Small Scale Military Headquarters

Good afternoon dear friends

Sa need help from you, since I bought a F-14 1 / 18, and noticed some imperfections and need referrals to other corrections made by other forum members.
If possible they are accompanied by pictures of the process.

In the case of repainting, the decals for this range only the figthertowns decals, correct? I believe the painting of Helms was wrong, since the code tail AJ stood near the skull rather than inside.


I await the help of you

HI!

Actually, the placement of "AJ" is correct on the livery up to the Gulf War that JSI issued (see http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-squadron-vf084.htm). The one I believe you are referring to, is the livery from the '77-'78 Med cruise. In fact, I just had mine repainted in this very scheme that you are referring to! Photos will be coming very soon, but here is a few teasers (thanks to Mr. Zach Sharples)!

That's the same paint scheme I'm converting my F-14 to. I'm guessing your painter just masked the OEM markings and painted over them. This technique works well with the exception of one thing: the ejection seat warnings. On Tomcats of this era, there were two warning decals on either side of the cockpit, just below each canopy. The JSI markings only have one. Also, I can't recall seeing a late-70s to early 80s VF-84 Tomcat with the "VF-84" on the ventral fins painted in solid yellow. I've always seen them with the yellow outlined letters.

For the missiles, all of the AIM-54s I saw back then that were in Fleet service were all white and didn't have the noses painted.

I read on another post about the need to fill in the gap in the beaver tail, and I can see your painter didn't do that. It's one of those things you just don't notice until someone points it out, then it becomes real obvious.

One other detail I'm still working on is something you see in the movie Final Countdown (a great source of VF-84 visuals). There's what's supposed to be a nose-on shot of an F-14 on approach, and there's a small piece of string, maybe six inches or so long, attached to the anti-glare area in front of the cockpit. It's flapping around. This was not on the VF-33 bird I flew in, and I've never found any info about it.

Outstanding!

Zach you do a great Job!

Bruzilla wrote:That's the same paint scheme I'm converting my F-14 to. I'm guessing your painter just masked the OEM markings and painted over them. This technique works well with the exception of one thing: the ejection seat warnings. On Tomcats of this era, there were two warning decals on either side of the cockpit, just below each canopy. The JSI markings only have one. Also, I can't recall seeing a late-70s to early 80s VF-84 Tomcat with the "VF-84" on the ventral fins painted in solid yellow. I've always seen them with the yellow outlined letters.

For the missiles, all of the AIM-54s I saw back then that were in Fleet service were all white and didn't have the noses painted.

I read on another post about the need to fill in the gap in the beaver tail, and I can see your painter didn't do that. It's one of those things you just don't notice until someone points it out, then it becomes real obvious.

One other detail I'm still working on is something you see in the movie Final Countdown (a great source of VF-84 visuals). There's what's supposed to be a nose-on shot of an F-14 on approach, and there's a small piece of string, maybe six inches or so long, attached to the anti-glare area in front of the cockpit. It's flapping around. This was not on the VF-33 bird I flew in, and I've never found any info about it.

Hi Bruzilla,

Yes, I am sure it is not perfect. The only thing Zach and I could go from together, was Century Wings shots of their birds. That is what we modeled it after. I do have the Blu-ray version of final countdown and I can get unbelievable clarity in the shots, but alas, no way to share that with Zach. Considering the low price I paid, it is significantly better than what I got in the box. The "D" engines are also wrong, but they look a lot better than what the plane came with.

I know what you are talking about regarding the "string". It was seen in pretty much all the Cats in the movie. I think it is used as some sort of crosswind indicator. Just a guess.

I was looking at some old pics I have of Tomcats that I shot up at Oceana back about 1984 or so, and I have a good shot of a VF-33 bird's nose and that string is there. It's attached to a small, round, cover, maybe 4" across. I'm thinking it's used to pull that cover off. It's right in front of the rain removal system, so I'm wondering if that cover is for a reservoir for that system, and you need to pop the cover off to do something to the system.

I thought about the crosswind angle too, but with the string laying directly on the fuselage, it's in the buffet zone where the air is pretty turbulent (as you can see in the movie), so ti wouldn't be much use as a wind sock.

Excellent website for F-14 info, mentions the wind vane here and has pics:

http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-detail-sensorprobe.htm

Love the '77 scheme, would love to do my Spotcat up like that!
Cheers.

Thanks for the info. I can see why it didn't last long on the planes, and wasn't installed on all of them as you can see that thing flopping around pretty well in the video.

Windvane/Yaw Indicator: The windvane is a simple thread attached to a small circular panel on top of the F-14s nose. This windvane is used during take-off or landing approach to optically show the pilot the presence of cross-winds which might disturb smooth flight and demand quick reaction.
Note that this windvane is not installed on all F-14s.

Ha! I guessed right!