Evolution of a Model Aircraft - Topgun’s F-14A
If you were a kid growing up in the 1980's, it was hard to miss Hollywood’s glamorous redition of US Naval aviators life on and off the flight deck in Topgun, potrayed at Mach 2 by Tom Cruise, et. al. But for me, the true star of the movie was always the F-14 fighter jet, not Maverick.
Developed in the 1960's as a high-speed interceptor to protect the US Navy’s aircraft carrier battle groups from Soviet attack aircraft, the F-14 Tomcat was first deployed in the 1970's and remained in service until 2006, when it was replaced by the F/A-18 Hornet. Prior to the Iranian Revolution, Tomcats were exported to the Iran and later saw extensive use during the Iran-Iraq war. When the US Navy completed is transition to the Hornet, allegedly all remaining American F-14s were destroyed in order to keep spare parts from falling into the wrong hands.
Fortunately, the embargo on Tomcats never applied to model aircraft. So on a recent trip to a very special hardware store that dedicates its entire lower level to model trains, planes, and automobiles, I had to pick up Revell’s F-14A modeling kit.
If you’ve never built a plastic model before, it’s important to remember that although most kits are designed to be simple enough for children of about 10 years old to complete, it helps to be prepared. Unlike Legos, plastic models leave very little room for error, because once you complete a join with modeling cement, paint a section of fuselage, or apply a decal, there really is no ‘undo’ button. You’re going to have to break something if you make a mistake. So the first thing when opening up the box and seeing all the pieces attached to their flat plastic scaffolding is to pull out the instruction manual. After reading over the general flow of assembly, you’ll notice multiple codes and letters referring to different part numbers and paint colors. The later is important, because if you want the finished product to be authentic, doing an inventory of the required colors is essential to having those on hand. So before you begin, here’s a shortlist of the materials you’ll need to pickup:
- scalpel (for cutting parts out of the sheet, trimming excess plastic)
- 1 tube of modeling cement
- tooth picks (for applying cement in hard to reach areas, cleanup, etc.)
- modeling paint brushes
- modeling paint — Testors for touch-up and Tamiya for spray are best
- paint thinner (for cleaning paint brushes, removing mistakes, etc.)
- masking tape, for better detail control during spray painting
- newspaper (for spray painting)
- glass plate (for painting on a hard surface, which beats paper when you need to paint both sides quickly on things like wheels; make sure to tape the edges for safety, and clean with paint thinner when done)
- tweezers (for applying decals)
Once you’re ready to begin, start by identifying the parts in the plastic sheet by their number to the instruction manual, and assemble in the order shown. As long as you’re careful with the modeling cement and go slowly in a well-ventilated area, this is fairly straightforward. Allow a day or two for proper curing, temperature and humidity dependent. It helps if you have a dry and warm climate. In my case I scheduled various parts to come together on days without rain. In some cases this couldn’t be helped, so I made use of my indoor heater to speed up various segments. One note in the case of assembling model aircraft I’ve learned over the years is to check for balance once you’ve attached the landing gear. Often times the plastic fuselage doesn’t properly capture the weight distribution of the real aircraft, since the model lacks internal components such as engines, avionics equipment, and armament such as the M61 Vulcan gatling gun embedded in the F-14 underneath the pilot section. As such, the model plane will tend to tilt backwards onto its tail section when resting on a flat surface. To counteract this, you can try various tricks like adding spare plastic to the nose cone, or in my case adding extra modeling cement underneat the seats of the pilot and radar operator.
Painting is a mult-stage process, requiring you to think about which sections are going to take a base coating (best accomplished with spray paint) and which require touch up (using your paint brush.) In the case of the F-14, I completed the fuselage sans the cockpit glass, seats, armament and landing gear, and gave that a base gray that’s common on most naval aircraft. Separately, I sprayed the missiles and landing gear, etc. with white and black. Inevitably you’ll make a few mistakes, and multiple sessions or retouching with the paintbrush helps. Masking tape is helpful to protect sections during spraying, but it’s not foolproof, and can let certain paints leak through. If you buy the right paint, however (Tamiya is the best spray paint for modeling, hands down), this probably won’t happen. ( I used some common household Rustoleum for black and white and with its watery, coarse particle nature, it ran through a few of my control sections.)
Decaling is the easiest part, and just takes a little water to remove the decals from their paper. Use your tweezers to apply the decals, using the box and instruction manual as guide. Allow a day or so to dry.
Once you’re done the model makes a great display on a bookshelf or hung from the ceiling in your office. In my case, my father used to work as an engineer in the Navy, and since his name is Thomas, I thought the Tomcat would make a great gift.
