Academy 1/72 F-4J to S VMFA-321

[jeroen_R90S]

Been working for a long while on this model, but it's gone to the front now because I want something to paint before tackling that big A-6...

This model is a bit odd, as it has some of the most gorgeous surface detail I've seen in 1/72, with selected fastners, scribed piano hinges, etc, and also features deep wheel wells, positionable speed brakes and those doors on the bottom, and nice deep intakes and exhausts, most things not found on the older Hasegawa 1/72 kits. Another neat feature is the almost one-piece fuselage so you won't lose the upper spine details as there is no seam to attend to.

However, they've made this a kind of hybrid model as you can see from the box (I wouldn't call this one "art"...):

and this results in chunky attachment points for the gear, pylons, etc and a host of simplifications. It really makes me wonder -this kind of feels like a great model let down by Hobby Boss easy-assembly features, yet said Hobby Boss models are better for kids as this one still is quite complex.

This resulted, for me, in doing this one in flight with crew to hide the small cockpit (the glare shield is the scale thickness of a Tiger's front armour) and it comes with one-piece gear doors that fit quite well.

 

With that out of the way, although VF-96s scheme isn't unpretty, I'm not very enthusastic about it, and I wanted to replace my very old brush-painted Hasegawa F-4S in my display case.

Towards that end I cut that model up and recycled the outer wings which do fit, just not great. I salvaged the slat actuators from a Hasegawa F-4D in my stash as my S-model's plastic had become very brittle, so my plan to use more parts like pylons and such didn't quite work. I was able to salvage the Sidewinder rails and centerline fuel tank.

Hasegawa outer wings grafted on after sawing off the Academy ones:

the underside, where I have by now installed a tube for the display stand:

I had long wanted to paint one of those low-vis F-4S models, so I had this sheet to use for the VMFA-312 markings:

https://modelingmadness.com/scott/decals/super/ss72541.htm

Unfortunately in in typical Super Scale fashing most of the markings are printed the colour they are supposed to go on to

Eventually I  found I could do the VMFA-321 version, but it had some inaccuracies like wrong fonts and serial numbers that I "designed" a small decal sheet for and printed on my laser printer -I have yet to discover how they work! BTW, here's the real thing: https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/6523910

Unfortunately it turned out conversion to an F-4S is more involved than just grafting on some new outer wings, so I scribed some slats in (they should extend at the front and lower sides in reality...)

I'm still thinking how to make the reinforcement plates on the underside....

 

Here's how she looks as of now, the pilots are from a Fujimi A-6A and I played surgeon on them to make them fit the small cockpit (it seems small to make it fit easier) and made the pilot's head turn, the plane will be mounted in a slight turn. Ejection pull rings were made from copper wire and a little jig -the RIO's has come off and is taped to the spine.

Sanding seams and rescribing has been a not very pleasurable experience as this thing is made of all the different colours, yet this also seems to result in different properties of the plastic. The white is very hard, the black very soft and the grey somewhere in between. Currently rescibing details near the nose and intakes

 

This one has been on and off in it's box for a year or 2, but I'm happy to be back to it to get it into the paint booth, while also working to do the same to the big A-6A

 

Jeroen

[jeroen_R90S]

Oh, and by the way. are there any clues as to the "non standard" upper fuselage colour? The picture I linked is very blue, but I'm not quite sure it looks like FS36314 on my monitor?

Edited April 20, 2022 by jeroen_R90S
typos

[Ben Brown]

It should still be FS35237, the standard TPS upper color, however the paint faded like crazy. Your best bet might be to just eyeball it. Using the TPS colors right out of the bottles comes out way too dark for a plane that has spent more than a day or two in the sun. My plan for my Z-M F-4S is to start with the standard colors and add a lot of white.

 

If you need any reference pics of the leading edge slats, I can post some of mine. I used strips of styrene under the leading edge to change the profile of the inboard slats on the Hasegawa kit I built a few years ago. For the outboards, I built up the slats a little with Milliput and sanded them to shape.

