Persian Cat aka Iranian F-14 Tomcat in 1/32 WIP

[Coreyeagle48]

Greetings,

I have been very tight lipped about this custom I have been working on as I did not want anyone to steal my idea, LOL, but I am far enough along now to post some photos of this latest addition.

This was an old New Bright light and sound electronic toy, it's about 1/32 scale size. I bought it thinking it was complete but found out it didn't work. Go figure! Rather than throw it out I kept it around for awhile then the idea hit me to do this and well off I went.

It is very nice to work with because it screws together and apart. The first step was gutting the thing of the electronic components. Then I cleaned all the pieces and removed the loads of decals on it. Finally I began painting. Believe it or not, it is all brush painted and I used craft paints to do it. Colors are close (I like to use what I have). The color scheme I researched on the internet and have since found out the surviving aircraft are in a low viz gray scheme, however I like this scheme better.

This is almost back together, doing the final detail painting and final reassembly and making the markings. Should be done within a week or two. Hope everyone enjoys this rare subject. All the talk of this bird recently gave me the idea!

Here is the link, more pictures to come as it is finished. This is the first look!

The last picture is what I started with.

http://community.webshots.com/album/557930492Aqsndn

[ostketten]

Nice work Corey, is that based on a real IAF paint scheme?? Not that it really matters, it still looks nice, I'm just curious. I don't think too many of the Iranian F-14's are still in flying condition, the parts embargo has hurt them pretty badly, and if I'm not mistaken most of the IAF's F-14's are grounded and inoperative, and those that are still flying are desperately in need of maintenance spares.

[Coreyeagle48]

Hey Buddy,

The scheme I used is based on the scheme the Tomcats were in when they were delivered to the IAF and when they were used during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980's. However, I used a little bit of a brighter shade of green because the dark green I had used blended in too much with the brown I used and I wanted a bit more contrast. So it is 100 percent accurate, but close enough for me.

I did some searching on the web about the Iranian F-14's and it is believed the survivors that still fly (probably very few) are now in a low visiblity gray scheme. Since the US used that for so long on their Tomcats, I opted for something a little out of the ordinary and to do an Iranian F-14. Just something different. After all, we're so used to seeing our own F-14's, people forget Iran had these things, flew them, and had some success with them.

Corey

[Black Lion VF-213]

How sad that the only country still flying the proud, beautiful, and still incredibly capable Tomcats is one of our enemies. If we ever went to war with Iran and our Navy or Air Force pilots were faced with shooting down an Iranian F-14, I bet it would pain them. They'd probably feel (in strange way) as if they were killing one of their own....especially if it were a former Tomcat pilot now flying the F-18.

[tmanthegreat]

It would be an ironic situation indeed! Just goes to say that the US needs to be very careful who it lends things to. Our friends today can be enemies tomorrow... Oddly enough, Iranian F-14 pilots actually have more air-to-air kills than did the US F-14 pilots, due to the use of the planes in the Iran-Iraq war.

[ostketten]

Yeah, there might be a touch of nostalgia there, but only for a second or two, then they would let loose a "winder", or hose them down with cannon fire. I would be interested to know how many Iranian F-14's are still actually airworthy, I seem to remember reading somewhere that they had to cannibalize some aircraft to keep a few others flying. It's really no big surprise that the IAF is having major problems keeping their F-14's in the air, the F-14 is a big complex airplane that requires a small army of skilled technicians and a long logistics tail to properly maintain, no problem for a superpower like the United States with it's almost unlimited resources, but in the context of a parts embargo it is more than the Iranians can manage.