Tamiya F-4B Phantom Conversion (Finished! 25 Sep)

[allthumbs]

Great job…I’m loving everything about this build!

 

Rich

[Anthony in NZ]

Awesome update, thank you sir!

[easixpedro]

5 hours ago, allthumbs said:

Great job…I’m loving everything about this build!

 

Rich

 

4 hours ago, Anthony in NZ said:

Awesome update, thank you sir!

Thanks gents!  

 

11 hours ago, Collin said:

A 1-wire is not great. A “taxi” 1-wire (I’ve been a part of a few of those) will make you old quick. Walking aft and seeing the dent in the round-down from another squadron on the previous cycle …that will make you turn in your wings :-O. 
 

An in-flight engagement of any of them just hurts (the jet 

more than yourself). Thanks Paddles for the way late, in-close waveoff (as I look over at my pilot asking Why The F aren’t we still flying and he is just as dumbfounded). Still remember that one like it was yesterday. 
Nice Phantom, looks like your RIO is having a smoke break. 

Cheers

Collin

 

Forgot about the ol' taxi 1-Wire...mostly because I've buried it into the deepest recesses of my memory, never to be thought about again.  Had 2 back-to-back flights in CAG-5 that are as you described. Won't go into the details, but neither were pretty and one involved the LSOs jumping off the platform into the escape net.  Prior to that pass ECMO-1 commented that he could see the screws coming out of the water the deck was pitching so bad.  (My hands are sweating as I type this!)

 

For everyone else, a "Taxi 1-Wire" is the gallows humor associated with a really bad landing attempt. Meaning they landed so short of the first wire that the pilot had to 'taxi' forward into it.  Don't ever want to be that guy.  I think it was the Abe Lincoln (frankly I think they all had 1 or more) that had an imprint of a Hornet arresting hook on the round down. He was inches from hitting the back end of the ship.  As Collin says that's the sort of stuff that will keep you up at night. 

 

-Peter

[Collin]

1 hour ago, easixpedro said:

 

Thanks gents!  

 

 

Forgot about the ol' taxi 1-Wire...mostly because I've buried it into the deepest recesses of my memory, never to be thought about again.  Had 2 back-to-back flights in CAG-5 that are as you described. Won't go into the details, but neither were pretty and one involved the LSOs jumping off the platform into the escape net.  Prior to that pass ECMO-1 commented that he could see the screws coming out of the water the deck was pitching so bad.  (My hands are sweating as I type this!)

 

For everyone else, a "Taxi 1-Wire" is the gallows humor associated with a really bad landing attempt. Meaning they landed so short of the first wire that the pilot had to 'taxi' forward into it.  Don't ever want to be that guy.  I think it was the Abe Lincoln (frankly I think they all had 1 or more) that had an imprint of a Hornet arresting hook on the round down. He was inches from hitting the back end of the ship.  As Collin says that's the sort of stuff that will keep you up at night. 

 

-Peter

Indy had one Hornet hook ding.....and that was right next to the large dent left behind by the E-2 that slapped the round-down with it's keel and then flew off to Yakota to be struck...and never to be flown again.  Legacy Hornets sank like a rock on short final if they got into some behind the power curve areas...ugly to watch.  The "drumstick" always looked like that anyway on final...nose up compared to the rest of us...always seemed to be a little underpowered...fishing the deck with your hook......always looked like you were just about to fall out of the sky on the plat.  

 

When were you in CVW-5?

 

Collin

[easixpedro]

34 minutes ago, Collin said:

Indy had one Hornet hook ding.....and that was right next to the large dent left behind by the E-2 that slapped the round-down with it's keel and then flew off to Yakota to be struck...and never to be flown again.  Legacy Hornets sank like a rock on short final if they got into some behind the power curve areas...ugly to watch.  The "drumstick" always looked like that anyway on final...nose up compared to the rest of us...always seemed to be a little underpowered...fishing the deck with your hook......always looked like you were just about to fall out of the sky on the plat.  

 

When were you in CVW-5?

 

Collin

Was a CAG Staph puke 03-05. Joined 'em immediately after they came home from OIF. 

 

IIRC, the Prowler had a 27' hook to eye distance. It was a beast to bring aboard.  In English for everyone else--that's the difference between the pilots height and where the hook is hitting. All that gets factored into landing at the ship.  So even though it might look like a pilot's got a solid approach going on, the hook is a lot lower than he/she is seeing in the cockpit.  Becomes a big factor in that small space between the 1-wire and the back of the ship--you might think you're headed for the 1 wire, but combined with a moving ship and that 27' difference, you could very well be heading into the spud locker.  Another thing that played havoc with it was the burble--the wake turbulence left by the island as the ship steamed along.  Even worse on non-nuke powered ships as you had exhaust from the boilers mixed into the wake.  You could watch guys flying a solid approach and then just start dropping like a rock as they hit the burble.  Good pilots could anticipate it and catch it, but not always. It usually popped up at the most inopportune times. Always kept things interesting to say the least. 

[Collin]

1 hour ago, easixpedro said:

Was a CAG Staph puke 03-05. Joined 'em immediately after they came home from OIF. 

