Hi from New Zealand

[Lazarus]

Hi everyone!

I live in the land of the long white cloud! I came across this site during my researching and have spent countless hours going through it, I am impressed with the quality of what goes on here and see a wealth of useful information and people! I`m just about ready to start my pit which is something I have dreamt about for a number of years and finally get to start it after a great deal of planning. I plan on building the cockpit in its entirety of a F-14D Tomcat in VF-103 Jolly Roger livery, my all time favourite fighter. Shortly I will start to post up my progress, a long journey I thoroughly look forward to!

[JJ]

Welcome on VP !
I think it will be difficult to built a F14, do you think there are stencils or instruments you can buy ? It would be great if you succeed !

Be warned...ounce starting the pit...watch your money !! 

good luck with your project ! Post pics, we all love that.

[Lazarus]

Thanks JJ

Yes it will definately be difficult without stencils and any parts for purchase, but that only makes me want to succeed even more. It will be a combination of workings from scale models, using known measurements of parts/instruments and scaling surrounding parts off them, reference pictures etc. At the end of the day I will do my best to get everything looking as accurate as possible but mostly it`s about producing something that I am truely happy with. There will be plenty of photos along the way as I love them too!

[nightowl]

Hi Lazarus,

welcome on board and good to see another pit builder from NZ .

The F-14 will certainly be a challenge as I suspect that there is not as much info available on the web, but if you are prepared to put in the work I am sure that you will be able to achieve your goal as anything is possible.
If I had to give one piece of advice to someone just starting on the long road to building their pit, it would be to learn some basic CAD drawing skills ( if you havent already ). 

Although I am working on the F16, Please let me know if there is anything I can help with.

Cheers,
nightowl

[Lazarus]

Hi nightowl,

Firstly I just have to say how outstanding your work is, truely professional, I look forward to watching your progress!

There certainly is a lack of info out there on the F14 and my pit certainly wont be as accurate as what the F16 builders like yourself can produce. At the end of the day I will be extremely happy if others and myself can look at it and not straight away think that something doesn`t look quite right (a tough task in itself).

I`m fortunate with my job and other interests that I do a lot of electrical work, programming, drawings/schematics, manufacturing of various parts and plenty of test and measurement systems, quite a few of which are for the military. I have done a small amount of CAD work which continues to get faster and better, mostly prototype parts for something else I do.

I will definately have questions galore to go with all the knowledge on this site and seeing your quality of work with alu I will definatley have some about that. Hopefully some day I can see your masterpiece in person!

Cheers,

Lazarus

[Chain]

I have seen big lots of F-14 instruments at EBay last year. I remember at least two big sets of gauges etc. been sold at fair price.

In my opinion it can be done...good luck!