Hi xradio81 – welcome aboard, I’ll add you to the squadron manpower listing! What scale is that? The 1:48?
Cheers, looking forward to seeing this plane,
Mike/TB379
Yes, 1/48 scale is my favorite. My eyes don’t work at 1/72 scale anymore. This will be my first build of 2010. I will document mods to the Revell kit as I progress. Thanks for the warm welcome.
SMILE – I must agree, my eyes don’t like the small stuff anymore either. Oh, to build at 1:32! I’m doing 1:72 by necessity, I need to build a new display case, my last one is now chock full, and the less strain on things the better for the next few months.
My pleasure, the more the merrier, I hope we have a remarkable squadron come midyear.
Cheers, Mike/Tb379
just a quick written update, the cockpit is in after the second attempt and some trimming, the fuse halves are together and the lower half of the wings are installed, now all i need to do is clean up some seams and attend to a gap or two!, hopefully photos will follow soon
cheers, chris
Wondering if any of you fellows have tackled any of the 1/32 Revell Phantom offerings and could tell me anything about potential pitfalls in such a build?
Not to stray too far from this wonderful GB, but I’m wondering the same thing. I thought about joining this GB once I was done with my C-47 and my soon to be Winter Warrior II submission but my only F-4 is not a Phantom II but a Revell 1/32 RF-4C Phantom.
Josh
(Edit: Just did some searching to find out that the RF-4C is a variant of the Phantom II. Just doesn’t say anything on the box. Might join this come March-ish).
If you are concerned with accuracy the kit is full of them. I can give you a list of the most obvious if you want them. The only problem building is getting the wings onto the fuselage. It will take triming in some areas and filling gaps in other areas. Get some extra putty before you start.
The F-4E isn’t as bad as their RF-4C. The F-4E does have the slats which is nice but it is for an early model. It doesn’t have the TISEO or the ARN-101 mod, which wouldn’t be too hard to scratch build.
Hello all. After succeding in spilling something deadly on my pit am nearly finished with my second round of painting it. Soon to be trying my first time with pics. Gonna need some good karma for that. Got a question. In looking at USAF refuleing pics the GIB is always leaning so far forward to the the left he must be out of his belts. Is he watching the boom? Also, saw a very nice lizard & marking scheme from the Alabama ANG 160 TFS. Any ideas where I can find the decals? Lastly, Did you have to hang a designator in order to utilize the GBU-8?
Cheers, Mac
dupes and Josh,
I still have a 1/32 F-4E sitting in a box (a very large one) in my garage that I made in 1997/98 when I was on active duty. My first real use of airbrush for most of the plane. I wish I could find another one (or two) of these kits, with the big expense of the Tamyia 1/32 F-4’s. For accuracy I would take Berny’s input. But for the kit itself, I recall an issue with getting the intakes/splitters to fit correctly and the horizontal stabs to sit at the correct angle. Also the ECM pod might be incorrect time period for the ANG version the kit depicts. I could drag it out an take a few pics if that might help either of you. Mostly on what not to do I’m sure [:$]
44Mac – Hi, not at all sure about the GIB leaning, a visual check may be the case. Wraparound lizard camo for the ANG in the 80s can be had, those markings are available from Superscale, not sure of the sheet number, but a lizard scheme is definitely there, an ANG unit wearing a fuselage band/sash in orange and black IIRC – sound close?
Designators-- if I’m remembering correctly, designators and guided munitions first appeared during Vietnam, I think it was F-4s that took out the Than Hoa bridge with them as their debut operation, and my impression is that the attacking aircraft carried the designator at that time – but don’t quote me! As late as Desert Storm the Brits had one aircraft to designate and one to attack, typically a Buccaneer and a Tornado respectively, but that’s no guide in this case!
FastasEF: Don’t worry, your Revell 1/32 RF-4C Phantom is perfect for this build! The “Phantom II” designation applies to all F-4 aircraft, as the original Phantom was McDonnell-Douglas’s first jet for the Navy, designated the FH. It was a short-production type, as technology was racing in the late 1940s and first-generation jets had to be exceptional not to be swiftly obsolete. So welcome aboard, I hope we see your big recon bird when you’re done with your previous builds!
Cheers, Mike
Cheers, Mike/TB379
… Aye, mark me down then. Revell 1/32 RF-4C Phantom. I can promise it’s not going to be anything special possibly not even pretty.
Josh
Just posting to prove that I’m still alive…
Painted the light camo for the underside and wrap-around to the top of the wing. Then sprayed the preshading…
Then blending it all together with a light overspray of the original colour…
Will try to get the upper surfaces masked and done this weekend.
