MiG Killers Group Build, 7/07 to 6/08

Thanks Guys! I glad you like it. I had to strip the first camo pattern off it because the paint screwed up and didn't lay down right. This second round turned out much better.

Thanks again guys!

Nice finish on the F-4 Duke. You did it proud my friend and it turned out great, nice job.

Steve

Sweet! I'd almost forgotten about this one.

I finished up my aircraft, an F-4C Phantom flown by Steve Ritchie who got six MiG kills during Vietnam.

Here she is:

Now to go get my badge! Thanks for having me in this Group Build. Comments are welcome.

Hi Guys

Great Mirage. You are right the Eduard kits are superb, I've done the same kit in SAA markings.

Glad to see you are allowing non USAF/USN/Marines aircraft in. I would love to do a 1/48 RAAF Korean War Meteor which I have somewhere ( Classic Airframes ) or a Netherlands F-16, but I have too much on the go over in the Airliner group build !

 Great GB though - love it. I was in the UK in 2005 and visited the Midlaned Air Museum in Coventry, they have an F4C in ANG markings and they stripped it back for a repaint and discovered a red star on the intake, did some research and yep, it was a Vietnam Mig-killer.

Fantastic stuff.

Regards

I'm enjoying just seeing it.  Great build.  The big bright triangles give it a unique look, and the kill marks give away its veteran status.  The Mirage and other delta wing fighters seem to have a "Star Wars" look to them.  I'm not a big Sci-Fi fan, but that's what makes delta-wings look cool. 

Great job,

Chris

Fellow Mig-Killer GB'ers here's my Mig-Killer!

Eduards 1/48 Mirage IIICJ

The Mirage IIICJ, the IIIC version sold to the Israelis was given the Hebrew name "Shahak", meaning, "Skyblazer". An Israeli aircraft carries kill markings for kills downed by various pilots using that aircraft. This aircraft is credited with the first combat kill, a Syrian Mig-21, when flown by Yoram Agmon on July 14, 1966. It then went on to shoot down 12 more enemy aircraft for a total of 13. This list includes: eight Syrian and Egyptian MiG-21s; an Egyptian MiG-17, MiG-19, Sukhoi 7, and Il-14; and an Egyptian cadet missile, an anti-shipping missile. Two of the Egyptian MiG-21s were shot down on the same day: 10 July 1970. The yellow and black triangles were added to differentiate the Israeli Mirages from those in use by other air forces. There is considerable confusion about the markings and configuration of this aircraft and it appears that it was modified at different points in it's career and so could have been in the configuration modeled just before it was converted to the Nesher configuration. This was a fun build of a great plane and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Very nice looking Mirage you have there Ken. Glad to see you are still at it and running for the finish line. Keep working at it, it loks great.

Steve

Great work Ken,

That camo looks awesome.  I've heard that those Eduard kits are great.  Do you agree?  Is that going to be an Israeli Mig-Killer?

Semper Fi,

Chris

Okay, I've been really busy lately, but I have managed to get some quality build time in and managed to splash some paint on my 1/48 Eduard Mirage III:

I hope to get this completed by the deadline. 

Air Master Modeler wrote:

Sorry I havnt been around much but I have been checking in on posts. I have been VERY busy with my 1/32 Revell Tomcat and it is 65% done. I am seriously thinking about entering it in the IMPS Model Show here in April depending on how it turns out. My first model contest.

I may go to that one.  It's quite a drive for me, but I can hang out with family/friends in Medina.  Then again, the Cincy Reds are playing the Cleveland Indians that weekend.  I may want to stay in Cincy.  I'll let you know

Go Tribe, Semper Fi,

Chris

Well, to be honest, I did the Dark Green first because I still had a nearly full rattle can of that color, and I was painting a few Russian Armor models with it and decided to shoot the Phantom as well. The rest will be either hand painted or airbrushed; depending upon whether I can get a couple more spray bottles. Hopefully it'll turn out okay.

Thanks for the comment.  

Duke, nice progress on the F-4 looking good so far. Got one question for you though. When doing multiple colours on the camoflage I usually do the lighter colours first and progress to the darker. Any reason you did the green first and not the tan.

