MarioS

Based upon the above, here's what I did with the bottom.
 
BEFORE
 
 

 
 
AFTER
 

 
 
With the wings out of the way, I turned my attention to some flaws on the intakes.  As shown earlier, there is a huge gap on the inside of each intake at the front. 
 
 

 
 
Since it's on the inside, I doubt that many would know about it, much less fix it, but it was bugging me so here's the first step.  I used more styrene to fill most of the void, followed by CA glue, then sanded everything down flush.  Here's the first step.  I will show the completed fix later after some paint.
 
 

 
 
The rear of the intake ramp has a couple of flaws, other than the unsightly gap.  Those circular panels should only be visible when the ramps are in the down position and disappear when the ramp is up and flat.  The rear of the ramp is a bit too thick as well.
 
 

 
 
To fix the side gap, I used more styrene, which also provided a flush edge for the ramp to be glued to later, since my ramps will not be movable.  Moving ramps = paint scratches and they should always be flat when parked anyway.
 
 

 
 
Now my fix for the top using styrene sheet, which achieves 3 things:
 
The circular panels are covered. The slope of the rear of the intake is reduced, as it should be. The rear of the ramp looks thinner.  
 

 
 
That's it for now boys, but I can see the end of this build in sight now.
 
Cheers,
Chuck

Very nice job on the F-4S Marcel. That paint work looks perfect.

Great thread Dale and also great bunch of planes/photos here; one of my favourites is the B-17.
 
Here's my contribution some old, some new, some painted and some mine.
 
Another old favourite is the F-14 one of the photos that I've put up here, there are so many photos on the net but I think this one says it all just Can't Stop Looking At It
 

 
 
Thanks,

Great thread Dale and also great bunch of planes/photos here; one of my favourites is the B-17.
 
Here's my contribution some old, some new, some painted and some mine.
 
Another old favourite is the F-14 one of the photos that I've put up here, there are so many photos on the net but I think this one says it all just Can't Stop Looking At It
 

 
 
Thanks,

Thx guys!
 
Some pics with the masking off:
 

 
You may think that I am getting very close to completion but there are many, many touch-ups and eooros to fix. I got quite a bit of paint lifting from the metal sections and also quite a bit of paint creeping under the masking.
 
The streaky underside:
 

 
Here is what some of the red lights look like. As a reminder, I made these from red acrylic plastic (sourced dirt-cheap on ebay).
 

 

 
I have major work-travel coming up so there will likely not be all that much progress in the next two months--pity, I am really keen to finish this and move on to the F-16 double-build.
 
Cheers,
 
Marcel

Thx guys! Chuck, yes, I can't wait to take that tape off, pretty close now... although I am always apprehensive about possible "leaks".
 
At the risk of being very repetitive, I thought I'd show how she looks with some flat coat on. This is the first time I got a good impression of what the overall look is and I am pleased how it turned out... note how much lighter the dark blue/gray shade is once it is flat.
 

 

 
 
Here is a closer look at some of the weathering. Note the distressed look of the paint. As far as oil streaks etc. are concerned, this is as much as I will do, I think this is appropriate and reconciles with pics of VMFA-112 Phantoms I have found online.
 

 

 

 

 
Here are some magnified views of the nose section. Shoot, noticed some little errors there I hadn't seen before. 
 
I really had to wing it with some of the stencilling.
 

 

 
Cheers,
 
Marcel

Hi, Just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying reading this thread. You are a serious wealth of modeling "how to" information.
 
That being said, I do have a question; on 1/17 you posted about using LS to beef up a pin the you had undermined while adding depth to a vent. I've heard of using LS on different threads, but no one has really offered up any information that I've found on how to make LS, use and store it. Could you do a small tutorial on that? How long is it good for once it's made etc. Thanks in advance! 
 
Bill

Well, you came to the right person Bill, because I have made every mistake possible with Liquid Sprue (LS), so here goes for those who care!  I'll start with the basics.  As simple as it is, there are some things to watch out for.
 
Liquid Sprue is just basically plastic sprue pieces melted in plastic cement, like Tamiya Extra Thin Cement (TETC) or many other cements that weld plastic together by melting them.  I find that after I use about 2/3's of a jar of TETC, it will be quite cloudy due to brush contamination, so it's a good candidate for the creation of LS.
 