Gamera she’s looking good mate!!! So many models I and GB’s I want to build and join, so little time!![:(((]
I’m thinking about ordering a set of 1/32 XtraDecal UK, RF-4C `Starize’ decals to replace my aging Revell RF-4C decals. I’m sure the decals are fine and go down good but what I’m wondering is if anyone thinks they will come with a painting guide, (as most do).
Or if anyone could point me in a direction to where I could find more 1/32 RF-4C decals it would be much appreciated.
Josh
Hi FastasEF – you could try searching online for listings of Superscale, Aeromaster and Cutting Edge decals, they should all have RF-4Cs in your scale. Extradecal are high quality and come with comprehensive painting and decal placement guides, so you should be fine with them.
Cheers, Mike/TB379
Thanks Simpilot, this is the easy part though, crossing my fingers on not getting too much overspray once she’s been masked.
FastasEF you might check FlightDecs Canada. Their search engine isn’t the greatest in the world but if you type in RF-4C you ought to get something. And they have the largest selection of decals I’ve ever seen.
www.flightdecs.ca
Work continues on the Phantoms, albeit much slower than that first gang-busters week. I got a few small details done. Stuff that I wanted to knock out before the major subassemblies got stuck together. Nothing exciting, just a few details.
Since one of the Hase jets is going to be built as a –B, I needed to remove some extra plastic from the fin. So, out came the Dremel and away went the bumps!
I removed the forward and rear fairings from the tail and luckily only lost one minor panel line.
-B on the left & the –N on the right:
In hindsight, I also jumped the gun a little with my Revellogram –J. I was a little to anxious to try Archers raised resin detail, so I went ahead and started replacing the raised molded detail I sanded off during construction. (More on that a little later.) I say I jumped the gun because I also decided to try my hand at replicating the light on the front of the fin. (Thanks for the inspiration Jan!) It involved some rough handling and I learned that the Archer detail can be a little fragile.
Anyway, I started on the light by taping off the area that was going to be removed.
Then, using my Dremel…
I roughed out a notch.
Some small files cleaned up the space.
Then, I glued a piece of clear sprue into the hole. A little gap filling CA helped blend everything in.
Lastly, I sanded it flush, polished it up and brushed another coat of Future. Here’s a back-lit shot showing how it looks on one of the Hase Phantoms.
Now, I just have paint ‘em up…
In one of the previous posts, the one where I show how I filled the gap behind the GIB’s canopy, you can see how much detail I lost during the shaping and sanding of the Milliput. Even with protection from some masking tape, I lost a little bit of detail. Also, the seam along the jet’s spine needed some cleaning up, so I lost some detail there too. Including the small round panels. Those were easy enough to replace. I just rescribed some circles on the spine. To replace the panel lines and the rivets, I used Archer’s products. I’ve never used ‘em before, and I gotta say, they’re awesome!
I tried using Solvaset to get the lines and rivets to snuggle down, but I found that an undercoat of Future, with the details laid on top while the Future’s still wet, worked best. I brushed on another coat of Future over the top, just to help seal them in and protect them. The over-coat really helps strengthen the bond. Before I had brushed on the second coat, I found that the details were easily damaged and/or knocked off. (Took me a couple of reapplications to learn that.)
Practically all the lines and rivets beneath the silver paint were replaced.
In this pic, you can see the lines and rivets both painted and unpainted. Again, about 75% of the detail beneath the paint has been replaced with Archer’s details.
If I were to do it again (when I do it again), I’d leave off replacing the raised detail until just before the paint goes on. You know, to protect it from my fumbling thumbs.
Anyway, that’s all I got for this update. Hopefully the next one will be a little more exciting. Feel free to let me know what you think.
Thanks for looking!
-O
Oortiz, I am very impressed with your conversion work! The detail modifications have come out very well and the save using the Archer details is nothing short of amazing – preserving the continuity of a raised-detail kit when that detail tends to be unavoidably lost. Great work, and I’m really looking forward to seeing these birds come together!
Cheers, Mike/TB379
FastasEF I would also give Hannant’s a looksie as well. they have a great search engine and they have 4 listed decal sheets, but one is sold out. HTH![Y]
oortiz:- the replacement raised detail looks great, im in the same boat with the spine of my RoG phantom, so i think i’ll be dropping archers an email to see if they post to the UK, just out of interest what did you use to rescribe the the circles?
cheer, chris