Saaweeet! nice kit choice Greg. Haven’t built that one yet but currently building a phew Hasegawa ones right now. Both me and my Daughter are building one each in Japanese retirement markings. As far as the pull handles go, I just paint them by hand and live with it. Good luck on a better solution!

It starts with painting the handles yellow.

Not my best hand-painting job, but it looks fine in real life.

Next was to use a black marker on some Tamiya masking tape and slice it into a few very thin slices. This confused me at first, the black marker is just to add contrast to help see it when applying the mask. I had to read the fellow's post several times to sort out what in the world he was doing. The below strip ended up being too thick and I had to do it over, but it gives you an idea of what's going on.

Time to try to wrap the tape around the handle loop. Sometimes I call tweezers the most worthless tool in my modeling box. They sure came in handy for this wrapping around job!

So they end up looking like this. I thought they looked pretty good and I must admit I thought about shooting it with some clear sealant to try to seal the tape down, and call it a day. But I didn't.

Now for the scary part, painting black over everything....

And it got pretty tense as I started to remove the tape.

Before and after:

So they are not perfect, not as good as GregBale pulled off in 1:72, but in the real world without macro lenses I think they look pretty convincing. (the one with the thinnier masking tape turned out much better, btw)

That was pretty drawn out, if you made it this far, thank you.

That may have been drawn own, but certainly worth it for that little lesson on masking. What a fabulous idea! Thanks for sharing that with us. 

And no need to join any GBs for this kit. It’s a beauty and should not be rushed!

Nathan! What a treat to hear from you, it's been way too long.

I sure appreciate your dropping in, and I think it is so cool you are building Hasegawa Phantoms with your daughter. If that isn't worth a couple thumbs up, I don't know what is!

I didn't realize the Japanese flew Phantoms, I looked it up and thanks for the mini-history lesson. I want to build something with Japanese markings one day too.

I'm sure your hand painted handles look just fine. As I said, I enjoy driving myself crazy, I guess.

Stik, I'm so glad to have you here. Thanks a lot, and for your kind comments as well.

You are certainly welcome, and again, not my original idea but sounds like it was worthy of passing along. (note that the post is for my reference too, next time I build a fighter I'll forget how I did this so if I can find this thread and Google Photos hasn't pulled a Photobucket, I'll be all set) :)

So now I can stop fussing temporarily and move forward with the rest of the cockpit.

I'm usually a paint then assemble person, for some reason I decided to put the ejection seat together (minus the pull handles), prime then dark grey and paint them as you experts would do with your fancy resin AM seats.

So here is the starting point. Now I have to stop boring you all and go paint stuff. Hand painting is not one of my strong points. Wish me luck.

I tend to spend too much time on cockpits. I enjoy working on them.

First off, let me start by saying how wonderful and refreshing it is to see you back at the bench again. It has been far too long for you to have been keeping your righteous talents from the forums. I am just happy beyond belief.

Now, what a way to get back at it. The ZM F-4 should be a grand one to watch. Excellent choice. I've often considered picking up a ZM kit so it will be nice to see you build one and get your input as you go. You can guarantee I'll be following along all the way.

Superb effort on the handles. Brilliant technique that produced outstanding results. Nice bit of patience to boot. Well done.

Lastly, Check your PM my friend. Been waiting to hear back from you and catch up.

Cheers, Joe

Hi, Greg - Mighty clever job of the handle masking, looks really good. I saw one of these kits finished by a very talented builder, on display at my LHS. It was described as a fine kit with all around good fit, I'm sure you'll do it justice, I will be following this for sure.

Patrick

Joe, thanks for your kind words. It would be great to have you following along, that's for sure.

Patrick, thank you for stopping by and if you kept an eye on my antics here, I'd sure appreciate it.

Please do stay in touch and I hope any news you might be getting about your grand niece is good news.

Hey nice kit I'll be most interested in this. Those kits are on back order still waiting for a few.

Hey Tojo,

I've done 2 WIP's here, but have mostly participated in GB's.

This will be my first Phantom.

Tojo72

That’s a lot of effort for those handles !!!

It sure was. That's why I'm so slow!

Hi Nick,

I'd sure enjoy having you follow along.

I ordered my kit from Sprue Bros just a couple weeks ago, and I see they are backordered now. A couple other places I checked too, so I guess you're right. Some of the other variants by Zouke-Mura do seem to be available, though.

Good to see you back and building a very interesting kit. I like your patient, steady build style and look forward to your posts. Happy modelling!

