Airframe, Sparrow missiles, Phoenix missiles - Skystriker (modern version)
Sidewinder missiles - Lanard the Corps! (modified)
Cockpit interior - Rattler (modified)


The F-14 Tomcat is a Navy jet. No other US service branch ever operated it, in large part because it was designed specifically for use on an aircraft carrier. Now technically, the Skystriker is not an F-14, it's an XP-14F, which could be some Air Force variant of the airframe since it's clearly based on the same jet. But since the Joes have the USS Flagg, and since the Tomcat's airframe is so clearly built for aircraft carrier operations, it's a Navy plane in my Joeverse.

The Skystriker is actually a very good scale model of the Tomcat, in 1/32 scale. The only thing that's really out of scale is the interior of the cockpit, which allows two 1/18 scale figures to sit in it. Or rather, the original fit two figures. Since modern-era figures are substantially larger than ARAH Joes, when the modern Skystriker was released it only had room for one pilot. Since Tomcats are always two-seaters, and since I was using ARAH-style figures, I know I had to make it a two-seater again. So I took the seat assembly from a Rattler and shopped it up to make it fit. I kept the upper part of the modern Skystriker seat, both because it has the nice ejection seat detailing, and because if you remove it entirely the nose of the plane will not stay in place.

The Skystriker being a Navy plane did create a dilemma. Since Ace is a USAF pilot according to his filecard, I was going to have to either give the Skystriker a new pilot, or make a change to Ace's background. Since Ace not flying the Skystriker would be tantamount to heresy, he's now a Navy man in my universe. And since all Tomcats require a RIO (Radar Intercept Officer) to fly in the back seat, I created Scope.

Other than the seats, the only other non-Skystriker part I used are the Sidewinder missiles. I had a small Lanard plane that came with missiles that are nearly identical to the Sidewinders that came with the Dragonfly, except black in colour and the holes aren't quite as wide. They needed a small amount of modification to fit on the Skystriker. The Sidewinders that come with the Skystriker have extra flangey bits in the middle which don't appear on real Sidewinders, so I prefer to use the Dragonfly version (or a close approximation) when possible.

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