Double Monogram Phantom WIP - Finally Completed

I love F-4's plastic junkie. You are doing a great mob on those kits friend.

Thanks dog. Got most of the decals on both. It's very time consuming adding those tiny stencils that I have to go hunt thru several left over sheets in my spares box.

That tail art looks wicked awesome. I will be replacing the plastic pitots with thin brass wire.

also shot the FOD covers red

Still have to stencil/decal the bottoms of both and work on the weapons.

Thanks freem. Just shot several coats of Aqua Gloss on both Phantoms. I usually brush on several coats of Future but that takes a lot of time specially working on two F4s. I also got all the weapons painted. Decals and weathering is next.

1. I don't know how I missed this but wow! Nice work!!

2. Any airplane nut has got to love Phantoms.

3. I have had the indignity of finding fallen parts on my shoe and pants leg.       I just can't seem to belly up to my workbench. Others I am sure were           eaten by cats.

Thanks gents. I lost the nose gear retraction arm on July 30 and spent several hours looking for the not so small part. I finally gave up and grabbed one from another kit in the stash.

Fast forward to today, August 26, almost 30 days later and guess what was sitting on the middle the room? I have no clue where it came from. For those who will say the seat, well, that was the first place I looked at and inspected every inch of it. It's an office wheeled very simple chair with nothing fancy. 

Really nice work so far.  Cant wait to see these birds finished.

Some really great work going on here.

I went back and touched up any areas that needed attention so both Phantoms are ready to be glossed up in prep for decals.

I started assembling the weapons and decided for the VF-84 one to go clean with a CL tank, Sparrows and Winders while the VMF 235 one will ready for mud moving work having a CL MER with Mk. 82's, two TERs with Lau- 10s on the inner stations with Winders, followed by wing fuel tanks and Sparrows. I think it makes an interesting payload.  

VMFA 235 transitioned from F-8s to F-4s soon after completing their Nam deployment and were stationed in Hawaii. VF-84 completed deployment in Nam and was sent to the Med by the time this paint scheme was used.

The Winders are left overs from Ademy F-4 kits and are excellent. The LAU 10s are from the Hasegawa Weapons Set B. I will probably go with the Acedemy AIM7s which are better than the old Monogram ones.

 I still have to work on the Mk.82s and MER so lots of gluing ahead.

Some progress done on the Phantoms. These are the markings they will wear. First is VF-84. This IMO is one of the coolest looking Navy schemes on the F-4. Fear the bones..

And the second will wear VMFA 235 "Death Angels"...

Got the black basing and marbling done and firstcolor on...

The USMC Phantom received all its colors...

Bottom view...

Same for JR...

and belly view...

Still need to shoot the NMF on the stab leading edge on both and minor touch ups. The NMF rear lower fuselage was done in Alclad and will take some other shades to simulate the heat stains. More to come........

Thanks guys and appreciate the comments.

Mike

What is really strange is that I have a tiled floor so I manage to find my parts within a few minutes after dropping them but not this time. I have gone all over the room and the part just vanished.

Not much to report about this build for now. I have been at the tedious job of masking the canopies with masking tape and attaching them in preparation for primer and paint. I have been re checking the few puttied areas and re filling and re sanding to get an invisible join. Next pictures will be primer and paint ones. 

Phascinating watching you work on these Phantoms. What a marvelous WIP!

I think that I've lost a couple dozen small parts to my carpet monster in my hobby room. It is frustrating. Sometimes I find a part more than a foot away from where I could have sworn I'd dropped it. More often than not .. the monster wins.

Phantastic!

Thanks Jim. Glad you like them.

Looking nice!

Thanks Toshi. I had to add more PPP on a couple of places that needed more filler. Hopefully I got the areas properly treated this time.

Everything looks fantastic.  Let us know how the primer stage comes out.  It's definately looking mean now!

Toshi

allan

Love the FOD covers PJ.

 

Thanks Allan. They just took a few minutes to scratch out from sheet plastic.

Love the FOD covers PJ.

I never did find the part so I used a spare from another kit that I plan to build in flight so on with the build.

A short update on my Phantoms...........

I will close up both pits cause I'm trying to keep the build as simple as possible and don't feel like scratching out the rail details and locking lugs so closed up it will be. To help improve the clarity quality I used a Q Tip dipped in Simoniz haze remover polish and applied it to both the inside and outside of the clear parts to really polish them up. I then dipped them in Future and carefully wicked all the excess and set them aside to cure. The clarity is incredible and will make it easier to view the interior details.

I sanded smooth any area that needed it and used PPP on the side intake parts that had some nasty uneven joins. The areas were sanded and polished out. The rear pit bulkhead on both Phantoms also needed PPP to even out things.

Both Phantoms are almost ready for a prelimiary primer coat to see how things sanded/polished out.

more to come........... 

Was attaching the nose gear retraction arm to both Phantoms when I dropped one on my man cave tile floor. I have been looking for it for the last hour. Talk about frustation, no where to be found!!

Where in the heck did the darn part fly off to?

Thanks Jay. I'm planning to be at the show and undecided if I will be entering anything but still got some time to think about it.

good  deal Im wrapping up a chevy and going back to planes for awhile

Ernie,

I admire your scratch building skill and looking forward to the rest of this build.I'm definately following as always.

Hope to see these and you in Orlando.

LOL crown, I'm a Miami boy and well aware of the old Alvarez Guedez saying. Thanks for dropping by.

Ñooo you can dress up an F4 great job!  Ñooo means wow btw

Darren

Thanks. I'm trying to keep this OOB much as possible but little things pop up and I rather scratch build them when possible. I could not see spending $12 + shipping for each FOD set on a part that cost me pennies to make and a few minutes of my time. Heck even the plastic sheet I used are those junk plastic cards that come in the mail. I remove the glossy film and give them a good sanding to roughen up the glueing surfaces so the Tenax can weld the parts together.

Mississippi

Roger that bud and thanks!

Those are looking great. I love building the Monogram Phantoms. I'd tell you to use the Steel Beach update sets, but it looks like you have everything well in hand.