The Official F-4 Phantom II Group Build 2011

Bockscar

Berny's T:

Many thanks for the great graphics Rich!

Great job Rich and Dom!  Looks really nice!

Ken

Son Of Medicine Man

 

Bockscar:

 

Berny's T:

Many thanks for the great graphics Rich!

 

 

Great job Rich and Dom!  Looks really nice!

Ken

Thanks.  The Phantom Phixer graphic was the toughest one to do.  It started life as that tiny little icon image Berny uses.  I blew that up, cleaned it up, did a bit of modification on the eyes, then colored it.  The flipside one was easier but a bit more time consuming.  A lot of hand drawing and coloring.

berny13

...The heaviest I saw my jet loaded was a MER on the outboard pylons with five 1,000 pounders loaded on each outboard.  The inboard was loaded with a TER and three 1,000 pounders loaded on each pylon.  A 600 gallon centerline tank, two AIM-7's on the aft stations, an ECM pod loaded on the left forward missile well and a strike camera loaded on the right forward missile well....

DING-DING-DING!  I think we have a winner!

I gotta build this load.  I just gotta!  Berny, could I get some more details from you, please?  Was your jet a -C or -D?  What was your jet's serial and what was your squadron's code?  I'll see if I can cobble together markings for your jet (or maybe markings for some other jet in your squadron).  Did your squadron have any other special markings on its jets (i.e. squadron patches, painted fin caps; etc)?  What ECM pod was used?  Can you give me some details on that?  I think I have a strike camera from the Revellogram -J I built for the last GB.  What can you tell me about the camera?  Was it painted the same color as the jet's underside, or was it white?  Anything else I should know about your jet or your squadron's jets?

Just so you know, I'm already in the process of pulling together the 16 1000 pounders...

Thanks!

-O

oortiz10

berny13:

...The heaviest I saw my jet loaded was a MER on the outboard pylons with five 1,000 pounders loaded on each outboard.  The inboard was loaded with a TER and three 1,000 pounders loaded on each pylon.  A 600 gallon centerline tank, two AIM-7's on the aft stations, an ECM pod loaded on the left forward missile well and a strike camera loaded on the right forward missile well....

DING-DING-DING!  I think we have a winner!

I gotta build this load.  I just gotta!  Berny, could I get some more details from you, please?  Was your jet a -C or -D?  What was your jet's serial and what was your squadron's code?  I'll see if I can cobble together markings for your jet (or maybe markings for some other jet in your squadron).  Did your squadron have any other special markings on its jets (i.e. squadron patches, painted fin caps; etc)?  What ECM pod was used?  Can you give me some details on that?  I think I have a strike camera from the Revellogram -J I built for the last GB.  What can you tell me about the camera?  Was it painted the same color as the jet's underside, or was it white?  Anything else I should know about your jet or your squadron's jets?

Just so you know, I'm already in the process of pulling together the 16 1000 pounders...

Thanks!

-O

 

It was a F-4D, serial number 66-8711.  It had tail code OC and the serial number on the tail was small AF and 68 in black.  The OC and 711 was in large white numbers and letters.  The fin cap was insignia blue.  It was a new jet and had very little weathering.  There was one MIG kill star on the left splitter plate.  The star was red with a yellow outline.  On the left intake was a set of dice showing seven on top and eleven on the side.  It had "Seven Come Eleven" in white block letters.  On top of the dice was "Seven Come" with "Eleven" below the dice.  There were no other special markings installed.  We didn't have the wing, squadron, or command patches painted on them. 

The AIM7's on the aft station were the older AIM-7D type with gloss white body and flat white radomes.  The ECM pod was the AN/ALQ-87(V)-2.  It was panted gloss white.  The strike cameras came in three flavors.  Gloss white, flat white, and flat OD.  Take your pick as I could not tell you the color that was loaded at that time.  The strike camera would be loaded for some air to ground missions and would stay installed until they had to come down for maintenance or loaded for a MIG CAP.  For MIG CAP the jet would be loaded with four AIM-7's, four AIM-9's and the ECM pod loaded on one of the pylons.

Hi,

After years of building model kits and fighting with the airbrush I was able to purchase a real Phantom F-4D cockpit section from a scrap yard in AZ.   Over the last 4 years I have been restoring it for static display, removing paint, fabricating skin panels and outfitting the fwd and aft cockpits with all the instrument panels, side panels, Martin Baker Mk7 seats,etc. When finished I plan on taking it to airshows as a photo booth.   So I tell my old modeling friends my eyes got so bad I had to go to a 1:1 scale!  If anyone needs any detailed pics let me know.  I also have the nose and main gear un-attached.