 

I think I have a scan of the photo etched wing straps that came with the Hasegawa kit. I’ll post it when I find it, so you can reduce it to use as a pattern.
 

Ben

[jeroen_R90S]

Hi Ben, thanks for the information!

I'll do some tests with the upper colour, fortunately my subject had quite some grime and touch-ups so I don't think I need to be extremely exact

 

While digging around the internets I found this shot of an F-4S slat that shows the profile quite nicely, unfortunately I'll abandon my plan now to leave the wing with scribed lines only and modify the leading edge -even in 1/72 this can be seen! With this photo I should be able to reprofile it. If you have a picture of the upper side I'd be happy, as on my F-4J model there are all sorts of panels and hatches and I'd like to know what to fill (or not).

In another (older) thread I found some of your photo's, too!

 

I'd be eternally grateful if you can find the scan of the straps, I managed to enlarge the kit decal placement to 1/72 but it's very cluttered, and several attempts to draw the straps (and cut them out as templates) have failed so far...

 

Thanks again!

 

Jeroen

Edited April 24, 2022 by jeroen_R90S
forgot the link to the pictures by Jennings and Ben

[Ben Brown]

Hi Jeroen,

 

Sorry for the delay. Turns out, I didn't have a scan of the Hasegawa part, but I do have a pic of the straps made by Pierre "Madman" Gertreut (sp?). I don't recall if he posted his amazing F-4S conversion of Tamiya's F-4J on LSP, but it was an ongoing thread on the F-4 Phantom email list for a long time. 

 

I had forgotten I had taken some pics of the F-4S at Udvar Hazy, too. I can provide much larger versions of these if you need them.

 

 

 

Ben

 

[jeroen_R90S]

Hi Ben, no need to apologize -it's only a plastic scale model!

 

That picture of the reinforcement plates was really useful in making a template based on my re-scaled 1/72 drawing. I could transfer the rough shape to a piece of 0,25mm Evergreen sheet and try to cut it out, but somehow this stuff is too thin so I could not  get proper somewhat symmetric curves matching that PE shape.

After several tries I cut a corner and make them more angular, not all that great, but once sanded thinner and painted up it'll be good enough -as this model is going on a stick in-flight and won't be seen all that often underneath.

 

I also did a basic representation of the slat mods. Had I realized they were this different I would have done this at the start (or leave it as a "J" ), rather than with the whole thing almost completely assembled....

I used 1,5mm Evergreen half-round, for the inner wing slats I glued it to the forward edge, leaving it protruding underneath, while fairing in the top (hence the blob of Mr Surfacer) and for the outer wings the best I could do now was glue 1mm half-round underneath and sand the leading edge a bit blunt.

The profile(s) don't match all that great, but they're much better than what I had before -the outer ones are now thicker, the inner ones protrude past the leading edge and curve underneath. If I hadn't glued the outer wings and slat actuator bulges in place yet I could have faired the protrusions in a bit more underneath, but I feard I'd make more mess of it, so this was a compromise...

(the outer wing Evergreen hasn't been cut off yet here)

 

Thanks for your assistance!

 

Some more scribing, rivets (dimples ) and fiddling to do before closing up the canopy and getting it ready for a paint job, which was the purpose of resurrecting this one anyway -I guess this shows how easily distracted I am!

 

Jeroen

[GreyGhost]

Really nice work Jeroen ..! 

 

-Gregg

[jeroen_R90S]

Thanks Gregg!

Studying for firewall certification exam next wednesday so the F-4 has stalled a bit I'm afraid for the moment. Hopefully I'll pass the exam but it's a pretty tough one!

 

Jeroen

[jeroen_R90S]

Well.... a bit later than I intented, but having passed my firewall certification, serviced the 1974 motorcycle that is part of my user name (still not quite right, due to kids being too small/young it's been standing for far too long) and did some fixing around the house and my camper van.

