CF-144 "Polarbear"

CF-144 "Polarbear"

Monogram, 1/48

Hop aboard my Time Machine...

The date is 28 Mar 1984. The Cold War is in full swing. The Canadian Air Force has allowed a photographer to capture some images of the new Front-Line fighter jet that has been protecting the skies over Canada for over a year now.

Because of the continued efforts by Soviet Forces to maintain surveillance flights over Canada's Northern regions, the venerable CF-14 (as it's been shortened in the press) has already seen extensive use in escorting the Soviet threats from our valuable airspace.

The controversial program to purchase the new jets has now been backed with strong evidence that the Soviet threat has been vastly diminished. Pilots are reporting that upon engagement with the Soviets, the heavy bomber makes a hasty retreat. Officials are also noting that the frequency of such Soviet missions are markedly reduced since the acquisition of the new jets.

Canada will continue to receive new CF-14's until the planned purchase of 144 jets is finished. This is not expected to be complete for another year yet.

O.K., seriously!! I build a lot of 1/48 CF-18 Hornets for the pilots that fly them. Every once in a while I need to smash together a fun project in between Hornet jobs. I absolutely love building the Hornets, but I always maintain serious standards for those projects. So it's nice to break up the pattern a bit.

Canada looked at several different platforms before selecting the F/A-18 as its new Fighter. Among these were the F-14, F-15, F-16, F-18, and Tornado. Money being the main driving force in this selection process, the field was narrowed to the F-16 and F-18. Canada was not excited by the fact that the F-16 had only one engine. The thought was that if our pilots were over the sea or in the extreme north and lost that one engine, things would get ugly!! Truth be known, the Air Force reps wanted the F-15. But the funds would not allow enough jets. So the F/A-18 was selected. But I still wanted to know what the F-14 would look like in Canadian markings. I'll model the other jets sometime down the road.

I started with the 1/48 Monogram F-14A kit. This was an inexpensive kit for me. And that's about the nicest compliment I'm going to give the kit. What a fight to get this model put together!! There were many fit problems encountered along the way. Not the least was the upper and lower model halves. In one word...Brutal!!

But I persevered!! In fact, I think in doing this model, I gained some valuable skills in true crafting. Something that doesn't get as practiced with my nice Hasegawa F-18 models.

I used leftover decals from my many Hasegawa CF-18 kits. I mostly use Leading Edge Model CF-18 decals now, so I have lots of old spares. I used pencil lead (powdered) and an old brush to simulate the grease and grime of harsh Canadian use. I think I was somewhat successful in capturing that true weathered jet look.

I really enjoyed doing this side project. It renewed my love for this hobby and gave me a glimpse of what might have been if Canada had selected F-14's instead of F-18's. Total time for this model was about 15 hours.

Page created April 11, 2003