Dave

F-4Restorer:

Uhhhh, okay, I'm turning a bit green, but tell us, did you find any 1:1 AM resin parts to go in it....lol....

berny13

It was a F-4D, serial number 66-8711.  It had tail code OC and the serial number on the tail was small AF and 68 in black.  The OC and 711 was in large white numbers and letters.  The fin cap was insignia blue.  It was a new jet and had very little weathering.  There was one MIG kill star on the left splitter plate.  The star was red with a yellow outline.  On the left intake was a set of dice showing seven on top and eleven on the side.  It had "Seven Come Eleven" in white block letters.  On top of the dice was "Seven Come" with "Eleven" below the dice.  There were no other special markings installed.  We didn't have the wing, squadron, or command patches painted on them. 

The AIM7's on the aft station were the older AIM-7D type with gloss white body and flat white radomes.  The ECM pod was the AN/ALQ-87(V)-2.  It was panted gloss white.  The strike cameras came in three flavors.  Gloss white, flat white, and flat OD.  Take your pick as I could not tell you the color that was loaded at that time.  The strike camera would be loaded for some air to ground missions and would stay installed until they had to come down for maintenance or loaded for a MIG CAP.  For MIG CAP the jet would be loaded with four AIM-7's, four AIM-9's and the ECM pod loaded on one of the pylons.

Hey Berny,

I think I can build something that might resemble your old jet.  (I use the term resemble loosely...)  I think the hardest part will be the artwork on the intake, but I have an idea on how to tackle that.

Couple more questions if I may.  Of course, the ever present stabilizer reinforcement plate question.  Did 66-8711 have 'em when you wrenched on her?  Second, about the ECM pod.  I have access to one from Hasegawa's 1/48 weapons set.  It's a -87, but I don't know what version it is.  I'm guessing it's close enough to the -2 version to use?  Also, I'm assuming it needs to be mounted to an adapter in order to fit in the Sparrow well.  Is one of the two "F-4 adapters" included in Hase's set the one I'll need?

I think I just got the shot in the arm I needed to finish my Revellogram project!

Cheers!

-O

Hi All,

    I'm almost ready to begin work on my Hasegawa 1:48 F-4B/N "USS MIdway CAG" for this GB.

I've added the Aires cockpit set and it's an impressive bit of detail

There is a choice between fitting the B or N instrument panels and controls. I'll be doing the N in the VF-161 markings.

Once I finish the Lightning I'm working on for the NMFIII build I'll wash my parts and begin cutting resin blocks and hacking away fuselage plastic!

Cheers

Hi gang! Seems I've had so little time to build lately, plus I am sort of obsessed with my scratch build of a new cockpit for the F-105G (old one was destroyed!) and spent so little time with the F-4F, I feel like I have deserted this group! I also seem to be in a sort of mood where I find it hard to motivate myself to do anything with them, anyway. I am hoping that once I get the "Thud" back on course, I can return the Rhino. I usually keep two builds going at once anyway, as you have to have something to do while paint or glue dries.

Here you can read of my trials and troubles with the F-105G:

/forums/t/140186.aspx

I am curious, in any case, if there are thoughts of of a possible GB for 2012? There are still several kits in the stash, including an E, S, and an RF-4E....

Plus, this looks like a good price....

RF-4B at S. Brothers

Yo, Jimbot -- I understand entirely, it's very hard to get with a theme at times, and sometimes RL just crushes one's modelling spirit... I'm hangin' to get back to the bench myself but that won't be till next month. GRRR!

You raise a point some time ahead of when I was going to introduce it, but it may as well be aired now. Well, guys, what do yoyu think? Are you interested in Rhinos III for 2012? For myself, I am entirely happy to administer another Phantom year, my stash is still growing and building at GB rate is a great way to whittle them back a bit!

I'm thinking of commissioning  a special badge for everyone who builds here, the "Rhino Wing" patch, as we're one heck of a team!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Hi all:

My name is Carlos and I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I´m new in the forum, just signed up. I´m an F4 fanatic and I would like to join this group. Am I in time yet ?

I´m currently building an F4J in 1/48.

Best regards from Buenos Aires

Certainly, Carlos! As many as you like, you have nearly five months left -- just let me know what you'd like to build (finish your -J here, and then build another as well?!) and I'll add you to page 1.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Hello Mike:

Thank you very much. I´ll be glad to participate in the group.

Right now I´m building an F 4J en 1/48 scale ESCI brand. When finished it will represent an F 4J of VMFA 232 Red Devils. I started this kit in february, now it´s in the overall painting stage.

