jolly Rogers have worn.

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