**** DONE: GB- 35 1/144 F-4 Phantom - Vietnam French/American War 1950-1975

[Rogi]

So I have the before exhaust (before they were intake lol thanks for the fix) shots, forgot to take the afters but will update it tomorrow
Side and Side shots

The real thing from some walkarounds from the net. As you can see the exhausts are close to flush.

on the Kit its a bit bulkier on the bottom

This was sanded down a couple days ago and now resembles the aircraft better (update tomorrow)

I took these today, almost ready for the other two green colors, the bottom (Xf-80) was weathered a tad by applying some lighter coats. I applied about 10-12 very light coats of paint on each of these sections and white for the wheel wells. (I'll apply another 3-8 light coats for the wheel wells as the white is very tough to capture nicely)

And finally, the wheels, they took me 7 hours in total today, I lost one on the main undercarriage wheels in the front and wanted to find it and not crack open a spare. After finding it (one victory over the carpet monster ) I proceeded with the read wheels.
The two wheels for the rear I ended up editing and scratch building the pieces for it as it just wouldn't do as a good representation of the wheel. I went from Krazy Glue to Gorilla Glue and was saved so much time and stress on the styrene applicatiohn. Krazy Glue was ok, but it didn't react well to the sprue/styrene that good and it required a lot of time for it to glue the part.
Dad suggested Gorilla Glue and it worked like a charm, a wonderful superglue, one wheel took 5 hours with crazy glue, while the other wheel took 30min with Gorilla ! (after cutting the styrene and editing it a bit).
Real Rear Wheel on the actual aircraft

On the kit (opposite sides shown, left and right) with the original on the right and scratched part is on the left, the reverse of the original kit is plain and doesn't have this detail on it. It doesn't make sense as the section visible here is hidden by the gear door, but the side that isn't detailed is visible.

and a side view to show the detail a bit more,

Thank you all so much for taking this journey with me, I'm planning to finish this week and I'm hoping that nothing else slows me down so far. If its ok to wait until I finish for the judging? If not, no worries I'll try and finish regardless as this build has been so much fun

 

[Crimea_River]

Oh, we're waiting. No problem there.

I figured out what you were talking about when I realized you were calling the exhausts "intakes". Or does your plane fly backwards?

Looking good. I don't understand what makes Gorilla Glue so much better than CA and why it save you so much time.

 

[Rogi]

Oh, we're waiting. No problem there.

I figured out what you were talking about when I realized you were calling the exhausts "intakes". Or does your plane fly backwards?

Looking good. I don't understand what makes Gorilla Glue so much better than CA and why it save you so much time.

Trust me, after straight hours modelling, its a wonder I didn't mistake more things lol exhaust fixed many thanks

Not sure why, but the brush applicator Krazy Glue (with red top) never attaches Styrene all that well , gorilla glue was actually nice, no after "kraze/haze" and was straight forward to apply.

 

[Wayne Little]

Looking good Igor,

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far!

 

[rochie]

Love it Igor

 

[fubar57]

Taming the beast.........

 

[Wurger]

Getting shape undoubtedly.

 

[parsifal]

Very well done igor

 

[Crimea_River]

I've never really had issues with CA, though there are different brands out there that do vary in effectiveness.

 

[Rogi]

Thank you all for the support Its been some productive days so far, heres the outcome,

I finally chose the subject F-4E "War Lover" pre-1972 (as it was converted from non slats to slats)
Here is the profile from a Zotz decals sheet, all credit goes to them for the profile, I had a major issue in finding a full profile wrap around of an aircraft and this one was the best with the criteria I was looking for

close ups:

Top

and my aircraft so far two days to get a good amount of paint on there, tomorrow some more and some more weathering, I like how it looks like now but I might try some things on her.

bottom, with more coats of white applied and some of the Grey, some fixes with the upper paint dripping down will be fixed soon.

The wheels, the nose wheel is completed and will be painted tomorrow, the two rear ones are looking good so far with a bit of paint,

and real shot of the nose wheel:

front view, please note the lower two bars are offset to the left on the aircraft:

The fixed area around the exhausts:

compared to the old one,

and finally progress on the seats, the kit original is here and doesn't look like a Martin Baker Ejection seat at all:

The beginning of the editing, sanded down the sides and inserted the side sections to fit flush,

and the real thing:

all pictures have been found on the net and through walkarounds, only intended for educational and hobby purposes.

Tomorrow I'm planning to finish up the camo, seats and hopefully start to finish the canopy and cockpit. Thanks all for looking and for helping me keep hope on this build The tiny details strain the eyes a lot even with magnification and I can't count the amount of times things have fallen on the carpet monster !

 

[fubar57]

Very impressive paint work in that scale

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Looks good so far!

 

[Crimea_River]

Doing great.

 

[parsifal]

Very nice

 

[Rogi]

Small update, still some fiddly stuff to go but lots of precision needed for these final steps, hoping to finish by the end of the weekend but will see, as I've relocated, house sitting for family, my work station has never been so neat Wheels have been fiddly but they are almost done.

Now I've decided to do no decals and go straight to painting the markings ! This means, a lot of precision on this little scale, here is the outcome for "War Lover" the nose art on the F-4E.
2nd step in adding the red (a special Flat Red Tamiya mix) after the Tamiya Flat White.

I'll try and update with a better picture tomorrow morning as the light tonight isn't that great for photos, the key was practicing the "War Lover" text, it took me multiple attempts but we will see if it paid off. The Text is in Tamiya Sky Blue (X-14) and just imitating the text off the decal sheet here:

 

[Rogi]

Took some photos this morning and added the start of the US national insignia.

"War Lover" is hard to photograph, I think the paint (Tamiya Sky Blue) has a bit of semi-gloss to the color, so every angle is a bit different but it looks much better in person :S my pics can't do it justice, as demonstrated with these angles,

The US insignia (done in Tamiya Royal Blue) as follows, just a little bit of touch up here and there and it should be fine to progress to the white stage,

some more of "War Lover" really happy with how it turned out

As you can see in the final picture, the top is a bit less pronounced than the bottom, while the other photos vary, I think this is due in part to the paint's semi-gloss nature, it doesn't photo that well

I want to wish my friends a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, I don't think I'll update for a day or two again and I think everyone will be having too much fun with friends and family All the best everyone

 

[Airframes]

Good work in such a small scale.
Here are a couple of pics of the MB seat as fitted to U.S. Phantoms.

 

[Crimea_River]

Making a lot of work for yourself there Igor. Turning out well though, given the size.

Merry Christmas to your and a happy 2018.