I bought a pair of F-14s from TD as part of the Downtown 1975 Alternative History module (USN Support to thwart the 1975 Invasion of SVN).  With only a pair I couldn't drum up the enthusiasm to do do much.  So while Idly browsing the net I came across a couple of topics regarding a decal set being made up for the TOPGUN F-14s.  Not being one to step back from a challenge (in 1/600th) I thought why not.

They are WIP shots (the decals are all right but they were only a test run, I broke the one on the top of the wing so that has now been taken off waiting to be replaced).  I had to make all the low vis stuff up which was quite easy.  The underlying colour helps.  I didn't have any Compass Dark Ghost Gray paint so mixed something up by hand to get close and then gave it a black wash.

114 was Mavericks main aircraft in the film.  The aircraft had all sorts of strange markings (for example 114 has a patch on the rear which is from VAW-110 but has the number changed to read VF-1 (which should be the wolfpack).  Iceman has a VFA Squadron (213 I think) marking on his.  So they aren't historically accurate.

In terms of decals for the TD aircraft with its chunky casting meant:

• LOW VIS NAVY for the rear fuselage sides
• LOW VIS Stars n Bars for front sides and wing top
• 114 in Black for the Modex on the nose (and I have assumed the wings).

I made all these up (I used one of the gray standard colours to get over the scale effect and they (IMHO) look okay.

And to finish I couldn't resist doing Maverick and Goose for the Canopy frames. 

I have now reached the limit of what my printer can do (and I don't think anyone can read them anyway) the smallest I can get the FONT to work at in 1/600 is a scale size of 4 inches.  (As you can see from the shot I had to zoom to 2400% to show this one!!!)

If I saved it as an image I could reduce further but we have gone past the TLAR stage.

WIP. I have to do the exhausts and look at something to go on the tail.