As if I don't have enough irons in the fire, here I go sticking in another! Planning on a quickie build with it though.

People who know me here know of my devotion to 1/48 scale. I am so adamant that my models all be in scale that I even went off the deep end and got a 1/48 Concorde, XB-70, B-36 and most recently HPH's B-52. There are times however when I will stray. This is one of those times and it is very personal and the root of my love of modeling.

My Mom left my allegedly abusive biological Dad not long after I was born. Don't know, don't remember him I have never seen him. My Mom worked at a truck stop here in Oshkosh and around 1978 or so met a trucker from Columbia MO. who was a lover of airplanes modeling and just all around jackpot Dad. (And there was never any stepdad talk. He was my Dad in every way that mattered.)

On our visit to EAA in 1979 (I remember the year because it was the first year the Tomcat made an appearance) we each got a model. I picked the F-14, my Dad Revell's 1/32 P-40 and his son, Mike got some version of a Crusader. I remember having to wait as Dad and Mike built the Crusader first as they only got one week out of the year together. Needless to say all three of these were built without painting. My Dad was never really keen on plastic models, preferring control line and later RC airplanes which I also got into, but not as bad as him. (He would always rib me that after spending money on my planes they still would never fly.)

Fast forward to 2020 I was helping my Mom clean out here basement and came across a box of my old models. In the box was a very well played with 1/72 F-14 and I decided to do one again!

Found this one on Ebay, sealed and as brand new. The it review in Detail and Scale states that the kit itself is so old that it isn't a model of any F-14 but instead the full scale mockup. My kit is dated from 1971 and the Tomcat didn't fly until December of that year and there is a release before the white box (which includes an aircraft carrier base and stand) so the kit must have been developed alongside the real deal so having it represent the mockup makes sense.

I'm okay with that as I'm building it for nostalgic purposes anyway. It will however have the benefit of having what cockpit detail is there painted along with the exterior. It will be a nice display piece alongside my 1/72 Revell F-111B. (Whenever that gets built!)

7 attached images. Click to enlarge.

@jpatt1000, Josh, What a splendid trip down memory lane - Thank you for sharing this great story. Looking forward to the journey here, I'm tuned in.

I decided to break out the F-111B to build with the Tomcat so I can paint both at the same time. I had a later version of this kit when I was in late middle school/ early high school and was amazed that they (not to mention I) got the landing gear to work in 1/72 scale! I am keeping that feature on this one and going straight OOB. For strength I'm building the landing gear assemblies before paint and then just the minimum amount of paint to get them white. (I don't want the paint to flake off because let's face it, much like my vintage Transformers on the shelf I'm gonna play with it once and a while!) The pilots are a bit crisper detailing in the F-111 kit, but I like the separation of the legs of the Monogram pilots much better. I painted them in the high visibility orange flight suits as I think they were in service at the time. I did give them green G suits because that's how I've seen pilots in this suit fitted out. Simple grey face masks and hoses with white helmets seemed appropriate for a bunch of test pilots. (And I don't think much will be seen under the closed canopies anyway.) One small setback. I tested the Monogram decals by using the sheet description printed on it to make sure they didn't shatter when they hit the water. All good there, unfortunately they don't stick to anything either. Time to find a plan B!

I have to say the system to get the wing gloves to work on thd Monogram kit is pretty slick. The only other kit I've seen the wing gloves operational on is Academy's 1/48 F-14A but I have yet to get Tamiya's so I'll have to see what they did if anything.

9 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Great story Josh, I wash the glue of my decals as they soak and put them on with Future / Pledge

That's truly fantastic trip to memory lane job, Josh @jpatt1000, brilliant so far!

For your decals, I have similar to Allan's @kalamazoo approach:

1. Put a drop (or more) of Future on the spot where the decal is going to be placed.

2. Place the decal, wipe off the excess Future with a qtip or napkin. Once dry, they will be stuck to the surface satisfactorilly.

All the best!

You may have seen this before:

But your mention of the TFX and 111B makes this a good watch for anyone following along with your nostalgic build.

I for one, will be following along, looking great so far.