A.Wolf Grant Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 I've just dropped in on this and WOW! Fantastic work on the crew, very very nice indeed. I love what you're doing here, nice and clean too. Grant. Oh! And by the way, Welcome Aboard - I think you'll find you've found the friendliest forum on the web. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petrov27 Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Great work there - building up really slick! I would be terrified of messing up those cuts and that nearly priceless conversion set from CE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitbasha Posted July 31, 2012 Author Share Posted July 31, 2012 Barry, thank you for the fuselage vents/exhaust pics, they are superb, I would love to look thru' your picture archive!! Once all the various parts were cut, the plan was then to look into 'tweaking' the Tamiya J surfaces by removing bits of BDR and re-enforcing plates which are dotted over the surfaces, and adding panel line and rivet detail which I agree, CE did not finish properly on the wing tops, not sure why! Even Tamiya missed out the very obvious 'sawtooth' outer wing hinge lines which I will try and add. All the references I have jump in at the modified B and later N's and completely leave out early B models so it would have been educated guesswork. Barry, does the Danny Coreman's book have early B surface pics which I can use? If not, can you (or anyone else) point me towards a good source of surface pics? I have several pics of the VF-84 jets, but they are 'distance' shots and detail is not really obvious. Thank you all for the help and advice, I love this forum!!!!! Now starting some basic modifications to the cockpit tub, I'm not going to go mad here as a lot of it will be invisible under the closed canopies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitbasha Posted August 1, 2012 Author Share Posted August 1, 2012 Nice surprise today, the proof sheet for my decals arrived today, they were only printed in black/white on paper to allow me to cut them out and apply them to the model to check for size before committing them to print, they look ok to me! I'll pop a photo of the finished sheets when they arrive. Also made a start on the rear cockpit, I used the F-4 Detail and Scale book on the USN/Marine F-4 and the NATOPS drawings to get the basic panel shapes, I still have to box in the lower parts and add the panel that sits just under the canopy centre section, I've just got to measure how far out to mount it. Just to show how little of the cockpit can be seen with the figures in place, I dropped the RIO in with the lower part of the panels, hence why I won't go mad on detail! I plan to cut up the redundant kit instrument panels into individual panels that look similar and fit them to the blank panels after thinning them down on a sheet of sandpaper and spraying them black. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phantom Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 CAM made a sheet for the F-4B. I have a set. Not sure how accurate it is for that time frame but I will be using it when I build my F-4B. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitbasha Posted August 2, 2012 Author Share Posted August 2, 2012 I know which sheet you mean, I saw it and it looks like an upscaled version of the 1/48 Superscale sheet from many years ago. The fonts are incorrect and no large early style ejection seat warning triangles are included. The spine chevrons are also too short and also look a little too wide. The sheet I'm having made will be available if you want, I'll post details when I have the finished sheets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitbasha Posted August 2, 2012 Author Share Posted August 2, 2012 Just a little more work on the RIOs front panels, I've boxed in the sides and added the top panels.The references were a mixture of the cockpit photos of the F-4 B/N in the (excellent but very old!) Detail & Scale book by Bert Kinzey, and the photo/diagram in the NATOPS manual which shows a pre Shoehorn, Datalink and AIMS modified layout so hopefully it's pretty accurate for an early USN B, the canopy centre section was also test fitted to make sure there was enough clearance. In the second pic, I've roughly laid out the instrument panels and dials cut out and shaped to fit from the redundant kit parts. These will be thinned by rubbing them on wet 'n dry sand paper, plastic card backing added if needed then sprayed black before fitting. the next step is to build the panels on the RIOs left hand console using the same method. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tango1 Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Incredible!!! I love the crew figures, superb! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petrov27 Posted August 3, 2012 Share Posted August 3, 2012 Wow - it looks like that instrument panel is going to come out great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Posted August 3, 2012 Share Posted August 3, 2012 here is a link to some other vents http://partsrparts.homestead.com/F4parts.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitbasha Posted August 7, 2012 Author Share Posted August 7, 2012 Hi all, apologies for absence, work sometimes gets in the way! Just been sent a photo of the decal sheet which was custom made for this project, it looks amazing! it should be here any day now. If you would like a sheet, please contact Kelvin Pope at: kelvin@redfirecracker.co.uk (his website is www.redfirecracker.co.uk) He is happy to print some off for other modelers, please check with him for costs. This sheet has correct fonts, the older style ejection seat warning triangles, small 'VF-84' markings for the centre line fuel tank, yellow rescue/warning rectangles and the spine chevron is accurate and fits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitbasha Posted August 9, 2012 Author Share Posted August 9, 2012 A bit more work on the rear 'pit, made up a plasticard box section and cut/re-shaped the front left hand panel with more plasticard, the individual instrument panels were cut from the redundant kit parts and loosely test fitted, looking a little closer to an early B now! Hope to get painting finished and cockpit installed in the next few days as I'm itchin' to get the wings fitted!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotsman Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Beautiful work - I built my B when the conversion first came out , using a BB Resin coskpit , and made some changes to replicate the B elements , but nothing like your work . As I recall the hardest job as I recall was the application of rivets on the resin upper wings to tie in with the rest of the kit - the figures look excellent BTY - super job overall , I'll be following this one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitbasha Posted August 9, 2012 Author Share Posted August 9, 2012 Flattened off the instrument bezels and added plastic card backing, all mounted and ready for painting. Not sure why I did, but I test fitted the canopy frames and clear parts and I was really surprised at how much could be seen through the clear parts,probably because its a big model! Spent a few hours adding the rear bits of the kit RIO's instrument panel and some 0.2mm wire to the replacemnt RIO's panel, these will be fed into 0.3mm holes drilled into the bulkhead seperating the two cockpits after painting. Also added plastic card detail to the cockpit edges to represent the canopy locking mechanism, and the front and rear canopy jacks, which were shortend and detailed with wire. Will be spraying the cockpit tub next then fitting the instruments. In reply to Scotsman, I've got the Trumpeter rivet marking tool, been practicing on bits of scrap and it seems ok! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Starling Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 coming along very well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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