The Trumpeter 1/144 F-14D Tomcat #03919 is an excellent modern 2015 model. It is a variant of Trumpeter’s 2013 1/144 F-14A #03910 kit with new parts. It is in semimatte blue-gray plastic with excellent fit, minimal flash, fine engraved panel lines and a cockpit with ejection seats, and molded-in control sticks. The five parts sprues are individually bagged. (Trumpeter uses a heavy gauge polyethylene, and although this protects the sprues very well, there’s a lot of waste plastic and a large box for a five and a half inch long model.) The accuracy and detail these new Trumpeter 1/144 kits is the best I’ve ever seen for such tiny models. For example, it has LAU-138 Sidewinder missile rails. Overall, it reminds me of a half-size HobbyBoss 1/72 F-14D (Trumpeter and HobbyBoss are different brands of one company). This model’s nose 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. The instructions forget to explain to drill out the guide holes for the Phoenix pallets and shoulder pylons in the fuselage bottom before closing the fuselage, and for the drop tanks in the jet intake trunks before attaching to the fuselage. It would be better to attach the Phoenix pallets before the intake trunks, instead of the other way around, as in the instructions - it’s a tight work space with the trunks in place. The F110 jet nozzles are open for afterburning, although military thrust nozzles for the F-14A are in the kit. Ordnance is strictly air-to-air: four Phoenix, two Sparrow and two Sidewinder plus two tanks. (The 63 parts count is a bit misleading; 22 are for the missiles, pylons and tanks.) There is no TARPS recon pod. Unfortunately, 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 LGBs and JDAMs. Decals are for two VF-31 “Tomcatters” aircraft and include dozens of tiny stencils, etc. I like the full color, four view painting guide. By the way, this F-14D kit contains all the alternate parts to make an F-14A (front fuselage, ejection seats, TF-30 jet nozzles and TCS chin pod).

Great kits excellent details for the scale definitely recommend these.