chuck540z3 Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 (edited) I'm in the later stages of building the captioned bird in 1/32, but I'm having trouble finding pics of this aircraft (BuNo 163222). The only one I've been able to find is this one, which is prior to 2004 when the tail was re-painted into the later Reaper. Any more pics of this bird out there? Since almost every pic of VF-101 F-14's have them stripped of tanks, bomb racks and missiles, I'm going to build mine clean as well. I'm curious, however, about the front missile fin delete on the belly of this Tomcat. Is this typical of VF-101, since they never carried AIM-7's? Edited July 8, 2009 by chuck540z3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 Bump! C'mon guys, don't be shy! SOMEBODY must know about the missile fin delete. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cvnf14p3ordy Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 Bump! C'mon guys, don't be shy! SOMEBODY must know about the missile fin delete. It can vary from day to day depending on what part of the training phase the Nugget or Replacement is currently in. The photo you provided with the tac grey F-14 showing its belly, you'll notice on the port-side it has 2 LAU-7's for the Sidewinder. If you are making your Tomcat for the FY94-06 you can also add the LAU-138 BOL missle rails. When I worked F-14's in the Fleet we had bloc 95's. Standard rails under the F-14's wing glove were LAU-92's for carrying the AIM-7E Sparrow and the LAU-7 attached on he outboard side of the LAU-92. With the exception of when we carried an AIM-54 on the wing station that was standard and you would see that configuration 90% of the time. When FITWING dropped the AIM-120 program and diverted funds to funding the LANTRIN and A/G mission of the F-14 VF-103 was the first squadron to deploy with the LANTRIN. The POD was mounted on the starboard LAU-92 with an adaptor which right now escapes me - sorry. So basically, configure it the way you want. Building a FRS jet you can do pretty much whatever your heart desires. I build the Hasegawa 1/48 scale F-14D as Gunfighter 164 from VF-101. I loaded ATER's on the 2 forward belly missle rails and loaded an ACMI pod, CATM-9M and LANTRIN POD for a Fallon Det. Hope that helps. If you have time check out Airlines.net. They've got tons of Tomcat pics. Fly Navy! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Brian P: Fightertown Decals Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 Rag jets commonly didn't load rails. At this point in time the right shoulder station 8A, 8B were often left empty and rarely would the Sparrow rail be loaded on 8B. 2 LAU-7s were common on the left 1A and 1B because they would have a CATM-9 and ACMI pod loaded. I'm guessing for whatever reason, they off loaded the Lantirn pod and rail together from this jet. It's possible that they were going through an ACM phase and wanted the jet as clean as possible. Or they were flying airshow demo's and wanted max performance. Take off the rails, pods and tanks and a GE motor Tomcat had pretty eye-watering performance! -brian Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 Thanks guys, this helps a bunch, but what I'm most curious about is the slots on the belly where the fins of AIM-7's usually fit. The front slot is missing or plugged. You guys did answer another question that I was going to ask, which was the difference between the LAU-7 and LAU-138 missiles rails. The VF-101 jet pics almost always have the LAU-7's, but now I know the LAU-138's were chaff dispensers as well as rails. Who knew! Thanks! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cvnf14p3ordy Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 Thanks guys, this helps a bunch, but what I'm most curious about is the slots on the belly where the fins of AIM-7's usually fit. The front slot is missing or plugged.You guys did answer another question that I was going to ask, which was the difference between the LAU-7 and LAU-138 missiles rails. The VF-101 jet pics almost always have the LAU-7's, but now I know the LAU-138's were chaff dispensers as well as rails. Who knew! Thanks! Chuck, The pylon that is under the wing glove is a dual pylon. Gunfighter 101 is pictured with either the LAU-92/93 or, if you would build a D-mod the LAU-132 for the D-mod removed. As I mentioned earlier, the 92 was for the Sparrow and the 93 for the AIM-54. Or, we would plug a LAU-7 in their and load a CATM-9 and an ACMI pod on a single station during ACM/BFM hops. You had asked about how "clean" the airplane should be. I don't know much about the FRS loadouts. In the fleet our airplanes rarely went to the range without external tanks, however I worked on bloc 90 and 110 Tomcats with TF-30 engines so our crews operated with different restraints per NATOPS. The A+ and later the B like you are building was just entering fleet service when I was turning wrenches. Hope that helps. Tom Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 (edited) Tom, thanks, you've been most helpful, but what I'm really asking is about the missing fin slots as indicated below. Is this normal? Are they covered up all the time? The Tamiya kit has these extra slots, so I just want to know if I should cover them up and, if so, with what? While I'm at it, are those markings under the intakes where the fuel tanks are usually located and attached normal? Are they sometimes filled in? Again, thanks. Edited July 9, 2009 by chuck540z3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GreyGhost Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 Chuck, does this help you out ? >>> Clicky <<< HTH ... Gregg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 (edited) Chuck, does this help you out ?