easixpedro Posted January 30, 2021 Author Share Posted January 30, 2021 2 hours ago, shan said: there is a superset conversion from a F-4J to F-4B by GT Resin. I built one myself. its a good set, the only issue i had was that i think the moulds are not as crisp as other brands, so lots of touching up to do. Yes there is...but its been out of stock for some time. So I'm really going to show folks how easy it is to make a couple of cuts and get B variant. Of course it'd be much easier to have that conversion kit... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easixpedro Posted January 30, 2021 Author Share Posted January 30, 2021 OK, quick update. Was on a role this afternoon. Went pretty quick--think all in all it took me less than an hour total to cut everything out and replace w/ styrene. As I mentioned, I held onto the old parts. I laid a piece of tape over the part and traced the outline w/ a pencil. Transfer it to the styrene stock and cut around your marks. Easy as pie. Here's the underwing w/ replacements. The upper went the same way, however I just traced the piece I cut out onto a piece of styrene. Here's the underneath. You can see I shimmed it--don't want a ghost seam or an outright crack in that long expanse. You can also see what detail you'll lose and what needs to be built back. Here's an upside down view of the starboard wing, sans wheel humps. Here's the port wing--you can make out the humps, both upper and lower. And finally, I was on a roll and cut out the leading and trailing edge flaps. You can see how little area is left and why I replaced the bulges first. Surefire way to warp your wing otherwise. Will likely get the landing gear bays assembled and in this wing for stability prior to hacking away on everything else. As for time spent, I think I'm about 3 hours in, total and that's largely spent cutting out the flaps. Of course, I still need to scribe the upper wing where I replaced stuff, (keep the part for reference) but it's gone relatively quick. Gotta say I'm a huge fan of the PE saws--made it much easier this time around. Last time I obliterated a LOT of detail with a jewelers saw that I then had to go back and replace. These saws fit right in the panel line and don't take out any detail. That's it for now--thanks for following along and for the comments! -Peter Starfighter, Derek B, Gene K and 14 others 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbo59 Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 You’ve made this look easy. Who needs a conversion set? easixpedro, jenshb and Scotsman 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenshb Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 Looks like a manageable conversion, made a lot easier by the availability of narrow resin wheels and plenty of decals for the B and N. Thank you for providing this step by step instruction on how to do it. easixpedro 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony in NZ Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 You make it look so easy! Thanks for the step by step process. And thanks for your support of my build buddy! I shall follow this with great interest easixpedro 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easixpedro Posted January 31, 2021 Author Share Posted January 31, 2021 6 hours ago, jimbo59 said: You’ve made this look easy. Who needs a conversion set? 6 hours ago, jenshb said: Looks like a manageable conversion, made a lot easier by the availability of narrow resin wheels and plenty of decals for the B and N. Thank you for providing this step by step instruction on how to do it. 10 minutes ago, Anthony in NZ said: You make it look so easy! Thanks for the step by step process. And thanks for your support of my build buddy! I shall follow this with great interest I’ll be honest, I’ve converted about 10 of the old Monogram F-4Cs into Bs, so it gave me plenty of practice! Appreciate the kind words as that was my point of showing the steps. It’s fairly straight forward and within the skill level of most folks. I think the hardest part is deciding which Tamiya kit to go with! I’ll put in an order with Sprue Brothers here shortly to get some resin intakes and exhausts with the Thin B wheels thrown in to boot. I did get ahead of myself last night and I glued that wing together...forgetting that you have to screw the fuselage to the lower wing, and then attach the upper wing. Minor setback, and Why I’m ordering the other stuff, so I can close up the fuselage and move on. I’ll get some pics of how to convert the speedbrakes and gear doors to the thin wing. Also pretty easy. Thanks again for the comments, and more soon! Peter Gene K, Greg W, dmthamade and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easixpedro Posted January 31, 2021 Author Share Posted January 31, 2021 Here's a quick show and tell on how I'll modify the speed brakes and gear doors. They're bulged too and need modifying for the thin B wing. Here's a view of the bulge. You can see I've traced the outline on a sheet of .3 styrene stock. Sometimes I'll take the part in a pare of needle nose pliers and flatten them a bit. Will definitely do that with the inboard gear doors as they're too small to worry about. Next up is sanding. I know all of us do this to fit resin tubs into cockpits and gear wells. Just keep sanding till it's paper thin... Then trim off the excess and glue to your outline, and boom, a speedbrake suitable for