The Official F-4 Phantom II Group Build 2011

Sparrowhyperion

 Out of Curiosity, what do you fly? Cessna, Beechcraft etc?

 

I flew a Cessna 182.  The club where I am a member has Cessna 172's and C-182's.  All but two of the 172's have up graded GPS navigation and they use the non up graded for student pilot training.  They also have a Beech Barron which I fly when I can.

Never got a chance to fly a Barron.  I really miss flying. the FAA has some funny rule about not letting someone with a coiled brain aneurysm into the pilot's seat.  No Idea why... :)  I had let my ticket lapse before that anyway.  Just too expensive.

Rich

berny13

 

Sparrowhyperion:

 

 Out of Curiosity, what do you fly? Cessna, Beechcraft etc?

 

 

I flew a Cessna 182.  The club where I am a member has Cessna 172's and C-182's.  All but two of the 172's have up graded GPS navigation and they use the non up graded for student pilot training.  They also have a Beech Barron which I fly when I can.

Here is a little of my work so far.  I still have to finish the seats and work a little bit more on the main gear struts.

Those struts and seats are looking good Berny....

Very nice Berny.  I got some more minor work done on my FGR.q2 today and my Monogram 1/48 J bird arrived, so I got a bit of a start on assembling the cockpit.  I'll send up some images when it's worth sending them up lol.

Rich

berny13

Here is a little of my work so far.  I still have to finish the seats and work a little bit more on the main gear struts.

 

 

Hi Berny,

Your work is top notch!  Looking very nice indeed.  I have a question.  I noticed on one of the seats it has "No Step" printed on it and the other does not.  Is there a difference on which seat gets that printed on it?

Ken

Son Of Medicine Man

Hi Berny,

I have a question.  I noticed on one of the seats it has "No Step" printed on it and the other does not.  Is there a difference on which seat gets that printed on it?

Ken

That depends on the life support shop and egress shop.  Some survival kits had them and some didn't.  It would depend on which ones the shop grabbed when it came time to swap them out.  With the rain we were always getting, survival kits, main parachutes, and drogue chutes were always getting wet and had be replaced with spares from the shop. 

If you will look at the wheels, you will see one has a new brake stack and one has an old brake stack.  The one with the old brake stack has the tire tread sanded down to show wear while the other, the tire looks new.

Berny, I thank you for taking the time to explain the reason for the differences.

Well, after looking at that terrible paint job on the area in front of the pilot’s instrument panel I just couldn’t take it anymore.  So I took some enamel thinner and stripped it off.  Here is what it looks like now:

I will let it dry overnight and repaint it with the air brush instead of using a paint brush.  Another lesson learned.

Ken

Berny Those pieces look great, but I am curious as to what that white pod is you have shown?

My RF-4E arrived yesterday:

I admit, though, to being a bit disappointed that the only option being provided for markings, are for the featured plane. The original instructions show markings for 4 different aircraft (2 Japanese and two German) but these were omitted and a very colorful set with a supplemental instruction sheet added.:

They call for an all-over white finish. This is all fine and dandy, but I have always been the type to prefer more 'ordinary' markings and not into the flashy builds. A quick search yielded no aftermarket offerings to use.

This is not to be added into the GB! (Perhaps for the next one?)

Current work:

A bit of trial mock-up for the "F" with still much to do:

And the 'Geasel' camo work is done with a few spots to touch-up:

Not to mention the details to be painted, radome, and things like intakes:

I also started the underside with the light gray:

It is a bit hard to tell but the left wing and some of the center was painted tonight. I'm sure most of you know how tedious it is painting a light gray over a light gray plastic! It's hard to tell when you have the right coverage! (Uh....did I paint that part yet?) Also painting will need to be done for the stabilators and the NMF areas around the exhaust. For a kit that was almost completely assembled, this is sure a lot of work!

Thanks to everyone for your comments.  Jimbot58, that white pod is an AN/ALQ-87 ECM pod.  I used it to prop up the seats and forgot to take it out for the second picture.  It will be loaded on the left forward missile well on the aircraft when finished.

Nice work on your Geasel Jim!  Looking good!

Ken

Ken, I learned a long time ago it is better to airbrush the cockpits, rather than brush paint.  At least it is for me, but to each his own.  Some can do it and it looks great when finished.  Some times it looks like someone used a mop to paint them and it is way too thick to make out any detail. 

I have just taken some before pictures and when I get some work done I'll post them with some after pictures.  It will give everyone a good laugh.  

Son Of Medicine Man

Nice work on your Geasel Jim!  Looking good!

