The nose wheel bay
The next stage was the construction of the nose wheel bay and this id by far the most detailed of all the F-14 kits I have made. GWH have a history of producing very well detailed wheel bays as can also be seen in my Su-27 build.
The wheel bay is then attached to the cockpit and this assembly can be inserted into the front fuselage sides. The fit of all these parts are excellent.
The front canopy
GWH approach the front canopy clear parts in a very similar manor to the Tamiya and AMK kits. It is an oversized canopy that incorporates part of the upper fuselage so ensuring that there is no chance of getting glue on the clear parts. The kit provides a decal for the blue tint in the front canopy but I opted to spray this with Tamiya Clear Blue.
The radar
Something that is different in this kit is the inclusion of the radar and the option to have the nose cone in the open position to display it. This is made up from a combination of plastic for the antenna and gimbal and PE parts for the dipoles and rear waveguides. Once assembled it’s an excellent representation of the AWG-9 radar. Unfortunately, this was going to be hidden on my model as I couldn’t bring myself to break up the beautiful lines of the F-14 with an open radome.
Paul Ainsworth says
Hello,Dave – A magnificent build of the Tomcat.
One to be very proud of indeed.
May I ask how the GWH kit compares to the Tamiya kit as far as detail and ease of construction are concerned?
Best Regards,
Paul.😉👍
Daniel Beeden says
Fantastic build and a beautiful paint scheme. Great work