F-14 S&P 1/100 pt

[CMDRTED]

Next up are the wings. Bruno has incorporated a simple yet very effective way of allowing them to swing. cut out the little trapezoid areas marked on the wing before folding. you assemble the main wing by simple folding, burnishing the tips and folding them over. the swing are little gizmos folded over with the little tabs bent downward. these fold over the wing with the tabs inserted into the trapezoid holes. carefully put a drop of glue on the inside surface of the out most tab to keep the assembly together. test the tabs to make sure you haven't glued them to the wing, you can see from the hinge part that it takes the shape of the fuselage part. carefully glue the outer hinge tab into the fuselage section. make sure the hinge is even with the body of the fuselage. wait until dry and test them to see if they swing. If you want them in any single position you can just glue the wing assembly to a fixed spot...

[CMDRTED]

Fuselage and canopy.
next up is the more familiar method of aircraft assembly which is the forward fuselage. the main has a sort of shoe heel shape tapering forward to circular sections. the canopy Bruno gives is standard but needed a tweak. the side view of the actual tomcat is a sort of double bubble instead of a smooth gradual taper towards aft. It isn't completely clinched in the middle but the tweak gives a reasonable facsimile. The sections are assembled, leave the canopy and aft section that ends the traditional fuselage section to middle flat part. insert the wedge of the forward into the engine fuselage. it needs a small amount of trimming but general fits pretty well. attach the after wedge shaped aft fuselage the attach the canopy...

[CMDRTED]

tail feathers, etc.
The stabilizers rudders and ventral fins are simple fold over pieces that mate up with the little dotted areas on the after fuselage parts...
Looking like a tomcat by this point...

[CMDRTED]

Tail hooks, the unique part of an aircraft that signifies NAVY is the tail hook. that part that allows an aircraft to move from just above stall speed usually @ 100 knots, "glide" over a bouncing rolling hunk of floating tonnage, catch a steel cable and bring this 22 million dollar plus aluminum wonder to a screeching halt in 100 feet or so!
the kit is a flat folded part with the hook section. I changed it to a rolled piece and made the base of the hook a little more 3d by making sides instead of the printed on part. a lot to say for only 2 pics, but what the hay...

[CMDRTED]

Gear doors and missile launchers. The kit doors were built pretty much stock. I did add the small strut door for the forward landing gear. the missile launch rails are scratch built, laminated 3 card stock thick. I borrowed the sidewinder rail from the f-4 phantom kit. these are lightly sanded to the angles needed to give a good fit. the edges of the gear doors are painted red. gives it a kinda cool contrast with the plain white lower aircraft...

[Don Boose]

Great project, Ted! Many thanks for the clear step-by-step images and narrative.

Don

[YOAVHOZMI]

this is beautiful, very good job.

YOAV

[scissorsandplanes]

Hi Ted,
Sorry for the tricky design. The best part seems to be the swing mechanism
You are making a wonderful build (and tutorial) out of it.
thanks
Bruno

[CMDRTED]

Bruno, no apologies necessary, maybe if I kept up my skills it would've gone better.
next up are the landing gear. simple rolled tubes with the retracting struts. on the forward I added the catapult arm and oleo strut joints. the tires are stacked discs instead of the one piece. they are strong enough to support the model and look right, more much later, have to work....

[CMDRTED]

one more before work, armed to the teeth. The tomcats were armed with long range radar guided missiles, the aim 54 phoenix, this had a range of @ 100 NM. the secondary were mid range sparrow, aim 7s and sidewinder dog fight missiles, aim9s. for that close in knife fight they also had the 20mm Vulcan cannon. the first pic is the basic under chin ir detector, the Vulcan cannon housing is a simple curved piece. usually the tomcats didn't carry a full 8 missile compliment but this is a model so all eight were added...