F-14A Tomcat `Wolf Pack´

Ron Garcia
This is the fourth Hasegawa F-14 I've built. The first three were forever ago and one even disappeared on me during one of my moves. The kit goes together well except I had trouble with the canopy. After adding part B5 to the canopy interior, I just couldn't get the assembly to stay flush with the fuselage spine. I checked my other two remaining F-14s and they also have the same issue. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. One other issue I encountered was the decals. Yes, they are now ancient so I sprayed my tried and true method of Krylon clear gloss on them to keep them from shredding after immersing them in water. A few cracked but not horribly. The real issue is that the red forward fuselage wolfpack stripe is too long. It comes in three pieces: long rear stripe with national insignia, aircraft number, and forward stripe. I applied the left side first and I could tell something was wrong since they cutouts for the pilot boarding steps were off (I built mine closed). I nudged they stripe as far back as possible but it was still about three to four millimeters off. The stripe started to split when I applied it so it was a delicate process. I went ahead and added the other two decals hoping everything would end up well, but the front stripe sits a few millimeters on the radome tan part of the nose (I masked it where there is a recessed panel line). The same thing happened on the other side. The rear stripes are absolutely as far back as possible; they're just a tad too long. My suggestion would be to cut the rear stripe into two pieces on the stripe section, apply the rear portion, then add the section with the national insignia and overlap it a bit on the freshly cut rear potion. By the time I figured out this possible workaround, the decals had already began to adhere. With both sides having splinting problems, I just decided to live with it. Overall, a good kit. Now I've got to finish the other seven Hasegawa F-14s I have in my stash. No, I'm not a major fan of F-14s. When I was younger I would just buy the next numbered kit as they came out. Now I have basically the same kit multiple times. Oh well...