The Official F-4 Phantom II Group Build 2011

berny13

Wow, Bockscar, opening up the intakes on that beast is a definite challange.  I wish you luck on building the intake trunks. 

Oh yeah, intake trunks.....thanks for reminding me Berny....dang, I found just the right diameter tube stock....I'll keep you posted!

Thanks

Sparrowhyperion

It's all hinging on Revell getting me a couple more fuselage halves, preferably the same length this time.  Then I have to try and get the cockpit to go in properly to the new fuselage.  It may not be an easy fit.  I had to shave down a bit on the cockpit when I removed it from the old fuselage half on one side.  The thing that ticks me off most is how well the cockpit painting came out.  I was really happy with it.  Now it's messed up to the point that I have to make it a closed cockpit, because it is never going to look that good again.

"Someone left the cake out in the rain..."

See RIch, that's what you get for having fun guy...in my very first issue of FSM I read about John Wojciech melting the front half of his C-130...and I'm building scratch intake trunks for my F-4...I think it's something we did in a former life that got us into this mess...

No doubt..  Maybe we angered some ancient plastic god or something...  I have the nasty feeling I am just going to have to replace this kit...  Brand frakkin new too.

Bockscar

 

Sparrowhyperion:

 

It's all hinging on Revell getting me a couple more fuselage halves, preferably the same length this time.  Then I have to try and get the cockpit to go in properly to the new fuselage.  It may not be an easy fit.  I had to shave down a bit on the cockpit when I removed it from the old fuselage half on one side.  The thing that ticks me off most is how well the cockpit painting came out.  I was really happy with it.  Now it's messed up to the point that I have to make it a closed cockpit, because it is never going to look that good again.

 

 

"Someone left the cake out in the rain..."

See RIch, that's what you get for having fun guy...in my very first issue of FSM I read about John Wojciech melting the front half of his C-130...and I'm building scratch intake trunks for my F-4...I think it's something we did in a former life that got us into this mess...

Hi Everyone!

Glenn:  Thank you for the compliment, I appreciate it!

George:  That is an awesome job your doing on your Phantom!  Very nice!  Are you going to enter it in a contest?

Berny:  From your description of your house, you must have an awesome workbench!  Very cool.

Well, here is my progress on the cockpit tonight.  There is so much detail in this and it is so small.  I swear you won't be able to see about 1/4 of it once it is installed.

Right cockpit wall:

Left cockpit wall:

I can only handle doing a small amount at a time.  Since it is so small, it takes so much concentration, I feel wore out after a while!

Ken

Wow! Some of the detail work many of you are doing makes me feel so inadequate with my little OOB builds, but the hobby is what you want it to be. Super builds or slap them together and call them done, as long as you enjoy doing it is what it's all about!

Not a whole lot of time for plastic the last several says, but managed a bit of work:

Finished up the pit painting for the "F"-you see the masking still in place as I plan to be shooting a bit of Dull-coat at it to even up a few touched up spots and then I can button the top and bottom. Not sure if that part behind the rear seat should be gray or black....looks wrong to me.

Also worked a bit on filling those nasty photo flare panels on the 'Geasel' that were so obvious-puttied first, but here you see a bit of Mr. Surfacer 1000 dabbed on to fill in the rough spots, but I must wait for the it to dry before sanding and then re-etching a few of those remaining panel lines that are now gone. Seems like half of my build time is spent waiting for paint or glue to dry! I also need to repaint here as that finger of green should actually be larger, higher up and actually covering part of the area that I'm filling here. Same thing also going on with filling that panel on the port side.

P.S. Armando, did you see my message about the decals?

jimbot58

Finished up the pit painting for the "F"-you see the masking still in place as I plan to be shooting a bit of Dull-coat at it to even up a few touched up spots and then I can button the top and bottom. Not sure if that part behind the rear seat should be gray or black....looks wrong to me.

It looks good to me.  The rear bulkhead should be gray and the rear turtle deck flat black.  That looks like how you have it painted, as far as I can see.

Ken, nice looking job on the side panels.  What does the rest of the cockpit look like?

Hi Jimbot58

1000 thanks for your reply, the thing is that I made long time a go a Fujimi kit as Gulf War I warrior with WW codes, and Italeri and new Hase kit only include WW and PN codes, I'll keep trying to get different versions

Best day

Armando

Hi Everyone,

Jim:  Your Phantom "F" cockpit looks real nice!  And the "G" RhinoPlasty looks like the work of a true surgeon!

Berny:  Thank you for the compliment.  Here is a picture of the "tub" so far:

I spent most of tonight searching for more pictures of the cockpit.  And to my surprise, I did find some more.  So I will probably look some more before I start painting again.  I think I will also look for some colored pencils at the local Hobby Lobby and use a dark gray to add some shadow around some of the detail to help bring it out.  It seems a lot of the cockpit pictures I have seen so far have most of everything painted gray except for the instrument panels which are black.  The only other color I have seen is green on what looks like insulation blanket on the sides.  The seats of course have more color and I will use the pictures that Berny posted as a guide for those.