 

IIRC, the Prowler had a 27' hook to eye distance. It was a beast to bring aboard.  In English for everyone else--that's the difference between the pilots height and where the hook is hitting. All that gets factored into landing at the ship.  So even though it might look like a pilot's got a solid approach going on, the hook is a lot lower than he/she is seeing in the cockpit.  Becomes a big factor in that small space between the 1-wire and the back of the ship--you might think you're headed for the 1 wire, but combined with a moving ship and that 27' difference, you could very well be heading into the spud locker.  Another thing that played havoc with it was the burble--the wake turbulence left by the island as the ship steamed along.  Even worse on non-nuke powered ships as you had exhaust from the boilers mixed into the wake.  You could watch guys flying a solid approach and then just start dropping like a rock as they hit the burble.  Good pilots could anticipate it and catch it, but not always. It usually popped up at the most inopportune times. Always kept things interesting to say the least. 

So you were on the Kitty the entire time, you don't know the joy of the small deck Indy (or their old cats which were fun at heavy weights).  '95-'99 for me...so I had the Indy and Kitty.  

 

First time we landed on the Kitty (during cross-deck)...came over the ramp...looked at my pilot and asked "so, when are we going to catch the hook" (haven't seen that much deck since CQ on Chucky V).  We had a ready deck (they already stuffed the Hornets)...so we just kept the wings spread and headed up to Cat 1 for ~6 C/T's.  Was fun running the deck for "flight deck" proficiency (at least that is what the Boss said).

 

Burble on the Indy was not often that bad...except on low wind days in the Gulf when she had to make wind.  That's when I used to whisper "burble" to the stick monkey next to me in-close along with VSI.  Indy had a nice Dutch roll...and we saw that a lot off the coast of Japan during CQ.  Kitty was pretty steady in those seas.  Off of Korea during the Winter...any boat sucked (Indy and Kitty included).  Just a crappy place to fly in the Winter.  

 

Collin  

[Finn]

Here is a B catching the wire:

 

 

Jari

[easixpedro]

51 minutes ago, Finn said:

Here is a B catching the wire:

 

 

Jari

That's a FASCINATING shot. It's an in-flight engagement! The cross-deck pendant is already played out (look at the position of the hook and the wire horizontal off the deck), but the nose wheel is still off the deck, and the main mounts aren't compressed yet either. That likely left a mark.  Probably had to change out the oleo on the nose strut after this one...

[easixpedro]

So managed a bit more work on her before cleaning up the work bench and putting things up.  The canopies on the Tamiya kit are a PITA. Mostly because of the design and that there are sprue gates on the clear. Why they aren't solid pieces including the canopy frames is one of those things we'll always wonder about...

 

So of course I set about to try and use them. Here's the aft canopy--the poor fit worked in my favor here as I needed to sand down just an RCH to make it fit, which in turn got rid of the attachment bits.

 

Here's the windscreen. Think I managed to effectively fix it. You can barely eak it out (mind you this is under the macro lens).

 

Here's the 3 foot view--not really visible. I'll call it a win! Of course the pilot's canopy is the worst, so we'll see if I can polish it out.  I'm hopeful...

 

Here's the hook under a coat of paint. Not too shabby. Needs some bolts added and I'll add the pneumatic link once it's going in for the last time.

 

Here's an overall shot.  I obviously started shooting paint this weekend.  Didn't plan to, but wanted to get the engines in and needed to paint the hot sections to get them in. One thing led to another, and here we are...

 

 

And from the backside. Managed to knock off one of the inboard flaps, so I'll have to go back and fix that. Always an issue, as they hang waaaaay down. Things get easier once the base and hook are ready as then I can just set it in place and not worry so much.  All in all, pretty happy with how everything is shaping up!

 

That's it for now--lots to go still. I'll update once I get something worth showing!

-Peter

[Collin]

That is going to be sick looking when you are finished.  I'll be following.

 

Cheers

Collin

[easixpedro]

22 minutes ago, Collin said:

That is going to be sick looking when you are finished.  I'll be following.

 

Cheers

Collin

Did you see my Prowler? It's sitting in the background as I work on this. Set it aside after I cracked a canopy, but itching to get back to it.  It's actually more insane than this one...

[Collin]

2 hours ago, easixpedro said:

Did you see my Prowler? It's sitting in the background as I work on this. Set it aside after I cracked a canopy, but itching to get back to it.  It's actually more insane than this one...

You got a lot of great ref pics all through this thread...but I guess my NFO eyes missed your Prowler.  

 

Collin

[easixpedro]

25 minutes ago, Collin said:

You got a lot of great ref pics all through this thread...but I guess my NFO eyes missed your Prowler.  

 

Collin

Sorry, I did a poor job of explaining this. I meant this build: 

 

[Alex]

On 8/9/2021 at 9:46 AM, easixpedro said:

 

 

For everyone else, a "Taxi 1-Wire" is the gallows humor associated with a really bad landing attempt. Meaning they landed so short of the first wire that the pilot had to 'taxi' forward into it.  Don't ever want to be that guy.  I think it was the Abe Lincoln (frankly I think they all had 1 or more) that had an imprint of a Hornet arresting hook on the round down. He was inches from hitting the back end of the ship.  As Collin says that's the sort of stuff that will keep you up at night. 

 

-Peter

 

Enjoying the naval aviation reminiscence on this thread a lot.  Thanks for translating it into "civilian" for us.  And thank you for your service!

[Anthony in NZ]

Thats looking really nice, I am going to have to do a kit set up in action somehow.  Breathes life into her....Awesome. And thanks for sharing your experiences, really enriches an already enjoyable thread!