The Official F-4 Phantom II Group Build 2011

Hi fellows:

I took notice of Berny´s advice and I made some corrections

I painted natural metal the horizontal stab leading edge slots all the way out to the tip and replaced the USAF wheels with a pair of Navy wheels.

Now I´m in the final stages. Canopy painted,  and begining with the weapons. This weekend decaling.

Here are some pics as it´s now:

More pics on the way.

Regards.

Casper the Chihuahua

Does anyone have any experience with a non weighted Phantom nose? Will it work? Will it tip?

Casper,

I haven't been as active in this GB as I should be, so I'm not sure what Phantom kit  you're building.  From your signature, I'm guessing you're building Hasegawa's 1/48 F-4B/N?  If that's the case, then you're fine without nose weight.  I've built both the Hase and Revellogram 1/48 Phantom without weight, and both stand fine on their gear.

Cheers!

-O

Hi fellows.

Finished the canopy and I´m starting to give an overall coat of Future and decaling.

 I hope this weekend I´ll be able to finish decaling and satart with the weapons.

regards.

Hi Casper:

Don´t know what brand is your kit and scale, but my ESCI F 4 Phantom doesn´t have weighted nose and it stands ok.

I have various Phantoms of diferent brands (1/48 & 1/72 Hasegawa - Revell - Fujimi - ESCI) and in the instructions I didn´t see any advice about the need to put extra weight in the nose.

Regards.

26carlos:

Yeah, that's neater than the real airplane man!

Great work 26carlos.  First rate job.  

Berny, Dom, Ken; thanks for the kudos!  

The seats are pretty much done.  The only thing left to do is a shot of flat coat before being dropped into the cockpit.  However, before I could do any plastic mashing, I had to do a little housekeeping.  With school starting, I needed to clear off a spot to do my school work.  Since the wife and I share the office, my side doubles as my work space and hobby space.  Unfortunately, the condition it was in didn't lend itself to either.  So, before any modeling or school work could get done, I had to get my self sorted. 

I know we've all done the "here's my work-space" photos before, but I thought I'd finally share mine.

Before:

(I don't even know where those cookies came from!)

After:

(I usually don't eat candy or sweets, but I like to indulge in some hard candy while I'm sitting at my bench.)

Now that things are squared away (and I have a free day tomorrow), I expect to make some Phantom progress.

Cheers everyone!

-O

Hi "O",

Great job on the organization!  I feel the same way, you need to have some organization to be comfortable with your work area.

I am back in school again myself.  In my field of work (computers), you have to continually keep going to school or some type of training program to keep up with the technology.

Ken

O, Holy COW!

If all that stuff is on Ebay, please provide the link...lol...

BTW...nice drilling pal....if you hit oil, can I buy shares?.....lol...

I appreciate the fact you are a student, and still find the will to drilll.....lol....you are the guy in between total scratch, After Market, and Out of the Box......not to mention careers, so my hat is off to you.....

Yes, it only hurts when you are having fun....lol......

Got a bit more done this weekend. Mostly painting of the greeblies (landing gear, hatches, etc.) and Futuring and masking of the canopies.

Also got the bird together.

I picked up some more Alclad during the week. I'm going to use Alclad magnesium for the exhausts with varying shades on the paneling under the tail in Alclad Jet exhaust. I'll use the Alclad aluminum for the silver striping around the exhausts and the rear wings.

Cheers

Casper, looks like nice clean work.  Keep it up!

Dom, all that…uh…stuff that was on my desk didn’t make its way to eBay.  However, had I not cleaned it up, I’m sure the wife would’ve made sure that it did.  

Ken, school and work are what keep me away from my bench.  Besides working full time, I’m taking 18 units at the university this semester and squeezing in 100 hours of internship.  That’s not including my sports, other hobbies, personal and other professional commitments, plus all the stuff life throws at ya.  So you can see how my modeling time can be limited.

Anyway, staring at my empty bench made me start to itch.  So, in an attempt to get me moving towards another mess, I sat down and fiddled with one of the Phantoms.  The –C I wanna build has some intake covers which appear to be made out of canvas (as seen here).  After some thought, I figured the best way to replicate ‘em would be with either fine metal foil or some tissue.  I found some foil from a wine bottle and started to fabricate me some intake covers.  

