This comparison is superb and answered every question I had between these kits. Thanks for serving the community! I think I will end up building 3 1/48 tomcats so I will get an amk and tamiya kit and decide after building which one to buy a second time. Cheers mate
Great video with wonderful comprehensive well organized presentation of each aspect of buildability and detail. I’ve been modeling for many years and tried many top coates to get the perfect sheen, and what I have settled on is mixture of 30 to 40% testers dullcoat with 70 or 60% testers gloss coat. Very realistic sheen and no polishing required. Keep up the great work!
Some while back, I landed on the same combination, I use 40% dullcoat and 60% gloss coat, and then thin that mixture with 40 or 50% lacquer thinner, Works like a charm and achieves a perfect scale sheen every time. Nothing beats a lacquer clearcoat.
Superb video! Just plopped down $95 for the Tamiya, AMK was outta stock everywhere, still Tamiya was my first choice. Tamiya fit and quality is usually so high, it adds enjoyment to the builds. All of your work looks great, I hope I can come close to that level.
Nice models you have... The surprising thing is...Revell/ Monograms 1/48 tomcat, as old as it is and with its deficiencies, with TLC and some decent effort, can build into a really nice kit that can hold its own against all those... and for the fraction of the cost... the only thing.. is cheaper cost means more work and effort. But it can be done.
Very nice, thanks for sharing this. I am currently doing the hasegawa version and the fit of the rear portion of the canopy is a real pain when you choose to model it closed. The canopy itself fits perfectly on dry fit but when I add the canopy frame, it causes a huge gap on the rear portion of the canopy. I checked the other build documentations and this seems to be a common problem, I suspect that I may have to do some major surgery and filing on said canopy frame to allow a perfect fit of the canopy. Either that or I give my hasegawa F-14 a test crash from the second floor then switch to Tamiya LOL. Honestly, the only thing that keeps me going is the fact that it was a gift from my wife but being more of a Tamiya/Dragon ship/tank builder, the Hasegawa really falls short in quality... and as you so aptly put, it is a big pain in the a$$ LOL.
Great overview. I nearly gave up the hobby after going through four hasegawa f14s. Those damn kits drove me insane. The tamiya is a godsend to anyone wanting a nice accurate f14 that builds nice and easy.
Chisel, I feel your pain. I've got close to two dozen of the Hase kits in storage. If I can manage to sell all of them for say $25 a pop, I can buy 5 Tamiya kits, and build two or three in the time it would take to build 1 Hase kit. Never thought I'd see the day when the Hase kit was knocked off of its throne.
HB looks like mixing the Tomcat versions. Wheels from early A, D cockpit no accurate without 'the BLACK BOX sensor/module integrator' , no GPS :) , Hasegawa TCS/IR sensor from D ver., but Painting very well, and comparison very nice
First vid of yours I've watched (cool screen name, Starfleet, lol), and respect for churning out all 4 of those kits. I am really, really familiar with the Hasegawa kit, and still have plenty in the stash. That, however, will not stop me from loading up on the Tamiya kit in the future. I did notice some stuff in your vid: 7:57 Thats a D model twin chin pod on the VF-103 jet. The Bs only had the single pod with the television camera set. 4:59 & 13:06 Looks like Hobby Boss & AMK messed up on the wing slat mounting angle. They should be much more leading edge pointed downwards, not straight and level with the rest of the wing. 21:32 The slats do retract into a shallow well on the real jet, so it should not be one smooth contour. Hasegawa got that area correct. The only jets that I can think of that the slats actually just lay on top of the wing are the A-4 Skyhawk & F-100 Super Sabre. Noice work.
After i built the AMK, still prefer the Hasegawa, in my opinion the presentation of the panel lines and geometry of the Hasegawa is better. It takes longer and more technique to fit properly but end result is better, it has more potential to add surface detail then the AMK which is heavily panel lined everywhere.
I built an F-14 Years Ago. and I'm pretty certain mine looked Nothing like either of the 4 you've shown here. BUT I'm seriously Thinking about buying another one. Probably a Hobby Boss.
Very good job, it's one of the best finish i ve ever seen, not over weathered like most of the others we can see 👍 and the semi gloss is perfect . You polish it with the tamiya sponge 3000 grit?
I need your advice sir badly! What can I do about the "Revell F-14" that has raised panel lines? I trust your F-14 build abilities, great job dude!!! Please help me!!!!
