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Tamiya 1/32 F-14A "Black Knights" |
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Reviewed By: Ed Kinney #2989 |
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When this kit was first released some 20 years ago, it caused all F-14 fans to gasp not only because of the size, but the engineering of the “swing wing” mechanism and the inescapable fact that when completed, builds up into a beautiful replica of the full size aircraft. There have been numerous reviews of the kit over the years, so I won’t belabor the points already covered with two exceptions. At that time, the kit was released with beautifully recessed panel lines in the nose section and the wings, while the aft fuselage retained raised panel lines. Strange, but fairly easy to correct. Like the Tamiya F-4, with its battle damage patches, the kit shows a couple of raised panels on the nose section that don’t appear on my 3 view drawings. Most probably, they were patches that appeared on their design aircraft, but again, easily dealt with. Also, the instrument panel and consoles consisted of decals to be added after painting the cockpit. The kit was released again in the early 90’s with some changes that included new decals, forward looking television camera under the nose, a pitot tube (nose mounted) and the changing of the gun gas purge vents to the later style, along with some added ECM antennae, but still no changes in the cockpit or raised panel lines. |
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Click image to view full-size photo |
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This latest release has updated sidewinders, laser guided bombs (GBU-24 & GBU-16), under-wing Phoenix missile pylons, new sidewinder rails, a neat set of wheel chocks, pilots helmets, and a couple of new antennas, so that the “Bombcat” version can be built. Clear seeker heads for the BGO-24’s have also been added to the clear runners. Also a very nicely done Lantrin Pod has been included. Further, a new decal sheet for several versions from VF-154, “The Black Knights” and one from VG-154, “ The Tophatters” appears to be very well done. There is also a separate decal sheet for the stenciling of the bombs and the Lantrin pod. There is also a paper sheet of “Remove before flight” tags, another nice touch. Sadly, the cockpit decals and the raised panel lines remain unchanged. However, Tamiya, with their latest new release have reached a true “state of the art” with their P-47’s and the like in terms of both engineering and quality. I had high hopes that based on the new higher price of this kit, that they would have corrected these two items, but alas, it appears not. Still it is a beautiful model, particularly when the Teknics cockpit set is added, and is well worth adding to your 1/32nd scale collection. To order – it is in the Tamiya catalog, #60313, priced at $167.00 USD |
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