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F-4S, VMFA-112, Heater-Ferris Scheme - Final Pics Coming Through...


Marcel111

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Chuck just convinced me to hang out a little more on LSP, so here is the opening of my next project, a Heater-Ferris Phantom!

This is the exact aircraft I will be building:
http://www.cloud9photography.us/keyword/USMC%20F4%20II%20pictures%20for%20sale/i-wp7R4Zs/A

... although I will load her up heavily with the LAU-10's and Mk.20's as already prepared in my now defunct F-4J build. There are some nice pics on the web showing VMFA-112 jets flying with live Mk-82's to the bomb range, so I think it's not too much of a stretch to really load this F-4 up:
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/akscott60/media/Yuma_Last_Bomb_Run.jpg.html

Before starting construction, I thought I'd start a little storm in a teacup by hypothesizing that much of the common knowledge of Heater-Ferris F-4S colors is somewhat wrong. Here is what I mean (original pic is from Wikipedia and has no apparent copyright):
F-4S_Phantoms_Naval_Reserve_1983%20-%20C

I have spent many, many hours looking at Heater-Ferris Phantom pics and at this stage am pretty sure of the above, that is that the "mirror image" of the standard F-4 Heater-Ferris scheme used slightly darker blue-grays (the lighter grays are consistent).

This is a good overview of the Heater-Ferris scheme on VMFA-112:
http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/f-4/images/f-4_profile06.png

I will be doing "03" and not "04", there are minor differences on the camo boundaries between the two. And as noted above, I believe the color designations are slightly off on the above drawings (should be FS35109, FS35164, FS36307 & FS36375 from left to right in the top view), including the colors of the intake-side stars & bars and intake warnings (should be FS36307 and not FS36375 at least for "03").

In other Phantom news, I really like what Scale Aircraft Modelling did with their March cover:
sam-38-01%20low%20res_zpskzspbrtc.jpg

Since it's my Chico I'm very partial to the cover anyway, but the SAM guys very much make things come alive imo.

Much more to follow.

Marcel

Edited by Marcel111
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Welcome to LSP Buddy!  I think you'll really like it here and your modeling skills will be very well received.

 

Also, again Congrat's on the cover of SAM!  That is always a very gratifying feeling when you see your work on the front cover of a modeling magazine.

 

Looking forward to the F-4S build,

 

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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Hi Marcel,

Good to see you building over here. I look forward to your "Pherris F-4".

 

If the schemes were applied anything like the ones that were applied later to F-15s then the colour palette was mixed up between airframes.

 

On the Eagles, there were four aircraft but no two wore the same shades in the same places if I recall.

Perhaps that idea began with the Phantoms?

 

Cheers.

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Big thx for all the welcoming words, guys!

Hi Marcel,

Good to see you building over here. I look forward to your "Pherris F-4".

 

If the schemes were applied anything like the ones that were applied later to F-15s then the colour palette was mixed up between airframes.

 

On the Eagles, there were four aircraft but no two wore the same shades in the same places if I recall.

Perhaps that idea began with the Phantoms?

 

Cheers.

 

Guy, it's great to chat again!

 

The F-4S Heater-Ferris schemes are a lot more consistent, I believe. There seems to be the "standard" scheme, as worn by VF-301, a mirror-image of the standard scheme (as described above), and then a few other variations, but they generally always used the same patter with mostly the same colors, they just mixed up which colors went where.

 

Cheers,

 

Marcel

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Hi Marcel,

 

This will be an interesting project to follow. Not much "love" out there for the F-4S, so its nice to see somebody do one. My former boss at Gulfstream commanded VMFA-115 at Beaufort and really liked it.

 

My Friend John Lawler flew with "Heater" Heatley in VF-74. I'll have to mention this to him. I was planning on eventually getting round to doing an F-4J for John anyway....

 

-d-

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Hi Marcel,

 

This will be an interesting project to follow. Not much "love" out there for the F-4S, so its nice to see somebody do one. My former boss at Gulfstream commanded VMFA-115 at Beaufort and really liked it.

 

My Friend John Lawler flew with "Heater" Heatley in VF-74. I'll have to mention this to him. I was planning on eventually getting round to doing an F-4J for John anyway....

 

-d-

I would be tickled, to say the least, if "Heater" Heatley got to see this build!

 

Anyhow, I haven't shown any building on this thread, so here goes. This Marine S will be loaded somewhat similar to the VMFA-112 shown doing the bomb run above, in that it will carry a centerline external tank and four TERs. From there on things get more interesting though, this will be one fire-breathing, all round bad a** jet, since it will carry six LAU-10's on the inside TERs and four Mk.20 Rockeyes on the outside TERs. Before you say whoa there, that's way over the top, there are records out there of VMFA-334 flying missions over Vietnem with their F-4Js loaded up with six LAU-10s and six (centerline mounted) Mk.20s (plus two wing tanks).

 

Here is some progress on the loadout, I did this two years ago when this was supposed to turn into an F-4J (I posted this on ARC two years ago so apologies if this is old news). For the LAU-10s, I am using the Fisher models launchers while making the rockets myself. A nice coincidence is that 5" translates into exactly 4mm in 32nd scale, so I could use 4mm brass tubing for the outside section of the rocket. Next, I had to deduct some of the angles of the Zuni rockets I am trying to replicate.

 

Picture2_zpse29d2fd0.jpg

 

Next off, I went to the prototyping shop which is fairly close to my office and I do my utmost to maintain good relations to:

 

DSC_0386_zps00b5811e.jpg

 

And abracadabra, here are 24 nicely shaped Zunis:

 

DSC_0385_zps04cd774b.jpg

 

DSC_0390_zps98814be5.jpg

 

I'll post next steps soon.

 

Thx for looking,

 

Marcel

Edited by Marcel111
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Hi Marcel,

 

This will be an interesting project to follow. Not much "love" out there for the F-4S, so its nice to see somebody do one. My former boss at Gulfstream commanded VMFA-115 at Beaufort and really liked it.

 

My Friend John Lawler flew with "Heater" Heatley in VF-74. I'll have to mention this to him. I was planning on eventually getting round to doing an F-4J for John anyway....

 

-d-

 

 

I remember that name, because years ago I made a Bi-Centennial F-4J that had Chuck Heatley's name on it.  The problem was, the CAM decal instructions had him sitting in the back as a RIO!  My guess is that "John Koch" should be sitting in the back seat instead.

Edited by chuck540z3
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I thought I'd show some more of the work I have done on the Zunis, I'm actually a few steps ahead of this at this point. The thought of painting 24 Zunis is a little frightening and also simply challenging, it is critical that all 24 Zunis end up looking the same. So I dreamed up this fixture to give the Zuni rocket tips the consistent olive drab tips they need:

 

DSC_0635_zps97c627e9.jpg

 

Loaded up with rocket tips:

 

DSC_0644_zps1eda51f2.jpg

 

Tips protruding and ready for airbrushing:

 

DSC_0648_zps3af6f5a1.jpg

 

24 perfectly and consistently painted tips:

 

DSC_0281_zps2faf14ef.jpg

 

Cheers,

 

Marcel

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