It’sbeen a long time since I’ve been here. But, here goes. [;)] What is currently on the bench is Academy’s 1/48 F-4C. This will be built up as Robin Olds F-4C and, configured for CAP configuration.
I’ve been building on it for a bit over a month. The extra goodies I got for it are
Aries cockpit. By no means a drop in upgrade. it looks good but, a lot of work is involved to get it to fit.
DMolds intakes. These have the front fans. A very nice fit.
A mock up of the underwing stores.
Some paint last night. I painted the wheel wells last night but, didn’t bother with pics of them. It would be like trying to take a pic of a polar bear in a blizzard. I painted the insides of the air brakes and accessory doors red. It was just nice to lay down some actual color. [:D]
The kit really does build up quite nicely. Not a shake-n-bake but, a nice kit nonetheless.
[B]
Dave
P.S. All constructive critiques are always welcome.
AWESOME(!!!) COL. (Later Brigadier General) Robin Olds is one of my personal heroes! He was quite a character, and I have been looking to get this very Kit. Flying low and slow like the F-105’s, then SURPRISE! We are F-4’s not fat, heavy, slow F-105’s!!! What a story. His Mustache was a great big middle finger to the Brass. Rudy
Looks good so far. I’ve been following an F-4C build over on Britmodeller that is being guided by the pilot who flew the aircraft. Lot’s of good imformation in that thread if you’re interested.
Thank you Gary. Also, thank you for the heads up on the link for information. As always, I was hoping to get color laid down on the bird, then realizing there is still a bit of prep work to do yet.
I’ve had this build in mind for a while now. I’ll be happy to see yours as you go through it. =] Glad to hear there aren’t too many issues to fool with.
Build away! The only fit issue really was the Aries cockpit. I stumbled across a build where someone used the Aries CP. It turns out I didn’t cut nearly enough plastic away is the right places. This is why I had such a fit issue between the floor of the CP and the upper portion of the nose wheel well. Aires makes some fine products but, they tend to fall short on how the product fits into the kit it is designed for. This was no exception. It all worked out in the end.
Love those Phantoms and yours is looking pretty good there as are those MB seats. Think that’s the first time I seen the back of the seats depicted so well, they nailed it on the upper catapult gun, banana links. Might touch those with a metallic silver paint. The seat drouge chutes are well done too. She’s a beaut!
Thank you kindly for having a look see. Banana links? Please do explain. I searched on it and I think I know what is being discussed. Just trying to clarify.
The funny thing is after reading your reply and, searching for banana links, only then do I find pictures of the MB seat that I could have used a couple of weeks ago. [:P]
Sorry…they sit right behind the drouge chute atop the catapult outter barrel. On the Mk-7’s they will be the slightly curve metal linkage. When the ejection handles are pulled, the rod they’re attached to rotates turning the banana link which removes the primary sear, firing the catapult primary cartridge. As the seat rises, there’s I believe it was 2 pancake charges which fires one at a time as they’re exposed to the hot gases of the primary, giving the seat and occupant a more even stroke going up. The Intermediate and inner tube exends with the seat and just before it reaches the end, a landyard attached to the seat rocket moter and the floor of the cockpit removes the rocket motor sear and the seat rockets fire. Sorry again…been some 38 years since I worked on the Mk-7’s and Gru-7’s, testing my memory about them. They were fun to work on.
Well hot diggity Scott! Thank you for taking the time to explain that to someone who has only ever read about MB seats. I especially like the explanation of how things work. If I’m taking time to build/paint something, I have the need to understand how the thing works.
That being said, I’ll be painting that when I get to the topside of this beastie again. Currently, the base color is laid down. It’s not well reflected in the pic but, there is some tonal variation. There will be more in future painting sessions. For now, it’s just nice to have color down.
A close up of the underside on the starboard intake. It looks as though there was a bit of roughness on the resin masters.
Damn! Looking at that rivet detail, guess I need to pick up one of those Academy kits, that looks sharp though it will be one of their F-4B’s.
Glad you like a little of the technical stuff. In the pick I posted (different type MB seat) you can see the drouge gun on the leftside of the seat. When the seat clears the cockpit, the timed…opps! It’s not timed, there’s a yellow rod attaached to the drouge sear and the other end to the cockpit, when pulled the drouge cartridge fires, pulling out the drouge chute to stabililze the seat. If one were working over the seat and unlucky to fire the cartridge, it will put a hole in you and patched you to the same time. As I said, the seats were fun to work on but they can kill if one were not following maintenance proceedures. As for painting the seats, we would strip them down, send the chute and seat packs to the riggers (PR’s)who would do their inspections. Seat shop would test all the components, paint the seat (using regular flat black spray paint) then slap it all together and put them back in the bird.
The kit goes together quite nicely. I would imagine the same could be said for their B & J variants. There is a disclaimer about some of the detail you may be looking at. The intakes are resin seamless intake by DMold. Here’s a few pics of them in the raw. Now, this is a dry fit without the fan at the end of the intake.
A comparison of the resin vs kit. I had read somewhere that the kit fan is smaller and the trunk shorter to give a forced perspective on the depth of the trunk. The kit trunks are really nicely done. I am eyeballing the J variant at the LHS. Should I get it, I think I’ll use the kit trunks and give them a go.
