Tamiya's 1/48 scale
F-14A Tomcat (Late)

by Steve Pritchard

FMA IA 58 Pucará

Kit

Tamiya 1/48 F-14A Tomcat (Late) Item 61122

Aftermarket Accessories

Eduard F-14A late SPACE 1/48 for Tamiya kit Item3DL48057

Furball Aero-Design Colors and Markings of US Navy Tomcats Part XI decal sheet 4820

Paints Used

Mr. Color 307, 308 and 337 for the FS 36320, 36375 and 35237 shades.

Various Tamiya Lacquer and Acrylic paints for the cockpit and other detailing.

This is my third Tamiya Tomcat so I was quite familiar with how it goes together – typical precision, easy part clean-up, virtually no filler and almost fool proof part assembly.

I had been keen to try the Eduard 3D cockpit set, despite the canopy being closed on this catapult launch version, and I was not disappointed. Will definitely use this brand again when the F-14A+ appears.

Tamiya provide new wings in this version, with flaps and leading-edge slats – these parts are ingeniously designed and fit together perfectly.

I pre-weathered the assembled kit with my usual panel line shading and splashes of various brownish shades. The Mr. Color paint were thinned with their Levelling Thinner, which allows very thin topcoat layers to be applied, and results in a lovely smooth finish. Post shading was done with the three grey colours to give the impression of on carrier touch-ups. A dirty brown mix of Tamiya brown and black acrylic, very thin, was sprayed on areas to represent grime.

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Thumbnail panels:

I always struggle with the thickness of Tamiya decals, so it was an easy choice to go with the cartograf printed Furball Aero-Design decals with options for twelve VF-114 aircraft. The only difficulty was choosing which one to use. One small issue was the size of the markings for the pilot’s helmets – the aardvarks were a little too big.

This is simply a superb kit with great detail and ease of construction - just brilliant Did I mention it was my third already?

Steve Pritchard

Christchurch

New Zealand

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2022 by Steve Pritchard
Page Created 15 August, 2022
Last Updated 15 August, 2022

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