1)  Starting with a jar of cement about 1/3 full, add a few small pieces of plastic sprue and let them sit overnight covered.  Don't overdo the addition of plastic, because it's easier to add more plastic than more glue later if you don't get the mixture correct.  Make the pieces of plastic small, so that they are easy to dissolve.
 
2)  Stir the mixture until is is fully mixed the next day.  Your target viscosity is that of ordinary honey.  If the mixture is too thin, add more sprue.  If it's too thick, add more glue, etc.
 
 
When I first discovered LS during my 1/32 A-10C build, I thought I was in heaven.  What better filler in plastic than more of the plastic itself!?  Well, it didn't turn out that easy for these reasons.
 
1)  LS shrinks like crazy, depending on how thick it is.  This shrinkage can take anywhere from 1-2 days to months(!), depending on how thick you apply it.  50% shrinkage is common.
 
2)  The thicker the application of LS, the slower it will dry.
 
3)  Until the LS is very dry, it won't sand at all.  It just flexes with the sandpaper and won't shear.
 
4)  If mixed too vigorously, LS can trap air bubbles that are very hard to get rid of.
 
5)  LS can melt everything around it and make it soft if it is applied too thick.
 
 
I had many problems with LS initially and they can all be blamed on applying it too thickly and not giving it enough time to dry properly.  I had LS continuously shrink for as long as 3 months and deform adjacent parts, which is not a lot of fun after you've already painted your model, so here are some tips.
 
 
1)  Apply LS in thin coats with the brush in the bottle or microbrush, never more than 2 mm at a time.  Let each coat dry overnight (and shrink) before the next coat.
 
2)  Like paint, LS will tend to dry out over time in the bottle, so add more glue as required before each application.
 
3)  Again, you want a honey-like consistency to the mixture.  If thinner, it will be too harsh on surrounding plastic and if thicker, it is too hard to apply.
 
4)  Keep LS ventilated!  If LS is enclosed and not exposed to moving air, it won't dry.
 
 
So with all those warnings and caveats, one might wonder why one would ever use LS at all?  Well, if you have lots of time for it to dry- as I did reinforcing those posts in the fuselage- it is the same color as the plastic, sands like the plastic and welds to the plastic better than any filler.  You can even make small parts with it.  I use CA glue for most of my filling needs, but sometimes Tamiya putty is the answer and at other times Liquid Sprue is just the ticket.
 
Happy Modeling,
Chuck

Thank you everyone!
 
In my haste to fill in that big gap on the bottom of the wing, I forgot to replace the rivet detail.  Soooo, better late than never.  As Chris said, Tamiya Extra Thin Cement is fantastic stuff.
 
 
Before....
 
 

 
 
And now after, with more rivet detail added.  Note how the other panel lines have tightened up as well by just re-scribing them.
 
 

 
 
Cheers,
Chuck

Here is what I did to the wing to add detail, which has been highlighted with more black Tamiya panel line accent color.  In general, the rivet pattern of the kit parts was doubled, but in real life you could easily triple the rivets and not be wrong.  This looks like quite enough to my eye….
 
 

 
 
A few “walk-around†close-ups…..
 
 

 

 

 
 
I did not add as much detail to the bottom of the wings for 2 reasons.  Pics of the bottom of the real deal are almost impossible to find and, more importantly, you'll never see them later anyway!
 
 

 
 
I also drilled out the fuel dump spouts on the wing tips, since the kit parts are fairly blunt with no relief.
 
 
]
 
 
That's it for now boys.  I drive on with this build at my own pace and when I feel like it, unlike past builds where I felt obligated to post updates, rather than post them when I wanted to.  I find this process much more fun! 
 
 
Cheers,
Chuck

They do look amazing chuck it's as though you just miniaturised the real thing somehow. You used your magic paintbrush and shrunk them down to 32 scale.

Mar 6/17
 
Thanks guys.  With all those kind comments the pressure to perform is immense, so I hope I don't disappoint!
 
 
The final product.  I hope you like them because they weren't easy- with no Photoshopping whatsoever, other than lighting tweaks.
 
