F-14A "Danger Zone"
Limited Edition

Eduard, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Mick Drover

Eduard's 1/48 scale F-14A Danger Zone is available online from Squadron.com

Born from the molds of the 1/48 Hobbyboss F-14A, ‘Danger Zone’ is the Eduard reissue of the same kit under their limited edition range. No doubt it will certainly bring back some memories of that fantastic 1986 Jerry Bruckheimer film, ‘Topgun’.

‘Danger Zone’ takes us back to every jet lovers opening movie scene featuring ground crews marshalling Tomcats around the carrier deck and onto the launch catapults. In the background the theme song ‘Danger Zone’ and namesake of this release was gradually building. As the General Electric F110’s strained against the catapult hold back bar at full afterburner, the song changed tempo, the catapult was released and off went Maverick and Goose to chase away the bad guys.

Eduard have provided all of the sprues from the original Hobbyboss release however there’s quite a few of them that only a few parts are used from or none at all. The biggest candidate for upgrade is the cockpit beginning with a fantastic looking pair of GRU-7A ejection seats.

The seats also receive a set of repainted photo etch with the balance of the pre-painted photo etch to be used on the instrument panel and ancillary cockpit items.

You could get away with using the kit moulded plastic or opt for shaving it off and using the pre-painted etch consoles.

Once the cockpit tub is completed the instructions then have you move onto the nose undercarriage and wheel well. Here the detail is well rendered  with the wheel well itself comprising of the three separate side walls and single piece to make up the rear and roof of the gear well. Hydraulic lines and cable runs will stand out nicely when detail painted. Canopy locks, sills, and rear view mirrors are provided in the way of photo etch items.

The nose gear is supplied in the compressed ready for launch position or uncompressed.

The forward fuselage features open avionics and gun bays on the port side. You could spend a bit of time in there detailing each of these bays. The open gun bay allows the display of the separately moulded M-61 gatling gun and ammunition drum. You’ll need to take note of the aircraft your building as the arrangement of the gun gas purge vents changed during the life of the Tomcat.

The wings are molded with appropriate panel lines and rivet detail. Slats and flaps are also molded separately allowing you to pose them anyway you wish however you’ll need to decide early as you as the wings cannot be display swept with the slats/flaps deployed.

The engine intakes are full length affairs with engine intake ramp supplied as single piece which is an advantage over the Hasegawa kit which provided a multi piece unit that could be fiddly to install. The two piece split intake trunking runs all the way to the engine compressor faces. Visibility of the intake faces may be limited as the intake ramp is fixed in the lowered position.

The exhausts are to die for. Eduard has provided us with a glorious set of Brassin items including engine intake compressor faces, F110 nozzles and full length exhausts. The only thing I’ll mention here is that when the Tomcat was shutdown and parked it was typical to see one exhaust open and one closed due to the hydraulic pressure bleeding out of the system. A third optional exhaust nozzle in the closed position would have been a nice inclusion here. Items from the photo etch frets provide the flame holder ring and afterburner arrangement.

The main wheel wells are far superior in their detail to the original vinyl versions. Construction and painting should prove to be easy as the wheels a tyres are cast individually.

The top and bottom fuselage halves resemble the Hasegawa items however the Hobbyboss kit has a longer forward fuselage sub assembly which pushes the spine cut out further into the upper fuselage. I think this a better approach than the Hasegawa kit as it provides much more structural integrity to the model due to the longer joins with the fuselage and intake trunking. The lower panel for the Sparrow missile bays is a separate item and helps join and brace the lower fuselage to the forward fuselage.

Both upper and lower fuselages can also be displayed with open or closed airbrake

The all moving tail planes are single piece items and feature fine engraved features.

Ordnance options for the early Tomcat are a choice of Sidewinder, Sparrow and Phoenix missiles with or without fuel tanks but usually with. Eduard have provided the original Hobbyboss items however they’ve not included any decals for them as they have their own Brassin sets for each of these missile types.

The wing glove pylons are two piece items that are split vertically. Any of the combinations of the LAU-7/LAU-92/LAU-93/LAU-138 weapon stations can be configured to make any combination of missile load.

The original release feature vinyl tyres whereas Eduard has provided a very nice set of resin items with separate hubs which will allow easier painting.

The final resin item is the Tactical Camera System (TCS) pod that features on the late VF-84 Jolly Rogers aircraft. The TCS was used for long range visual identification of aircraft.

The clear parts sprue is well done however many of the smaller items are not used. Of note is the way the windscreen has been molded. Rather than finishing the clear part at the edge of the windscreen, the molding has been continued onto the fuselage. This will certainly aid in fairing in the clear parts into the surrounding plastic. The main canopy has a seam down the middle which will need to be addresses before painting.

Markings

A variety of schemes are included over the service life of the Tomcat. The overall light gull grey features on four of the five schemes with the fifth being a light gull grey over white from the Fighting Checkmates. Decal design is courtesy of Furball Aerodesign while the superb printing is once again by Cartograf.

The aircraft supplied are:

1. 162702, VF-84 Jolly Rogers, USS Theodore Roosevelt, 1989

2. 161271 (TARPS), VF-111 Sundowners, USS Carl Vinson, 1982

3. 161147 (TARPS), VF-31 Tomcatters, USS John F. Kennedy, 1984

4. 161144 (TARPS), VF-124 Gunfighters, NAS Miramar, 1983

5. 159634, VF-211 Fighting Checkmates, USS Constellation, 1976

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With the sound base of the Hobbyboss kit to build upon, Eduard has done a great job with this limited edition release. The inclusion of the excellent marking choices including those of the Jolly Rogers, the Brassin items and etch sets makes this is a highly desirable limited edition release. 

The lack of stencils for the missiles is the only omission, so I certainly recommend this release.

Thanks to Eduard for the sample

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2015 by Mick Drover
Page Created 13 April, 2015
Last updated 13 April, 2015

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