USAF Strike Cat

[SebastianP]

This is a kit with serious history - basically, I've rifled though this box in the shop off and on for over ten years before I actually remembered it when I had some money, and lo and behold, the pricetag was unchanged since day one. Presto $20 new tool Hasegawa F-14 with GE engines. Cheapest 1/72 tomcat in the shop - and had I known what I could get for it on ebay....I still would have built it.  

Like the F-22, this one has been assembled and painted for some time, just lacking in decals since I'd rather buy another cheap kit than a decal sheet, for some reason. And since the kit was in the "I'll probably never get around to it" category...

After I got done "ghostifying" the F-22 this afternoon, I decided that my *other* huge source of decals - several F-15E kits that got lost in a move prior to decalling - would make for excellent Tomcat stencils. And I did just buy a new tin of 36118 the other day...



The kit was built with all of Hasegawa's various extra bits - I've paid twice again what the kit cost in order to get all the racks, rails and missiles that go on it. (bomb racks are in the LGB set, missile rails are in the LANTIRN set, as is the pod pylon, and missiles are in a third set. And dumb bombs are in yet another set...)

I've got a sheet of Hasegawa F-15E decals somewhere, as well as a Superscale sheet which is the only aftermarket sheet I've ever bought, and three sheets of Airfix stencils, which should be plenty. Really. All that's really left is to decide the tailcode to use - I'm thinking the shaded SJ from superscale, or IIRC there's a shaded LN on the Hasegawa sheet. Either way look cool...

SP

[K5054NZ]

Best of luck Seb. Looking forward to seeing that one. Any ideas re camo? Mmm...Tomcat mud mover... B)  

[The Rat]

Okay, so..., where are you going to attach the rotor we see in the background?  

   

[SebastianP]

To the tail end of a CH-53E? Seriously, I have fifteen kits in various stages of construction, five need more paint, and a few that are finished but for decalling. I have only three kits who are actually finsihed at the moment - and the Gripen is one of them...

SP

[cthulhu77]

Love those workbench shots...makes one feel right at home !!!  

[Spey_Phantom]

Good start on the strike cat, looks alot like my "F-14G wildcat" i posted a while ago.
cant wait to see her finished  B)  

[SebastianP]

Wanna see the whole thing? :-)




In addition to this, there's a mess of opened boxes and sprues on the floor just outside the pic, and the window sill has ten or so undecalled aircraft kits...

SP

[SebastianP]

I'm almost through painting the beast - various and sundry landing gear doors need an extra coat or two, and I need to finish the exhausts and cockpit (!), but otherwise there's only the decalling left.

And arming it...

(try getting a spare MER, preferably one with some bombs on it, and measure how many you should be able to hang on a Tomcat... I wound up with six, if I ignore the tailhook. )

[K5054NZ]

Well well...who's a modern jet fan, then? Looking forward to that Stike Cat...lookin good thus far.

[SebastianP]

Half jets, half choppers, the odd armor kit - and except for the Hornet, they're all in 1/72. I buy a couple of cheap kits every month, unless I'm suddenly starving due to some bill coming to bite me. I have more fun with two $12 helicopters right now than with one $25 aircraft... And since I think my Bradley is looking a little lonely, I'm going to get some more of Revell's tiny armor kits. (180-odd pieces for ONE vehicle? It's half as long as my Kiowa, which had less than 50!)

SP

[The Rat]

Two questions about the bench:

1) What's the red helicopter?

2) Where's the beer?

[SebastianP]

The red helicopter is an attempt at building a HH-65A from the Revell/Matchbox kit. It's actually molded in an even more violent red color, it's just that it darkened considerably when painted from the inside. A real shame, that.

As for beer, I'd like to think I'm silly enough without additives. You should see the mountain if Coke-bottles I dispatched the other day though...

I'm trying to track down some appropriate seats at present - I know there should be a couple of ACES-2 seats somewhere among my other junk. The only question is what shape they're in, and where they're from. If I can manage to find the pair of Italeri seats I did for one of my old projects, I'm golden. Likewise if the leftovers from my last Eagle turn up, since those actually looked good. The other options are...not so good. (Well, I could steal the NACES seats from the Super Hornet whose canopy my mom stepped on, but not until I know it's completely unsalvagable).

I've also redone the canvas parts of the instrument panel shrouds - they're a dark gray now, rather than tan. Wish I had a better brush for the canopy frame - that is going to take some careful handling, since the panel lines are so thin...

I also found some of the ECM bumps I've been missing for a while, and installed them - the ones that go on the edges of the wing glove, ahead of the vanes. Can't have a serious strike aircraft without lots of ECM blisters...

SP

[elmayerle]

I'm almost through painting the beast - various and sundry landing gear doors need an extra coat or two, and I need to finish the exhausts and cockpit (!), but otherwise there's only the decalling left.

And arming it...

(try getting a spare MER, preferably one with some bombs on it, and measure how many you should be able to hang on a Tomcat... I wound up with six, if I ignore the tailhook. )

Well, actually, one of the original F-14 prototypes was tested with four rows of four bombs each on modified Phoenix pallets under the fuselage.  There are photos of it out there, I'll see what I can find.

HTH,
Evan

[Captain Canada]

Bombcats rule ! I had always wanted to build one, ever since I drew a wee piccie of one about 4 years back.......

[Captain Canada]

And I finally got around to building the bugger ! I think it was a year ago last April that I finished it.