>>> Clicky <<< Gregg Yes, very much so, thanks, but that's the spot where there is a fin hole in an LAU-92 launcher? In the pic above, those holes are filled in, so I'm guessing a plug of some kind is used in roughly the same configuration. Edited July 9, 2009 by chuck540z3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GreyGhost Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 I've only ever seen the rear sparrow well covered myself ... Maybe Reddog can help you out ... Gregg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Brian P: Fightertown Decals Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 That fin slot was a removable assembly as the MATS site shows the 'panel lines' around it. On this jet they are removed and replaced with a solid plug. Sparrows stopped being carried on the station 3/5 and tunnel forward quite a while back so they removed the plugs with the mounting gear and replaced them with a solid piece. The 4 sets of holes for the fuel tanks weren't plugged but they had caps inside. -brian Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted July 10, 2009 Author Share Posted July 10, 2009 That fin slot was a removable assembly as the MATS site shows the 'panel lines' around it. On this jet they are removed and replaced with a solid plug. Sparrows stopped being carried on the station 3/5 and tunnel forward quite a while back so they removed the plugs with the mounting gear and replaced them with a solid piece.The 4 sets of holes for the fuel tanks weren't plugged but they had caps inside. -brian Thanks Man! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Neeko Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 The fin cutouts in the well weren't really plugged- it's actually an entirely different assembly in the sparrow well instead of the actual LAU-92 launcher. You would see the same thing on station 5 on fleet birds, but the blank-off panel just covers the hole that would otherwise be filled by the LAU-92 itself, in the well. The blank-off has no fin cutout because no fin is intended to be in there in the first place. Just to answer the next question that comes along- the rear fin cutout is part of the jet's structure and is there regardless if a launcher is present or not. Being a 6'2" F-14 avionics guy, seeing 4 blanked off belly sparrow wells is a sight for sore eyes... (instead of a sore back) You might also indeed find a clean spot under where a MXU (tank pylon) once was... The poppet valve covers that were the fuel connections would stand out though- just like in the original picture. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Wayne S Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Just to add, If your going for a Demo bird. The ones I have seen had the same configuration as that under side picture. Not just the belly but also the wing glove station setup, for the year/years you are looking at. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted July 10, 2009 Author Share Posted July 10, 2009 Just to add, If your going for a Demo bird. The ones I have seen had the same configuration as that under side picture. Not just the belly but also the wing glove station setup, for the year/years you are looking at. Thanks again guys. That is exactly the way I'm going to build this model, although I'll likely throw a CATM-9 on the outer port side LAU-7 launcher. Just in case anybody cares, here's what I accomplished today, thanks to all your help. First a pic of the unmodified belly..... ....and how it looks now. Not perfect by any stretch, but much improved..... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GreyGhost Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Wow Chuck, that was pretty fast ! Looks great too ... Gregg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
scapilot Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 You're referring to MXU-776 "cavity plugs" They would install in the missile wells when the Lau-92's weren't in place to prevent un-necessary drag to the performance and damage to the launchers, which were hard to keep up there towards the end. I installed / removed about a thousand of these through my stay in VF-101 and VF-143, because we had to remove them for cleaning during scheduled maintenance. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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