Model Aircraft – September 2019

I

t may be gone, but it’s deinitely not

forgotten! The mighty Grumman F-14

Tomcat has long been a favourite model

subject, through all variants from A

to D, whether wearing any one of the

myriad US Naval squadron markings, adversary

camoulage or as an exotic Iranian export,

modellers can indulge their ‘Need for Speed’

in a variety of scales. The subject of this build,

the 1:48 Academy Tomcat, which has been in

their stable kit for a number of years, and in

a ‘target rich environment’, has had to tangle

with Hasegawa, Italeri and notably Tamiya who

have also now entered the fray.

On opening the Academy box, you will ind

the kit has some very nice recessed detail and

panel lines, and the cockpit and instrument

panels are also well deined. True Tomcat bufs

may query the accuracy of speciic screens and

dials, but they do give the impression of being

busy and involved. Interestingly you get pilot

and RIO igures, I wouldn’t generally use these

parts, but this became my starting point for

the build. Once painted they were positioned

on the reasonably detailed, kit-built ejection

seats and set aside for later use. The cockpit

and instruments panels were given a coat of

Mission Models MP064 Dark Gull Grey, with the

various screens, dials and switches picked out

in their respective colours. I further enhanced

the panels with some MDC Modern Aircraft Dial

Face decals to represent the instrumentation of

the early Tomcats.

One of the longstanding observations

regarding the Hasegawa kit lies in its

complexity, and the apparent the over

engineered breakdown of its parts, with the

resultant alignment issues. On initial inspection

the Academy kit appeared to be a much more

straightforward proposition. The irst step

in creating the fuselage is to paint the intake

trunking and add the fan blade parts. The main

body is split into upper and lower decks, with

the actual intakes being separate parts that

require careful alignment. The lower portion of

Highway to the

Danger Zone

Mac Patterson builds

the 1:48 Academy

F -14 A To m c a t

Mission Models Masterclass

Manufacturer: Academy

Scale: 1:4 8

K i t Ty p e: Plastic injection moulded

Kit Number: 12 2 53

F-14A Tomcat

(^74) F-14A TOMCAT WWW.MISSIONMODELSUS.COM