Tomcat "Catapult shot" - callsign 'Bullet 100' - F-14D of VF2, USS Constellation

I can't believe I haven't blogged in so long..hasn't stopped me building though.

CAG Tomcat of VF-2  USS Constellation preparing for launch (Wikimedia commons)

Of all the 1/72 Tomcats I've built lately, this along with the Airfix kit has probably been the most rewarding. This is the standard Revell 1/72 F-14D Tomcat that I first started two or three years ago..

At the time, I thought that converting it to a catapult launching Tomcat would be easy.





But the more I worked on it, the less enthusiasm I had and this build stalled on my shelf of doom....

Fast forward a couple of years to late last year and I thought she deserved
better treatment than this! So with renewed enthusiasm, I set about bringing
her back to life.

Cutting out the kit wing bladders (wings swept back mode)

Wing forward swept bladders added..

Modified wing sealing bladders (from a Hasegawa kit)

Decals on the tails and the modified kit wings.

Weathering the wings - step 1

step 2

Step 3 - done

And here she is all finished....really happy how she turned out, considering the state I had left it in.

Kit: 04195 Revell 1/72 F-14D Tomcat

Paints: All brush painted - Revell Aqua Colour acrylics, Future, Flory Models wash, W&N Matt Varnish

Decals: From Hobby Boss F-14D kit for BuNo163894 VF-2 Bounty Hunters, CAG jet USS Constellation

Extras:

Hasegawa - pilots, wing sweep bladders, BOL rails, Lantirn pod and weapons

Hobby Boss - catapult nose gear

Wing slats/flaps - kits' own and scratchbuilt

The real a/c was delivered to the US Navy in 1990 and served with a couple of squadrons before transferring to VF-2 squadron aboard USS Constellation in the late 90s. In 2001, the plane became the CAG jet with the callsign 'Bullet 100' and dropped over 55 bombs during operations in Iraq in 2003. The big stripe markings apparently are called 'Langley Stripes', in honour of when this squadron served in the 1920s aboard the USS Langley, the first American aircraft carrier.

Worth a follow

I found this blog via Twitter and it's definitely worth a follow!

Naval Air History is exactly what it says on the tin and looking forward to reading up over the Christmas holidays.

All the best.

Dermot

Tophatters Tomcat done!

And that's Tomcat #3 for the year done. Just to recap, this is the Airfix F-14 which I built mostly OOB but with rescribed panel lines and ejection pull rings for the seats. Decals are from the kit and she's brush-painted throughout.

Of all the Tomcats for this year, I'd have to say this is my favourite, probably because I wasn't expecting much from it.

And next up? Why another Tomcat of course! This time, a VF-2 CAG bird from Operations over Afghanistan.

JFK visits Dublin 1996

Can't believe I haven't posted since August! Terrible! I blame the modelling. Or the Summer.
Or modelling during the summer. Anyhow, the Tomcat builds have continued, this time with a VF-14 Tophatters F-14 of the USS John F Kennedy when it visited Dublin in 1996.

I remember this - my parents were lucky enough to get out to the ship while I remembering seeing some of the carrier air wing at Dublin airport - I do have photos from that day but they've got lost in the almost 20 years since then..


(Photo used with permission from Jonathan McDonnell)
Kit selection was Airfix's trusty old F-14A, in the re-boxed edition with these very decals.

It's not a state of the art kit by any stretch, but thought it would be fun to build it, maybe add some detail to it, maybe re-scribe some of the panel lines (that would be a first)

I've already added some strip detail to the main u/c bays. As for the nose wheel bay, less said, the better!

Fast forward through the late Summer, Autumn and into the depths of Winter and she currently looks like this...You can read the full build log here and more about the oldest active squadron in the US Navy, VF-14

And finally, the Sea Harrier from my last post won a Bronze at the 2014 IPMS Ireland show - you can see more of the entries at this link. Was really chuffed with that and another vote for naval airpower!

Until next week, thanks for visiting!
Dermot

Fast Eagle 107 done...and a friend.

So with some summer holidays finally here, that means the pace of building pics up a little! First up, the finished Fast Eagle 107, as she looked back aboard on USS Nimitz, 19 August 1981. The crew were pilot Lt. Larry Muczynski and RIO Lt. Jim Anderson.

"The leader, whom I had gone after, had completed his climbing turn and was heading straight away north-northwest. He started a slight right hand reversal but I had obtained a good firing position behind him. I armed up my AIM-9L and also fired from station 1A. The Sidewinder went right up the guy's tail pipe and blew off everything from the wing roots rearward in a tremendous fireball".



"Since I was only one-half mile from at the guy's dead six, the thing that scared me most was that I would shoot myself down because of the FOD (Foreign Object Debris) going down the engines"



"I did a 6g pull-up straight into the vertical and when I cleared the debris pattern, I rolled inverted. I looked down and could see everything from the wings forward spinning on its way down and the plane on fire. After about two turns, I saw the pilot eject from the aircraft."

And here's my other recent build, another famous Naval fighter - Italeri's Sea Harrier FRS.1 This is finished as 'Black 14' of No. 899 Naval Air Squadron, HMS Hermes, South Atlantic, May/June 1982.

This aircraft took part in the first bombing raids of the conflict and also shot down an Argentinian Skyhawk and two Daggers in the space of three days in May. Now I know why they were nicknamed "La Muerta Negra". You can view the build at this link

Until the next time, thanks for looking.
Dermot

Fast Eagle 107

So this build of the first air-to-air kill by a Tomcat is almost done. It's Fast Eagle 107 from USS Nimitz in all over Light Gull Grey of VF-41 Black Aces. You can read more about the build (including pics) on this link

Also gave the crew a 'Black Ace' insignia on the back of their helmets...kind of. The belts are from wine-bottle foil.

I think the Ace on the tail should be a dark grey, not black but went with the kit decals. The only change was to remove the silhouette decal of the Su-22 Fitter - that was applied on the a/c post combat but this build is as she looks after recovering aboard that morning.

Will post some better pictures tomorrow, once I find the proper camera! Will also post some quotes from that day.

Thanks for looking.
Dermot

Getting on with it...

So haven't posted in a while but will get better at that - work and life getting in the way too much!

Since the last post, the latest Tomcat has come on a bit. It's the Hobby Boss F-14A in 1/72 and will be finished in a Black Aces Scheme from 1981 - dull scheme but interesting story!

The kit..

Some refs and reading material (more of that in a future post)

The jet I'll be building, not long after it splashed a Libyan Su-22 in the first all swing-wing air-to-air combat.

And how she looked last night with paint on. The wings have been finished first to help ensure they still move.....a bit gimmicky for sure but wanted at least one build with moving wings.

You can read more from this build (and some other great Tomcats) on the following thread

And since the opportunity came up, I've also taken on another classic carrier fighter with this build..

As always, thanks for looking.

Best, 

Dermot