[firefighterpilot1]

I probably would have flipped over this detail as well but I have owned a Jolly Rogers wooden desktop model for several years now and it has the same set up. (non-skid on the port side only). I complained about it with that model but I realized all of the other models had it when I tried to replace it. So now I know better.

[le differance]

Originally Posted by lanslide

Black Lion - you wouldn't mind an inaccurately painted model if it looked better? Isn't accuracy more important than aesthetics?

that, my friend, is a philosophical question!


Regarding Century's AJ210, I've seen two examples in person. Each of them had only one side painted.


Edit: I mean, of course, that each of them had the non-skid paint on just one side....and not that half the aircraft was unpainted metal!

[Black Lion VF-213]

What I mean by aesthetically is not that I always favor inaccuracies just to appease aesthetics, it's that in this particular case since the mass majority of pictures I have ever seen of Tomcats show them with both wing walks in matte finish coupled with my collection of 1/72 diecast Tomcats where everyone of them has both walks matted, I would have liked my AJ210 Cat to look the same being that Tomcats are my all time favorite airplanes.

I dug up a very old book I've had since I was a kid to see any Tomcat pics. Don't know if anyone has ever seen this book; it's called "Colors and Markings of the F-14 Tomcat Volume 2. Part 1 Colors & Markings of Atlantic Coast Tomcats 1974-1984." It's copyright is 1984. Anyway almost every Tomcat pic was taken from ground level save maybe three or four out of the near 70 pics. It features almost all the birds from each Atlantic squadron. Just sucks there aren't enough birds eye view pics. Of the few that are birds eye each Tomcat has both wing walks matted. One of them was a VF-84, and it was AJ200 but taken in the mid 80's when probably every Tomcat finally had both walks matted.

Thanks again for y'alls help fellas.

Last question, I've been looking for one Tomcat in 72 diecast I'd really like but having trouble finding one. maybe it hasn't been made. I'm looking for a VF-2 Bounty Hunters in high vis. Anyone seen one?

[David Hingtgen]

I have that book. Anyways---it's a time thing. I run into the same problem with airliners. With digital cameras etc, most photos of a plane that was in service from 1974 to 2006------the photos are mostly 2000-2006, and heavily biased to how they looked at the end. If you look from 1990 and later, nearly every single picture of a Tomcat will show an anti-skid patch on each side, and that's what's in your brain as correct/typical. But from say 1975-1985, most Tomcats only had it on ONE side, port. Which included VF-84 in the late 70's. If Century also did VF-1, VF-2, VF-14, VF-32, VF-142, and VF-143 from "the early days" they all probably have just one as well. But if Century were to do VF-2, VF-31, VF-213, VF-103 from their last cruises, they'd all have two.

It may look "unusual" compared to the zillions of RECENT Tomcat pics, but a Tomcat with one on each side would be unusual to someone who had pics mainly of the first decade of Tomcats.

[firefighterpilot1]

Originally Posted by Black Lion VF-213

Last question, I've been looking for one Tomcat in 72 diecast I'd really like but having trouble finding one. maybe it hasn't been made. I'm looking for a VF-2 Bounty Hunters in high vis. Anyone seen one?

Dragon makes one but it's been discontinued. I've seen it on e-bay before.

edit: here it is

Dragon Cyber Hobby 50138 1/72 F-14D VF-2 Super Tomcat - eBay (item 300199761442 end time Feb-27-08 06:16:16 PST)