MiG Killers Group Build, 7/07 to 6/08

Hey Semi, go ahead and join in with us. We will show you the roaps and answer any questions you might have about GB's .

Rand, I will dig out the wheels tomorrow and photo them for you.

Steve

semibold wrote:

hey guys i am new to the forum and hope this isn't a stupid question, but when will a new group build start? there seems to be so many already in progress and i would be so far behind if i tried to join one. is there any kind of schedule?

Semi,

There is no real schedule. Most GB's last for up to a year such as ours here. You may join at anytime durring. Some members start open GB which means they are ongoing and never end. There is plenty of time to find a GB you like and join it. If your interested in my GB by all means JOIN US, we are always taking on new participants at any time durring the duration.

Group builds start whenever someone gets an inspiration and decides to start one.  They do seem to come along in groups.

Darwin, O.F.

berny13 wrote:

Air Master Modeler wrote:  berny13 wrote: You need to use a very dark blue, such as royal blue.  The lens should be a darker color of blue/violet. Berny, Thanks! Your knowlege of the Phantom is awesome and I always enjoy your advice. OK guys... The Almighty Guru and Omnipotent Ali Babba of Phabulous Phantoms has spoken! Get those seeker heads tinted! That's an ORDER!   Glad I was able to help.  I have seen many AIM-9 missiles loaded on many type of aircraft in my 26 years in the USAF.  It does seem lately that when you get your baloon blown up, I come by with a pin and burst it.  I hope you don't mind the criticism or the comments.  I am just trying to be helpful, and to help members build an accurate looking model that doesn't look like a toy.

Berny,

No baloons bursted here. Your advice and criticisms are always right on the money. I am glad your here advising us and I hope you will continue and the other guys will seek you out for advice. Your advice and comments are always polite and courteous and you never come off rude like I have seen some people here do. I always look forward to your advice and will continue to do so!

Now on another note I got the Revell 1/48 F-4J (1979 release) today and the only things I say that are good about it is... I will be buying a motherlode of AM for it! Yes, it really lacks a lot of detail the Monogram kit has. Far off par with offerings Hasegawa or Tamiya has. It does have the raised detail panel line but fastener/rivet detail are not present, a Mike Grant: fastener/ rivet decal sheet can be used instead. Cockpit detail only comes as decals, a PE set will be needed here. On the good side it has is that it will certainly be a good model to practice improving my skills on.  

Yes, I ADMIT IT, Joe was right!

Air Master Modeler wrote:

berny13 wrote: You need to use a very dark blue, such as royal blue.  The lens should be a darker color of blue/violet. Berny, Thanks! Your knowlege of the Phantom is awesome and I always enjoy your advice. OK guys... The Almighty Guru and Omnipotent Ali Babba of Phabulous Phantoms has spoken! Get those seeker heads tinted! That's an ORDER!

Glad I was able to help.  I have seen many AIM-9 missiles loaded on many type of aircraft in my 26 years in the USAF.  It does seem lately that when you get your baloon blown up, I come by with a pin and burst it.  I hope you don't mind the criticism or the comments.  I am just trying to be helpful, and to help members build an accurate looking model that doesn't look like a toy. 

Mist086 wrote:

Were the heads white as well?  I'm gonna have to go with these AIM's tho.  School is starting and having 4 in school has put a crimp in my wallet.

Yes.  Gloss white all over, except for the rollerons which was brass colored.

Mist086, the best thing you could do is take the generic sidewinders and throw them away.  They don't look any thing like any AIM-9.  The shape of the forward wings are all wrong as well as the rear wings.  Get some correct missiles from another kit or buy the Hasagawa weapons kit that contains air to air missiles. 

The F-8 usually carried AIM-9B's which were painted gloss white all over.  Just behind the forward fins was a yellow stripe, just forward of the fuse.  Another yellow stripe was behind the fuse.  Those were the only stripes carried on the AIM-9B.   If you are adding AIM-9D's, which was carried late in the F-8's life, they would be painted the same as AMM's.   

Mist086 wrote:

OK Guys, here is my progress on on the Crusader.  My camera always makes the grays darker than they really are.  The pit details are decals.  Use Tamiya and Model Master Acryils.  Have to wet sand then future so i can put some of the decals on before i can put the missile racks on.  Enjoy

Mist,

If you dont mind some critique here is a little advice. Go back over re-sand the front section top of IP hood and ahead of that near nose, I can still see where you puttied. Paint over the red stripes on the sidewinders and instead, using old decals cut some black and yellow decals into strips 1/2" long by 1/32" wide and apply those. This will give those AIM-9's a more realistic look.

berny13 wrote:

You need to use a very dark blue, such as royal blue.  The lens should be a darker color of blue/violet.

Berny, Thanks! Your knowlege of the Phantom is awesome and I always enjoy your advice.

OK guys... The Almighty Guru and Omnipotent Ali Babba of Phabulous Phantoms has spoken! Get those seeker heads tinted!

That's an ORDER!

Berny,

Just to clarify, is the tint blue or violet? I am asking because I just tested this on the AIM-9's for my Phantom and mixed in a few drop of future to make it look transparent and it came out as transparent violet-blue. Is this correct?

