SPA Modeler

Made the mistake of watching some F-14 Tomcat documentaries the past few days (a couple officers from my squadron were interviewed as well which was neat). Well, that resulted in me pulling one of my Monogram Tomcats of the shelf and starting work. Never mind the one I have 80% complete!

Made a few mods for ease of assembly /painting including removing the horizontal stabs, fuselage piece that is molded as part of the intake (so intakes don't have to be installed when you joint fuselage halves and facilitates much easier fuselage seam clean up (hat tip Darren Roberts).
Also removed RIO's IP Cover/Coaming/Cover to make for a much cleaner look and easier masking of the cockpit tub during painting...

Looking like you are off to a great start. I like your style....why would you finish off something you have started? Good man!

Looking good Chris! How do you plan to attach the stabs? I may borrow your method…

Stikpusher wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2024 4:30 pm Looking good Chris! How do you plan to attach the stabs? I may borrow your method…

Carlos,
I usually use a 1/2 inch long piece of 3/32 brass rod and reinforce the attachment with some styrene block glued inside the fuselage, drilled out to accept the brass rod. Hardest part is getting the angle right and consistent on both stabs. Also have to be very careful to drill the hole in the stabs as they are barely thick enough to accept a 3/32 rod… now I am saying 3/32 from memory… 1/8 seems like it would be to large but I could be wrong…

Sounds like a good method Chris. I did something similar on my Blue Angels Hornet, although those stabs are seperate parts not needing to be cut away from the fuselage. I have a few Monogram Tomcats in my stash, so I like the sound of this to aid in fuselage seam clean up…

Stikpusher wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2024 8:24 pm Sounds like a good method Chris. I did something similar on my Blue Angels Hornet, although those stabs are seperate parts not needing to be cut away from the fuselage. I have a few Monogram Tomcats in my stash, so I like the sound of this to aid in fuselage seam clean up…

Yep, It's a must do item, along with modifying the wings to allow inserting at the end of the build.

Modify the wings for insertion later in assembly?!!!
A more detailed explanation on your method here please! And will the swing wing function still work with this modification?
I can understand the why of doing this, but am completely baffled as to how you will pull this off…

Stikpusher wrote: ↑Sun Nov 17, 2024 10:22 am Modify the wings for insertion later in assembly?!!!
A more detailed explanation on your method here please! And will the swing wing function still work with this modification?
I can understand the why of doing this, but am completely baffled as to how you will pull this off…

No the wing will not be moveable with this technique unless you don’t glue them in , in which case they might fall out unexpectedly while handling it…

Most of the mods I am making are reflected in Darren Roberts FSM article from years ago
He did this article in FSM many years ago
https://finescale.com/~/media/import/fi ... tc1106.pdf

Ahhhhhh. Gotcha! Now having a Tomcat with wings that won’t sweep & extend sounds pretty sad though…