[RJLee]

Originally Posted by David Hingtgen

There were two like that (a B and a D), and which year/reaper version?

Not sure it's been completely finalized yet, but I believe it's F-14D BuNo 163414, modex 164, from 2004. Robed white reaper on black tail, facing the viewer and holding a scythe.

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0696105/L/

Personally, I'm not a great fan of the RAG showbirds -- a nice low-viz line airplane would be just fine.

[Note: Despite the caption, I'm not sure that BuNo is actually correct: may be BuNo 164342.]

[Dobber]

Now the big question, will the D models have the mystery box above the RIO's instrument panel in the cockpit? I can't wait to get several different versions of these beautiful things. I totally agree with David on the quality of these models, although I do prefer the black tail VF-101 to the Red tail one.

Chris

[David Hingtgen]

The "mystery box" on the D's RIO's coaming is now known to be a GPS display. Officially it's part of the basic Bombcat program---except that all D's had it prior to the GPS upgrade, and all A's and B's with the GPS upgrade lack that box. Hmmmmn....

RJLee----the photo caption is wrong as you said. They obviously can't look at their own photos--they gave details for 163, but the photo is clearly of 164. The D models were AD163/163414 and AD164/164342. The B model was AD101/16322. AD163 was the main 2002/2003 show bird and started with the earlier reaper, but did receive the new style of logo by the end. AD164 took over later in 2003 it seems (starting with the later logo), and continued as the D-model showbird until the end. The B in that scheme was shorter-lived AFAIK. I think the B model was painted up in 2004 to "replace" AD167, which was the 2003 backup demo, but was in low-vis. AD167 went to VF-31, and I think AD101 was designated as the "replacment" backup, and got full colors.

VF-101 redtail beats all IMHO, and gets extra points for being utterly unique. Plenty of squadrons did black tails (especially popular in the early 90's), but this is the only redtail F-14, and one of only 3 red-tailed Navy jets ever that I can think of.

[muesingman]

Hey David,

concerning what You wrote about F-15 / F-16 / F-18 i just can say:

You´re so right, man !!! I just hope that there´s someone at Century Wings
who reads this also. But if yes, we all can be sure that the end has come for Dragon´s "naked" Strike Eagles.
I do want my Lakenheath F-15E with the FULL ordnance load !!!
(and the landing gear the same way (units) like the F-14´s and the speedbrake staying open, not falling instantly shut when letting loose, like the Wittys...

[RJLee]

Originally Posted by David Hingtgen

VF-101 redtail beats all IMHO, and gets extra points for being utterly unique. Plenty of squadrons did black tails (especially popular in the early 90's), but this is the only redtail F-14, and one of only 3 red-tailed Navy jets ever that I can think of.

Two other red-tailed F-14s come to mind, both with east coast squadrons. VF-31 in the early 1980s had a black nosecone/red-tail when they were deployed aboard USS Forrestal; this was inherited from their F-4 days (a similar scheme appeared on VF-31's AJ101 airplane last year). VF-101's modex 160/BuNo 164601 also had a red tail (with an enormous "AD" inscribed on it) for the unit's final Tomcat demo.

Personally I don't care for the VF-101 reaper redtail -- I have this notion that the antiglare "mask" around the canopy and up to the nose should be a uniform black or gray -- the red makes it look weird. (I feel the same way about the VF-213 retro scheme (see below) -- blue antiglare, ick.)

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1108269/L/

But then I don't like the VX-4 Black Bunny either, so I'm a bit of a wet blanket when it comes to special Tomcat schemes. For F-14 color, I like old-time line F-14As, like:

VF-114, 1978:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0785589/L/

VF-142, 1976:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0682191/L/

[David Hingtgen]

I don't really consider the VF-101 original or retro 70's style a red-tail (nor VF-31)---they're not ALL red, basically. There's lots of red, but it's still red markings on a grey tail, little different from VF-111. Just IMHO. And I too think the black anti-glare on the redtail F-14B always did look a bit strange. But it's still my fave scheme. (I just plain like fully-painted tails, and the red is so different---kind of surprised VFA-105 has never done a green-tailed Hornet--VFA-195 has)

I love plenty of 70's schemes too----VF-1 1975 of course, as well as 1977 or so VF-142 and VF-143. For VF-143, it's one of the few schemes I prefer the non-CAG version----the rainbow stripes on 143 CAG just doesn't look as good as the multiple blue and white stripes of the rest of the squadron's planes.

Which leads me to the one (and only) good thing about the Tomcat's retirement--no more new "retro scheme/final cruise" markings for model makers! All the diecast manufacturers will have to start doing the classic 70's and 80's schemes, as they've almost exhausted the 2003-2006 schemes. I'm not that fond of most of the "F-14D painted up like a 1976 A model" planes. Just give me the actual A model in those colors the retro was based on!

The Century VF-21 release is a good indication they're already trying to do more normal/common schemes from the Tomcat's main era, as that's neither a "super recent" nor "early high-vis" scheme.

[zed550]

think we have plenty of scheme's to keep everyone happy!

[rdenham]

David can you find a resource picture which shows the emergency instruction label partially overlapping the blister containing one the M61 cooling inlets?

[David Hingtgen]

That's actually the canopy jettison instructions placard. It does seem to be a bit too far forward, and way too low. It should be directly above the blister/bulge. I think the VF-154 release has this issue, too. Best pic of the left side of a 1978 VF-84 is probably this one: http://www.almansur.com/jollyrogers/f14a78romano.jpg

Based on everything else around it, I suspect the marking itself is printed too large---even if you move it to the correct spot, it won't fit. It's too tall, vertically. The canopy jettison hatch marking (the yellow square) needs to be moved up, and the canopy jettison instructions (yellow rectangle) needs to be shrunk and moved up, to have it all fit.

(And while we're talking about cannon-area markings, I'd like to see the exhaust vents behind the NACA-style gun vents printed on for late A's, and B/D's.) Pretty obvious here, as they're almost always bright and shiny:

[RJLee]

The canopy jettison placard shouldn't overlap the bulge, but I don't know about it being "way too low." It's a 1.5mm positioning flaw, probably driven by the panel lines and the limits of the tampo printing template. One must have realistic expectations for manufacturability.

As he's seen plenty of F-14s in real life, I am sure that Yoshi is aware of all of these little niggling defects and more -- but as he once pointed out to me, there are certain minor compromises that one must make to (a) keep the per-unit cost from getting completely out of control, and (b) avoid designs that rely on zero defects at the factory. Mass-produced diecast is an engineering problem in itself.

RDenham, your reference photos:

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.co..._Ludwig/01.jpg
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.co...ddleton/11.jpg