Grumman F-14K

Grumman F-14K Tomcat

Hasegawa, 1/72

Following delays in the Tornado ADV program, the loss of a Phantom squadron to defend the Falkland Islands and the increasing obelesence of the Lightning, US complaints that its military assets in the UK were not adequately defended were becoming increasingly justified. As a short-term solution, the RAF agreed to a 5 year lease of 45 F-14 Tomcats from the US Navy equipping the reformed 74 Squadron and replacing the Lightnings of 5 and 11 squadrons. All training was done in the US by VF-101 and the 3 squadrons were all declared operational between January and December 1984. The Tomcat had an uneventful career in the RAF and 11 and 74 squadrons had given their Tomcats back and begun converting to the Tornado ADV in 1989 when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1989. 5 squadron was on Armament Practice Camp in Cyprus at the time and was rapidly deployed to Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Desert Shield.

It was whilst on Defensive CAP’s that it was discovered by Allied planners how scared Iraqi pilots were of the Tomcats powerful AWG-9 radar – having had experience of it during the Iran-Iraq war. This coupled with its US avionics fit (allowing it "over the border", unlike the RAFs Tornado F.3s) prompted the RAF to assign 5 squadrons Tomcats the role of low level escort to the Tornado strike packages and the F-14s were accordingly painted in Desert Pink. When the USS Eisenhower left the Gulf in December VF-143 transferred their 6 most serviceable aircraft to the RAF in order to bolster their numbers. When Desert Storm started it quickly became apparent that the Iraqi AF were not coming out to play. However when Saddam Hussein started firing Scuds at Israel the Tomcats quickly found a new role. Every reconaissance asset in the Allied inventory was needed for the "Great Scud Hunt" and 3 of the 6 VF-143 aircraft were compatible with the US Navys TARPS recon pod. USN instructors, technicians and equipment were hastily flown from the States and 6 RAF crews given a crash course in using the F-14 for recon. By February 2nd the first Scud hunting missions were underway. The aircraft pictured, "O Rileys Daughter", was lost on the night of Feb 13th /14th when on a solo recon mission, it flew directly over a Scud launcher in the process of setting up a launch. Realising there was no time to call in an air strike the pilot, Squadron Leader Dave Ramsay pressed home a low level cannon attack, destroying the Scud. The giant explosion of fuel and warhead severely damaged the Tomcat and wounded both crew members. The crew nursed the crippled aircraft 15 miles south before ejecting over the desert. Both crew were picked up at dawn by a US rescue helicopter, sadly however Squadron Leader Ramsay died of his wounds during the flight back. For his bravery in pressing home this dangerous low level attack, he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. 5 Squadron returned their Tomcats and began conversion to the Tornado F3 immediately following the end of the Gulf war. Despite its heriocs in the last few days of its RAF career, the Tomcat was never a popular aircraft in British service. Pilots were mistrustful of its tempremental engines (especially former Lightning jockeys) and ground crews regarded it as something of a hangar queen.

The kit is the Hasegawa 1/72 F-14A. Hasegawa have produced 2 Tomcat kits over the years - the first (this kit) was issued in the late 70s and features raised panel lines a sparse cockpit with decals for instrument panels and a so-so fit. Their second issue was in the mid 80s and has engraved panel lines and superior detail (mine in the stash comes with an EB fret for the cockpit detail). Because of the sparse cockpit detail and the fact I wanted my canopy open I pushed the boat out and bought the Eduard EB set to go with the kit. The Eduard set had me somewhat perplexed though as it only includes the RIOs front panel and ignores the pilots front panel and all 4 side panels. Bizarre. In the end I only used the seat belts to snazz up the basic ejection seats included in the kit. This was my first foray into the world of Etched Brass and whilst not a spectacular success, I think I managed to achieve an adequate result (for a beginner anyway).

There are a few places where the fit is a bit ropey and you will need to use a bit of filler here and there, but otherwise construction is pretty straightforward. As I wanted to do an RAF Gulf War bird, I did a bit of research into the desert pink paint schemes worn back in 1990. What is immediately apparent is how dirty and weathered these pink aircraft were and that the pink paint peeled a lot, resulting in the undersurface colours showing through. Based upon this I gave my F-14 a base coat of Halfords Grey Primer then applied strategic blobs and streaks of Maskol. Over this I brush painted several coats of Humbrol Desert Pink. When all was dry I peeled off the maskol.....and was somewhat disapointed by the result. Partly I think this is due to the fact the the Humbrol Desert Pink is far too dark - nowhere near the real colour in fact. I would recommend anyone doing an RAF GW'91 plane to use either use another paint supplier, or lighten the Humbrol colour with some white. Some of the guys on the forum also suggested using a flesh colour as the base coat to weather over the top of.

Be that as it may, my flaky paint effect is barely visible in these photos (though it can be observed on the model with the naked eye). I applied a wash with thinned black paint and highlighted using pastels (again a new technique for me). These attempts at weathering again left me disapointed with the result. It looks OK, but not great in my opinion. The TARPS pod under the fuselage was taken from the other Tomcat kit in my stash (the newer tooling) and was left grey, assuming that no-one would have bothered to repaint it when it was rushed from the US to Saudi Arabia.

Having said all that, I am quite pleased with the resulting model, the Tomcat is a big beast of a plane and always looks good from any angle if you ask me.

Page created November 9, 2003