 

 
 
In case you want to do something similar, here's how I did the above.  First off, is the choice of Alclad colors.  On the resin block I cut the Two Mikes nozzles from, I sprayed a few Alclad colors as shown below as a test.  Unfortunately, the exact colors do not photograph very well, but it appeared to my eye that Magnesium was good for most of the outside of the nozzle, a bit of Steel for the middle portion and a combination of Steel, Stainless Steel and Hot Metal Blue for the outside base.  Note the light colored Alclad Steel on the left has some of the paint removed due to masking tape pulling it off.  More on that later.
 
 

 
 
As indicated above, it was my intention to color the outside of the inner nozzle petals a light blue, as per the reference pics shown.  To paint these petals a separate color is just about impossible at this late stage with all of the complicated obstacles around them, but I did have a plan that was almost as good.  A little known fact about the Tamiya pastels is that they are not oil based like most pastels, but water based, which means they can be dissolved in water to form a wash.  Here I have scraped off some of the Burnt Blue pastels into a cup and added a drop or two of water.
 
 

 
 
I then “painted†the blue wash onto the individual petals that should be blue on the outside, as shown in earlier posts of the real deal.  One really cool thing about this wash is that it is easily removed with water, so if I screw up and get the wash painted on some parts that I shouldn't (and you will!), it is easily removed with water.
 
Alclad does not like to be touched with human hands due to skin oil that removes some of the lacquer.  Some Alclad colors -especially the lighter colored ones like Stainless Steel that I used on the base (along with Hot Metal Blue)- also do not react well to masking tape either.  After the bases are painted, they need to be masked off so that the rest of the nozzle can be painted a darker color. But how do you do that without removing some of the paint? 
 
An old modeling trick that I learned years ago for sensitive areas is to use Tamiya masking tape, but touch each piece of tape to your forehead to absorb oils from your skin, which reduces the tack of the tape.  As gross as that may sound and ironically, the reason you shouldn't touch the Alclad with your hands is the same reason the tack of the tape has been reduced enough to still mask without sticking too hard to the thin and fragile lacquer.  Here I show another trick to hold the nozzles securely without touching them with my hands, with the masking tape “de-tacked†at the base.  Plain old paper, rolled into a tube, provides a perfect platform to hold the nozzle without touching it while painting it- and it masks off the interior at the same time.  Set in a small raised box like the one below, it doesn't touch anything while it dries.
 
 

 
 
 
Magnesium and Steel have been applied, then the Blue pastel wash....
 
 

 
 
A few more angles of the finished product.  I think I've "Done Good".
 
 

 

 
 
Dry fit to the rear fuselage, I think this will look excellent when the model is finished.
 
 

 
 
Tip #1:  Dry fit the base of the nozzle to the fuselage many times before you attach the rest of the exhaust nozzle to this base, making the necessary changes (sanding and #11 knife) to make the base fit cleanly and snug without a lot of drama.  Left on their own, the kit parts do not fit very well at all, with the port side nozzle fit that is very tight, if not impossible to attach without modification.  You do not want to struggling with the nozzle attachment with 150 tiny parts and a good paint job at a later time.
 
Tip #2:  Get rid of that little tab on the inside of the exhaust nozzle that forces you to install it on the fuselage at a certain angle.  You will have some really good looking angles to your exhaust and maybe some not so great ones, so by cutting off this tab, you can rotate the nozzle to show off the best at the top and bottom and maybe hide some imperfections on the sides against the tail booms, that nobody will ever see.
 
Thanks for your continued interest in this build.  This thread is now a bit over 1 year so far, but I have never put a model on a shelf so far (although tempted from time to time), so I WILL finish this project!
 
Cheers,
Chuck

Thanks.
 
I can't take credit for that fantastic reference pic of the nozzle detail, nor the one below.  Although most of my previous pics in this thread are photos I took myself, I get some really good ones from the very source:  USAF Public Photos, like this one.  So cool.....
 
thi
 
 
 
This pic, however, is mine on a desert Aggressor.  Note the brownish tinge on the nozzle petals, which I think may be due to reflection from the brown paint job on the jet? 
 
