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

[AlbertD]

Ok guys, I need an honest opinion on the seats. These are the Quickboost seats with molded in seatbelts. I still have the Aires seats and PE belts that I can still paint up and use. Also have a set of Eduards painted PE belts I could use with the Aires seats.

[Landrotten Highlander]

To me eye everything looks fine.  The seatbelts appear very natural and have an appropriate thickness and detail.  I am not sure what PE seatbelts would improve on what you have here.

The only other issue I can think of would be that the seats do not suit your bird (i.e. wrong mark or whatever, I have little knowledge in that respect) and the aires seats are of the right mark.  But if that is not the case then I would use these seats as they are now.

[AlbertD]

34 minutes ago, Landrotten Highlander said:

To me eye everything looks fine.  The seatbelts appear very natural and have an appropriate thickness and detail.  I am not sure what PE seatbelts would improve on what you have here.

The only other issue I can think of would be that the seats do not suit your bird (i.e. wrong mark or whatever, I have little knowledge in that respect) and the aires seats are of the right mark.  But if that is not the case then I would use these seats as they are now.

Thanks for the input. I understand these are the correct seats for the J model. Looking at the larger pictures I see they need a bit of touch up but that's a piece of cake.

[vvwse4]

Hi Albert,

 

The belts, the seats also, are looking good to me. Maybe a little dry brushing to create a little more dept but thats all.

 

Rick

[Derek B]

Those seats have come out really well Albert, especially the colours. Some useful advice has been offered. For me though, matting them down a bit more would help them look a little less 'shiny' in areas, so look a little better for the scale (I used to work on these seat types, so am fully aware that the real things were far from a matt finish, but it can sometimes look a little unrealistic on a scale model).

 

Still, looking great Albert, well done  

 

Derek

[AlbertD]

17 hours ago, vvwse4 said:

Hi Albert,

 

The belts, the seats also, are looking good to me. Maybe a little dry brushing to create a little more dept but thats all.

 

Rick

 

5 hours ago, Derek B said:

Those seats have come out really well Albert, especially the colours. Some useful advice has been offered. For me though, matting them down a bit more would help them look a little less 'shiny' in areas, so look a little better for the scale (I used to work on these seat types, so am fully aware that the real things were far from a matt finish, but it can sometimes look a little unrealistic on a scale model).

 

Still, looking great Albert, well done  

 

Derek

Thanks for the comments and advice. I will try a little dry brushing then dull them down a bit.

[allthumbs]

Hi Albert,

 

Your Phantom project is coming along great!

 

One advantage of the Aires seats, with their separate belts and harnesses is that it give the modeler an opportunity to pose the latter more realistically. The shoulder harnesses in particular were under tension from inertial reels and therefore gathered upward. Quickboost (and others) seemed to have portrayed them as seen in pictures of removed seats that are undergoing maintenance.

 

Typical pose...

 

Less typical for an operational seat...

 

 

[Finn]

Albert, no need to worry about over weathering but even this is a bit too much i think:

 

 

Jari 

[AlbertD]

2 minutes ago, Finn said:

Albert, no need to worry about over weathering but even this is a bit too much i think:

 

 

Jari 

I think the crew chief needs a red mark on his Fit Rep.

[jep1210]

On 9/17/2020 at 2:56 PM, AlbertD said:

I went ahead and lightened up the panels above the titanium area and it does look better. I also went over the way too dark touch up looking paint top and bottom and it's now really subdued and just look like pre-shading in those areas. It's just enough to show a bit of a difference. Much better to my eye.

 

 

Oh man, that looks killer!!! I think I missed it somehow but what did you use for the blue and burnt metal (goldish tone) effect?

Edited September 26, 2020 by jep1210

[AlbertD]

1 hour ago, jep1210 said:

Oh man, that looks killer!!! I think I missed it somehow but what did you use for the blue and burnt metal (goldish tone) effect?

Thanks for the kind words. I used mostly MRP paint. I started with gloss black, then super silver. After that I used clear metallic blue, violet and burnt iron. Then I hit it with some pale burnt metal and finished off with some Alclad jet exaust. It's the pale burnt metal that has the golden tone. Have also pu stencils on bottoms of both wings. A very long way to go.

Edited September 26, 2020 by AlbertD

[Anthony in NZ]

Nice update Al, I bet even that took some time to do!  There is something very cool about those hi viz markings

 

Great job!

[Finn]

Here is a seat from a F-4J being worked on, even though it is in b&w the upper ejection handle "yellow" is darker than the lower ejection handle:

 

Jari

 

[Finn]

Here is another pic, since it is clean looking, is #15 and doesn't have the Red Devil logo painted on, maybe it is a replacement for #15 that had the tail damage:

 

 

Jari

[AlbertD]

21 minutes ago, Finn said:

Here is another pic, since it is clean looking, is #15 and doesn't have the Red Devil logo painted on, maybe it is a replacement for #15 that had the tail damage:

 

 

Jari

It has the same bomb load as my build too. Just missing the rocket pods. It's way too clean though. Also the MER is in the forward position. 

Edited September 27, 2020 by AlbertD