1/48 Hasegawa F-14A Tomcat
It's big, it doesn't fit into my display case. It's another US airplane. It's another dull, boring grey model. It's well aged... But it's Tomcat...you can't have a model collection without Tomcat!
Few years back a bought an open unassembled kit of 1/48 Hasegawa's Tomcat. I hesitated for a long time to start building it and this winter it finally came up to my schedule. It was a though one. Back in my childhood I assembled one Italeri's Tomcat in 1/48 and one Academy's in 1/72 scale. I never had a chance to wrestle with Hasegawa's 1/48. My used kit missed some parts, other parts were deformed or bent, and complicated model itself asked for a lot of filling and sanding. Wheel bays and air intakes took a lot of nerves, but it came to look like a decent airplane in the end.
I intended to put different marking but when I put old decals into the water they just disintegrated. So I managed to get new decal sheet from friend's Tamiya kit, together with his Phoenixes and Sparrows (my Hasegawa came without weapons).
In the end, after three months of production, this old cat did it's first landing (as shown in the pictures:).
12 additional images. Click to enlarge.
Spiros Pendedekas said on March 21, 2022
Gorgeous Tomcat, Boris!
John Healy said on March 21, 2022
Nice work on this, Thomas. That’s not the easiest kit in the world to get across the finish line.
John vd Biggelaar said on March 21, 2022
Very nice result on this Tomcat, Boris @grgast
Dan Lee said on March 21, 2022
Excellent work on a very difficult kit. It's always a fight to build the Hase Tomcat.
neil foster said on March 21, 2022
"I feel the need - the need for speed...", gotta love a Tomcat ,fantastic work on this Boris.
Tom Cleaver said on March 21, 2022
I really like your realistic weathering of this "dirty bird."
Robert Royes said on March 21, 2022
Nice! Looking for the 3 wire!
Jeff Carle said on March 22, 2022
Taxi 3wire!
Andrew H said on March 22, 2022
A very nice Tomcat, well done! I like seeing such a kit on full display. Great pose and mounting, and even better paint work. Liked for sure.
Gary Brantley said on March 25, 2022
Well done Boris! 🍻