F-4J (UK) 74 SQN RAF 1989ish

[Whitey]

Next on the bench is a Tamiya 1/32 F-4J in the guise of a 74 Squadron, RAF, jet from the late 1980's. I think it is a pretty sexy jet with the black tail and strange "duck-egg type greyish blue-green" that was painted on them at delivery.

 

If anyone has any advice as to the correct colour for this strange colour I'd be most appreciative. I may even do a Barley Grey jet but the strange colour is unique and it looks interesting.

 

I have the Aires Cockpit, D-Mold seamless intakes, Wolfpack SUU-23 gun pod, Master pitots and YellowHammer decals and am still waiting on Eduard resin wheels, photoetch cockpit and seats. I am undecided whether to use the gun pod or a big centreline tank. I will wait until later in the build to make that decision.

 

I like the Aires seats so I may keep the seats for an F-4C or F-4E later on.

 

 

First up was surgery to remove plastic bits to allow the seamless intakes to go into place.

 

These are just a couple of comparison shots to show what has to be cut away and how it looks afterwards. Pretty straightforward and not too much work to get a reasonably good, but not final, fit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Aires cockpit arrived during the week so I spent this morning shoe-horning it into place. After cutting the moulding block off it still needed a lot of sanding of both the underside of the cockpit tub and the top of the nose-wheel bay to get it to the stage where the bottom half of the cockpit area would join up to the top without squeezing.

 

 

I'll keep working on the weapons, tanks, jet pipes, etc while I wait for the rest of the gear to arrive before tackling the cockpit.

 

 

[joe]

Use the gun pod, I think they look pretty mean.

Nice choice of finish too for an RAF phantom.

[ericg]

Good start Pete. There are not enough big fast jets in the LSP world mate, so I look forward to seeing you progress on this.

 

Eric.

[Youngtiger1]

Nice start. Those markings are awesome. Can't wait to see more updates

[Jasta 14 addict]

Wow Peter, that's a nice start on this very intresting subject.

 

 

 

I think it is a pretty sexy jet with the black tail and strange "duck-egg type greyish blue-green" that was painted on them at delivery.

According to the Verlinden book 'Lock on n° 10' the where mistakenly painted in a blue-gray color by attendants at the US storage depot. There where no attempts made for repainting the aircraft by theire delivery in the UK, exept for the black tail section.

 

I will look at you're project from the first row mate.

 

Greetz

 

Danny

[Azgaron]

Nice start!

 

HÃ¥kan

[Whitey]

I've got access to the Lock On book and it is a good reference. Only a few of the jets were repainted in Barley Grey. I am going to model ZE356 - Q  and I am yet to find out whether it got repainted or not. Two of the guys I work with flew them, one as a pilot and one as a Nav. One of them is in the back of one of the J's in the Lock On book.They are hunting through their photos for more info for me.

 

I found out yesterday that Barley Grey is named after the gentlemen from the RAE camouflage division that created it - Mr Barley. Nothing to do with Barley growing in the field.

 

The RAF J's were able to pull 6G with the centreline tank on as opposed to 4G on the FGRs, so the guys liked to fly with the centreline tank. Strengthened fuselage underside due to USN operational requirements.

 

I also think that a 74 SQN F-4 is a good follow-on from Eric's 74 SQN Lightning that he recently finished and will look pretty cool sitting next to my RAAF 2 OCU Hornet. Nothing is more ferocious than a TIGER.

[Anthony in NZ]

Peter, great subject choice mate. I have the Yellowhammer decals if you want them?

 

Cheers

Anthony

[Monty Python]

F.S colours you need for ZE359 (J) are:

 

Fuselage, outer wing panels & tail planes F.S.35414. Xtracolour X127 is a perfect match. This has been proved against a piece of the actual a/c

Inner wing panels F.S.36270

Undersurface F.S.36440

 

ZE356 (Q) - ZE360 (O) - ZE361 (P) were repainted in standard RAF colours, Barley Grey, Medium Sea Grey & Light Aircraft Grey, in April 1988.

 

Hope this helps

Chris

Edited August 1, 2015 by Monty Python

[daveoh]

I have a tamiya F4 J and yellowhammer decals for the 74 sqdn jet set aside for a future project I quite like the jet with the tiger painted on the radome so that one will be my choice when I start it. I will watch this thread with eagle eyes.

Brilliant

Dave

[Monty Python]

IIRC,  the only 74sq F-4J that didn't have the DECM antenna fairings fitted on top of the intakes was ZE350 (T).

[Whitey]

Hi Anthony, thanks for the offer but I have them already.

 

Thanks Chris, it helps heaps, much appreciated. I'll have a play with a paint mule and see how that colour looks.

 

Monty, the big Tiger was only on the jet for a few days during a Tiger Meet and it apparently washed off during the exercise or on the way home, so I'm just going to do the standard nose flash, although I do agree the big Tiger would look sensational.

 

I've managed to do most of the construction bits this weekend but can't go much further until the rest of the cockpit details arrive so that I can see which parts I am going to use.

 

My biggest question is whether to cut the tailplane attachment plates so that the hot section of the tail area can be trimmed in place. I think I can but haven't assured myself how to keep the anhedral correct. And of course I haven't even thought about the dihedral on the outer wing panels yet, to ensure the correct angle that Tamiya apparently got wrong.

 

I guess that is why the call it modelling and not assembling.

Edited August 2, 2015 by Whitey

[LSP_Kevin]

Good to see you back at the bench with another project, Peter.

 

Kev

[Whitey]

Most of the assembly that I have completed so far.  The black tail looks cool.

 

Now to just wait for Mr Postman Pat to bring the rest of the goodies.

 

Plenty of detail work to do in the meantime.

 

[Whitey]

Hi Kev, it went on the bench the same day that I finished the Roland mate. Really keen to get this one in the cabinet - but only after a fully detailed build in public on LSP.