Steve

Hey Guys,

Sorry I havnt been around much but I have been checking in on posts. I have been VERY busy with my 1/32 Revell Tomcat and it is 65% done. I am seriously thinking about entering it in the IMPS Model Show here in April depending on how it turns out. My first model contest.

Now Duke, You have done an outstanding job on your Phantom. I know this is a bit late but here is a tip I want to pass along to you for next time you run into the gap problem you had with your F-4. I encountered this same problem on my F-14 and fixed this using white vinyl plastic, from a window blind, (YES, a window blind). I had some old damaged window blinds and cut some strips and off and cut them into smaller strips and used them to fill in the gaps. I then glued a few small strips cut to scale and applied them over the worst gap areas. I then applied putty where needed and sanded it flush to model surface then re-scribed where needed. I posted a progress update on the Aircraft forums showing what I did. This worked very GOOD and saved me alot of grief (and putty). Look up my last progress WIP post to see the pictures and you will see what I did. Once sanded and painted it will look like there was never any gap problem. Give it a try next time.

Now on a different note, I am planning to start the Mig Killers II GB in June. I'll keep you guys posted on the date in June we will start it. I will post an announcement here and wait to see who wants to participate. No GB badges this time and non-US Mig killers will be included.

See ya on the flip side.

And now I'm further along....

Here is my Hasegawa 1/72 scale F-4 Phantom sporting a new basecoat of dark green for the three-tone camo pattern it's going to be wearing. This shows how well the seams were filled. It also shows how well the paint dripped a little after my spray bombing:



I'll be working on the rest of the camo pattern later and then afterwards  I'll install the landing gear and underwinig store. Yeah, it feels good to see progress on this one! 

Thanks for looking and comments are welcome. 

Well, when I finally tookl all the tape off the F-4, I found that I had this problem to deal with:



I thought maybe it was just misaligned, but then I looked as the other side:



Well, I can kiss all those panel lines goodbye, cuz when I sand that down, I'm NOT re-scribing! I'll be dealing with that when I get more time. I'm actually quite surprised that a Hasegawa model fits this poorly!

Now, a week later, here is where this one is. I finally got the bad gaps filled and sanded on my F-4 Phantom:

Now I just want to install the tail planes and then start painting it before I put on the landing gear and underwing stores. 

I'll post more when I get further along.

Lookin' Good Duke,

Lookin' Good GA.  Go ahead and give it a wash (Temporary-out-of-the-way style in case you don't like it).  It'll help you make up your mind.  Sprite makes for good modeling fuel.  I like Sprite Zero myself.    

Henry, we're looking forward to seeing the F-4E

Semper Fi,

Chris

That looks good GA!  Can't wait to see it done.  I'm getting closer to starting on my F-4E again.

Henry

heres is an up date for my mig killer its fresh out of the paintbooth as of lastnight. all i have to do is future it and then decal it and its done. i may do a wash and arm it but i havnet made my mind up on that as of now

Looks great duke. It's beginning to really take shape now. Keep on trucking.

Steve

Okay, more progress on this model today. This one is coming along well.

I finally got the cockpit installed, the fuselage put together and the wings installed:



Here is a shot of the cockpits inside the fuselage. I have a bit of flash to remove and some touchup to do to the ejector rings above the seats:

Thanks for looking comments are welcome. 

Thanks for the update Duke. I know what ya mean about scraping the paint off the attachment points. I just dont thing I could handle getting around all the details. God luck with it.

Steve

Thanks Steve. I usually use a small pointed brush to paint the details. Something about getting it all assembled and seeing it come to life under my brush I guess. Besides, this way I don't have to scrape paint from the attachment points to glue anything in.

I'll get some more work done later this week. Thanks again for posting! 

Nice work progress Duke. I am still watching this Gb so keep on building my friend. There is one thing I could never understand is how do you paint the completed cockpit?. I have to paint all the individual parts first and then assemble them.

Steve

Well, if anyone is still following this, I finally got started here. This is my 1/72 scale Hasegawa F-4C Phantom, the one with six MiG kills.

Here's the cockpit assembled and some paint on it:

Then I installed the intakes and splitter plates:

Here is the wing all assembled too:

That's all I got done so far. I'll post more when I get more progress.