 

 
 
Cheers,
Chuck

"Sometimes modeling is hard labor and this was one of those times, but I'm hoping the end result will be worth it! "
 
 
 
Chuck, I'm sure we all know the answer to that the end result will be nothing but perfect and
 
 
BTW I see what you guys mean about those U-shaped end pieces the PE ones do look better than the out of the box
 
Looking Good

Feb 28/17
 
Thanks you very much guys!
 
Rather than just yak about the Eduard turkey feather anchor points discussed above any longer, I got down to business last night and just installed the little suckers.  Up until now, each nozzle has 105 pieces that have been added and with the actuator arms (15) and these new PE parts (30), each nozzle has 150 X 2 = 300 tiny little parts that had to be cut off, trimmed, sometimes bent and glued into place!
 
Here's how small they are, 60 in all that had to be bent into the U shape.....
 
 

 
 
The kit actuator arms need to be both shortened, but trimmed as well to a taper at the tip.  They are actually thinner than this on the real deal, but I wanted them to fit the brass attachment points as perfectly as possible.  The unaltered kit part on the left and the trimmed part on the right.  Note the slight trimming of the sides on the left to allow a snug fit into the PE attachment points.
 
 

 
 
To get all 30 arms cut exactly the same length, this little chopping block gizmo was invaluable.  I hardly every use it, but when you need it, it comes in very handy.
 
 

 
 
A super close-up of how these arms fit into place within the Eduard PE parts.  Keep in mind this shot is about as close as you can get, so every tiny flaw is magnified.
 
 

 
 
Zoomed out, you can see the nozzles after final assembly, including all those tiny U-shaped anchor points on the bottom collar.  The base of each nozzle was pre-painted with Tamiya gloss black lacquer before installation into the bottom collar to allow for easy access and eliminate any air turbulence that can make the paint rough.  The rest of the nozzle can now be painted black without worrying about getting into those complicated tight spots within the base.
 
 

 
 
Another angle more from the top, to show that looking almost head-on, the width of the petals does not look as thick as from the sides.  After painting the interior white (with the appropriate dark staining) and the outside a mix of Alclad Titanium and Steel, the appearance of this width should be subdued even more.
 
BTW, for laughs, I tried to sand one of the petals down a bit and got the predictable results.  As mentioned earlier, these Two Mikes nozzles are too soft to sand, so all you wind up doing is scratching them, so they are better off left as is.
 
 

 
 
That's it for now, so my next post will likely have these nozzles painted a multitude of subtle colors and stained appropriately, but not too much.  This is one of the parts of modeling that I really love because it allows me to be a bit artsy.
 
 
Cheers,
Chuck

Congratulations,
 
Best thread of the year by far and large. Show us as much as possible of the painting of these exhausts.

Hi Mario,
 
Thanks for the great pics of the Flightpath kit.  While I am not surprised at the number of parts, I am relieved I didn't even try to buy or assemble such a kit.  As of last week, I'm one year into this build already and I bet those nozzles would add another 2-3 months!  As someone mentioned earlier, there is a very high chance of losing some of the parts to add to the challenge, so I wish you the best of luck.  If you have them built before this build thread is finished, please post some pics here because most of the ones I've seen on the 'net are not very clear.
 
I can't answer your question, but I have a partial guess that I bet is correct.  While I have no idea why Tamiya got the length of the nozzles so wrong, aftermarket suppliers almost always try to replicate the same dimensions of the kit parts they are creating to make sure that everything fits.  The diameter of the nozzles would be a good example of this, while the length is not, so perhaps Flightpath just assumed that Tamiya got everything correct for scale and the error just continues.  I have found this many times with resin parts, like the intake replacements for Tamiya F-4 kits.  Most of them have copied the raised panels on the intake sides, which are much too high for scale.  They are not "Battle Damage Repair' (BDR) panels as many have claimed, but panels that are often removed and have sealant applied when they are re-installed, creating a bit of a higher profile.  Tamiya tried to recreate the raised look, but the profile is about 3 X too high- as are many resin replacements.
 
