Wolfpack Phantom - 8th TFW F-4C

[Aigore]

Phantastic!

[GreyGhost]

A most excellent Phantom you have going, John ..! 

 

-Gregg

[John1]

Thanks very much guys!   

 

Resin engine bays are installed.   With the covers glued in place, there should be more than enough detail to make what you can see appear realistic.    Very happy with this set, well worth the $18 I spent on it.   I'll be trimming up the door edges a bit before final painting.

 

BTW - on this subject, any Phantom experts know how these work?  I understand that these were auxiliary air inlet doors but how exactly did the air get into the engine?   All I see from pics of this area, is the underside of the J79.  One would also think that this location would be susceptible to FOD. 

 

Anyway, a few pics:

 

 

 

Should loke nice and busy (and grimy) once the inlet covers are installed. 

 

 

Edited March 1, 2022 by John1

[John1]

So I'm thinking I'm close to done with the cockpit tub.   I've added more details, mostly wiring but also a bit of structural stuff from plastic sheeting.  Also used a couple more Air Scale placards.   The only thing I've found through all my research is that the cockpits of these jets varied a huge amount depending on the version and when the pictures were taken.   As there are no detailed shots I can find of circa 1967 F-4C cockpits, some of the details added are based on my best guess.    The end goal is to try to realistically portray the clutter and wear and tear that was present in these cockpits.    I think it will look pretty decent once installed in the fuselage.  Note that the upper bulkhead sections are a bit bare.    That's because I need to install the tub into the fuselage, at which point, I will be adding additional details to these areas.   

 

Anyway, here is my finished cockpit. 

 

 

And with the seats dropped into place:

 

 

 

 

 

So that's it for now.   I will mention - I had a heck of a time trying to find good reference pictures of the aft bulkhead area on both pilot's and WSO's cockpits.   I did find a few but if anyone out there has some pics that haven't previously been shared, please feel free to post them, it would be gratefully appreciated. 

 

Thanks for looking! 

[Anthony in NZ]

Just beautiful John, I am really enjoying this.  I should have got those resin inserts for my build too.  I am not going to go too overboard there, I think what you have is perfect for the job!

 

Keep it up buddy, you have a fan!

[John1]

Thanks much Anthony!

 

So I've reached a milestone of sorts.   I've got the cockpit in place.   Despite being a bit clunky, one thing I like about this kit is that Tamiya molded the entire upper fuselage in a single piece.   No messing with putty / sanding media to clean up seams.   The entire cockpit tub just gets secured in place using a couple of screws.   Just to see how things looked, I test fitted everything first:

 

Looks pretty decent!   To get the tub in place, you have to gently pull the lower sides apart.   After that, you are good to go.     However, prior to doing this, I decided it would be beneficial to paint the forward fuselage to minimize masking issues later in the build.   

 

As mentioned, this jet had a weird mix of non-standard colors, faded paint and touch-ups using whatever they had in the motor pool apparently.   It's going to be a challenge painting this beast.   I added a few more colors, as always, masking using Blue-Tack.   I have to admit, I really enjoy doing these hard-edge paint jobs.   For years, I have stayed away from all aircraft that had this type of paintwork, I'm so glad I pushed my comfort limits on this build.    

 

Here's my current progress.   I mainly focused on the forward fuselage but since I had the paint loaded into my airbrush, I figured I'd also do a few areas further back.    Note the two tones of dark tan.   Hopefully it replicates the look of the real thing.

 

 

 

Got a bit of touchup work required.  You can also see the upper bulkhead areas of the WSO's pit that need some details added. 

 

 

 

That's it for now.   I'm having a blast with the painting, one challenge overcome!   The next challenge will be getting the lower fuselage sections to fit.   I've heard some horror stories about this.   If anyone has any tips for me, please chime in.

 

Thanks for looking. 

[Iain]

Looking good John!

 

Iain

[Dragon]

Fine work on the build John

[Uncarina]

Oh that is coming together so nicely! I built two of these kits and don’t recall any serious drama fitting the lower fuselage/wing to either. If it’s the section forward of the wings I’d suggest gluing one side first, let it dry, then the other. If it’s the upper wings to the fuselage I’d suggest dry fitting the lower wing to the upper fuselage, then dry fit the upper wings. If there’s a gap add a spreader to the upper fuselage. Hope this helps.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[John1]

Thanks very much guys.     Painting continues.    As mentioned, using Blue-Tack is a game changer.    Simply run a thin "snake" of the stuff to mirror the pattern, stick some paper towels along the edges and spray away.   You can spray straight down and get a slightly feathered border or spray at an angle and get a sharp border.     

 

Pretty sloppy looking for sure, but it works. 

 

Aside from that, I've made a bit of progress on the paintwork.    This scheme is pretty challenging since there are probably 8-9 different shades in use here.    From my previous post, here is the original 589.   I'm seeing two shades of tan, dark brown, dark OD, light green, medium green and a dark green.   I love schemes like this!

 

Here is where we are at so far.   Still have a lot of touchups to do for oversprays and I may end up tweeking some of the colors.

 

 

 

None of the paint is straight from the bottle.   All (so far) are Model Master enamels, with various colors added to adjust the tones. 

 

Lots more to do.   

 

 

Edited March 8, 2022 by John1

[easixpedro]

That's looking marvelous!  Love how those old MM paints look!

[cmayer]

John, I love those tones for the tan variations. I would be interested in anything you can share on what portions of the color wheel you used to mix those? Would be especially useful for those that might be replicating McDonnell factory-applied camouflage, as well...

[John1]

On 3/8/2022 at 8:25 PM, cmayer said:

John, I love those tones for the tan variations. I would be interested in anything you can share on what portions of the color wheel you used to mix those? Would be especially useful for those that might be replicating McDonnell factory-applied camouflage, as well...

I wish I could share my secrets sir.   However, it's strictly by using my Mark 1 eyeball to stare at color pictures of the real things and then stare at colors of paint from my test shots. 

 

Horrible paintwork but these are my shots straight from the bottle to give me some sort of baseline.   

 

After that, I lightened the Dark Tan (the Model Master version on the left and darkened (a very small amount) the Dark Green (also the Model Master version on the left).  From there I just made a few minor changes in tone to the base colors.  The exception being those light green blotches which is Model Master SAC Bomber Green with a bit of flat white added (5th color from left).     The other notable exception was the dark OD patches on the tail, which I just added (I'll post some pictures tomorrow of my progress).   Just a mix of Leather, Dark Green and Flat Black.   

 

Note - the Dark OD doesn't look as red-brownish as in the picture of the real thing above but that shot has some color issues.   I've seen multiple color pictures of other F-4's with Dark OD touchups and the color I used below seems to be pretty close.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 11, 2022 by John1

[John1]

Just some pictures of my progress painting.    Quite a challenge, especially the tail.   It looks a bit stark right now but once I do a few final touchups, add the decals and tie it all in with a matt topcoat, I think it'll look pretty decent.   Here are the images I'm using as my guide, as noted above, the color pics can't be depended upon for accurate representation of some of the actual colors.   I think Jennings has done a pretty decent job of capturing the real thing.

 

 

 

[O.W]

Hi John, beautifal progres, specially the paintjob!