merit Announcment

[Tinman]

Great news on both! I may have to choose one or the other, in which case I'd go for the Harrier.

[granch]

Jim,
You can count with at least one AV-8B that will have to land in Switzerland. I just only hope for standart markings and paint, not a special day unikat . But will do with what will be released!

[thatf14guy]

I will have to change my name to thatharrierguy?

[Jim@Merit]

I will have to change my name to thatharrierguy?

No need to change name,.... JSI is planning for a F-14 as well for late 2013/early 2014.

[Beeavision]

This maybe too soon to ask but have they decided on a livery yet for the S3 release? I've heard several suggestions but nothing entirely confirmed. Aside from a repaint anything else to expect new or improved for the F-14? I also heard rumors the ordinance maybe left out on the S3. Is that true?

[thatf14guy]

sundowners has been mentioned!

[Beeavision]

Yeah, I have even heard Tomcatters mention more then once here on the forums. Of course Tophatters would be nice too. lol

[DropTank]

Why not VF-41 Black Aces on the next Tomcat release. "Fast Eagle 102" or "Fast Eagle 107" would be an excellent choice.

In 1981, 102 claimed the first Tomcat kill, quickly followed by 107 downing the 2nd.

If memory is right, 107 & "Revlon" were a lost few years later.
While the Reagan Library has a copied repaint depicting 102, the actual 102 has managed to survive and now resides at the CAF in Midland awaiting a possible restoration.

Heck, make them both. Same paint job for painting process. Last tampo process add specific nose # and BuNo#, walla, 2 seperate historical A/C. Or plain and buyer can add either or both with decals. I would get both to have this historic pair staged together.

Just my .02 if anyone from Merit cares.

[Beeavision]

[NWarty]

Why not VF-41 Black Aces on the next Tomcat release. "Fast Eagle 102" or "Fast Eagle 107" would be an excellent choice.

In 1981, 102 claimed the first Tomcat kill, quickly followed by 107 downing the 2nd.

If memory is right, 107 & "Revlon" were a lost few years later.

Yep DropTank is absolutely correct. The Cat that Hultgreen was flying, F-14A BuNo 160390, was Modex # NH 103 when she was assigned to the Black Lions at the time. BuNo 160390 was Modex # AJ 107, VF-41, when it shot down the Su-22. Also belonged to VF-84 as Modex # AJ 207.

God forbid, don't do this repaint due to the tainted history of the whole situation.

The other Cat that shot down the second Su-22 should be done, VF-41 F-14A, BuNo 160403, Modex # AJ102.


You learn a lot about Carrier Air Wing 8 history when you build a 1:350 aircraft carrier depicting operations from the 79-80 Med/Indian Ocean cruise

[Black Lion VF-213]

As cool as it would be to have the next 1/18 F-14 released into any of the historical specific Tomcat squadron liveries of Mig or Sukhoi killers, I don't think JSI will nor will Merit advise them too do such. "Looks" sells. Sadly the two VF-41 and the two VF-32 victors over Libyan aggression are on the very low end of eye candy. Century Wings released the two VF-41 jets and they have taken forever to clear from retail inventories. But their white tailed full high vis 1977-1978 Nimitz cruise predecessors were gone in no time.

JSI picked a nice scheme for the S1 Tomcat. High vis Jolly Rogers Tomcats always sell. Just think how much quicker they would have sold if spots were absent. Their S2, though - a little tamer, sold even faster. Nice scheme and great ordinance were a winning combination.

To narrow this post, if JSI really wanted to knock the S3 out of the park for combining "Looks/eye candy" with history and a mold to match it all (assuming they don't retool for an earlier A or a B or a D), then I believe there are three options available.

Options 1 or 2: The VF-14 Tophatters and VF-41 Black Aces were involved in dropping ordinance in Operation Southern Watch over Bosnia in the late 90's including the high vis CAG and CO jets from both squadrons. Both have fantastic schemes and could easily look realistic in the current JSI Bombcat mold (with accompanying bombs, etc)
Option 3 is VF-211 Checkmates from 2002 over Operation Anaconda during OEF. The Checkmates dropped over 100K lbs of ordinance. They were awared the Battle "E" for efficiency, The Grand Slam award for Air to Air ordinance, the Sweetpea award for Strike Precision, and the Clifton Award to the best Navy squadron in the fleet. I mean they cleaned house on Tomcat awards and even taking awards that have only gone historically to Hornet (or Corsair II back before Hornets) squadrons

Me? I go with the Checkmates

[NWarty]

Me? I go with the Checkmates

Agreed

I can't even get excited about doing the VF-41 squadron on my "Eagle Claw" Nimitz as the scheme is so "meh".

Would love to see a TopHatters, but then again, The Last Cat standing was a D.

[Jolly Roger]

I'd go with a black Evaluators scheme on the 'Cat myself.

[snake]

VF-31 Tomcatters. Nothing like a "Felix the Cat" on the plane.

[tko211]

I think a Sundowners is the best and safest way to go.

[Beeavision]

Not to come across as a rivet counter but a few things I would love to see fixed on the S3 edition would be...

- Tilt the vertical stabilizers out a bit.
- Increase the diameter of the main & lower struts of the rear landing gears.
- Fix double bulge (ballooning effect) in canopy.
- Add pilot(s) retractable step ladder.
- No spots. lol

[thatf14guy]

boy we are funny a new plane is coming out and we still want to talk about tomcat squadrons! nah I love the tomcat, I would love to see a new scheme myself and hopefully a f-14b or d would be great!

[pcoughran]

Please let's get back to the Harrier.

[scbvideoboy]

ETA on these two new releases?

[Beeavision]

Please let's get back to the Harrier.

Indeed we shall.

ETA on these two new releases?

According to a member here on the forums Merit expects to release one in September and the other around Christmas. Since the FW-109 A-5 is in final stages of tooling I expect it will be the first released followed by the Harrier later within the year or maybe the latest earlier next year. In the meantime, I'm hoping at least to see a couple of photos of a working prototype on both very soon. Maybe even this summer.

[Beeavision]

[normandy]

According to a member here on the forums Merit expects to release one in September and the other around Christmas. Since the FW-109 A-5 is in final stages of tooling I expect it will be the first released followed by the Harrier later within the year or maybe the latest earlier next year. In the meantime, I'm hoping at least to see a couple of photos of a working prototype on both very soon. Maybe even this summer.

Lets hope they're both out before years end and photos would help keep the interest level high.
Without them.....this will be a very long wait.

[Beeavision]

Maybe I can bug Jim again to show us some pics by next month.

[Jim@Merit]

Maybe I can bug Jim again to show us some pics by next month.

[Black_Dragon_One]

Lol