With the preliminary work on the cockpit and gear finished, I could turn my attention to bringing these elements together and completing the major construction for the F-14.
The first thing I did was swap out the identification lights molded into the kit plastic. These are fairly basic and the Quickboost replacements I got for this project are definitely an improvement. With all that said, it was a huge pain to replace these with the aftermarket set and I probably wouldn’t want to do this again. These accessories required quite a bit of cutting and sanding followed by polishing to ensure that they were as clear as possible. The section in the kit plastic must be cut out and the Quickboost part must be cut so that it fits in place. Then, you have to sand down the joint so that there is not obvious seam, all the while taking care that you don’t scratch where the actual light is. Knowing that this was meant to stay clear on the final result, I used a chrome marker to paint the back of the clear part before polishing it with Tamiya polishing compound. I’ll admit it looks good, but the time wasn’t worth it for me.
After this was done, I got to work on the intakes. I’ll have next to no ability to paint these when installed onto the model so that means they’ll have to be completed before installation. As per the instructions and reference photos, these are gloss white and the fuselage colour. Tamiya is kind enough to provide masks for this to be recreated and I was fairly happy with the end result using them. The fuselage colour I would be using was SMS PL60 Blue grey FS35237. I put down a coat of gloss white, applied the mask, then added the Blue grey.
I also took this time to weather the Blue grey as it was common for dirt to accumulate in this area due to inspections by maintainers. I did this with a dark brown oil paint, and slowly feathered it onto the surface to create a restrained look. I then installed the main gear bays, the completed intakes and was able to seal everything up. It should be noted that the fit of the MCC gear bay was somewhat rough and it took a lot of work to ensure that a solid seal was being achieved around the kit parts. Furthermore, when cutting off the indicated section on the intakes to fit the MCC part, aim to cut 0.5-1mm shallow. Cutting as indicated will leave a significant gap between the MCC gear bay and the intakes.
Following the installation of the gear and intakes I joined the two fuselage halved together. I used to tape do this as I’ve never had a ton of luck using clamps. Following some filling and sanding (especially around the nav light location) I attached the forward fuselage. This section has excellent fit and creates an almost non-existent seam. I was also able to check that the gear fit properly into the installed gear bays. I’ll be keeping these detached during the painting process so that the bays can be masked up.
The next step was to complete the various sub assemblies before moving on to paint. This included the wings, stabilizers, pylons and canopy. This went together in typical Tamiya fashion and before I knew it this bird was ready for paint. This being a Tamiya kit, the fit was excellent. I decided to take advantage of this and opted to incorporate some magnets into various parts so that the model would be able to be partially disassembled after being completed. I stuck some tiny 1mm magnets inside the vertical stabs and the effect is practically invisible.
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