The third round of F-14A tags by Jet-Eyes features 2 familiar aircraft: BuNos 159836 and 160689. These aircraft comprised the first ever F-14 tag to hit the market last year. This release is a continuation of the initial run and uses panels from the same aircraft that were not cut for last year's run.
This listing is for tags cut from aircraft 160689. Last year's 160689 tag run featured squadron art printed on tags that were cut into the shape of an F-14A vertical stabilizer. Since launching that tag we've learned that this aircraft was one of only a few F-14s used in the filming of the original Top Gun movie! The aircraft was painted with the movie's VF-1 squadron tail art and had "Hollywood" and "Wolfman" painted on the canopy rail. These were callsigns of pilots who were featured in the film alongside the lead characters. We also learned that 160689 served at the real Naval Fighter Weapons School before being retired. Real and Movie TG history from this jet!
In a nod to the jet's use in the film, the card (by BVR) portrays a prominent scene from the movie where Maverick gives the lead to Hollywood just prior to engaging with Viper and Jester, who are flying A-4 Skyhawks. We all know how the scene plays out.
The tag art for this run features the same blueprint style F-14A that was used for the Splinter run, and it is offered in 3 variants: Grey, Riveted, and BOB. The Grey tags are single thickness Tomcat grey. The Riveted tags have sections of rivets and additional layers of aluminum and structure. The BOB tags were cut from areas of the panel where the Beware of Blast stencil was. Some are single thickness and some have rivets. Some have a lot of stenciling and others have just a small part of a letter. As compared to the first 160689 run, there was much more color and texture variance on this panel and it is a tad darker. The stencils are a bit darker as well.
And to round out the scene on the cardback, we're also releasing a companion A-4 Skyhawk tag with the 160689 tags!! One of the first aircraft parts we ever purchased for tags was a small section of A-4 skin that was stripped off the avionics hump on a Scooter. It was painted with VF-126 squadron art and the Naval Fighter Weapons School patch logo. Despite much digging and tracing back prior owners of this part we were unable to sort out which exact A-4 it belonged to. VF-126 was based at Miramar and served the Adversary role to the Weapons School. These jets were used in the original Top Gun as well. It was only fitting to release this A-4 tag with the F-14A NFWS tag given their shared history and service. The cardback for the A-4 tag is a modified version of the 160689 F-14 card (re-colorized in NFWS colors!) The listing for the A-4 tag with full details can be found on the homepage.
It doesn't get any better than a tag cut from an F-14 that was used in the original Top Gun movie AND at the real Naval Fighter Weapons School!