Great Wall Hobby (GWH) F-14B Tomcat 1:48

Construction

The ejection seats

Being a new F-14 kit to me a decided to follow the instructions for a change – well almost, I did deviate as I got more familiar with the construction sequence and parts. With this in mind I started with the cockpit and ejections seats. These were built up from the box using the kit decals for the ejection seats. The seats themselves are composed of multiple parts and are quite fiddly to assemble but the end result is very good. The seat belts are moulded plastic and are quite thick (a limitation of the moulding process) but once painted up these are looking great.

The Cockpit

The kit does provide decals for the pilot & RIO instrument panels and side panels. I decided not to use these but to instead paint up the raised details which was really nicely moulded. I must say that the detail in the cockpit on the kit is far more detailed than either the Tamiya or AMK kit which bodes well for the rest of the build.

As I mentioned earlier on, the kit has options for the older A model HID unit which projects onto the front screen and the updated Sparrow Hawk unit which is constructed from PE and a different front coaming. I opted for the older version as that’s what was fitted to the aircraft I was modelling. The cockpit interior walls also have some nice detail to represent the fabric side panelling.

Other options that can be looked at at this stage are the gun port insert, the boarding step and ladder inserts and the AAR probe recess.

The nose wheel bay…