Phantastic, Nathan!

Nathan, that is outstanding. Truly a beautiful Phantom.

Tom

Thanks, Nathan - Yup, I do use the micro applicators and pins for cyano, but still I can get a dab where I don't want it, HATE THAT! I do get the reason for attaching after paint, but I've always been a "build 'em strong" guy, gluing solidly seemed important. In reality, they won't often be leaving the cabinet except for dusting, not so crucial to over build.

I saw that you're a crop duster pilot, I've always considered that a ballsy trade, real seat of the pants flying, you must be a real stick and rudder man  I retired from the commercial side, 40 years and two months, military and then airline. You'd likely find that boring, compared with what you do. What duster do you fly? Cayuga is about 15 or so miles from Cogswell.

Thanks for the info, be careful out there at 10 feet AGL.

Patrick

Hey Patrick, thanks for looking! Cogswell huh? Got some friends in Kyuga, that's about all I know about Sargeant county down there.

As far as attaching other bits. I try to assemble as much as I can before paint, but sometimes, in the case of phantoms, its impossible to glue on the stabs until afterwards. I drilled holes in them and stuck 1mm brass rod in them and slid them into a hole in the fuselage. I used CA glue for that. For pylons, I will just scrape off the paint on the top of the pylon where it meets the wing, and use CA also. I have attached some pylons to the wing underside before paint, just depends on what will be hanging underneath them. 2 part epoxy is another great choice instead of CA, as you can wipe off the excess with a cotton bud dipped in rubbing alcohol. Make sure you use a small applicator for your CA, such as a toothpick, sewing pin, or those fancy applicators you can buy to chuck in a pin vise. Much less messy. My canopies were attached with Micro crystal clear, aka white glue. But the windscreen was glued on before paint, with small amounts of Tamiya extra thin, then masked off.

Hey, Nathan - That's a mighty nice build and finish, perfect 'pit and all around fine job.

A question, if you don't mind. I see that you and some others build and paint before all of the structure is assembled, as canopy, tail feathers and armament are added after painting. After you paint, do you scrape away painted mating surfaces for gluing, or do you use cyano for attaching? I've tried cyano, but find I can indeed make quite a mess at times. Major p*** off.

I'm an old N.D. guy, from Cogswell in far So. East corner. Long retired in Oregon now. Thanks in advance, and for all of the posts.

Patrick

Thanks Fellas!

That is fantastic! Absolutely love it!  :D

That's a beauty, well done!

Mike

Marc and Bvallot, Thanks a bunch. Its been a long WIP, and I'm glad this one is on the shelf!

PFing Awesome Nathan!  I love it! =]

Darn near missed the whole show.  Glad I caught end though.  Outstanding.

Thanks Andrew. The Aerobonus tags are a type of self adhesive fabric. You peel them off the backing paper and fold them in half, that way they have printing on both sides. I'd run away from Eduard's pe ones. They are too stiff and are wayyy too out of scale. I'd say get the 1/72 scale ones for 1/48 if you must buy those. Maybe the Fabric style is better?

The paint job is all freehand, no masking at all. Just the black nose, gear bays, metal areas, and canopies were masked.

Really nice job, Nathan!  Are those rbf tags metal or fabric?  I know Eduard does some nice fabric ones.  Perfect paint job on those demarcations.  That is just the right softness to my eye.  Did you use poster tack or paper?  I love the bare metal portions as well.  Superb!

...

Finally rapped up the Phantom. I added some RBF tags from Aerobonus, which are very easy to work with and very realistic. All the ordinance was attach and a satin varnish from Windsor and Newton Acrylic was sprayed over everything. I hope you enjoy, and critique all you want:

I've finished the decals and and post shade weathering. Time to seal it all in with a semi gloss coat:

I plan on mounting a centerline SUU 23 gun pod on this bird. The one from the Hasegawa Weapons set is the long version only, and I need the short one with the blunt end. I opted for the Wolfpack resin set here:

Its nice quality and even comes with an accurate center pylon. Here's a comparison to the Hasegawa one:

I've finished painting the stabs:

..and other small bits like the nose gear wheels, and the seeker covers for the winders, which I'll attach some RBF tags to at the end:

My one hold up is waiting for proper black stencil numbers for the main gear door, like this:

...I also have to modify the innacurate kit door and landing light

f8sader

Very nice modeling there.  It kind of makes up for the sacrilege of kit bashing a any "Showtime" kit.

LOL!, Thanks Lon Ski. Glad you approve of my humble Air Farce F-4 conversion. Kit decals for Showtime are crap. 30 years old anyway...

bvallot

Daaaaaaaannnng Nate!  This is moving fast, huh?!  =D

...well, not fast enough, but Thanks!

Very nice modeling there.  It kind of makes up for the sacrilege of kit bashing a any "Showtime" kit.

Daaaaaaaannnng Nate!  This is moving fast, huh?!  =D

Finished painting and started decaling. Its been a tedious process piecing all the markings and stencils from 4-5 different sheets. I swear, every decal has to be evaluated. Canopy lock stencils need to be correct, insignias from one sheet are too dark, so I need to rob them from another. The stencils for the smooth radome have come from 2 different sheets. Hopefully it will be done soon, and I can move on to weathering. I still need to piece together stencils for the ordinance, those will come from 3 different sheets as well!! No one decal manufacturer gives you everything you need!!

Thanks Nathan but other than the crazy decals my Phantom was pretty much straight outta-da-box. I love all the stuff you're adding here.  

Thanks Gamera! I remember seeing you're F-4EJ awhile ago. Great inspiration!

She's looking fantastic so far Nathan!

Take a stiff tweezers and bend and pull and twist and crumple them best you can, then straighten them out and bend them to your final pose. And don't forget to anneal them first on the fret.

I am very impressed at how realistic  you can make those metal  belts look, I always have such a hard time with those.  

Thanks Andrew and Bvallot! The belts on the seats are pe, bent to shape and painted up best I could. Aires always includes the belts as pe.

Phantastic ;) job Nate!  Just read through all of this.  I have an F4-E that I'm doing for a friend that flew in the Air Force in the 80s.  Having never built one yet, this ought to come in mighty handy to help with figuring out all the nit-picky corrections that I'll need to make.  I have a somewhat limited grasp of fixing up the Hasegawa kit.  Looking forward to what you have next on deck.

=]

Looking really nice, Nathan.  On those seats, were the harnesses moulded in?  I love the look of those exhaust cans.  I have an Academy kit in the stash that one day I'd like to mark out for the Midway.