Academy 1/72 F14-A Jolly Rogers Build Thread

[Lego]

So, I have been dying to build a Tomcat. By far my favourite aesthetically pleasing looking aircraft. Despite having a Cretan like Tom Cruise try to ruin it's fantastic heritage it will always be a groovy cat in my book.

















Yep the box art got me in one glance


The instructions don't look that bad and this should be an easy build right? Well it has stupid fit issues. Cartographer decals llok good.

[Lego]

So made a start



















Think the cockpit turned out well for a 1/72

[Lego]

So put the Fuselage together as instructed and made the nose/cockpit section up.

I chose to align the bottom and keep everything straight which I knew would give me fit issues but I could avoid it as the nose cone has to pit the cockpit and the hull has to fit from top to bottom.

The Top part of fuselage was way to big compared to lower half and the cockpit section was to small for the fuselage.


The fuselage I managed and was left with a lip at the join up with nose section














The lip was huge in this scale, hard to see from the photo. Out with the tape and Ultimate sanders.








At this point the can of pee did not fir and never will as it is smaller than it should be to cover the second section. I won't know how bad it will look until I remove the tape Using filler here was very difficult for me.Primed and pre-shaded.

[Lego]

Light coats of Mr Hobby Aquarius paints





Masked up





One gloss coat

[RoscoRSA]

Well now, that build just flew by, looking very good so far. I dont envy you those decals on a 1:72 kit, I just finished mine on a 1:48 Tomcat and they were allot of work

Good luck, looking forward to seeing more of this build.

BTW, its sooo unfair that you got cockpit decals and I didn't....

[Andreas]

You are on fire man .. Looking good

[Lego]

Thanks fellas.


So finally got back to the bench. I noticed a few lol things. I thought there where decals for the white section on the fins but you know you I was wrong so doh. So masking a go go.





I am currently having stripping issues with ak grey primer, same as i had on f18











Loving the decals from cartograf. And the issues I had with the fit of the canopy are some what hidden for the most part.











Few holes

















Nearly ready for washes and weathering during the week Few small things to still do but getting there.

[corpsman23k2]

Always loved the big cat my self and the look of vf84 birds yours is looking great nice job on the panel wash brings back memory of them with cvw8 on the TR in the 90s when I was stationed on her great job

[heel]

Doing a fantastic job with this one, Lego. Especially like how the tail fins came out.

[Lego]

Damn it, I forgot to update this build and I cannot find the photos I have been taking


Bought this a month or so ago and built it. No dramas. It is flat with no hard work what so ever. Only criticism I have is there are a tonne of injector pin marks on the back of the blast shield. Must be twenty or so.















Will get better pictures up soon.

[Twokidsnosleep]

That's awesome
Love the carrier deck dio
Nicely done

[Homerlovesbeer]

That looks awesome and the carrier deck finishes it off. I'm impressed!

Regarding the AK Grey Primer, my opinion of it is it's rubbish. Both times I've found it scratches VERY easily and with my Spitfire I've had some issues where it's peeled away from the plastic and come off with Tamiya masking tape. The Gunze paint over the top sticks beautifully to the primer but what's the point if the primer lifts off the plastic model?

[Nev]

That looks amazing fella! Really nice dio

[Chelsea]

Hi I'm building the same kit the f14 A kit

I was wondering if you have any advice or could send me a photos of how to fit the cockpit to the nose, I tried to dry fit it without glue and it doesn't want to line up or work.
I'm freaking out it's not going to work. I really want to paint the cockpit black before fitting it but the instructions just show a pic.

Thank you heaps c:

[jmatt]

Beautiful build!