[chuebner]

Well, about 6 years ago I purchased a built, almost ready to cover F14 and it hung on my ceiling till this winter. I had thoughts about selling it but that passed. So I took it down, did some filling and sanding and decided to cover it and get it flight ready.

I have it 50% covered now (what a nightmare to do on this airframe) and will post a few pics on the weekend.

Going with a GMS.61 2st (very, very reliable, used to be in my F22), and Electric retracts.

[mwavesdave]

Curious to get your take on it, I've got one, still NIB, came with mechanical retracts, and a load of accessories. Still on the fence as to whether I should build this winter or not! I've also got the F-15, even less scale than the F-14, but from what I've been told, it's a really fun plane to fly. The best of the series, scale wise, is the F-4 Phantom, I was lucky enough to get one NIB, and it's much more scale, especially the fuse. It's also a terrific flyer. Have an OS 75 AX on it for power.

[chuebner]

Dave.....the gent that built the F14 I bought, did a fantastic job. He built it very light. I may still use a TH .75 that I have in another airframe, as it is lighter than the GMS.61, more powerful and just as reliable. Same footprint too.

I have to do a bit of work on the retract bays to accomidate the new electric retracts as they were built for some old Kraft electric retracts that came with it that I gave away.

You see a lot of pics of these covered in the dove gray covering with stock decals that come in the kit. I am doing mine in silver Ultracoat for the top and black coverite fabric on the bottom. I will be trimming it with black also. Havn't quite decided on stripes yet but something will come to me.

Will get a couple pics posted this weekend.

[mwavesdave]

I keep looking at the Playboy Bunny Tomcat. Certainly different!

[chuebner]

Yup, I agree....I have had these two pics saved in my favorites for a few years....I didn't go all black on top for the simple fact that it would get super hot in the summer sun. But I did want to incorporate black into the scheme.

[mwavesdave]

As much as the Jolly Roger's one get's modeled by everyone, especially the plastic model folks, there's just something so damn cool about it, that I'd seriously consider doing that one as well.

[mwavesdave]

How about this? The latest camo scheme for the Iranian Air Force F-14. Yeah, they are the "bad guys", but I've dealt with them in the Persian Gulf during two tours, and they were all very pleasant to deal with, very professional, and some had wicked sense of humour. We had an Iranian P-3 that would orbit over the deck of our ship every Friday, when we had the "ship wide wars" competitions. Every week we had a new challenge, and each department put up a team. It was a blast. Then one Friday, they came over, and saw nothing going on! They radio'd us, all concerned, wanting to know if everything was ok. When we explained that we'd finished the competition, they wanted to know just one thing. Which department won!!! When I worked in Vancouver, my fave coffee shop was run by an Iranian couple, ended up his brother was the P-3 pilot! Great family. This would certainly be a unique scheme!

[chuebner]

Yeah, thats a nice one, but you would have to glass and paint to get that look....the GP F14 is a tough cover as it is.

Mine will probably end up looking kind of like the Jolly Rogers scheme, but I will be doing a bit of a twist on that...the vertical fins are done with my graphics installed and it looks really sweet....more to come

[mwavesdave]

I'm actually doing an AK models SU-27, all in flat monokote, with a similar pattern. I did fully sheet the wings, to make things easier, but getting pretty good at doing a solid base colour, i.e. the flat tan, then cutting and covering over top with the additional colours. More I think about it, hmm. Not sure if there's ever been a US Aggressor coloured F-14, which would be another option.

[chuebner]

Always nice to have something differant than all the others....thats what makes kits the best, not like cookie cutter ARFS.