Cheers,
Chuck

Hi chuck,
 
Those nozzles are looking good I think it's a great way to go with mix and matching the aftermarket parts with the kit parts to get the best result. As mentioned previously Im still wanting to use the Flightpath turkey feathers as the main part of the exhaust and also use as well the kit parts and aftermarket parts.
As I couldn't find any good decent photos on the net of the Flightpath PE Kit I decided to take my own after I bought it, as you can see below and also here's a link to some of the other photos that I've taken. They're not 100% crisp because I didn't use a macro lens… https://imgur.com/a/IFxqi
 
Question…
 
I'm no expert on the F-15 (or any other plane for that matter) so I'd like to ask a knowledge question if anyone can please answer. As ghatherly mentioned in his F-15C build, that he had to shorten the Flightpath feathers by 6 mm on each one and here that the kit once are to long. What I'd like to know did Flightpath and Tamiya get it ALL wrong or was there an F-15 with longer burner nozzles at the time this hobby parts were getting made???
 
Thanks, MarioS
 

Hi chuck,
 
Those nozzles are looking good I think it's a great way to go with mix and matching the aftermarket parts with the kit parts to get the best result. As mentioned previously Im still wanting to use the Flightpath turkey feathers as the main part of the exhaust and also use as well the kit parts and aftermarket parts.
As I couldn't find any good decent photos on the net of the Flightpath PE Kit I decided to take my own after I bought it, as you can see below and also here's a link to some of the other photos that I've taken. They're not 100% crisp because I didn't use a macro lens… https://imgur.com/a/IFxqi
 
Question…
 
I'm no expert on the F-15 (or any other plane for that matter) so I'd like to ask a knowledge question if anyone can please answer. As ghatherly mentioned in his F-15C build, that he had to shorten the Flightpath feathers by 6 mm on each one and here that the kit once are to long. What I'd like to know did Flightpath and Tamiya get it ALL wrong or was there an F-15 with longer burner nozzles at the time this hobby parts were getting made???
 
Thanks, MarioS
 

Hi chuck,
 
Those nozzles are looking good I think it's a great way to go with mix and matching the aftermarket parts with the kit parts to get the best result. As mentioned previously Im still wanting to use the Flightpath turkey feathers as the main part of the exhaust and also use as well the kit parts and aftermarket parts.
As I couldn't find any good decent photos on the net of the Flightpath PE Kit I decided to take my own after I bought it, as you can see below and also here's a link to some of the other photos that I've taken. They're not 100% crisp because I didn't use a macro lens… https://imgur.com/a/IFxqi
 
Question…
 
I'm no expert on the F-15 (or any other plane for that matter) so I'd like to ask a knowledge question if anyone can please answer. As ghatherly mentioned in his F-15C build, that he had to shorten the Flightpath feathers by 6 mm on each one and here that the kit once are to long. What I'd like to know did Flightpath and Tamiya get it ALL wrong or was there an F-15 with longer burner nozzles at the time this hobby parts were getting made???
 
Thanks, MarioS
 

Tamiya F-15 engine nozzles class 101 dismissed.
 
That was a very great way to point out all the differences of aftermarket and kit parts.
 
Thank you

Feb 23/17
 
Good Morning!
 
As a bit of a diversion from handling the big fuselage parts, I thought I would build the tail cone/ nozzles as a bit of a side project, which in this case turned into two little models all on their own.  As far as I can tell, we have 5 choices for the nozzles with my opinion and experiences as follows, which are admittedly personal.
 
Kit parts
 
Pro      They are free and they are clean on the outside.
 
Con     Detail is shallow, they are too long and the pin marks on the inside are very large and difficult to fill.
 
 
Cutting Edge
 
Pro      Very hard to find because they are OOP.
 
Con     Detail is so-so and I bet they are expensive.
 
 
GT Resin
 
Pro      Good raised detail, one piece (no assembly) and they come with the intake kit.
 
Con     Due to the complexity of the detail, there are a few minor flaws.
 
 
Two Mikes Resin
 
Pro      Clean and consistent in all areas.
 
Con     Detail is very shallow to non-existent.  The resin is also very soft, which makes cuts and sanding very difficult.  Assembly is required and they are expensive! ($29.00 + $6.50 shipping = $35.50 US)
 
 
Flightpath Photo-Etch
 
Pro      When assembled properly and cleanly, there is nothing that comes close to detail and accuracy.
 
Con     Very expensive and life is too short to assembly 8 million tiny PE parts.
 
