F-14D Super Tomcat

The HobbyBoss 1/72 F-14D is a very good modern model in matte blue-gray plastic with good fit, minimal flash, engraved panel lines and cockpit panel decals. Each parts tree is individually bagged. The fuselage halves are already removed from trees with attachment points well sanded. However, I have many complaints with it. For example, the swing wings pivot (a plus compared to the generally more detailed, but twice as expensive Hasegawa F-14D), but since the gears synchronizing the wings are too thin, their teeth easily disengage and the wings misalign with any handling. You'll need to wiggle the wings to realign them. (F-14 swing wings plus glove vanes were done right by Revell in the 1970s, and it is disappointing that F-14 models have since regressed.) The TCS/IRSTS chin pod is about 10% too big. The drop tank mounting registration holes on the intakes are a very noticeable 5mm too far forward. This models front landing gear doors are molded open and cannot be removed without destroying them. I like my fighters in flight with gear up, but this makes that impossible to portray. Modelers that like the gear down will like the fact that two nose gear struts are provided: one at normal height and one compressed for kneeling takeoff attitude. I disapprove of the tiny and weak attachment pins for the vertical stabilizers. A quibble is the ogive curve on the military thrust jet nozzles is too sharp, making the nozzles appear too fat. The afterburning nozzles look fine. Also annoying is that this F-14 includes the belly pallets and shoulder pylons for six Phoenix or Sparrow missiles, but only four Phoenix and two Sparrow (plus the appropriate two Sidewinder) are provided. There is no TARPS recon pod. Still, this 2012 kit is far superior to earlier HobbyBoss fighter models which have no ordnance at all the 2008 HobbyBoss A-10 has 11 pylons and nothing to mount on them. More serious is that no air-to-ground munitions are provided the real F-14 spent most of its last decade, including over Afghanistan and Iraq, as a precision bomber with a LANTIRN targeting pod dropping LGB's and JDAM's.