F-14D Tomcat

Ron Garcia
Second to last F-14 in my stash. Basically the same as all the other Hasegawa F-14s; maybe you'll get lucky and it will go together relatively smoothly or you will have lots of fit issues in the main landing gear wells and where the forward and rear fuselages meet. I had issues with the latter, but, since this was the seventh one of these I've built in a row, it wasn't a major obstacle or surprise.

Unlike the Hasegawa A and A+ kits - which I would kind of recommend (depending on whether you encounter major or minor fit issues) - I would not recommend this D version.

Other than a few minor changes in the cockpit (new seats, instrument panels, HUD glass, cowls) and a new sensor pod, it's basically the same as the A and A+ kits.

This is the D version and there are no bomb racks or the new pylon for the LANTIRN pod. I'm used to Hasegawa not including weapons - which is another issue altogether - but this is just plain unacceptable for an aircraft that was upgraded to carry bombs.

I ended up modifying one of the pylons to hold an AMK Models LANTIRN pod and just glued the bombs from various other weapons kits in my stash straight to the pallets. It looks OK.

My recommendation if you still have this kit in your stash, sell it and get the Tamiya one instead.