 
To be fair to Gary at GT Resin, most of the minor flaws can be turned to the side against the tail booms where they will never be seen, but I wanted something to really be spectacular, because the F-15 engine nozzles are very complicated and to me, a focal point of any Eagle build. 
 
As for the soft nature of the Two Mikes resin, it's a real pain to cut because the resin flexes with a saw or sharp knife.  My experience with soft resin has also shown that it doesn't like to be painted either, so after washing the parts in soapy water, I applied a test coat of Tamiya lacquer to the resin blocks I cut off.  Sure enough, the parts repelled the paint in small bubbles after application.  The fix, as I have found, is to soak them briefly in regular lacquer thinner to remove any resin residue.  This will make the resin even more soft, but after drying for a few days, they will get a bit harder than they originally were- and they accept paint with no problems.  I emailed Two Mikes over 10 days ago about their soft resin and have not received a reply to date.
 
Now let's see some of the parts.  First, here's a pic of the kit parts and the Eduard F-15E Exterior PE Set (32-169) I have been dying to use.  There are a LOT of tiny parts, as you will soon see!
 
 

 
 
 
Besides being too long, here is the biggest flaw with the kit parts.  Those interior pin marks are HUGE!  Thankfully, if you go with the kit parts, the Eduard kit has PE covers for the offending blades as shown above.
 
 

 
 
Now a comparison between the GT Resin and the Two Mikes nozzles, that demonstrate some of the features of each as indicated above.  Cutting the blocks off the Two Mikes parts and gluing them together cleanly was very challenging.
 
 

 
 
If you choose to go with the kit parts, you should cut off 7/32†(5.6 mm) just above the collar as indicated on the pic below, then glue them back together.  I tried to do this and mostly failed, because the cut needs to be both perfectly straight AND at the right angle, which is almost impossible to do cleanly.  After a bit of a struggle, the Two Mikes nozzle doesn't look too bad as a platform for the Eduard parts.  BTW, the join between the parts actually exists on the real deal, so there is no need to fill the join.  The kit parts are only dry fit, hence the gaps, but you can see that some of them will never go away.
 
 

 
 
Here is what I did with all these parts and before I go any further, I would like to acknowledge Jesse Fuehrer (JesniF-16) who was likely the first to use these same parts in combination about 3-4 years ago on his F-15E build thread, which I don't think he finished.  Like Jesse, I used the small kit L-shaped control arms, because the Eduard parts were too one dimensional and I will be using the kit actuator arms, because the resin arms are not very well cast. There are 15 groups of parts on each nozzle and I used 8 parts per group, so there are 120 tiny parts to glue on each nozzle, or 240 parts in all!  I left off some of the super tiny PE parts because they were so small I couldn't even pick them up with tweezers, so good luck gluing them and you will likely not notice them later after paint.  I'm guessing I spent about 12 hours on these parts- and I'm not finished yet.
 
 

 
 

 
 
 
As you can see, I have only attached one kit control arm.  Each of the 30 arms needs to be trimmed shorter and although they are all very close in size, they are not identical, so I need to cut and trim them one arm at a time to make sure they fit perfectly.  Before I do, I'm going to paint the base of the nozzles with gloss black lacquer before I glue them into the kit bases to allow good painting access and avoid air turbulence, which can make the paint rough.
 
 

 
 
For my next update, I hope to have the nozzles finished.  I want these little suckers to look as good and accurate as possible, so this could take awhile!
 
Cheers,
Chuck

"Looking" good Milan

The fuselage is done, the gluing was relatively easy, but the attachment of the cannon cowl and the two tail tips will require quite some filling. Here are some pics before that. The cannon bay without paint:
 
 

 

 
+ paint:
 

 

 

 
Here is the cannon with the basic paint and some weathering. Still some decals and final touchups to follow.
 

 

 

 
And here is the hinge for the stabilators, it`s basically the original pin fitted very tightly in a cilinder, which is glued to the fuselage. This is the outer cylinder, which is visible, while the original pin is "riveted" with heat, and the stabilators rotate very smoothly.
 

 
That`s how it looked like before the gluing:
 

 

 
I think i`ll need something like a big table towel for the photos.

Yes great attention to all that patching
 
This will definitely be the F-15C to go to reference build of all TIME