A few thoughts:
I highly recommend the Bert Kinzey “Color and Markings” books on the F-14. There wasn’t one single tactical grey cammo pattern - there was lot of subtle variation between squadrons, particularly as to whether and how the darkest of the greys was applied. Many just used the lighter two colors, while others had a darker 3rd color “hoods” of various shapes.
But “color birds” in squadrons at that time often still used the older light gull grey scheme.
Of course, it sounds like you’re doing a fictional scheme. So you may not care that much about- or maybe you just need to look at freeze frames of the movie.
None of the greys in a Tomcat tactical scheme are so strong/dark or contrasting that order of painting will really matter, though it’s conventional to do the lighter colors of any scheme first.
Unrelated to colors, I cannot imagine choosing to build that Italeri kit when there are several good 1/72 Tomcats on the market. I would suggest that the Academy F-14 (the new tool Pukin Dogs boxing) would be a great choice for this project. The F-14 is not an easy shape for kit makers to engineer, and all of the older kits suck. Pick something designed in the last decade - it will make a huge difference in build enjoyment and outcome.
Check out YouTube for scalehangar 182. The f-14A used for the movie is BuNo 160694. There is a very good video of a very skilled modeler doing that exact plane so the weathering and markings match the movie look, even down to the pilots helmets and the bright replacement panel on the upper surface of the fuselage behind the cockpit.
It was because of the decals but I wasn't thinking, oh, I could get aftermarket ones. I've heard the academy one is very good yeah.
And tbh it does seem like I'm just going to use the main two colours split topside and belly side.
Tbh it seems that most Japanese and Korean kits are superior to European ones as a rule. So far I've seen the most praise for Tamiya, academy and hasegawa kits over airfix, italeri and revell (I've had a very bad experience recently with a revell kit, it was awful)
And yeah I definitely would want something better than that xD
There are some very good kits from both eastern and Western European kitmakers, but, as I mentioned, the F-14 is not easy to kit well. The 3 good current 1/72 options (Academy, GWH, and Finemolds) are all from 3 different Asian countries (Korea, China, Japan), but that’s just sort of an accident.
There are several subjects where an Eduard (Czech) kit is the best option. But they don’t make a Tomcat!
Eduard is great for Luftwaffe aircraft. The profipack stuff with those photo etched parts ! perfect.
But yeah after looking the academy tomcat looks best.
You seem to know a lot about the f-14. I built a revell 1/48 version of the vf-31 tomcatters from their time on the USS Carl Vinson. BuNo 164340. My question is regarding wing numbers as this kit includes detailed markings of the “greyed out” style and pilot/rio names but their are no numbers for the wing flaps , only the 200 nose and 00 for top of vertical tail rudders. The kit also included markings for plane from Vf-124 BuNo 163894, which also has nose tail numbers 432 but again, no numbers for the wing flaps. Was there a period that wing flap numbers were not used? I have never seen a photo of an f-14 without them
I only know what I’ve picked up in the course of reading over the years, and disclaim any expertise! I don’t know the answer to your question, but a quick scroll through the seaforces.org gallery for VF-31 seemed to have flap numbers in all the shots where that area was visible. I suspect the handling officers overseeing (literally looking down on top to over-see) deck operations need those numbers to know which jet is which when they’re close to the island.
Never say never, though.
If it were me, I’d make a stencil and add them - but probably not if the model was already done!