Well done on the masking tape, Greg.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Zoukei-Mura. I am waiting for them to upgrade the Phantoms to 1/32.

About the masking tape. Maybe this would have been better...

https://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/product/0-4mm-x-8m-micron-masking-tape-aizu-2001-1

https://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/product/0-4mm-x-8m-micron-masking-tape-aizu-2001-1

Comes in six sizes on rolls of either 5m or 8m - 0.4mm, 0.7mm, 1.0mm, 1.5mm, 2.0mm and 2.5mm.

mrmike

Good to see you back and building a very interesting kit. I like your patient, steady build style and look forward to your posts. Happy modelling!

 

Thanks Mike! I do like the way you make being a slow poke sound like a virture.

snapdragonxxx

Well done on the masking tape, Greg. Welcome to the wonderful world of Zoukei-Mura. I am waiting for them to upgrade the Phantoms to 1/32.

Thanks Snapdragon, and also thanks for the welcome to the Zoukei-Mura world. I've only just begun, but so far I surely do like the quality, detail, and fit.

I am a such a sucker for modeling tools and supplies. .4mm? If my math is right, that's .0015" (15 thousandths)? Wow, that's skinny! I think I will have to buy a roll of it, and the next wider size just to have it!

Sorry to have left you two hanging for a few days, I sort of lost track of my own thread.

What an excellent idea for making/painting those handles!

Mopar Madness

What an excellent idea for making/painting those handles!

 

Thanks for stopping in, Chad!

I think I should give credit to the source where I borrowed the idea. He did it differently, and in 1/32nd scale, but I got the idea here.

Thanks Luc, wherever you are.

waikong

Hey, beautiful job on masking those. Way more patience then I have, but I should learn from you.

 

You sir are too kind. Thank you, but I wonder is it patience or Covid restlessness?

That’s a neat trick to paint the pull rings.  I am going to try a variation meant for less patient modelers like myself.  It might save a lot of effort for the 1/72 modelers.  Will try it out and post piccies.

Good luck on your Phantom!  Such a phenomenal, phabulous, phantastic beast!  My favorite US jet fighter since childhood.

Minor update:

Doing some painting and prep on the cockpit.

Started smoothing out some panel surfaces for PE today. This is the first time I've ever felt guilty removing surface detail. The ZM panel details are the best I've seen yet in 1/48th.

Real G

That’s a neat trick to paint the pull rings.  I am going to try a variation meant for less patient modelers like myself.  It might save a lot of effort for the 1/72 modelers.  Will try it out and post piccies.

Good luck on your Phantom!  Such a phenomenal, phabulous, phantastic beast!  My favorite US jet fighter since childhood.

Thanks G! I would enjoy seeing what you come up in 1/72 scale. I say again, I don't know how you folks do what you do in 1/72. You amaze me.

And thanks for the well wishes. I must admit this is my first Phantom, and I'm embarrassed to admit I've never paid much attention the the aircraft. I already very smitten with the airframe, I think I'm quickly coming to understand where you are coming from.

My first sight of a real Phantom was when the Blue Angels came to Hawaii in the early 1970s.  They obviously didn’t do much aerobatics, but the noise and smoke from four pairs of J79s flying in a diamond formation made quite an impression on me!

The F-15 is a more capable fighter, and the F-16 is certainly prettier, but the F-4 has 20 tons of personality that simply has no peer.

That made for good reading Greg, look forward to seeing what other interesting techniques you pull out of the bag during this WIP. 

I looked at the Z. Phantom when it came out and passed on it.  Will be watching this come together in your hands.

My first close up look at one was at Udorn.  Looked down the gattling gun on an E from the shop truck.  Instant case of love at first sight.  

Looking great so far. 

Hey Greg you have one heck of a Phantastic Phabulous looking Phantom there.

I must say you have the hands of a surgeon with that masking on the pull rings. I have tried that before and luckully I have no hair on my head to pull while attempting it so no hair loss here. Your pull rings look great!

What I usually do is either cheat by getting the Eduard set that has a bunch of them or use thin wire painted yellow and masked as you did and painted black. I then can carefully bend the wire to shape and easily retouch any paint that may have chipped off in the handling process.

Greg: Those ejection seat handles look just right. Good luck with the instrument panel! 

Greg,

I'm really looking forward to seeing your progress in this F-4! This is one of my "to get" kits, and I'm very interested in seeing how well it goes together. And great job on the ejection handles, need to add this one to my techniques!