Here’s what I came up with:

I like the direction in which I’m going, but I think the wine foil’s a little too thick.  I may try again with both kitchen foil and tissue and see which ones look best.  Now that I have a rough pattern to use, it should be pretty easy making up some covers outta different materials.  Anyway, let me know what you guys think.

Cheers!

-O

Hi guys.

I'm trying to find a good match for the beige/tan colour of the Phantoms' beige colour in the tri/camo scheme. Revell lists it in the instructions as 80% beige and 20% brown, but I can't seem to find these two colours anywhere.

As I have olive and dark green tamiya enamels and plan on using them for the camo I guess I should try to find some suitable tamiya colours for the final colour to avoid any reaction disasters.

Would a mixture of tamiya flesh, brown and maybe a bit of desert yellow or something or other get close you reckon?

Any help greatly appreciated!

O -- and I thought my workspace was cramped/littered!

SNG -- if you're using enamels, you can get matches for USAF SEA Tan FS30219 in the Model Master and Humbrol ranges. If you fancied acrulics, MM Acryl have matches for them all too.

Cheers, M/TB379

Hey Oortiz. Do you have squadrons' f-4 walkaround? On page 33 there is a relatively clear picture with an E fitted with an intake cover on the Port(?) side. I'd take a pic and post it but I don't reckon it'd be clear.

You can see if anyone stocks it near you and just take a peek without buying it

Good job by the way.

Thanks Berny  and Bockscar

Hi fellows:

Decaling process is going easy. This Microscale set of  Decals is great and the Micro Set / Sol works very well with these decals.

 When finishing decaling I´ll apply a Future coat to seal the decals and then an oil wash. Then complete some minor details and the weapons. Hope in a coupñe of days it will be finished.

Regards.

Hi somenewguy:

Take a look at Humbol 118 (US Tan). It´s enamel too.

26carlos:

Wouldn't mind learning your masking technique, Berny said to run that natural metal finish out, and you managed to keep the stab detail as crisp as new money:

How did you keep those tiny hinges white?

If you let us know, I'll buy you a beer next time I'm in Buenos Aires....

26carlos:

Wouldn't mind learning your masking technique, Berny said to run that natural metal finish out, and you managed to keep the stab detail as crisp as new money:

How did you keep those tiny hinges white?

If you let us know, I'll buy you a beer next time I'm in Buenos Aires....

26carlos:

Wouldn't mind learning your masking technique, Berny said to run that natural metal finish out, and you managed to keep the stab detail as crisp as new money:

How did you keep those tiny hinges white?

If you let us know, I'll buy you a beer next time I'm in Buenos Aires....

Casper the Chihuahua

Got a bit more done this weekend. Mostly painting of the greeblies (landing gear, hatches, etc.) and Futuring and masking of the canopies.

Also got the bird together.

I picked up some more Alclad during the week. I'm going to use Alclad magnesium for the exhausts with varying shades on the paneling under the tail in Alclad Jet exhaust. I'll use the Alclad aluminum for the silver striping around the exhausts and the rear wings.

Cheers

 

Hi Casper,

Looks like fine work there!  Top notch!     

Ken

oortiz10

Casper, looks like nice clean work.  Keep it up!

 

Dom, all that…uh…stuff that was on my desk didn’t make its way to eBay.  However, had I not cleaned it up, I’m sure the wife would’ve made sure that it did.  

 

Ken, school and work are what keep me away from my bench.  Besides working full time, I’m taking 18 units at the university this semester and squeezing in 100 hours of internship.  That’s not including my sports, other hobbies, personal and other professional commitments, plus all the stuff life throws at ya.  So you can see how my modeling time can be limited.

 

Anyway, staring at my empty bench made me start to itch.  So, in an attempt to get me moving towards another mess, I sat down and fiddled with one of the Phantoms.  The –C I wanna build has some intake covers which appear to be made out of canvas (as seen here).  After some thought, I figured the best way to replicate ‘em would be with either fine metal foil or some tissue.  I found some foil from a wine bottle and started to fabricate me some intake covers.  

 

Here’s what I came up with:

 

 

 

I like the direction in which I’m going, but I think the wine foil’s a little too thick.  I may try again with both kitchen foil and tissue and see which ones look best.  Now that I have a rough pattern to use, it should be pretty easy making up some covers outta different materials.  Anyway, let me know what you guys think.

