Fujimi F-14D Prototype
1/48 (1/50???) scale


This is a headache kit. The moldings is just not up to the standard set by Hasegawa or Tamiya. I've decided to build this kit out-of-box (OOB) with NO resin or PE...just plain old out of kit, sprue and just go with what they give me. It would be a waste of money to put resin on this thing.

 

The F-14's wings were pretty pathetic. The wing on the port side had a bend at the tip which I had to put liberal amounts of Testors to set and a bit of Tenax to seal as well as clamping it down with a clothespin. For most A.R.C. members, the warp in the wing would have sent the majority to the garbage can to throw the kit out. I would have too, except that I don't have the money to replace the kit with a better quality model.

The dryfit went alright however, the kit had some fit problems with the wings in place. The following pictures are the dry-fit without the wings in place.



The forward glove vanes are much like the wings, but with a protective cap to keep it from popping off while trying to fit the top half of the fuselage onto the bottom half. With the mounting frustration of having to keep the glove vanes aligned while fitting the wings, the idea of scratchbuilding a "cap" for the glove-vane pivot came to mind too. The swivel mechanism and the dry fit of the wings in place...
 
I guess to detract from the shoddy shape of the Fujimi (I call it "fudge-me") kit, I'm concentrating my efforts on trying to do a stand-out job with the burner cans and turbines. At least they put a decent effort into the turnbines...and the shape of the burner cans. Like they say, it could have been WORSE.
  

Unquestionably, the nose cone form sucked. It has a big ugly seam in the center of it. No matter how many times I tried to photograph it, the seam would never show up on the picture, but TRUST me, it's there. It's going to have to be removed by puttying.


The weapons and the drop-tanks...all set up and ready for painting.

The F-14D Prototype was not able to be finished by the end of the Group Build date which ended on June 31, 2005 rather than May 30th, 2005. Maybe next time they hold a Tomcat Group Build, I'll be better prepared.

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