OK Guys, here is my progress on on the Crusader.  My camera always makes the grays darker than they really are.  The pit details are decals.  Use Tamiya and Model Master Acryils.  Have to wet sand then future so i can put some of the decals on before i can put the missile racks on.  Enjoy

Air Master Modeler wrote:

ilovef-4 wrote: Glad to see you go the info you needed there Air Master. Great job on the cockpit and the mating of the bride and groom. Update on my F-4E, rescribed panel lines on th fuselage halfs and ordered intakes, wheels and int/ext detail kits. Also cleaned up some ugly pieces on the wings and slabs. I will post pics as soon as I get batteries to take pics. Still looking for info about the aircraft that I plan on doing. I was wondering how you made the heads on the M-9 missiles. Charlie Ahhhhh, Young padwan, making clear seeker heads for AIM-9 Sidewinders is easy! 1. Take the clear sprue that your models canopy parts came on and cut off some of the rounded plastic that the held the parts to the sprue tree, cut off about 1/16" of an inch from the sprue. Use a razor saw blade to cut them. You may want cut more than you need just incase the carpet monster gets hungry he will have snack. Now file down the flat ends and set them aside. 2. Get your AIM-9's out and cut 1/16th" off the tip and file tip flat. 3. Take some super glue (CA) and glue the clear rounded pieces to the missile tips and secure it by brushing on some more Super Glue (CA) at the tip and let it cure. 4. After CA has cured take 400 grit sand paper and sand sides flush to the missile shaft and the tip sanded round,  5. Next take a 4 grit nail polishing stick and polish only the tips untill they're clear as glass, start with the Buff grit and work down to the Polish grit. 6. Paint your missile accordingly but dont paint the top tip on the missile. Mask off the tip before painting.  7. Viola, Realistic looking missile seeker heads on your AIM-9's. Before adding stripes brush on some Future or gloss coat the missile. I used decals for missile stripes and they will adhere better to a glossy smooth surface, and seal decals with gloss coat after and mask tips again before spraying on a clear dull coat. Let me remind you that I have been doing this for years and perfected my technique so, if you make a mistake keep working at it until you get it right. Patience and persistace will pay off. This is the way I do it and hope this helps you toward getting them looking like the real thing.

Sorry guys, but the AIM-9 seaker heads were not clear.  They were tinted to prevent damage to the GCU from bright sunlight.  I paint mine by using 50% royal blue, 50% violet with one drop of gold.  That is the closest I can come to the color used on the Sidewinder. 

sidure wrote:

Rand, the wheels come from the Hasegawa F-4J kit and they are the Navy version. The kit supplies two sets of wheels due to a modification made to reinforce the undercarage for heavy loads for carrier operations. Later j models had a bulge in the upper wing to accomidate the larger reinforcement and subsuquent larger wheel. I used the larger wheel on my marine F-4 so I have a standard size as spares. Steve

All F-4J aircraft had the bulged wing and gear doors.  It was the F-4B/N and early RF-4B aircraft that had the smaller gear.  The reason the USAF wheels are different is they used an Anti Skid braking system and the Navy/Marines did not.  The brake housing was totally different so different wheels had to be used.  You could not take the USAF type wheel and put it on a Navy Phantom because there was no way to mount it. 

Steve, Could you please post a picture of the wheels for me to compare size with the kit wheels? My J does have the wing bulge and I would like to see if are same size as kits wheels.

Thanks.

Rand, the wheels come from the Hasegawa F-4J kit and they are the Navy version. The kit supplies two sets of wheels due to a modification made to reinforce the undercarage for heavy loads for carrier operations. Later j models had a bulge in the upper wing to accomidate the larger reinforcement and subsuquent larger wheel. I used the larger wheel on my marine F-4 so I have a standard size as spares.

Steve

Thanks Steve!

If all else fails at least I have the other F-4 to fall back on just in case.

One question... Are they Navy style F-4 wheels?

Glad to hear that the F-4 may be salvaged with a new canopy. A lot of nice work needs a good canopy. BTW I have built a few Hasegawa F-4's and the kit comes with two types of wheels, regular size and larger ones for the reinforced landing gear. I have a spare  set so if you want them they are yours. Cant find them at this minute but the made it to one of my spares boxes and I can dig them out.

Steve

Chris,

Your Sidewinders look great! Once painted and decaled they will look like the real thing. Add a tad bit of shading around the fins on both your AIM-9's and 7's after you paint them to make them stand out on the model. Our Phantoms will have nice sharp FANGS!

Charlie, Check out my colors question on page 11 of this thread.  Rand helped me out with that question for my F-4C, it could apply to your F-4E. 

Rand- Glad to here that Showtime 100 may survive.  Plus, you'll have another Phantom for your shelf. 

Assembling all of these missiles and bombs makes me happy that I've never been an ordinanceman (aka BB stacker).  Here's all the subassemblies, LG doors and other assorted parts.  I decided to just post the Sidewinder pics. 

Semper Fi,

Chris

Hey guys. Got some work done on my Phantom, will post pics as soon as I get my computer back on the Internet. I also like the looks of the AIM-9' with the clear seeker heads on my Phantom. Can anyone give me a color scheme for Vietnam F-4s? Also can some give a little more info on acft 67-0281(F-4E)? Good luck on Showtime 2 there AirM. Charlie

Glenn,

The Monogram F-4J kit is not a loss. There is still a chance I can finish it. I got an offer for a canopy assembly to replace the one I ruined and I am going to take the offer. Soooooo....

Stay tuned Gents. Showtime 100 is down but not out yet.  

Oh, wow, Rand; after all of that work....

 Mugs' phantom is going ok right now; still rescribing the landing gear doors before moving on to the fuselage.

Glenn

Chris,

Glad to hear my seeker head technique worked for you. To get them to show up in pictures you need to take the picture looking head on at the missile tip but off center. They look darn good too after painting.

EDIT:

My Monogram F-4J has now officially been reassigned to the shelf. The canopy is FUBAR and even Berny agreed it was beyond repair. Good news is, I have a Revell 1/48 F-4J on the way to replace it so. Showtime 100 WILL be built! Kit should arrive by Friday