the thin B wing! (still needs scribing to match the panel lines, but that's easy) Laying in place (that little triangular area behind the speedbrake could be thinned as well--there's a bit of the bulge left, but its less the .2 mm, so I'm leaving it so I don't mess up the detail there--no one would notice, even w/ the brakes closed) And how it'll look open. The majority of this will be blocked by the flaps being in the down position. The gear doors will be handled the same way--I don't know how big of a difference there is on the inner structures of the gear doors between the J and B variants, but I suspect not much. If anyone notices that in the midst of everything else, frankly I'll buy 'em a drink! Total time to modify the single speedbrake was about 1/2 an hour. -Peter johncrow, Landrotten Highlander, F-4Phanwell and 10 others 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenshb Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 If you have a Silhouette cutter, then you might even be able to trace the outline of the outer as well as inner skin and cut new parts from 0.25 mm plasticard. It may not cut all the way through, but deep enough that you can snap the parts out. Then add rivet detail. Anthony in NZ and Gene K 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easixpedro Posted January 31, 2021 Author Share Posted January 31, 2021 Just now, jenshb said: If you have a Silhouette cutter, then you might even be able to trace the outline of the outer as well as inner skin and cut new parts from 0.25 mm plasticard. It may not cut all the way through, but deep enough that you can snap the parts out. Then add rivet detail. Very true! But for me, it would take me longer to drag it out of the closet, set it up and do that than it took to sand down the kit part. There's some nice detail on the Tamiya parts that I've tried to salvage. On my previous Tamiya conversion, I tried making them out of sheet styrene and made a gigantic mess. This will at least look the part w/o spending too much effort. That effort will be parlayed into other details such as the tailhook or converting to a B cockpit. I'm sure others will have better ideas too--I'm sure you could even 3D print it, but I haven't even begun to figure that out, so for now it remains out of reach. Anthony in NZ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starfighter Posted February 1, 2021 Share Posted February 1, 2021 Great job, I'll be following your project with huge interest - as usual! I have seen several B conversions without using any aftermarket set and I am sure it is totally doable - I'll try it one day as well. I absolutely love the scene showing the aircraft just leaving the deck - I may "steal" this idea for a future project, it just looks too dynamic not to do it. Keep up the great work, I can't wait to see more! Derek B, Anthony in NZ and easixpedro 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easixpedro Posted February 1, 2021 Author Share Posted February 1, 2021 3 hours ago, Starfighter said: Great job, I'll be following your project with huge interest - as usual! I have seen several B conversions without using any aftermarket set and I am sure it is totally doable - I'll try it one day as well. I absolutely love the scene showing the aircraft just leaving the deck - I may "steal" this idea for a future project, it just looks too dynamic not to do it. Keep up the great work, I can't wait to see more! Ben, tried to send you a PM, but no joy. You’d blow us all away if you did this scene! Here’s the old WIP threads to the different ones I’ve done (haven’t converted the pics from PB though, so not the best). I also think the F-4 is the worst candidate for it as the wings are so thin. Doable, but takes some forethought for certain. Well within your ability though! http://zone-five.net/showthread.php?t=15441 http://zone-five.net/showthread.php?t=29067 -Peter Derek B, Anthony in NZ, Greg W and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony in NZ Posted February 1, 2021 Share Posted February 1, 2021 That's brilliant Peter, I like how you thinned the airbrake and re-used the inner skins. Nicely done sir! Derek B and easixpedro 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F2G_lover Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 This is awesome! I will be following along so I can build a QF-4B out of my F-4C kit. I've also got ideas about building some Reno racers that will require a lot of modifications, and your techniques will definitely come in handy. easixpedro and Anthony in NZ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starfighter Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 Peter, it seems my inbox was full - I have just cleaned it up. Thank you very much for posting the links to your WIP threads. I think you are overestimating my abilities - my experience with this kind of presentation is very limited. I'd love to give it a go and I will check out your WIPs to get an idea what I'll have to do! Thanks a gain and keep those updates coming - loving your progress so far! Anthony in NZ, easixpedro and Derek B 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbo59 Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 so far you have made the airframe conversion look pretty straightforward. I cant wait to see how you approach the cockpit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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