Super Detailing
the F-14 Tomcat

by Kris Sieber

Dainippon Kaiga

Reviewed by Graham Carter

The Canadian modeller Kris Sieber was asked in early 2022 to put together a description of how to enhance the obvious high-value areas of a Tamiya 1/48 Tomcat model - cockpit, undercarriage, weapons and surface areas. From this grew this extraordinary book in Japanese and English.

128 glossy A4 pages are held in a thicker card cover with a dust-jacket that hides a set of ‘blackprints’ ( to distinguish them from blueprints) showing the purposes of every tiny opening, panel, protuberance, orifice and thingummybob on the exterior of a Tomcat. Inside is an amazing amount of detailed information in the form of clear colour images with excellent annotation that explains exactly what the modeller is trying to achieve in his build of the Tamiya F-14D kit. Every stage is shown in multiple steps with both English and Japanese text and is organised into 8 chapters:-

1. Cockpit

2. Ejection seats

3. Landing Gears

4. Exhausts

5. Fuselage

6. Painting

7. Weathering, and

8. Armaments.

Kris explains and shows in wonderful detail how he completed each component, the tools and the  specific manufacturer’s materials used. To some extent this is a bit of glorified publicity for these manufacturers but how else are we to learn how they can be used and I am sure that the techniques can be transferred to other, similar materials. Similarly, most of the techniques are not restricted to a Tomcat and could be used on any model of any modern jet provided the modeller has the right photographic reference.

Curiously, and despite the title, there are several non-Tomcat builds interspersed, apparently randomly, through the book. These cover builds of the Tamiya 1/72 Me Bf109 G-6, the Maxfactory  1/72 VF-1A/S Fighter Valkyrie ( I imagine this is a sci-fi kit), the Arma Hobby 1/72 P-51C and the Eduard 1/72 Albatros D.Va. All of these are treated to four to eight pages of clear photos and excellent explanations of techniques used to produce what look like very fine replicas - the man is clearly an excellent modeller with eclectic tastes.

As a Tomcat reference it is superb but the techniques, tools and materials will clearly assist any modeller to achieve some wonderful results.

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Interestingly, most finishing is done without an airbrush but with a multitude of brushes and rubbing instruments to produce a superb and realistic finish. As such I would recommend the volume to anyone trying to build an accurately-finished modern naval jet. I certainly spent ages admiring and absorbing the techniques shown inside. I can make no comment on the accuracy of the detailing but it looked marvellous to me! The Japanese text notes inside the cover seems to indicate that there are other volumes in this series and these may well be worth looking for.

Review Copyright © 2024 by Graham Carter
This Page Created on 6 Februrary, 2024
Last updated 7 February, 2024

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