Durangokid

Always nice to see your finished builds and this one does not disappoint! Everything has to be perfect to pull of that gloss black scheme but you nailed it. Great WIP too... Bryan

Seriously? Wow, that sounds crazy to me. Imagine what it would cost for my Dodge Ram truck... Bryan

This is the same BS they pulled a few years ago. I can't believe they are still in business. It's one thing to start charging or raise rates but it's a whole other level to hold everyone's images hostage like they do. Bryan

Helluva Job and a great cause! She really looks fantastic! Bryan

Hey Brian, I used 6000 grit but it was well used before I sanded the decals. I couldn't sand the yellow decals on the bottom because the ink would spread instead of fade. The good thing is the yellow part of the decals were very fine and not overly bright.

I used 50/50 with leveling thinner and it worked perfectly and I think you psi is good too. Kev and Chuck are your best sources for X-22. I used it for the first time a short time ago and it will be my go to gloss from now on... Bryan

I like it! Great job weathering the natural metal too. How was the fit? Bryan

I think the decals look really good. You would have to see them side by side with photos of the real aircraft to notice a difference. On a side note, have you ever thought of getting a cutter to recreate the decals? Either way, it looks fantastic! I'm always going through your threads to see what kind of ideas I can learn from you. Bryan

Good stuff Kev, I'm really glad you passed that one around. I had been using MRP clear gloss with pretty good results but it seemed to take a lot of coats to get really glossy. X-22 didn't take nearly as much and it is incredibly glossy. I did end up sealing the decals with MRP semigloss and there were no issues with the hotter paint on top of it. I would have used X-22 to seal them but I like to use semigloss for the oil weathering plus I'm running a bit low on the X-22. Funny thing is, I've had that X-22 sealed in the bottle for over 10 years and it was still like new.

I'm really looking forward to this! I've been wanting to to build this kit with those exact decals for a long time now. The only thing that has stopped me is knowing how much work I would have to put in, so I have to be in the right frame of mind to start a project like this. Plus with my luck, Tamiya will release a new mold kit when I'm about half way through! Great work so far and I can't wait to see more! Bryan

So after hearing Chuck and a lot of other modelers talking about Tamiya's X-22 gloss if figured I would give it a try and it's fantastic. I think it's the best I have tried for sure. I used Mr. Color leveling thinner to thin it and I think getting the 50/50 mix correct is important. I thinned it a bit much when painting the bottom which didn't turn out as glossy as the top. I ended up respraying the bottom with the correct mix and all was well. I also have the F-4 stencils from both AOA Decals and Cam. AOA's decals are by far the most detailed set I have seen on any aircraft. In fact, it's daunting with the amount of stencil required for F-4J. The F-4 had several different ejection seat triangles stencils and the Cam set had the ones that were on my aircraft. I used those and the 'danger' part of the intake decal. It took me a week working a few hours at a time to get this thing stenciled up. My only complaint, and it's a minor one, is that every single stencil marking is a separate decal. There are as much as 7 separate stencil decals on one square inch of the model which added to the time consuming process. Time consuming or not, these are just amazing and a must have if you are doing a F-4B or J. Thanks for making these AOA! I only have a few old photos of the aircraft I'm building and some of them show a fairly weathered bird. I think because this was on a ship really dirtied it up a bit more than what I saw with other Vietnam era F-4's. Because of that, I'm assuming a lot of the stencils were wore down although it seemed they were still visible on a lot of weathered aircraft. I decided I would use all the stencils provided but sanded them down to give it the worn look. It tool a lot of time to do since you have to go slow and use a soft grit sandpaper so as not to rip them down completely. I think it came out ok for the most part. I think this angle give you an idea of how smooth and glossy the X-22 is. Some wing stencils before sanding. P.S. You will notice that there is a crack where the intake meets the airframe . Apparently I didn't get enough superglue there so I had to fix that. Always gotta be something! After sanding, what do you guys think? The kit decals were terrible, it was like trying to decal with wax paper they were so thick and would't go down. Even after spraying them with decal sealer they still broke apart a bit. The canopy decals for the names were even worse. Luckily I was able to save it since this was all I had. Sorry for the crappy photos guys and I totally forgot to take pics of the bottom. My good camera is down and this thing is so big it's hard to photograph. I forgot to mention that I painted the intake leading edges aluminum. The instructions say red but it looked like metal to me in the limited photos I have, most of which are black and white. I could be totally wrong on this one. Some of you with a keen eye would notice I changed the tail number from 01 to 02. I was originally going to build 01 but I got confused when I drew the masks and it was a lot easier to change the tail number rather than repaint all the others. Brandon Wood actually caught that little detail! The original 01 aircraft was shot down by a sam missile after it shot down two enemy migs. The pilots had borrowed aircraft 01 so the kill markings were applied to their aircraft 02. Does anyone know if the kill markings were applied while they were deployed or when they returned stateside? Seems I remember reading they were applied while deployed but I can't find the source again. Thanks for stopping by fellas... Bryan

I've lightly sanded decals and the key part is 'lightly'. I used 8000 grit and it's a slow process but if you use a stronger grit, it's likely to have a ripping affect. Some decals are printed over white. So if you have a red decal that was printed over white, you will see the white part as you sand away the red part. Hope that make sense... Bryan

Man, you are in a class of your own! Bryan

Great work! I love the F-16 and you really did a good job capturing that weathered look of the Greek bird. Bryan

Thanks for all the great comments everyone! I haven't been able to take very good photo since my good camera is having problems, at least my phone camera is decent. I may have said this already but I'm using tamiya masking sheets to make the masks. I don't know if that is the best medium since I have yet to try vinyl. I think the tamyia type tape is better for sharp curves and seals the edges really well, in fact, I haven't had a bit of edge bleed. The biggest issue I had is placing the mask itself. You have to get it perfect the first time because you won't be able to lift it and reset it. I had to re-cut a few mask because I didn't place it where I wanted it. I don't know if vinyl has the same problem, maybe some of they guys more familiar with vinyl can comment. Anyway on the to build photos. I masked and painted the metal areas. I've never done this before so I did a lot of research and did some experimenting of my own. It went like this: - Overall first coat of Alclad Aluminum. - A few panels with Alclad Dark Aluminum. - Some more panels with MRP Anodizes Aluminum - Some lower panels with MRP Exhaust Metal - AK Pale Burnt Metal mostly on the rear areas - Spot painted areas with AK Metal Smoke - Mr. Color Smoke I tried to do some panels with chipping fluid but it didn't work out so well. The metal paint over the chipping fluid chipped so easily that it almost all rubbed off. I ended up using 8000 grit sandpaper to give it the used look. It didn't come out like I planned but I think it good enough to move on. Let me know what you guys think... I still have a few areas to touch up but I'm calling the metals areas done for the most part. P.S. The tail isn't glued on, it just there for the photo Bryan