Tomorrow night is the local IPMS Chapter monthly meeting, so I will not be doing any work tomorrow either.

I wish everyone well and I will chat with you all later.

Ken

A bit of work done:

Now you see it.....

Now you don't....

And the "F" forward fuselage/cockpit giving me a bit of trouble as I assembled it, so a bit of persuasion via a paint brush handle, a strip of plastic and a bit of elastic power lined up that stubborn seam along the bottom. The opposite side looks to be nearly perfect so I glued up the bad side first. I'll cement up the good side after this one sets! Seats removed for safety!

And a nice blurry photo of the wings now assembled:

Also you see the partially cemented main fuselage and that panel I'll need to fill on this plane as well.

Posting in a hurry, busy Friday. Almost there guys, here is a photo update:

Ya know, El Taino...   I look at what you can do in such a short time and it really makes mne realize how far my skills have deteriorated...  That is some really amazing work.  My FGR.2 probably won't come out a tenth as well.  You are the "GOD OF RIVETS!"

(pause for supplicantal bowing)   "I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy...

Rich

Sparrowhyperion

Ya know, El Taino...   I look at what you can do in such a short time and it really makes mne realize how far my skills have deteriorated...  That is some really amazing work.  My FGR.2 probably won't come out a tenth as well.  You are the "GOD OF RIVETS!"

(pause for supplicantal bowing)   "I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy...

 

Rich

OMG, I'm speechless. Thanks for your kind words Rich. I'm in the learning process. I was out of the hobby since mid to late 80's. The long MN winters made me reconsider. Every new kit I start is a canvas to experiment and the end result is simply hours of fun and improvisation. I'm quite sure your Phantom will turn out great too. You have a nice and safe weekend my friend.

George

Great work ElTaino, that is a great looking F-4 and the build and weathering looks spot on. I hate to be a nit picker but the inside of the air brakes ( I believe thats what they are) should be flat Red in the wells and inside portion of the doors. Besides that it looks great

Steve

sidure

Great work ElTaino, that is a great looking F-4 and the build and weathering looks spot on. I hate to be a nit picker but the inside of the air brakes ( I believe thats what they are) should be flat Red in the wells and inside portion of the doors. Besides that it looks great

Steve

Thanks a lot commenting and pointing this out. That part of the instructions is very busy with part numbers and color codes. I missed it but I have just took care of if. It has been painted in red. Thanks for your sharp eye.

Good evening everyone!

George:  Wow!  That is some really good detailing.  Very nice indeed!  It looks like it could take off and fly it is so real looking.  I am very impressed.  I aspire to be that good!

I just got back from our local IPMS Chapter monthly meeting.  I got to hear just a few stories and can't wait for the next one to hear more.  A really great bunch of guys.

Well I hope to get an early start tomorrow morning on my cockpit.  I would really like to have it done by the end of the weekend but that might be asking a bit much seeing that this is my first build in 40 years.  But this is a 3 day weekend for me so I might have a chance.

I look forward to chatting with everyone tomorrow.

Ken

Thanks for your kind words Ken, I'm glad you like it. Can't wait to join some group here in the Twin Cities area. I'm not aware of any so I'm gonna have to ask in my LHS.

Berny, got your decals yesterday, again, thanks so much for your kind gesture. The decal also cracked in 2. My heart sank but there was no going back. So I started to slide it out to the plane in very slow motion and holding my breath and here it is. After carefully aligning it, I left it overnight with 2 coats of Microsol. This morning, I gave it a coat of Acryl Clear Gloss on the top of the plane. I'll be giving the same oil wash I did on the other side by this afternoon. After that, I'll be sealing it with Acryl Flat Clear. Once dry, I'll remove the tape from the canopy and will furn the office with the Eduard Brassin seats.

There is a small triangular decal that goes on the corner of the vertical fin. That, I'll be airbrushing instead.

This baby will be sharing some shelf with my Tamiya 1/32nd Falcon CJ

Have a nice day guys!

George

El Taino

sidure:

Great work ElTaino, that is a great looking F-4 and the build and weathering looks spot on. I hate to be a nit picker but the inside of the air brakes ( I believe thats what they are) should be flat Red in the wells and inside portion of the doors. Besides that it looks great

Steve

 

 

Thanks a lot commenting and pointing this out. That part of the instructions is very busy with part numbers and color codes. I missed it but I have just took care of if. It has been painted in red. Thanks for your sharp eye.

If you don't mind a small correction, the speedbrake wells are gloss white and the inside of the speedbrake is flat red. 

I am sorry to hear about the decals George.  I am glad you were able to salvage them.  Your jet looks very good.   

