Back after a bit of a hiatus. Working next on the intakes. Hasegawa does provide a full intake trunking which are quite prominent on the Tomcat.

14 additional images. Click to enlarge.

With the intake trunking done, time to work on the intake ramps.

Rather involving part of the assembly which has several parts involved for each side, which is a bit complicated to represent what is on the real Tom.

Next to prepare the intake ramps starting with the actuators that adjust the ramps postioning.

4 actuators and ramps are attached to each side of the intake roof panels.

Not difficult to assemble, and not really many individual parts. But Academy & Monogram does make this step quite simple. Even the Tamiya kit does not get this involved on the intake ramps.

16 additional images. Click to enlarge.

Update on the F-14. Working under the nose and forward fuselage section.

The trouble with this complicated airframe even in model form is quite apparent. It starts at step 1, any thing that is not set in place at the start will through things off as you get to the later stages of the build. In this case with the Sparrow missile well forward insert. The nose to main fuselage is a bit off, which off course throws the alignment of this piece. A good size seam to clean at the back edge, the rear nose gear well not quite centered. Lessons to learn when it's time to build another Hase Tomcat. But will do what is necessary to clean this up.

Tamiya Black is applied over the top of the nose and behind the cockpit.

Next the early under nose probe sensor is installed just forward of the nose gear bay.

While putting the air frame aside. I figured now is a good time to decal the wings.

The national full color star and bars are applied.

Then the "no step" stencils. And slime lights on the wing tips.

Finally the side numbers are applied to the flaps.

More to follow.

Now to get some work in on the sub-assemblies. Starting with the tails.

The distinctive twin tails are made up of 2 pieces for each rudder assy.

Next to build the pylons and missile rails.

The lower pylon is first assembled and put aside.

Next the Sparrow/Sidewinder launch rack is assembled. They can also be configured to carry the AIM-9 Phoenix, and later on in life various targeting pods.

Then the Sidewinder rails are cleaned up and attached to the launch rack pylon.

Now to assemble the drop tanks. This distinctive feature mount under each intake trunk. Made up of upper and lower halves with a plug in the back end of each tank.

Then the drop tank pylons are assembled and attached each tank.

Finally the Phoenix missile launch pallets are next up.

Starting with the rear set.

Then the front set are cleaned and attached under the forward section of the main body.

Next time out some ordnance work.

Thanks D-L, it is quite an epic of a project. One of the criticism of Hasegawa when these series of 1/48th scale jets were released was the lack of weapons, not so on the WWII kits but on the F-16's, F-15's and the F-14's no weapons are provided in the base kits, some special upgraded versions at time Hasegawa would sometimes provide weapons. A tough pill to swallow paying $40-70.00 for a kit with no weapons. When kits valued from $15-30.00 had full weapons load supplied in the kit. But for the most part just pylons and drop tanks, and buy the weapons set. So the Sidewinders and Sparrow are from one of those Hase weapons set, which I had on hand. The Phoenix missiles are from the Academy F-14A, a build that I did for an Iranian friend of mine that I did building it as an "Ali Cat" I left off the AIM-54's. For the movie I will configure the Tomcat in a standard 2x2x2 mix of Sidewinders, Sparrows and Phoenix missiles.

AIM 9L Sidewinders short range Hasegawa

AIM 7 Sparrow, medium range

Sidewinder and Sparrow

AIM-54A Phoenix BVR, long range

All 3 missiles will be painted white.

For the most part everything on the F-14 has fit well until the gun bay hatch and service door did not fit very well.

Missiles painted using Tamiya Gloss White

The nose cones ready to be painted Radome tan.

While painting the missiles white, I took this opportunity to paint the very nice white metal wheels.

And the exhaust tail pipe interior.

With a bit more white still in the air brush. I then painted the horizontal stabs.

Next the Sidewinders IR nose are masked and painted Gun Metal. The tail fin flight adjusters steel.

The Sparrow radomes are painted Lt Ghost Grey.

Finally assembled the tail exhaust pipe and engine exhaust ring.

Wow Chuck ! It’s been a while since I have checked out your progress. I have missed a lot or you have been very busy. It just might be a combination of both things.

I’ll echo the sentiments mentioned above.

This has to be the most detailed build journal I have ever seen on Imodeler. I write down my miss adventures in the logs I post and include a lot of the actual building and painting process. But you have taken it to another whole level of detail with your blog.

A person wouldn’t need an instruction sheet and they could build a model simply by using your build journal in its place. It’s that good !

I especially like how the A6M turned out. To my eye, the colors look spot on.

Thanks for taking the time to detail the adventure of building these models for us. Most don’t realize how much time and effort it takes...

Wow amen and thanks, it is quite an undertaking just on the Tomcat alone. All the reviews from the prior builders of this kit over the years are true. It is a love hate process. patience, patience patience! Even armed with the knowledge in what to look out for. Still a hand full. But almost done. Still a lot to get done.

Getting closer to the end. This session I will attach the windscreen and assemble the canopy.

Next to prep the canopy and install the interior canopy rails

Normally on any jet I would just mask the canopy with Tamiya tape without any making set. But ran across this set called PMask. An outfit out of Poland. The masks are made to the type of Kabuki tape that is what basically Tamiya masking tape is.

They fit the windscreen and canopy bubble very well. It took about 30 minutes to the glass. Not bad.

The design was nice in how the maskings were applied on the canopy. Though the masks for the canopy just outlined the edges of the bubble, using Tamiya tape to complete the task.

Then using Tamiya flat black to paint the canopy and windshield frames. As well as part of the Anti glare panel on the nose. An noticed an awful gap right in front of the windscreen.

Using Tamiya grey putty to fill that in and sand.

Next the process of decaling the AIM-54A Phoenix missiles. I used the decals from the Tamiya kit. They fit the Academy missiles perfectly. Quite a bit of stencils and stripes on the Phoenixes.

Next paint time.