78 replies to this topic

[TaffyMan]

Good show mate - all the FAF is paying off! looking good   really like the alclad work!

 

Taff

[Bill Cross]

Nice work, especially the Alclad. I'm waiting for a cockpit to finish up my Kurnass (and some resin M117s, but may go with the Trumpy ones if necessary).

Edited by Bill Cross, 03 February 2015 - 06:07 PM.

[BloorwestSiR]

Thanks Taff!

 

Bill, what part of the cockpit are you waiting on?

 

Continuing on with my build, I fitted the upper wings. 

 

 

The fit was fairly good and there were only a couple of thin gaps at the wing root. I filled these with Mr Surfacer 500 and smoothed them with Tamiya lacquer thinner. 

 

 

 

[BloorwestSiR]

While that was drying, I decided to start working on the landing gear. Which was probably a good thing. Upon inspection of the metal bits, I noticed quite a bit of flash on them:

 

 

 

 

I guess the moulds are starting to show their age.

[BloorwestSiR]

I added the outer wing panels after adding a small shim (visible in some of the previous photos) to correct their angle.

 

 

 

I also attached the nose cone. It's really starting to look like a Phantom now.

[BloorwestSiR]

The last bit of progress I have is on the tail fin cap. There are two different versions in the kit but neither quite matches what is on the actual aircraft compared to the pics in Jake Melamy's book. 

 

 

I checked the F-4E kit and there is another version in there. It's still not a perfect match but was a bit closer.

 

 

Since my F-4E kit is in the midst of being converted to a G, the tail fin cap wasn't needed so I used that on my build.  i don't have a pic but I rounded off the pointed end a bit to make it a better match.

 

Carl

[BloorwestSiR]

A bit more progress. I assembled and painted the landing gear. No real challenges here. I gave the gear a wash using Mig wash to high light the details.

 

 

The inner underwing pylons were assembled as well. 

 

 

Photos just show the inner pylons mounted so I filled in the outer pylon mounting holes. They're in the wrong place anyways.

 

 

Lastly, I started the painting. I sprayed the nose and outer wing sections Neutral Grey, using Mr Colour.

 

 

Hopefully, I will get to the Gunship Grey tonight. Then it's the detail painting of the walkways which might be a pain.

 

Carlh

 

 

[BloorwestSiR]

I started masking the Neutral Grey off for the Gunship Grey. It looks to me like the demarcation is on the hard side so I outlined it with 0.7mm masking tape. This width is quite flexible and follows contours and curves really well. 

 

 

 

Around the nose cone, I used 1.0mm as it's a straight line without any bends in it.

 

 

The underside:

 

 

[BloorwestSiR]

Well, seeing as there are only 3 days left in the GB, I don't think I'll be finished in time. I thought I would but lost a bunch of time helping my in-laws move from their home in Northern Ontario (Sudbury) down to Toronto. It was worth it though. It will be nice to have them closer to us as my boys love to see them and their nieces are close by too. And I've been too tired this week to do much work on it. I'll keep plugging away at it as I want to get her done.

 

So here's where I am at the moment. The Gunship Grey is on and I've started on the walkway stripes. 

 

 

I'm using the walkways from the F-4J kit as a template for their shape and location so hopefully they won't be too far off. 

 

From there, I need to finish the ejection seats, cockpit coamings and canopies. Decals too. Thankfully since it's an airshow bird, no bombs and/or missiles.

 

Carl

[BloorwestSiR]

Ok, just spent the last hour and a half at the workbench and masked and painted the walkways.

 

 

A close up of the one on top of the intakes which reverse colour.

 

 

The vertical tail is just placed on and not glued yet. But it's looking better.

 

Anyone know if this plane had all the "No Step" and "No Push" stencils on the upper wing? I can't tell from the photos I have and I'm not sure if they're there or not.

 

Carl

Edited by BloorwestSiR, 26 February 2015 - 04:04 AM.

[JJYL]

nice progress, looking forward to the final product

[dodgem37]

Very sharp work, Carl.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[Peterpools]

Carl

Terrific progress on the Big Phantom. Sure is looking good

Keep 'em coming

Peter

[BloorwestSiR]

Thanks everyone. With the recent 1 month extension announced by Kevin, it looks like I should get this done in time.

 

To celebrate a bit, I started work on the stencils that seem to cover the aircraft. I found an Eduard PE mask set for the stencils in my stash so decided to make use of it.

 

 

Here are the "No Push" ones on the starboard wing. I then taped the "No Step" ones onto the port wing. This way there isn't any overlap between them. Eduard doesn't give you enough of each to do the whole wing so it was going to have to be done in stages any ways. 

 

 

 

The large rectangle is for the honeycomb shaped "No Step" markings that go over the wheel bays. They are a two step approach. First you attach the base and then fill it in with the honeycomb mask, After spraying it, you remove that and replace it with the "No Step" one.

 

[BloorwestSiR]

Here they are with some additional masking tape in place to prevent overspray. 

 

 

I also did the tailplanes and I think this will be the best place for use of these as there is the large sections covered in Alclad and this way, there is no risk of silvering from decals.

 

 

I used a Tamiya X-18 semi-gloss black thinned with their lacquer thinner to spray the stencils. This would give me a quick drying time so I could remove the stencils and do the next set.

 

 

After the first set was removed. You can also make out the initial honeycomb markings over the wheel bays.

 

 

 

Edited by BloorwestSiR, 01 March 2015 - 04:38 PM.