Ken

  Nice smooth looking paint job.  Which outfit is it going to be from?

berny13

Ken, I learned a long time ago it is better to airbrush the cockpits, rather than brush paint.  At least it is for me, but to each his own.  Some can do it and it looks great when finished.  Some times it looks like someone used a mop to paint them and it is way too thick to make out any detail. 

I second that Berny, especially those cockpits with very shallow details and the smaller the cockpit scale i.e 1/72 the higher the chances to loose dials and knobs under the paint. I usually airbrush the cockpit parts while in the sprue.

Yes, I totally agree with everyone on painting the cockpit with an airbrush.  This is my first build since I was a teenager, (many moons ago), so I am still learning.  I was thinking it was such a small piece that it didn’t warrant using the airbrush on it.  I am much wiser now! 

Ken

Ken and Berny;

Between the 'No Step' and the brake stacks, I figure my eyes are shot. Enlarging didn't help much.

Berny your detailing is looking real good, using your examples and the seat photos you provided, I think I have an idea of what the seat appearance should approximate. Of course, mine aren't going to look that sharp, airbrush or not.

The Revell versions I have need fixing and detailing, but given the overall quality of the kit, don't deserve a huge effort. The pilot figures seem way out of scale, not sure what to do with them yet.

I hope to finish the re-line and begin building the after burners between now and Sunday. Luckily I have the Tamiya kit to serve as a template for my Revell resurrection. (20 manifolds inside the afterburners, whew!)

Mike - I feel like I NEED to get into this GB, especially after missing out on last year's iteration. I know I can build a Phantom before year's end! (and hopefully sooner)

I'll get back to you with my build intentions asap - need to do some narrowing down. Probably leaning toward a 1/48 Hasegawa J, or a 1/32 Revell F, but let me double check that.

SIXTY TWO PAGES - you guys are killing me! Two months in!

berny13

 

Son Of Medicine Man:

 

Nice work on your Geasel Jim!  Looking good!

Ken

 

 

  Nice smooth looking paint job.  Which outfit is it going to be from?

I will probably be using "PN" tailcodes taken from my Italeri kit. The original paint of this kit was the "lizard" overall green/gray, but as I mentioned elsewhere, the finish was bad, decals peeling ("SP" tailcode) and needed rescue. I decided that if I was to repaint this kit, I wanted it to be in this tan/dark green/medium green camo scheme. I also have a set of markings for "WW" but unfortunately, they are gray and not black, intended for a Rhino carrying a two tone gray paint job.

It seems that model building is a lesson in problem solving: Before I got too carried away with painting the bottom of the 'Geasel', I needed to think about the ALQ-119 pod to be mounted in the LH forward Sparrow bay. Naturally, the Hasegawa kit doesn't provide any underwing stores, so I had to get one of their add-on weapons kits to obtain one. (Same with the required AGM missiles) The other problem was the pylon for the pod! They don't provide that either! I knew I would likely have to scratch one, but I didn't know what it looked like.

I came up with an alternative: The Italeri kit in my stash has a "G" option and provides both the pod and the pylon! The part in question is already mounted to its pylon, but like the rest of the kit, details are 'soft', poorly done, with ejector pin marks deeply embedded in the side. The pylon would be usable though.

Cutting off the locater pins from the bottom, I cemented the whole piece into the bay, using the other kit part as a guide:

The Hasegawa part that will be used is held there by a bit of tape for comparison.

Once set, I cut away the crappy Italeri pod, leaving the two tiny rods that where the new one will mount (hard to see with my stupid camera, I know!). How I will mount it securely will be a problem for another day, but maybe some brass wires drilled in may be the answer:

New part taped in place to get a 'feel' for it:

Comparing the good and the bad:

Hopefully, it will someday look somewhat like this:

As always, sorry for the quality of my pictures, I wish I had a better camera.....

Also I would mention that after examination of the Italeri kit with its raised panel lines, poor fit, lots of ejector pin marks in all the wrong places, and lack of decent detail issues, I decided this kit is fair game for savaging parts, including the decals that will go to the Hasegawa 'Geasel'! No intentions to ever build it.

Hi all, have been away a couple of days, just reading through the new posts. I'm always delighted with the work going on here and the enthusiasm!

Dupes -- welcome aboard, when you make your final choice just let me know what to list.

Jimbot -- I know what you mean about using a kit for salvage only. I won a 1:48 Monogram -J on eBay, a bagged kit with no instructions or decals, and that was fine. It'll get broken up piecemeal. The cockpit will go into a scratchbuilt 50s 'paper project' one day, the landing gear may go the same way, the droptanks, nose cone and afterburners may be drafted into an SF scratchbuild/comics subject, and the vertical tail is needed for another SF scratchbuild, a subject whose original studio model had a Phantom tailplane to start with...