I have pictures of all the building  process and I´ll post them here.

When finished this one I´ll start with an F 4F Revell brand in 1/72 and I believe that it will be finished in a couple of months. 

Regards

Carlos

Hi all:

I´ve been loking in the Group Build and really saw fantastic and very well done works. Congratulations to all the participants

As I said I´m building an F 4J in 1/48 from ESCI. The kit is old but is a good one. It has nice engraved panel lines. This one is the Bicentenial kit, so I added the parts that didn´t come with the kit (fuel tanks, pylons, Sparrows and Sidewinders), these parts came from an abandoned Monogram kit. I also replaced the wheels with the more wider from the Monogram kit.

I used Mr. Surfacer 1200 for priming and the paints are Humbrol Enamels (129 - 130 - 85)

Here are pictures of the building, today I´m painting the nose.

Box:

Declas from Microscale:

 In the acrylic box:

Preshading:

Painted udersides.

Upper surfaces in painting process.

 And that´s all up to now.

Tomorrow I´ll post more pics of the painted nose (black radome).

Regards.

Carlos

26Carlos:

Had a little practice with an airbrush pal?

I'm sending some stuff over for you to paint....lol....

Hi Bockscar.

The shipping will be a little expensive ! 

Hi fellows.

I was able to make a little more today. Placed the antena on the underside of the radome (scartcbuild) and started with the paint of the nose.

Tonight is raining here and tomorrow will be the same , that´s ok for my F 4J

Ok, I've finally started my Rhino.

Spent most of the afternoon sawing off resin casting blocks, cutting away styrene for the N variant and thinning out and modifying the cockpit area to fit in the resin office.

Cheers

Carlos -- that Esci bird looks GREAT! The recessed detail will accent a treat and your airbrush work is top notch, the preshading worked very well. I'll have to look out for one of these old kits, maybe transplant a Hasegawa cockpit if using an Aries set for a Has -J, and give it this sort of treatment. Am adding you to p1 at this time.

Casper -- great to see your start!

Cheers, M/TB379

Cracked open my two Hase - Es. One will be 6 Sqn RAAF and the other a What if 77 Sqn bird... I am working on the bang seats right now, as I'm looking at cockpit detailing techniques. Quite basic builds, I hope they build with out too much problems. Pics soon!

Thank you Mike.

Get one of this ESCI kits, it looks great when finished and it´s not expensive. It takes a bit of extra work, specially on the undersides but is worth the effort.

Next week I´ll be starting with the F 4F Revell in 1/72

Regards

Carlos

Greetings Everyone!

It has been a few weeks since I last posted anything.  My step son got married last weekend so there was a lot going on that kept me away.

It was very nice to see Berny posting messages again.  What a great guy!

During my absence I discovered that I had purchased double of a few kit accessories by mistake.  So I decided it was time to start putting together a spreadsheet that showed all of my kits along with any accessories that I have.  This took quite a while.  My house is not very big so finding places to keep my collection of kits and accessories is a little spread out.  That makes it like an Easter Egg hunt trying to find everything that I have and then inventorying it.  But I believe that I have found everything.

After entering the data into the spreadsheet, I decided to also add things that I still needed.  I have not finished doing that yet, but I am close.  This will make it a lot easier to know without searching what I have and do not have.

And with all that, I have gotten back to working on my Phantom.  Tonight I used Future to mate the film with the dials of the rear cockpit's front instrument panel to the photo-etch that I had painted.  I sandwiched the two pieces inbetween two glazing spreaders and placed weight on top.  The material of the glazing spreaders should keep the Future from bonding to them.  If it works as planned, in about 30 minutes I will have the instrument panel ready to attach to the Aires resin piece.

Ken

Hello:

I painted the metalized parts of stabilizaers and aft part of the engines cover (that´s the name ?) The masking was really dificult, I broke the little antena (on the rudder) in the process I´ll repair it and paint the zone again.

I used Model Master Buffing Metalizaers (Burnt Metal and Stainless Steel).

More tomorrow...........

 Regards.

Carlos

I think you mean the fuel dump nozzle.  I don't think one of us has gone without breaking at least one of those off a kit at some point.  LOL.

Rich

26carlos

Hello:

I painted the metalized parts of stabilizaers and aft part of the engines cover (that´s the name ?) The masking was really dificult, I broke the little antena (on the rudder) in the process I´ll repair it and paint the zone again.

I used Model Master Buffing Metalizaers (Burnt Metal and Stainless Steel).

More tomorrow...........

 

 

 Regards.

