Short little update for now... Fuselage is mostly done now.. should have all but 2 or 3 panels done by the end of the night. Then i can start adding all of the detail panels to the thing. Then i will have to drag it out of the house to go lay some primer on the exposed area's that way i can get the canopy plug mold pulled and get the thing ready for molding.. yea thats right. we are probly less than a MONTH from having the entire airframe ready for molding!!!

And a youtube video

How to build and F-14D Tomcat #5 (7 min 46 sec)

If anyone is wonder how many panels i have made so far that... we are at roughly 908 panels!! And that doesn't include the ones i've made that I dont have templates for.

You are still insane for doing this but my lord its beautiful

Ooh, shiny.

Originally Posted by DEVZAK9

You are still insane for doing this but my lord its beautiful

hahaha.. yea i am.. I haven't decided if i will ever do another project like this or not... I probably will, as its just so much fun...

Here's what i've gotten done over the past 2 or 3 days...

The vents on the upper side of the fuselage were made up. These are kind of "semi-scale" so as the look gets put into the molds.. I will eventually offer a machined G-10 (fiberglass sheet) version that will require you to cut this area and and place the CAD drawn and machined G10 parts in place to give the correct look, as i will probably do with all of the vents on the model (some of them will be resin last, like the ones back by the vertical tails). I also got some primer thrown onto the nose cone and canopy, so now i can start filling in the pinholes and get those perfect and then a coat of white and some clearcoat will go one and then polished and a mold will be pulled from them so i can get the plugs for the canopy glass made up. I also got all the panels for the GPS antenna made up, i've got to put some fastener details on them and they will be ready to install. I also marked the rest of all the access and formation light panels that will go on the top and sides of the fuselage. I just need to cut these out, detail them and put them in place. Once all these panels are done, the beaver tail will need the last 5 panels put in place on it, then i'll have to drag the fuselage outside to prime/paint/polish/mold the front windscreen for its plug. Then that area can get the last couple of panels put in place and the fuselage will then be 100% COMPLETE. All of this should be done in about 2 weeks or so. Total panel count is up to 1000 right now, and I haven't even finished the tail or started the wings. I fully expect to have done over 1200 panels before the detailing phase is done.

And photo's.. i'll get a youtube vid up once i get these panels put in place:

More work done!

basically got about 30-40 panels put on the fuselage, along with some doublers for the pitot/static/aoa/temp/antenna's... and a you tube video!!!

How to build an F-14D Tomcat #6 (9 min 28 sec)

This needs your vote:

https://www.flyinggiants.com/forums/...68#post1065368

F-14 has no airbrake?

Originally Posted by Vic3D

F-14 has no airbrake?

huh?

Great project, looks great, but, I don't know if someone mentioned this....but , scalewise, your rivets look too large,,,or is it just me??

Originally Posted by flyin4fun

Great project, looks great, but, I don't know if someone mentioned this....but , scalewise, your rivets look too large,,,or is it just me??

they are actually Calfax fasteners which are about 15% larger than they should be, but had to be made that size for them to be visible once molded.

Originally Posted by Thomas_W

they are actually Calfax fasteners which are about 15% larger than they should be, but had to be made that size for them to be visible once molded.

K...keep up the good work...and thank you for taking the time to post on your build thread..very interesting.

Originally Posted by Thomas_W

huh?

Example: