Model Aircraft – September 2019

primed and pre-shaded with thinned Tamiya

NATO Black. Now I was ready for the camoulage

painting stage. I then had to decide which

squadron markings this F-14 would wear. The

boxing only has one aircraft option on its decal

sheet, that being the CAG of VF-153 from USS

America, although colourful I wasn’t inspired by

the choice. I quite liked the the bold markings

of VF-1 ‘Wolfpack’, which seemed to perfectly

encapsulate the look of an early, 1970’s Tomcat.

Fortunately, I had a decal sheet from the Italeri

boxing with the precise option I was after.

Painting began with the undersides, and here

I airbrushed a couple of light coats of Mission

Models White creating a subtle, mottled inish

allowing the pre-shading to show through. The

weathering of a carrier-based aircraft would

be further enhanced with various pastels and

washes at a later stage. Early Tomcats wore

classic Light Gull Grey camoulage, so I elected

to use Mission Models MMP063 Light Gull

Grey as this is a good match to the speciied

FS36440. Once again, a couple of coats were

applied for a modulated efect across the upper

Painting began with a black

primer coat and then some

pre-shading

For the camoulage I used Mission

Models White and Light Gull Grey

I ALWAYS FIND MISSION MODELS

PAINTS PERFORM FLAWLESSLY

(^76) F-14A TOMCAT WWW.MISSIONMODELSUS.COM