Tamiya F-4J Phantom VMFA-232 Red Devils *Finished*

[chuck540z3]

I honestly think you are too hard on yourself, because I think your weathering and staining is terrific.  This is such an "artsy" thing that like any art, some will like it and some might not.  I also think less is more sometimes and you have the right right balance- at least to my eye.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[AlbertD]

49 minutes ago, chuck540z3 said:

I honestly think you are too hard on yourself, because I think your weathering and staining is terrific.  This is such an "artsy" thing that like any art, some will like it and some might not.  I also think less is more sometimes and you have the right right balance- at least to my eye.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

I do tend to second guess myself too much. I really like the look of the dirty streaks from vents, landing gear and other mechanical things. To me it makes it look like it's been there and done that. I think I'll probably leave it pretty much the way it is. It looks pretty right to my eye too. Its funny how hard it is to make weathering "look right". Whatever right is.

[Finn]

There is no right or wrong in weathering as it varied as you can see by the bottom of the tanks of this example:

 

and this one:

Jari

[Rockie Yarwood]

Albert, I think your weathering really looks the part, in no way is it overdone, and the finish on your ordnance is great. Keep up the good work!

 

Rockie

[AlbertD]

10 minutes ago, Finn said:

There is no right or wrong in weathering as it varied as you can see by the bottom of the tanks of this example:

 

and this one:

Jari

Seeing these two pictures along with others I have been using as references I do think I'm on the right track. The outer wing panels are really clean and the streaking on the fuselage looks about right. The only thing it might need is a bit of crud around the pylons. There is a learning curve with weathering for sure.

[Brett M]

5 hours ago, AlbertD said:

That makes sense Alex. I tried to do that with the fuel tank and worried it look like too much. It's a fine balance between too much and not enough. I play with it more tomorrow and see if I can't blend it a bit more and dirty up the white parts a bit more. 

I agree with Alex, blend out the heavy spots a bit. You could probably add even more dirt across the belly, especially based on the other photos posted.

[AlbertD]

This is about what I was after except maybe a bit more subtle.

[Squizzy 78]

I think it looks awesome! With phantoms anyone could find a photo to support the level of weathering that matches their idea of what it should be, due to the fact they ranged from fresh paint to the extreme heavily weathered examples in the Vietnam war. 
I think yours is a really nice mid range level of weathering that it helps show off the detailing and shows good effect, but not too much or over done. 

[Alex]

7 hours ago, AlbertD said:

This is about what I was after except maybe a bit more subtle.

That's a great full-view reference to work from!  I'm noting that the horizontal stabs are much dirtier (exhaust staining I suppose) than the rest.  Did you do that on yours?

[AlbertD]

1 hour ago, Alex said:

That's a great full-view reference to work from!  I'm noting that the horizontal stabs are much dirtier (exhaust staining I suppose) than the rest.  Did you do that on yours?

Not yet but I plan too. I just did the first clear coat on the HB's a couple of days ago.

[vvwse4]

Hi Albert,

 

I shouldn't worry to much about this. It looks pritty good to me. Like Finn said you cannot go wrong with this. The one thing I would do is to fade the streaks behind the front Sparrow stations a bit more and maybe add a bit more brown tones?

 

The payload looks great, especially the MK82's. How did you do that? Mines are still brand new OD.

 

Keep it coming!!

 

Rick.

 

 

[AlbertD]

19 minutes ago, vvwse4 said:

Hi Albert,

 

I shouldn't worry to much about this. It looks pritty good to me. Like Finn said you cannot go wrong with this. The one thing I would do is to fade the streaks behind the front Sparrow stations a bit more and maybe add a bit more brown tones?

 

The payload looks great, especially the MK82's. How did you do that? Mines are still brand new OD.

 

Keep it coming!!

 

Rick.

 

 

Thanks Rick. For the bombs I primed the body in grey and the tails in black, hit them MRP OD, then sprayed them with matt acrylic clear then used some Mig Landing Gear Wash applied randomly.

Edited October 30, 2020 by AlbertD

[scimitarf1]

Note how the main wing box is relatively clean. It is the bit the inside pylons attach to.

Edited October 31, 2020 by scimitarf1
Spelling

[AlbertD]

2 hours ago, scimitarf1 said:

Note how the main wing box is relatively clean. It is the bit the in oats pylons attach to.

It's about the only place that is pretty clean on that picture. That is a Greek Phantom. The one thing about the Vietnam era Navy/Marine Corp Phantoms is they are painted in gloss epoxy paint. It stays cleaner than Matt paint and is also really tough. You never see one chipped up.

[ziggyfoos]

Looks excellent as-is to me. See so many models where the underside white is so overall weathered that it no longer even looks like the base color is white, yours has that proper dirty white look.