1/48 F-4B Phantom VF-111 Boneyard

Wow.  That's taking a lemon and making lemon juice!!  Nice work.  When my Dad retired from the Air Force, and we were leaving Edwards for Texas, we stopped by the boneyard.  Every one of the B57's he flew a year-and-a-half before in Nam were there.  Very sad to see all the other iron, er, aluminum there baking in the sun.  You've honored all the birds there with that dio. 

Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas

Looks good..  err....  bad...  err... Well you know what I mean.  Every time I see a veteran aircraft in a boneyard in that condition, it makes me want to cry or run out and save it...  If only I had the time and money...

Victor1983K2

Hello everyone

Well After a post I read recently about the Esci Phantom I decided I did not want to waist a good kit so what to do?

I was trawling through the web when I came across this picture.......

Inspired by this picture I had an idea, I would use the Esci kit to make a model of a VF-111 Sundowners Phantom in the Davis Montham boneyard. Doing this with the kit overcomes the biggest problem the cockpit or the lack of it as the Phantom in the picture has the cockpit protected. The actual build should be very simple as there is no cockpit to paint or detail. 

 

All the main parts are attached just some minor filling, the worst fit was of the canopy which need some patience...

/

On the underside all the pylon holes need to be filled. This was done with plastic card..

painted the metallic areas at the back first with Aclad jet exhaust to preshade then a coat of stainless steel and a few panels picked out aluminium......

Added a few bits to the base

Not to sure if I like the foliage at the moment but I'm not sure why cant quite put my finger on it.

The CAM decals went on with no problems settling down nicely with help from Micro Sol over a coat of Klear

Once the decals had fully dried (left overnight) another coat of Klear was brushed on to seal the decals and then Model Master flat coat was spayed on to prepare the the model for the weathering 

To give the model the dusty sun bleached look of being left in the desert I decided to do most of the weathering with pastels and pigments. To do this I covered the model in water then randomly applied the pigments and pastels.

After the water dried and I was happy with the results I used a sharp pencil to bring out the panel lines and a very diluted coat of Tamiya Buff was sprayed all over the model to seal in the pigments and pastels. Finally certain panel lines were picked out eith heavily thinned Tamiya Smoke.

So that is the progress so far its almost done any comments, criticism or ideas welcome!

 

That is a great dio.  Look forward to the completed pics.

It always amazes me how much work and effort is involved in making a model look old.  It takes quite a lot of skill and creativity.

Chris.

Hoary crappu, that is so cool!  A really terrific idea for an out of date model.  It reminds me of the Shep Paine B-25 boneyard diorama.  Great job!!!

PS  Add a rattlesnake! 

WoW, excellent work, Magoo

Any more Progress on this one? Thanks

Thank you all for you comments hopefully I should be able to get a little further with the build this weekend and more progress picks then!

I LOVE it!  Very well executed.  It almost has a narrative element to it too....  Thanks for sharing. 

Excellent, creative work.  Very impressive job with the weathering!  I like the strategy of covering up that awful ESCI cockpit.

The only nitpicky comment I could offer is that the ESCI kit has the bulged wings of a -J and the VF-111 bird  is actually a thin-wing  -N.

Mark

Awesome work.

Darwin, O.F. 

Wow talk about a convincing build,that is some awesome work!!!

Lookin' Good!!!! next to the B-17 The F-4  Phantom is a VERY close second. I love that you too are not scared to take a Beautiful Lady and show her age, or death. I will be lookin' forward to the conclusion of this build.

James

Captures the look of the photo very well.  Nicely done.

Regards,  Rick

Very cool! That is such a great idea. It is sad to see those proud birds rotting.

WOW!!!!!!!

Excellent job. Looks just like the picture.

Awesome work ,looks just like the real thing. Sad to see such a beautiful aircraft just wasting away...

dmk

Nice idea! I really like that. It's coming along nicely too. How did you do that white sealant? (What do they use on the real aircraft?)

Victor1983K2:

Not to sure if I like the foliage at the moment but I'm not sure why cant quite put my finger on it.

It's too green

Thanks dmk,

Originally I used Mr Surfacer 500 but it didn't give enough relief so once painted and decalled I went over with typex and did the edges with grey pro marker. 

On the real aircraft they use a product called Spraylat which is like a spray on plastic.

dmk

Nice idea! I really like that. It's coming along nicely too. How did you do that white sealant? (What do they use on the real aircraft?)

Victor1983K2:

Not to sure if I like the foliage at the moment but I'm not sure why cant quite put my finger on it.

It's too green

Thanks dmk,

Originally I used Mr Surfacer 500 but it didn't give enough relief so once painted and decalled I went over with typex and did the edges with grey pro marker. 

On the real aircraft they use a product called Spraylat which is like a spray on plastic.

fermis

WOW!!!  Definetely looks the part!

to the forum, hope to see much more of your work!

Thanks fermis,  there shall be more in progress and completed builds soon............

Victor1983K2

Not to sure if I like the foliage at the moment but I'm not sure why cant quite put my finger on it.

WOW!!!  Definetely looks the part!

to the forum, hope to see much more of your work!