[admin]

Originally Posted by David Hingtgen

If a US Navy plane was painted gull grey, then it should be glossy. Especially an early F-14. Interesting note: every F-14 ever built was delivered in gloss gull grey from the factory. Those that were delivered in the low-vis era were immediately repainted upon delivery. It was cheaper to totally repaint every plane, than to try to change the contract!

PS--don't ever use a museum plane for reference, it's sad how inaccurately painted many are. Even the best have "issues".

202 is a museum aircraft, but 200 is not. 202 appears to wear the same finish but just shows the reflections better.

[David Hingtgen]

I'm aware the other one's not a museum pic, that's the 1988 CAG when they had just transitioned to the Roosevelt and had just gotten their full colors back.

AJ202 at the museum is wearing something close to but not quite an interim scheme, very much like you see in The Final Countdown. Makes me wonder if they used that as a reference, rather than the actual delivery/original scheme.

Neither are in the scheme Century did. (And as I've discussed with Zed550, I'm still not convinced Century's scheme actually existed for their 200---possibly, and certainly something very close did exist, but it's at best a very temporary interim scheme between full repaints)

For all the pics of VF-84's Tomcats at delivery/as they went to on cruise, you almost never see it in model form. Subtle variations do indicate year-by-year changes. 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980 are all quite distinct, but very similar.

[RJLee]

Originally Posted by David Hingtgen

AJ202 at the museum is wearing something close to but not quite an interim scheme, very much like you see in The Final Countdown. Makes me wonder if they used that as a reference, rather than the actual delivery/original scheme.

No, the CenturyWings model has the "USS Nimitz" inscription along the lower edge of the intake, unlike the museum piece.

Why exactly do you think that the CenturyWings VF-84 schemes don't exist? Is this a matter of placarding that is slightly mispositioned with respect to panel lines, the white underside starting a little low, or other production deviations, or is it something more substantive?

[David Hingtgen]

Warning/apology: very long post that is repetitive.

The museum of flight one does actually have USS Nimitz markings--but the font's totally wrong---so small and thin you can't even really see it.

As for Century:

The white paint separation line is low, and straight (not wavy/scalloped). The thing is---"higher and wavy" and "lower and straight" white paint are (almost) two distinct schemes for VF-84's F-14's. However---"higher and wavy" went along with white flaps and stabs (your standard 1970's F-14 scheme), while "lower and straight" went with grey flaps and stabs---purely an interim scheme while transitioning to the all-grey scheme. Century has "lower and straight" with grey flaps and stabs.

Now, I have a pic of AJ200 in the "lower and straight" variation which is quite rare in itself (most VF-84 planes went straight from "higher and wavy" to all-grey bellies). But it has grey stabs (as is typical for that white paint variation)---flaps could be white or grey, hard to tell almost edge-on. That is October 1978. However, there's a decal sheet out there that seems well-researched, that indicates AJ200 was painted like Century from Jan to July of 1978. But, it's only a decal sheet, not a photo. We don't know if they simply guessed/assumed it still had white stabs, or had evidence.

So the question is---did AJ200 have some very unique combination of the lowered, straightened white paint while retaining the white flaps and stabs?(which means the fuselage was repainted in 1978 but not the wings and stabs--which I don't think I've ever seen) Most VF-84 planes are the opposite---they got the flaps and stabs repainted grey early, but retained "high and wavy" white paint, then later got all-grey bellies.

Basically----how Century painted AJ200 may have existed between Jan-Sept of 1978, but we don't know. However, AJ200 certainly wore the standard scheme that all early F-14's were painted in, from 1976 to late 1977 if not later. That would have been much preferred, as it's the normal common scheme all white and grey F-14's wore, and we know for a fact it (along with every other VF-84 plane) wore it for several years.

Now Century used the exact same scheme for AJ202---of which there are fewer photos prior to The Final Countdown and I really don't have any evidence either way. But again--we know for a fact it wore the standard F-14 scheme in 1976 and 1977, but it "might" have worn something identical or very close to how Century painted it for a few months in the first half of 1978. Again---a standard scheme definitely used for years is preferable to a "maybe" interim scheme used while being repainted into all-grey.

In summary: F-14's were delivered with "high and wavy" white bellies, and white flaps and stabs. Then the order came to go to the all-grey scheme. As many squadrons were at sea, they couldn't repaint them all immediately. Many got grey flaps and stabs while retaining the high and wavy white bellies. Then they got the grey bellies, and were thus eventually all-grey.

But, at least a few had "interim" white bellies where the wavy line was oversprayed with grey, lowering and straightening it. This is what Century did. But that's rare and little-documented, and there's no evidence that ever occured while retaining white stabs like Century has. Stabs seem to have been the first things repainted---from what I can tell, if a plane has white stabs then it has to be 100% "as delivered" everywhere else. And if what Century painted did exist, it's at best a few weeks or few months scheme on only 1 or 2 planes in the squadron, being as it's an interim scheme while awaiting full repainting into all-grey, and painted in the opposite order than other interim-painted planes were. It might be (and has decent odds) correct for AJ200 in early 1978, but I doubt that exact combo existed for any other plane in the squadron, and not likely for 202 based on how we see it in The Final Countdown.

I wouldn't call Century "wrong" as it may exist, and something close did exist----but why do that instead of the well-documented, proven, "normal" VF-84 scheme? The white flaps and stabs of early F-14's are so distinctive, but there's little to no evidence that ever existed along with a lowered and straightenend white paint--white flaps and stabs go with the higher, wavy white paint.

[slammin]

Looks like these have arrived. I can't wait to get mine!

[Dobber]

OH YEAH!!!! I got my shipping confirmation!!!!!

David, I recall in the Final Countdown DVD the pilots talking about the paint scheme that was seen in the movie. I can't remember what they said but i seen to remember them saying that the planes hardly ever looked like they did in the movie.....something like they only looked the way they did in the Movie in the movie. I'll pop the bonus disk in and see if I can get the exact quote.

Chris

[skysurfer808]

Just got my shipping confirmation in the mail too.

Regarding David Hintgen's post, though I am an avid fellow rivet counter, I am not going to let livery issues spoil my fun on this model. Planes paint jobs constantly change, I've always liked the Tomcat and VF-84 is the best Tomcat Livery, bar none. I've got both releases coming, and will likely spring for the VF-154 normal variant, just to get the goodies.

One thing I will say is that manufacturers ought to come here and correspond with us more closely to avoid future mistakes. Since we do subsidize their profits with our purchases, it would make sense for us to be involved from the beginning. Hobbymaster is to be commended for listening to us, but perhaps a few of us can become more closely involved in the whole process...especially financially.

One question though, will the Lantirn pod option be compatible with other airplanes. In other words, will it be possible to use the the Lantirn on the FOV Black Knights or Black Aces, or will it only be capable of being mounted on the low vis Black Knights.

Skysurfer808

[zed550]

it will only be able to be attached to the oif vf-154 version's as these will have the correct pylon adapter fitted.just been reading about vf-154's operations in oif and found a picture showing a gbu-24 fitted.

[STARMAN 352ND]

I got Jolly Roger coming in tommorow UPS
I'm not going to worry too much about all the issues as well.
This F-14 is clearly the best on the market today and i'm going to enjoy it in my collection.
JP

[zed550]

you will certainly like them