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Jimbot, too bad you aren't working in 1/48 scale as I have extra MWA'a (Missile Well Adapters) for the ECM pods.  The one you have just doesn't look correct.  Also it is too far aft.  I'll post some pictures later to show you what it looks like and where it is mounted.

They are not the best pictures but it will give you an idea on how the MWA looks and where it is mounted.  It isn't glued in place just positioned on the F-4E I started and haven't finished yet.  I used AM intakes on it and had lots of fit problems and just set it aside waiting for motivation.

Berny

I know what your dealing with on the A M intakes.i got through it with a lot off filing and sanding,take your time dont over do it because it becomes a case of deminishing returns! I think this is the worst area on these kits! A M parts or stock

Yeh, you would think that all of the manufacturers would just mold the intakes right into the fuselage and not use the separate intake scoops.

Rascal 1957

Berny

I know what your dealing with on the A M intakes.i got through it with a lot off filing and sanding,take your time dont over do it because it becomes a case of deminishing returns! I think this is the worst area on these kits! A M parts or stock

 

Rascal 1957

Berny

I know what your dealing with on the A M intakes.i got through it with a lot off filing and sanding,take your time dont over do it because it becomes a case of deminishing returns! I think this is the worst area on these kits! A M parts or stock

 

I have a set of Seamless Suckers for another kit that just fell into place with only a small bit of trimming.  The ones I have on this Tamiya F-4E were made by some other company which I can't remember.  The casting was very crude, soft, and did not fit.  It was advertised as correcting the mistake Tamiya made in their kit but I would have been better off using the kit supplied intakes and fixing the problem or using intake covers.  Live and learn.  

berny13

They are not the best pictures but it will give you an idea on how the MWA looks and where it is mounted.  It isn't glued in place just positioned on the F-4E I started and haven't finished yet.  I used AM intakes on it and had lots of fit problems and just set it aside waiting for motivation.

 

Berny, if I might suggest. I've had a similar fit problem in the same exact spot as yours. It wasn't the kit, it was my own fault. I can't prevent the inevitable but I try to stay away from sanding as much as a vampire stays away from garlic . I use for gap filling as much as possible A+B epoxy. You can apply it with a tooth pick and it gives you enough time to come back and clean the mess with cotton swabs. Don't ask me why, but it seems to work better when the cotton swab is moistened with saliva. It finishes very smooth that seldom I have to sand and if I have to, it is just minor sanding. I use it a lot for wing to fuselage joints. You can get it at Home Depot or your local Ace Hardware store.

Berny, I appreciate your help! A thought suddenly occurred to me and my tiny brain that I have a Fujima "E" kit buried in my stash-and upon digging it out, found it has the pod and adapter. I don't intend to rob the Fujima kit but it will serve to give me a template for scratching something!

Well.  I finally had the time and worked up the nerve to start the detailing on the cockpit instrument panels and controls.  I am using the OOP Eduard FGR2 cockpit detail kit, and here are some images of it as a WIP...

This is what I had to begin with..

And this is about half way through yesterdays session.  I will post some more images as soon as I get a reasonable amount of it finished.  So far I am somewhat happy with the work I am doing.  My painting skills (what I still have of them..),  are still very touchy..    I can hardly wait to start some major construction on this beast...

Rich

Sparrowhyperion

Well.  I finally had the time and worked up the nerve to start the detailing on the cockpit instrument panels and controls.  I am using the OOP Eduard FGR2 cockpit detail kit, and here are some images of it as a WIP...

 

This is what I had to begin with..

 

And this is about half way through yesterdays session.  I will post some more images as soon as I get a reasonable amount of it finished.  So far I am somewhat happy with the work I am doing.  My painting skills (what I still have of them..),  are still very touchy..    I can hardly wait to start some major construction on this beast...

Rich

Hey Rich, howd'Ya paint those dials so small,,,LOL,,

I'm still cuttin' lumber, this time for the afterburners...

I start with the Tamiya versions, sorry I didn't de-bag them....

Alittle closer up, as mentioned, 20 manifolds. The real deal looks like a single stamped sheet of titanium(?) and is perforated, I will forego the perforations unless there is an afterburner liner perforation tool available!

Note the nice ejector pin mark...

Here's the lumber:

All I had to do was merely slice it perfectly in half lengthwise:

These will be cut into 2" lengths as per the Tamiya Gods' template, and glued inside a used styrene super glue container that just so happens to match the 25mm I.D. of the Tamiya's after burners:

Okay, not so perfect, but you'll never see the edges, besides, I'm going to sand the burrs off....

Next stop, Manifold City...who knows maybe by tomorrow...