I’m not sure what happened but a blemish appeared after painting the nose so I had to go back in to fix it. I sanded it off, buffed and repainted.
At this point I started painting the details around the fuselage. The color of the groove on the BOL launcher is a guesstimate.
Some were masked and sprayed while the smaller ones were all picked out with handpaint.
There are a surprising number of ‘bells and whistles’ that needed to be painted.
For the lights, I’m trying new metallic markers from DSPIAE which I think looks quite comparable to my old method of a clear paint over a base of silver.
Felix 101’s ventral fins are red in color. Luckily the bottle of Aqueous H327 Red FS11136 matches the red of the tail decal.
Next the other parts were painted. It’s my first time using A-Stand High Shine Plus Aluminium for the exhaust petals. I’m not sure yet if it’s accurate but I like the result. The LANTIRN pod was painted in Tamiya XF-77 IJN Grey (Sasebo Arsenal). This F-14D didn’t carry anything else besides the pod and the external tanks.
Note the sensor on the nose gear was painted (Aqueous H85 Sail Color). The leading edges of the wings were masked off and painted in Mig AMMO Atom Metal Steel.
I do believe I’ve gotten to all the details.
I quite like how patchy the bottom rear fuselage looks.
After a gloss coat, the markings went on. Decals are from the kit and they are on par with stuff from DXM decals although I think they would be better if they had a glossier finish.
GWH left out the red lines that are on the inside of the engine area. I had to mask and spray these.
After a few days of curing I sprayed a satin coat and proceeded with giving the whole kit a wash with my usual thinned Abteilung Starship Filth.
Next is to tackle the staining on the sections of the main wing that slide into the fuselage when the F-14 is in stowage configuration. I first set the wing in stowage position and marked the area out with tape.
I then did a heavy stain of Starship Filth by dabbing all around the area. Then with a compass that has the pencil replaced with a cotton bud, I tackled the circular pattern that appears in this stained area due to how the wings swing out.
After a few tries it’s not bad I think?
I inserted the wing to check and I think it turned out well.
So now I ‘just’ have to do the same for the other wing.
And of course the bottom, which has bigger stained area.
The landing gear is next and these very thankfully went on without a problem. I particularly appreciate how positively the gear doors attach with their long attachment points. However I did have a slight problem adding the really tiny actuators (parts A81 and A83). I don’t recall the Academy, Hasegawa or Fujimi releases having these parts.
The fuel tanks and LANTIRN pod were next.
At this point I realized that I missed out painting the television camera on the chinpod. Unfortunately it has a recessed horiozntal join line that’s very visible. I solved this by punching a piece of 0.18mm plastic card and inserting it into the recess to cover the join line. I then painted it silver.
i then added a drop of Tamiya X-19 Smoke over the silver color. The result looks pretty good and it was easier to do than to deal with the very tiny clear part that you can only insert one way.
Canopy masks were removed and thankfully everything looked alright.
My aftermarket nose probes all didn’t fit so I used the kit part, which went on last. I can now call this F-14D done. I’ve been impressed with the GWH kit: it’s somewhat over-engineered for its scale which inevitably led to some fitting issues but the result turned out really nice (none withstanding the missing starboard rear formation light). I particularly liked how the pylons all have the ‘plumbing’ details that allow you to leave the stores off without the pylons looking oddly bare.
Build Log
Pt.1 – Construction | Pt.2 – Construction | Pt.3 – Construction
Pt.4 – Painting | Pt. 5 – Painting & Finishing
