A while back I built Dragon’s 1/144 F-14D Tomcat for a review. Master Models of Poland has come out with a replacement “alfa probe” for the Tomcat. I still think of it as a pitot tube, but I’m pretty 20th Century.

In doing a little research, I found that there are two other 1/144 F-14s available, Revell and Trumpeter. In looking at the “in box” reviews, both of these kits do have alfa probes. The Dragon kit I built doesn’t have one. OK. But I have built more than one model where the pitot tube has been broken, bent or deformed to where it really needs replacement. In the past, a cut off straight pin worked pretty well. Now we have a much better looking part.

The instructions are pretty basic, but so is the procedure. We’re not doing knee replacement here.

Cut off the existing probe. In this case, I just had to use a sanding stick to get a flat spot for the drill.

Drill a hole for the new alfa probe. I had to go to the LHS and buy a new drill, as I no longer had one which was both the right size and not broken.

Check the hole for correct depth. A test fit should be done, just in case

Install the probe using CA. I use gel-type super glue, and then after alignment I use accelerator.

Paint the new part to match the nose. In the finished picture, you can see where I did the painting. Not sure if it’s because the paint is fresh, or maybe I chose the wrong gray out of the approximately 15 medium gray paints I have.

I highly recommend this add-on/replacement. It looks really good, and now I have an F-14D with an alfa probe that is NOT going to bend or break, no matter how clumsy I happen to be.

Many thanks to Master Models for providing this product, and to IPMS USA for allowing me to review it.