The F-14 Tomcat is one of the best known fighters of the modern era.  It was designed in the late 1960’s as a replacement for the equally famous F-4 Phantom II.  It benefitted from the lessons learned in Vietnam regarding the actual needs of modern air combat as well as what not to do (see the F-111B).  It entered service in 1974 and was retired in 2006.

AMT/Ertl’s aircraft kits are a lot less well known then their car kits are but they did make some very interesting aircraft kits that were not kitted by many or any other companies like the XB-35, YB-49, XB-70 and the F7F.  They also made some kits of better known aircraft like the JU-88 and the F-14.  This is the first of two boxings of the F-14 from AMT that I know of, the other being a Desert Storm boxing with low viz VF-1 markings.  When you open the box you get 5 sprues of gray plastic parts and one clear sprue with a two piece canopy. 

It looks like most other F-14 kits with the rear fuselage split into upper and lower halves to trap the swing wings and the front fuselage split into left and right halves.  The cockpit consists of a very generic floor, two decent looking ejection seats and blank IP’s with decals for the detail.  For weapons, you get 4 AIM-54 Phoenix missiles, 2 AIM-7 Sparrows and 2 AIM-9 Sidewinders along with 2 drop tanks.  The weapons look good except for the Sidewinders which look like botched AIM-9E’s as the front fins look too thick and chunky.  The Sparrows have all of their fins so you will need to remove at least one of them if you want to mount them on the wing pylons.  I’ll be replacing them with better looking ones from the spares section.  The decals are for VF-124, the Pacific Fleet RAG squadron in overall light gull grey scheme. This was one of two nearly identically painted 'boss birds' that 124 was flying before they were disestablished. The painting guide gives you some inaccurate colors for the cockpit (which should be dark gull grey, FS 36231) but the rest are fine.

 Overall, it looks like a pretty good model.  With a parts count right around 85, it gives you the essentials but you need to add some detailing if you want a kit that rivals Hasegawa’s kit. 

Tim Peters

January 2010

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