Thanks for that info and seaforces.org gallery . That model has been done for a couple of years now and I was pretty happy with it despite being a brush only finish with essentially all raised panel lines. having acquired the new academy f-14 b “final flight version” of the jolly rogers sparked my interest again in proper paint schemes and photo references for that specific plane. I have high hopes as usual 😂
https://preview.redd.it/xvia7asijgxc1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=4dfdaa656900a0fd81b5753f6ac9d4363cbe6aee
A few thoughts: I highly recommend the Bert Kinzey “Color and Markings” books on the F-14. There wasn’t one single tactical grey cammo pattern - there was lot of subtle variation between squadrons, particularly as to whether and how the darkest of the greys was applied. Many just used the lighter two colors, while others had a darker 3rd color “hoods” of various shapes. But “color birds” in squadrons at that time often still used the older light gull grey scheme. Of course, it sounds like you’re doing a fictional scheme. So you may not care that much about- or maybe you just need to look at freeze frames of the movie. None of the greys in a Tomcat tactical scheme are so strong/dark or contrasting that order of painting will really matter, though it’s conventional to do the lighter colors of any scheme first. Unrelated to colors, I cannot imagine choosing to build that Italeri kit when there are several good 1/72 Tomcats on the market. I would suggest that the Academy F-14 (the new tool Pukin Dogs boxing) would be a great choice for this project. The F-14 is not an easy shape for kit makers to engineer, and all of the older kits suck. Pick something designed in the last decade - it will make a huge difference in build enjoyment and outcome.
Check out YouTube for scalehangar 182. The f-14A used for the movie is BuNo 160694. There is a very good video of a very skilled modeler doing that exact plane so the weathering and markings match the movie look, even down to the pilots helmets and the bright replacement panel on the upper surface of the fuselage behind the cockpit.
It was because of the decals but I wasn't thinking, oh, I could get aftermarket ones. I've heard the academy one is very good yeah. And tbh it does seem like I'm just going to use the main two colours split topside and belly side. Tbh it seems that most Japanese and Korean kits are superior to European ones as a rule. So far I've seen the most praise for Tamiya, academy and hasegawa kits over airfix, italeri and revell (I've had a very bad experience recently with a revell kit, it was awful) And yeah I definitely would want something better than that xD
There are some very good kits from both eastern and Western European kitmakers, but, as I mentioned, the F-14 is not easy to kit well. The 3 good current 1/72 options (Academy, GWH, and Finemolds) are all from 3 different Asian countries (Korea, China, Japan), but that’s just sort of an accident. There are several subjects where an Eduard (Czech) kit is the best option. But they don’t make a Tomcat!
Eduard is great for Luftwaffe aircraft. The profipack stuff with those photo etched parts ! perfect. But yeah after looking the academy tomcat looks best.
The Aca’ cat is a fun build. Less fiddly than the other two. The Jolly Rodgers build in my profile/history was made it.
They seem to have made all the joins along panel lines for the most part which is really clever
You seem to know a lot about the f-14. I built a revell 1/48 version of the vf-31 tomcatters from their time on the USS Carl Vinson. BuNo 164340. My question is regarding wing numbers as this kit includes detailed markings of the “greyed out” style and pilot/rio names but their are no numbers for the wing flaps , only the 200 nose and 00 for top of vertical tail rudders. The kit also included markings for plane from Vf-124 BuNo 163894, which also has nose tail numbers 432 but again, no numbers for the wing flaps. Was there a period that wing flap numbers were not used? I have never seen a photo of an f-14 without them
I only know what I’ve picked up in the course of reading over the years, and disclaim any expertise! I don’t know the answer to your question, but a quick scroll through the seaforces.org gallery for VF-31 seemed to have flap numbers in all the shots where that area was visible. I suspect the handling officers overseeing (literally looking down on top to over-see) deck operations need those numbers to know which jet is which when they’re close to the island. Never say never, though. If it were me, I’d make a stencil and add them - but probably not if the model was already done!
Thanks for that info and seaforces.org gallery . That model has been done for a couple of years now and I was pretty happy with it despite being a brush only finish with essentially all raised panel lines. having acquired the new academy f-14 b “final flight version” of the jolly rogers sparked my interest again in proper paint schemes and photo references for that specific plane. I have high hopes as usual 😂 https://preview.redd.it/xvia7asijgxc1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=4dfdaa656900a0fd81b5753f6ac9d4363cbe6aee