Thanks berny, got that covered. I looked a few times to have it right. The speed brake wells are gloss white and only the inside of the brakes are red. I've had the speed brake wells already masked, when I went to double check, to find out that they are supposed to be GW. Pheew!

Rhinotastic, George! That is really well done!

Glenn

I painted the wheel wells, speedbrake wells, inside intakes, gear doors, landing gear, ECM pod, and other items that needed to be gloss white last night.  They are still tacky this morning.  I have them under a lamp and hope the paint will cure.  It was a little cool in my room when I painted them.   

Does anyone know what color the cockpit instrument screens are when they are powered off?  I am not talking about the gauges but rather the computer readout screens, radar screens, etc.  In some pictures they look red, but I can't tell if it is the flash of the camera giving this effect.

Ken

From the ones I have seen. older CRT type displays were a kind of dull light green, very light, almost a gray green.  Newer LCD panels are a very flat dark gray, to black.

Son Of Medicine Man

Does anyone know what color the cockpit instrument screens are when they are powered off?  I am not talking about the gauges but rather the computer readout screens, radar screens, etc.  In some pictures they look red, but I can't tell if it is the flash of the camera giving this effect.

Ken

I must have looked at those scopes a thousand times and for the life of me, I can't remember the color.  I typed in "F-4 Phantom Cockpits" under bing and found red, orange, blue, green, and black colored scopes.  For some reason I have all of mine painted gloss black with Future applied over them to give that glass looking effect.  If that is correct, I don't know, but that is how I do it.  So far no one has called me out on it or said it isn't correct.

berny13

Son Of Medicine Man:

Does anyone know what color the cockpit instrument screens are when they are powered off?  I am not talking about the gauges but rather the computer readout screens, radar screens, etc.  In some pictures they look red, but I can't tell if it is the flash of the camera giving this effect.

Ken

 

I must have looked at those scopes a thousand times and for the life of me, I can't remember the color.  I typed in "F-4 Phantom Cockpits" under bing and found red, orange, blue, green, and black colored scopes.  For some reason I have all of mine painted gloss black with Future applied over them to give that glass looking effect.  If that is correct, I don't know, but that is how I do it.  So far no one has called me out on it or said it isn't correct.

Thanks Berny.  That is funny, that is exactly how I decided to do mine.  Great minds must think alike!

Ken

Jimbot & El Taino:

Nice work guys! -very inspirational efforts!

I'm hoping some of my 'after' shots approximate that "now you don't" quality!

After reading some of the disappointments, and seeing some of the great work also, I realized I should never have tried to rush. I originally thought I was going to get away with leaving the thin crispy plastic the way it was, and I glued the fuselage assembly onto the wings a week or so into the build, confident all of those bulkheads I cut would hold everything together.

Last weekend while I was planning a re-scribe strategy for all of that putty, I found that I had more hairline cracks in the bottom of the fuselage. Hey, I didn't hear any stress cracking noises when I put the rubber bands around my build. I don't usually hesitate to re-line for reinforcement, but somehow I missed the call entirely when I committed to the external re sculpting of the wings and nose.

Musta' bin the Squadron fumes.

Ahem. I removed the splitter plates, and voila, kept right on going. Maybe I need to join the Official F-4 Group De-Construction Un-Build. I'll post the reline effort Sunday if possible. The good news is that I've been building consistently on the weekends since I joined, and seeing the work here is a great motivator.

The challenging news is that I'm seriously into by-pass surgery and wondering if I'll make the deadline.

Now that my Flugel resembles a kit again, maybe I should spring for a tub revamp, and throw in some scratch after burners to compliment the tail-feathers!

Ok, my phellow Phantom phanatic phans, I have a phew questions I need ask:

First of all, I couldn't resist this from Sprue Brothers:

On_it's_way!

Already a "Super Special", SB is also offering a further discount through the 20th for Hasegawa kits! A bargain is always good, yes? Now I'm looking over the kit instructions, (No! I don't have it yet! Look here!) but as usual, the HAS kits do not include weapons, pods, etc. It shows the attachment of the pylons under the wings, but no info otherwise. I know these were strictly an export, (looks like another Luftwaffe kit will someday join the "F" in progress!) so I need to know if they do get loaded with anything?

The second question concerns walkways-every kit I have looked at either has supplied decals for them, or includes painting instructions to add them. However, if I look at Phantom photos, very seldom do you really see them actually used. What's the story there?

There are a couple of WIP photos, but I will update later with them!

Jim

Great work going on, guys, sorry I've been silent for a few days, heaps to do in RL.

El Taino -- the big guy is looking very good indeed (and that F-16 dio is inspirational!) Your natural metal areas are remarkable, and overall the impression is as good as you could want. I know the nerve-wracking feeling of coaxing a broken decal back together, I had to do that a couple of times on an F4U I completed a few weeks back, there's a very gratifying feeling when it works right and the split pretty much vanishes under the clear coats.

Cheers all, this GB continues to gallop!

Mike/TB379