Don’t have any progress to show yet, but hopefully I will later. I’ve decided to try and replicate a particular aircraft I found a picture of online. I never even realized our base had a camo Phantom until I came across this picture.
I was actually trying to find a picture of a C-130E in the same camo scheme from our base, which has proved to be impossible, lol.
The kit:
Special thanks goes out to goldhammer for making this build possible.[:D]
I have a photo in a book of that same airframe in the ADC grey. Cool to see it in camo.
That’s what I thought, lol. I was going to do it in the normal color scheme, even though I’ve always liked the way the Phantoms look in camo, then I stumbeled on that picture, and that sealed the deal, lol.
I was just looking around for examples for the writing of Niagara Falls on the tail, and came across someone who makes custom decals, so I ordered those. Makes my life a bit easier. I printed my own decals once, it was a pain in the butt.
Keyda, I’m not the greatest F-4 expert around here, but it looks to me like your kit is an F-4G, which was based on the F-4E, and the photo is of an F-4C, F-4C-21-MC 64-660 to be precise. It will be a lot of work to go from one to the other.
Your much more of an expert than me, lol. I’m sure there are plenty of differences, if I had the time, and paitence to do all the research I would. But this is just a hobby and I have one of those “good enough” attitudes, and I’m not real picky, lol. I would certainly drive myself quite crazy if I tried to get every detail correct. I even thought at one point I might get in trouble for “spying” on the C-130’s we have on base, lol.
Monogram had a kit with those markings. It wasn’t the mig killer, but the serial number was only one digit off. Wish I still had that kit…
sweet kit! I’m always up phor a phantom build , however the F-4G with it’s longer nose and all is a far stretch from a Short nosed C model. Academy makes a great 1 48 scale C kit, but I understand your position
Keyda, if using the G kit makes you happy then use it and enjoy it. As you say, it’s a hobby. Some of us talk too much, with me at the head of the line on this one![:D]
Made a little bit of progress today. I really hate white paint, lol. It seems no matter what kind of white paint I use I need to put a 100 coats on. [:O] I can’t use spray paint at the moment, my little home made paint booth can barely handle the airbrush fumes. Stay at home mom budget kind of sucks, lol.
White done.
Just a little start on some detail.
The panel looks nice, Keyda. Are you using flat white? It will cover a lot better than gloss white. I just put a thin coat of gloss over the flat white, or Future, if I need a gloss finish. I never did learn how to get good coverage with gloss white without getting about a 1/4 inch thickness of paint!
I’ll be following this one count me in!
Toshi
I really enjoyed their old Phantom series,will be following.
Some more progress painting the little bits and pieces. I’m calling the cockpit stuff done at this point. If I try to detail the IP’s anymore at this point I’ll just make a giant mess, lol.
Hoping to get started putting the cockpit together after dinner.
Not sure why it looks so bad in the pic, it really isn’t that messy in person!
A piece broke off, and I have no idea where it went. I’m not even sure how long it took me to realize it was missing. I may try and fix it somehow, or just leave it. I haven’t tried my hand at scratch building anything yet.
Will hopefully have more progress to report tonight!
Got the cockpit together, and the fuselage halves glued together last night.
I did a small paint swatch to test out my colors. The reference I have calls for dark tan, but it looks too dark compared to the photo of the original plane. I could probably chalk that up to lighting and the fact it’s a rather old photo. But the greens look spot on. [*-)]
Howdy Keyda, sunlight versus indoor lighting, changes the way a paint reflects it’s hue. Paint subjected to outdoor weather and sunlight fads the paint. Then there is the scale affect that scale models have to the human eye that makes the paint seen too dark. I build models in 1/72 scale and depending on the color will add 15% white, sometimes less, to the paint so the paint job doesn’t look too dark. The 1/48 scale model guys that do this use a different percentage of white to their paint, I don’t know what that percentage is. However, I don’t add white to silvers, golds, coppers, whites, or clears for example. Very light shades of any color I usually leave alone, for instance FS36195 light grey, add 15% white to this and it looks white to my poor tired eyes. Ultimately in the end remember it’s your model and if it makes you happy you have done well. Andrew Magoo
F-4Gs wore that same camo scheme for the early portion of their service careers. Just different tail codes for the few Weasel units
It’s looking really good and coming along together nicely. IP looks great!
Toshi
I think progress is done for today. I discovered while putting the wings on the plane that I’m missing a few pieces.[:O] No big deal, nothing that is going to stop building. They are pieces that can always be put on even after the model is finished. I’ve already emailed Hasegawa about it. We’ll see what happens when they get back to me.
Fuselage without the pound of tape, lol.
Left intake
Wings and nose
I know it’s a lot of tape, lol…I just didn’t want anything moving on me. Hopefully everything is lined up nicely, I tried to make sure it was.
This is one bad ass looking plane. Having a blast building it! I forgot how nice Hasegawa kits went together, it’s spoiling me. [:D] I’m going to let everything sit overnight and set up nice and tight. I sometimes get impaitent and land up pulling pieces off when I take the tape off, lol. I’ve been slacking on house work anyway.[:$]
Keyda, looks like Jeaton knows A LOT more about Phantoms than I do (and I enjoy hearing from people like him who knows more than me)…I think your attitude on “rivet counting” (not using the right F-4 for your build) is very refreshing and very practical. It’s always great to hear from members like Jeaton who help with questions and good advice!
If it’s not the right airframe…that’s not such a bad thing. If it makes you happy and you are going to have fun…then…well, it doesn’t get any better than that, does it?
And…it’s a spankin PRETTY plane! Have fun!!
Oh…and for future reference…white wheel wells are easy. Like you, I’ve had LOTS of problems painting the gloss white - sometimes it takes HEAPS of coats to cover. Soooo…I use FLAT white (FS 37875) or Tamiya flat white Surfacer (decanted into my airbrush jar) … light coats will cover VERY well, and then a coat of gloss white or Future. Works every time.
Go for it! Have fun! And post lots of pics!
Well, I would not call the differentiating between two quite distinctly different versions of the Phantom as “rivet counting” by any stretch. And researching your builds can be half the fun. Especially if you see a paint job you like and want to track down your subject to see if they wore something similar.