 

However, the wife doing night shifts means I can't really go from home when she's working, but also she sleeps in advance in the evening so I can't go banging my hammer on parts either

So I picked up the small scale F-4S again. I had to do some tweaking on the rear canopy mountings or they would need excessive pressure to snap in place, so I sanded them thinner for easier fitment. With all panels i managed to lose, and most of the rivets replaced as well, it was time to add the broken off ejection pull handles for the RIO, cement the canopy in place after a good clean of the insides, and give both guys as last wave, as they are now restricted to instrument flying only...

And after that I was finally able to do what I had picked this model back up for in the first place.... a nice layer of Mr Surfacer 1500 black. Fresh from the paint box, so a bit spotty:

I still need to rivet the outer wings (goes easier in primer) to match the rest of the aircraft -the Academy kit is covered in them, and back in 1990 or so Hasegawa didn't do rivets. (remember the outer wings are from my old Hasegawa S model).

I really like the subtle bump the inner wing slats give it Also need to drill some holes for the tail pitots (I assume) I broke off, and am still fiddling trying to make an instrumentation pod from an old Sidewinder.

 

For colours I have done some testing on an old model painted black at the same time; I settled on Revell Aqua 57 for the blue-grey uppers. This is somewhere in between the dark ghost grey and the Gunze Aqueous blue-grey I have (which as Ben indicated, from the bottle is too dark).

The light and dark grost greys are both Lifecolour and are nearly the same, so I'll lighten the lighter of the two somewhat.

Overall, despite several accuracy issues not making this a true S in every detail i'm still quite pleased with the outcome and look forward to getting the rest of the colours (well, greys...) on.

 

Jeroen

[jeroen_R90S]

And I can't really tell from pictures, but I assume the centerline tank is simply the same colour as the underside?

[Ben Brown]

Correct! 

 

Ben

[jeroen_R90S]

Thanks Ben!

 

Whole model has been  "marbled" with Revell 57 as well, and I've just finished putting on the final coat of light ghost grey on the undersides, pylons, and drop tank.

I'll post a bunch of pics when I have finished painting the base colours

Kind of surprised how nice the strengthening strap came out underneath, it looked rougher without paint. Probably a contrast thing?

I did notice I missed some dents where I filled the holes for the outer wing pylons but too late to fix these now.

 

Jeroen

[jeroen_R90S]

I'm definately happy I tried this technique on this model first, instead of the A-6 in which I have already invested many hours...

 

I learned to try the colours on an old mule first, but also learned that this does not guarantee the result on the final model; as I had more contrast on my paint mule than on the eventual F-4S. I think this is due to the thin- or thickness of the blendling layer and the less-defined marble layer I sprayed on the top.

I also learned that if you start to lose focus on the marble job (which is kind of boring...) it's best to back off rather then continue as the lower sides were looking better than the upper, and so (IMHO) does the final result. I added ~30% clear gloss to the blend coats to reduce opacitiy, my kids like the Revell Aqua as it covers very will but it's a drawback with this technique!

 

All in all quite pleased, but I'd be even more pleased if the upper colours had not been so close to each other (the difference is kind of visible on the nose) and if the marble effect on the uppers would be more equal to the lowers.

Still had a good time doing this and feel more confident in doing the A-6 -the contrast issue would be less I guess since that is the grey-white scheme.

 

touched up the black and marbles to match the medium blue-gray pattern:

 

and finally:

 

This can now harden a bit, due to the gloss I mixed in I'm hopefull I can get away doing decals without extra gloss.

 

Jeroen

Edited July 11, 2022 by jeroen_R90S
spelling....

[GreyGhost]

That's coming along great, Jeroen ..!

Nice job with painting the TPS ...

 

-Gregg

[jeroen_R90S]

Thanks Gregg!

I do still wish there was a bit more contrast between both upper colours, but I still had fun experimenting and airbrushing this and that's what counts the most as far as I'm concerned