Carlos

 

 

Sparrowhyperion

I think you mean the fuel dump nozzle.  I don't think one of us has gone without breaking at least one of those off a kit at some point.  LOL.

Rich

 

26carlos:

Hello:

I painted the metalized parts of stabilizaers and aft part of the engines cover (that´s the name ?) The masking was really dificult, I broke the little antena (on the rudder) in the process I´ll repair it and paint the zone again.

I used Model Master Buffing Metalizaers (Burnt Metal and Stainless Steel).

More tomorrow...........

 

 

 Regards.

Carlos

 

 

 

Hi Rich,

This is by no means a criticism, but just a clarification.  On our trip to the museum with Berny, Berny pointed out that everyone seems to get that part wrong.  (You were not there the day Berny brought this up.)  It is not the fuel dump, but is the fuselage vent for the fuel tanks.  The fuel dump nozzels are in the wings.

Ken

Got the parts of the office primed and then a coat of FS36231. I really like the way Aires do their IPs. A clear finely printed film with a PE panel over the top. I always do a thick gloss white coat and then use the paint to glue down the film. The less CA glue on IPs the better as far as I'm concerned.

Cheers

26carlos

Hello:

I painted the metalized parts of stabilizaers and aft part of the engines cover (that´s the name ?) The masking was really dificult, I broke the little antena (on the rudder) in the process I´ll repair it and paint the zone again.

I used Model Master Buffing Metalizaers (Burnt Metal and Stainless Steel).

More tomorrow...........

 

 

 Regards.

Carlos

Hey gang! I'm happy to say that I have actually laid hands, so to speak, on the F-4F the last two nights! It was somewhat minor stuff, like touching up a few seams and then starting some masking on the inside of the canopies where they will appear black.

A quick photo:

Also off topic, I am also continuing on that F-105G and now that I completed the building of the tub, I thought I would post a photo of it along side the melted one. I was rather pleased how it turned out as it is the first time I ever scratched something this complicated.

It's a bit glossy right now as I wanted a smooth surface for those self-adhesive PE parts to stick to. I guess it's sort of related to the F-4G though, because I got interested in the Thud as it relates to the Weasels used in SEA.

As to PE parts, I was considering future projects and thought about sprucing up the cockpit of the 'E' when I start it someday, but i can only seem to find what I want available only at Eduard's web site. The sets I would like to have are marked as discontinued and deeply discounted! Have any of you had experience ordering directly from Eduard? I understand it may take a month or two to arrive? And shipping-is it expensive? They also have a set for the RF-4C discounted in case I decide to go for that kit I mentioned earlier.

Oh, and last but not least, 26carlos, those metallic areas look great! I never seem to get the same effect when I use the Testors products. I will say that I usually paint the metal areas last as they can be difficult to mask when you go to paint the other areas. I'll have to remember the combinations you used for my "F".

Cheers!

Thanks for clearing that up,  I am always happy to learn something new. :)

Have you tried Sprue Brothers?  I got a lot of good goodies including cockpit PE from them for very little money.   I checked and they have an F4E cockpit detail set for $20.49.  It is SKU EDU49231 so just search for that SKU in their advanced search.  I have used their PE a lot and it's very good.  Their website is at www.spruebrothers.com  I wouldn't wait too long if you like them, stuff on their site sells out fast.

I hope this helps.

Rich

jimbot58

Hey gang! I'm happy to say that I have actually laid hands, so to speak, on the F-4F the last two nights! It was somewhat minor stuff, like touching up a few seams and then starting some masking on the inside of the canopies where they will appear black.

A quick photo:

Also off topic, I am also continuing on that F-105G and now that I completed the building of the tub, I thought I would post a photo of it along side the melted one. I was rather pleased how it turned out as it is the first time I ever scratched something this complicated.

It's a bit glossy right now as I wanted a smooth surface for those self-adhesive PE parts to stick to. I guess it's sort of related to the F-4G though, because I got interested in the Thud as it relates to the Weasels used in SEA.

As to PE parts, I was considering future projects and thought about sprucing up the cockpit of the 'E' when I start it someday, but i can only seem to find what I want available only at Eduard's web site. The sets I would like to have are marked as discontinued and deeply discounted! Have any of you had experience ordering directly from Eduard? I understand it may take a month or two to arrive? And shipping-is it expensive? They also have a set for the RF-4C discounted in case I decide to go for that kit I mentioned earlier.

Oh, and last but not least, 26carlos, those metallic areas look great! I never seem to get the same effect when I use the Testors products. I will say that I usually paint the metal areas last as they can be difficult to mask when you go to paint the other areas. I'll have to remember the combinations you used for my "F".

Cheers!