[zed550]

i remember them i was born in 64. first tomcat i saw in the uk was the vf-14 tophatters bicentenial cag bird at raf greenham common.
there is nothing wrong with the grey schemes aslong as they have a bit of colour but as yoshi has told me plain janes dont sell in quantity!

[Panther10]

Originally Posted by zed550

i remember them i was born in 64.first tomcat i saw in the uk was the vf-14 tophatters bicentenial cag bird at raf greenham common.
there is nothing wrong with the grey schemes aslong as they have a bit of colour but as yoshi has told me plain janes dont sell in quantity!

But at a $60 price tag, planes manufactured by companies like Century Wings, as well as other companies that produce 1:48 scale planes which tend to have $95 dollar price tags, means that bulk buying is an option which most of us cannot afford...be you the avid diecast collector, or a mother who wants to buy something for her son's birthday. With models like these which are built in larger scales, it often times means that due to the nature of the beast, you can purchase one of these models at a time. I have been purchasing diecast planes since my childhood, and I've been purchasing large scale diecast planes for at least 6 years now. So I am no stranger to the lesson "Sacrifices must be made" So ilets say i see both of the century wings VF-154 Black knights at a store one day, I know that even though the planes have minuit details between the two and they would compliment each other so well, I can only buy one because at a $60 dollar price tag, I would have to be crazy to spend $120 on two items that are only a little over 10 inches long. So I'll buy one. As to which one...I don't know..I'll flip a coin

[Dobber]

Well, if we are going to go with "Pretty" birds I vote for VF-1 Wolfpack...(see my avatar!) circa 1975/76 or VF-111 Sundowners (see David's avatar)

VF-1 would be historically relevent because it was the first Tomcat squadron, actually established for the Tomcat and it actually did serve in Vietnam.

VF-111 you figure would be a big seller in Japan because of it's tail markings resembling the "Rising Sun" flag

Chris

edit: sorry for spelling errors!!!

[David Hingtgen]

It's pretty easy to figure out what sells in Japan--just see what kits Hasegawa releases!

And it's 99% CAG birds, especially the Black Knights because they were based in Japan.

After that, it's the Jolly Rogers, Sundowners, and Wolfpack. (only ones I can think of that have multiple, frequent releases) Bounty Hunters seem a bit more popular than average, too. No coincidence these are about the most colorful/famous squadrons there are.

[Panther10]

I can think of a few others. The VF-33 Taisers/Starfighters always had colorful markings. Early versions of the Black Aces had some colorful markings during the time of their introduction. The VF-31 Tomcatters had colorful markings during their later years. The VF-143 Pukin' Dogs are mostly known for their earliest color scheme with the blue and white tail VF-32 Swordsman, VF-11's Red Rippers always had rainbow insignia, and then finally the allblack tail with the tomcat insignia, VF-114 Aardvarks with their orange camo, and lets of course not forget the testing squadrons and aggressior squadrons.


All in all I've mentoned about 9 squadrons that were known for their colorful markings. There are about 20 more F-14 Squadrons that all stuck with the low-vis markings. And of course in the 1980's the squadrons that I've mentioned above switched to low-viz markings as well. And as collectors we are never going to see a single low viz plane? To me that's the equivilent of taking a spoon to a bowl of stew, and rather than actually sticking the spoon into the bowl, you're just running it along the edgesl, hoping to catch the broth

[Dobber]

I've always been partial to VF-143 also. Forgot about them Although I'd like to see their B Tomcats that they retired with.

Chris

[Panther10]

Well Cyber-Hobby has sort of dropped the ball with their Dragon exclusives, maybe they can switch gears and try modifying Century Wings Instead.

[David Hingtgen]

I like VF-143's first and final markings (final real markings, not the museum retrojet). And their first F-14 scheme is one of the very few occasions where I prefer the non-CAG markings---the rainbow stripes just mess up the tail, and eliminates the "standard" blue/white striping. It's like the CAG actually has the fewest squadron-specific markings.

I'm always disappointed that it seems VF-142 (Ghostriders) never got even the slightest bit of color on their F-14B's---they were deep in "maximum low-vis" and were gone before color started creeping back in. And while their early colors were very colorful, "white with yellow and black" looked like every other squadron then, and there wasn't even a hint of their squadron name or logo in them. No ghosts, no riders!