 

Cheers!

-O

Hi "O",

Sounds like you are on "overload" with that schedule!  I am only taking 8 credit hours this semester and that keeps me busy enough.  Nice work on the fabric cover, looks very cool!     

Ken

26carlos

Hi fellows:

Decaling process is going easy. This Microscale set of  Decals is great and the Micro Set / Sol works very well with these decals.

 

 

 When finishing decaling I´ll apply a Future coat to seal the decals and then an oil wash. Then complete some minor details and the weapons. Hope in a coupñe of days it will be finished.

Regards.

 

Hi Carlos,

That is looking sweet!  Great job!  I hope my bird comes out looking half that good!   

Ken

Ok, time for some Squadron Green. It also helped with the nasty gap between the kit fuselage and the resin sidewalls.

Wheels done. Will add some unused coloured PE from my F-16. Lots of wheelbay cables. Some weathering grays on the tyres next;

Weapons pretty much done. Also used some unused PE from the F-16 set.

Strangely the Hasegawa kit only contains one decal sheet for the Midway markings. So there is only really a choice of one set of markings out of the 3 shown on the instructions. Included in the missing decals were all the coloured bands for the missiles. So the decals shown are also unused from the F-16 plus some coloured ones I found that I could cut thin stripes. I guessed and used my best judgement so I hope I haven't offended anyone with my inaccuracies!

Cheers

I would have to agree that the foil seems a bit too thick, SOMM. I understand tank and armor modelers use tissue and I think white glue to simulate tarps. Perhaps that might work? I don't know anything about the technique as I am mostly focused on aircraft.

Casper, I certainly won't be offended. It seems that of the few kits I have where markings are provided for the weapons, all of them are different! And then if you search for photos on-line of the same weapons, they are different yet again.

Tonight was a bust for me! I finally sat down with the Phantom for a bit of wok as I have been busy lately and find it hard to find time. I am trying to close up the cockpits for painting, which includes masking of the canopies. I almost forgot the HUD beneath the windscreen, and when I went to install it, my tweezers went *SNICK* and the display was launched into the unknown! It's so tiny, I didn't even bother to look for it! I cut a tiny piece of clear sheet stock and cemented it in place and called it "good enough"! I decided to walk away from it at that point as the frustration level was a bit high at that point!

jimbot58

I would have to agree that the foil seems a bit too thick...

Jimbot,

I'm mostly an aircraft builder too, but I've tried the "tissue technique" once or twice with some sucess.  I think I'm gonna use this first "thick foil" attempt as a "rough pattern" for a second try made out of thin kitchen foil.  I'll see how that looks, but if that still looks too thick, then I'll use that kitchn foil effort as a "fine pattern" for a tissue attempt.  Make sense?

Once I get going on that, I'll post pix so you guys can give me some feedback.

Cheers!

-O

Shissshhh....I hate that *SNICK* sound, it's the sound of the carpet monster, snapping its jaws......devouring its prey whole......never to be seen again.......

Well, until you hear the vacuum monster go *TICK.TICK.Tick.tick.tick.ticktickticktickTTTTTZZZZZZ*....never to be seen again.....

So true.

Hi Everyone!

Okay, maybe you all have already heard of this, but it is news to me.  There was an unofficial version of the Phantom II called an EF-4C Wild Weasel.  This bird was developed during the Vietnam War.  Here is a link to a web page that has the description:

http://www.f-4.nl/f4_8.html 

Pretty cool!  I just might have to build one of these!

Ken

two good sources of Weasel pics, drawings and intro dates are

the Spirit in the Skies book

and the old Weasel, the Sam Supression story by Squadron

the Phantom Weasels used in VietNam were all EF-4C's,,the two EF-4D's were test aircraft, and the G's didn't get done until after the SAM threat in Israel in '73

the EF-4C's also couldn't carry the Standard, just the Shrike, and had a unique "2 herpes" style of IR nose fairing for the electronics

as much as we love our Phantoms,,,,,,the bulk of the Weasel work was done by Thuds,,Skyhawks and Intruders, the last two as Iron Hand strikes,,,,with the EF-4C coming along just in time for Linebacker, with Navy Corsair IIs also providing Iron Hand missions later in the war