F-4J Phantom II - F I N I S H E D

[ij001]

Good afternoon folks...

So alongside the Eurofighter for the 2020 Micro Modeller Campaign I've started what will be a fairly major project for the Autumn / Winter. This is the re-jigged Hasegawa 1:48 F-4J - the one with the inscribed panel-lines and a few other tweaks and extra bits.

I'll be adding some etch, resin and some home-made changes & detailing, hopefully at the end of the process it will look something like this:

As an added incentive, a fellow modeller and occasional rival here in NZ is also building a 'J' to enter in the same class in this years North Island competition... should be fun. In the meantime, I've just started on mine; as you can see I've chopped-out the inner flaps, filed & re-profiled them ready to refit later.

I've also sprayed the area inside the auxiliary air doors and will box that in with some detailed plastic card. Nobody will see it unless they pick-up the model - and if they do that I'll probably have a few R18 words to say, but no-matter, I'll know it's there, right ?

Much more to come, please feel free to make any comments, ask any questions or hurl any criticisms.

Have a great weekend all.



Ian.

 

[Swordsman]

Not 'Showtime 100'

Nice job Ian, One of My favorite birds .... Mine is a Showtime 100 .... lots of mistakes .... I'm still re-scribing it, I don't recommend it ..... Be

 

[helios]

Not 'Showtime 100'

Sweet. Always love a good Rhino.

 

[MrT]

Not 'Showtime 100'

 

[ij001]

Not 'Showtime 100'

So whilst going through the agonising process of adding all the stencil decals to the Eurofighter, I also did a little more to my Phantom:

The fuselage sides are the same as those that were issued with the 'Hi Tech' F-4S kit and have 'Slime Lights' pre molded - my F-4J didn't have these so they needed to be sanded off. Marked them first then masked around with electrical tape to avoid 'collateral damage' to the surrounding panels. It's all done now and looks fine.

Next I've got a similar job to do on the stabilisers, they're molded with the triangle shaped reinforcement plate which again, my F-4J doesn't have:

The F-4J at IWM Duxford

Restored F-4D in the US

More soon:

Ian.

 

[sharkman]

Not 'Showtime 100'

Oooo...a phantom!

Coming along nicely Ian

 

[ij001]

Not 'Showtime 100' - more 'Old Skool' detailing

Ok here's the results of some pre and post 'day job' tinkering:

Basic painting and dry brushing on both (Aires resin) seats:

Wiring added to the nose gear bay with 5amp fuse-wire and florists wire:

Rear bulkhead the same:

And carved-off the molded-on details on the rear IP and built my own with chopped-up 1:72 missiles and plastic card. Drilled the 'missiles' and added wiring again with fuse wire and florists wire also used nylon thread for the finer cables:

The eagle-eyed here will notice that I've invested in a brand-new A2 cutting mat, which somehow makes me work 'better' than usual... or I could be simply talking out of my a*se as usual :idonno . Hopefully more tomorrow as Wednesday is my day-off.

Thanks for taking the time to look and / or comment. Best from NZ.



Ian.

 

[moon puppy]

Not 'Showtime 100' - more 'Old Skool' detailing

 

[ij001]

Not 'Showtime 100' - Cockpit progress

Some work done over the last couple of evenings:

Eduard kit-specific etch set works fine even if their version of cockpit grey is far too light - I repainted where I could. The wiring that I added the old-fashioned way is still visible, so I'm quite pleased that the work will be just about seen at the end.

I test-fitted as I went, so knew there would be a problem or two when I joined the fuselage halves together - what I needed to do was minimize those problems and try to confine the gaps to an area where I could tackle them without a shed-load of filling and re-scribing.

So the gap in the combing will be filled (with plastic card) as will the deep indent for the gunsight which is too far forward anyway. The rest of the fuselage mated perfectly with nothing more than the usual clean up and sanding needed.

Beginning to look like a Phantom, now.

Stay tuned and have a great weekend folks.

Ian.

 

[moon puppy]

Not 'Showtime 100' - Cockpit progress

 

[Skinny_Mike]

Not 'Showtime 100' - Cockpit progress

Looking good Ian! Making me itchy to pull out one of my F-4 kits.

 

[ij001]

Small update:

Rear section metalwork done with Alclad & AK Xtreme lacquers. Will seal them with a clear coat tomorrow then get back to work on the cockpit - need to sort-out the pilots combing and add the gunsight then scratchbuild some details for the narrow section behind his seat. Also need to add all the latch & lock mechanisms to the sills.

Stay tuned. Stay well. (NZ just recorded first Covid-19 fatality today)


Ian.

 

[lupanzer]

Great job, Ian!

Luiz.

 

[ij001]

Cracking onward with the Phantom build:

Fuselage is now glued together and I've finished-off the detail around the pilots combing using scrap sprue and the etch Eduard gunsight mount.

At the end of the build I'll remove the canopies and add latch details. Airwaves is one of those 'cottage industry' after-market companies that have been around for a long time - they're British - great basic detail and quite robust etch not as delicate as say DEF or Eduard.

Stay tuned, more after the weekend hopefully.

Ian.

 

[moon puppy]

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Small update:

Rear section metalwork done with Alclad & AK Xtreme lacquers. Will seal them with a clear coat tomorrow then get back to work on the cockpit - need to sort-out the pilots combing and add the gunsight then scratchbuild some details for the narrow section behind his seat. Also need to add all the latch & lock mechanisms to the sills.

Stay tuned. Stay well. (NZ just recorded first Covid-19 fatality today)


Ian.

Hey Ian I am sure it's going to be a wonderful build, but the attachments before this post are not showing up.

 

[moon puppy]

Hey Ian I am sure it's going to be a wonderful build, but the attachments before this post are not showing up.

Not Ian's fault. The migration is still going on, there are several issues and they will be resolved. You guys have to have some patience.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

I figured as much, just commenting more that "Here's a problem to look at". I am working on a new post that will start out with a "lot" of photos, (It's a shelf queen from before MA but it has a full photo set for the build with everything archived) Not real sure what it will take to post them, but will get to that point when I get there.

 

[ij001]

Not Ian's fault. The migration is still going on, there are several issues and they will be resolved. You guys have to have some patience.

Yep I guessed that was the problem... sure it will be worked-out along with any other kinks and curve balls.
As for the build, hoping to get the wings on it today sometime.


Ian.

 

[ij001]

This weekend I managed to get the wings on, intakes on... fair amount of filling and blending:

Next I'll mask the glare panel, then attach the radome, undercarriage legs and wing pylons.



Ian.