I am finally attempting my first ZM kit and shall attempt a WIP thread. As much as I’d love to join one of the appropriate group builds I am very slow and would never be able to come close to finishing on time.
This is planned to be OOB except for an interior PE set and white metal struts, both from Zoukei-Mura.
So the first things are the two ejection seats, and the first challenge is the face curtain pull handle yellow/black pattern.
I found this cool reference shot for Martin Baker ejection seats in case anyone might be interested.
GregBale did a really neat thing in 1:72 a few years ago with colored string. Wondering if I might be able to adapt his technique to 1:48, I found the thread (as hot-linked…I hope**). Thanks again to Photobucket for ruining human history for all present and future generations. I wonder if Al Gore is mad at them for ruining his internet?
**[cnsod] [cnsod] [cnsod] here we go again, hot link didn’t work. Sorry you’ll have to cut and paste it:
I looked at colored PE sets which attempt to represent these things, meh. Thought about just painting them on with a) a fine brush, b) a fine magic marker, or c) an acrylic pen. This of course would be too much of a common sense solution and I was determined to find something more complicated to frustrate me more.
So I found a technique a fellow used on a 1:32 handle and decided to give it a go.
Saaweeet! nice kit choice Greg. Haven’t built that one yet but currently building a phew Hasegawa ones right now. Both me and my Daughter are building one each in Japanese retirement markings. As far as the pull handles go, I just paint them by hand and live with it. Good luck on a better solution!
Not my best hand-painting job, but it looks fine in real life.
Next was to use a black marker on some Tamiya masking tape and slice it into a few very thin slices. This confused me at first, the black marker is just to add contrast to help see it when applying the mask. I had to read the fellow’s post several times to sort out what in the world he was doing. The below strip ended up being too thick and I had to do it over, but it gives you an idea of what’s going on.
Time to try to wrap the tape around the handle loop. Sometimes I call tweezers the most worthless tool in my modeling box. They sure came in handy for this wrapping around job!
So they end up looking like this. I thought they looked pretty good and I must admit I thought about shooting it with some clear sealant to try to seal the tape down, and call it a day. But I didn’t.
Now for the scary part, painting black over everything…
And it got pretty tense as I started to remove the tape.
Before and after:
So they are not perfect, not as good as GregBale pulled off in 1:72, but in the real world without macro lenses I think they look pretty convincing. (the one with the thinnier masking tape turned out much better, btw)
That was pretty drawn out, if you made it this far, thank you.
Nathan! What a treat to hear from you, it’s been way too long.
I sure appreciate your dropping in, and I think it is so cool you are building Hasegawa Phantoms with your daughter. If that isn’t worth a couple thumbs up, I don’t know what is! [Y][Y]
I didn’t realize the Japanese flew Phantoms, I looked it up and thanks for the mini-history lesson. I want to build something with Japanese markings one day too.
I’m sure your hand painted handles look just fine. As I said, I enjoy driving myself crazy, I guess.
Stik, I’m so glad to have you here. Thanks a lot, and for your kind comments as well.
You are certainly welcome, and again, not my original idea but sounds like it was worthy of passing along. (note that the post is for my reference too, next time I build a fighter I’ll forget how I did this so if I can find this thread and Google Photos hasn’t pulled a Photobucket, I’ll be all set)
So now I can stop fussing temporarily and move forward with the rest of the cockpit.
I’m usually a paint then assemble person, for some reason I decided to put the ejection seat together (minus the pull handles), prime then dark grey and paint them as you experts would do with your fancy resin AM seats.
So here is the starting point. Now I have to stop boring you all and go paint stuff. Hand painting is not one of my strong points. Wish me luck.
I tend to spend too much time on cockpits. I enjoy working on them.
First off, let me start by saying how wonderful and refreshing it is to see you back at the bench again. It has been far too long for you to have been keeping your righteous talents from the forums. I am just happy beyond belief.[:D]
Now, what a way to get back at it. The ZM F-4 should be a grand one to watch. Excellent choice. I’ve often considered picking up a ZM kit so it will be nice to see you build one and get your input as you go. You can guarantee I’ll be following along all the way.
Superb effort on the handles. Brilliant technique that produced outstanding results. Nice bit of patience to boot. Well done.
Lastly, Check your PM my friend. Been waiting to hear back from you and catch up.[*-)]
Hi, Greg - Mighty clever job of the handle masking, looks really good. I saw one of these kits finished by a very talented builder, on display at my LHS. It was described as a fine kit with all around good fit, I’m sure you’ll do it justice, I will be following this for sure.
Hey Greg, I don’t recall you doing an WIP before,looking forward to it.I have not done a Phantom for 20 years when I did a couple of the great Hasegawa birds,definitely want to get to one of these. That’s a lot of effort for those handles !!!
I’ve done 2 WIP’s here, but have mostly participated in GB’s.
This will be my first Phantom.
It sure was. That’s why I’m so slow!
Hi Nick,
I’d sure enjoy having you follow along.
I ordered my kit from Sprue Bros just a couple weeks ago, and I see they are backordered now. A couple other places I checked too, so I guess you’re right. Some of the other variants by Zouke-Mura do seem to be available, though.
Thanks Snapdragon, and also thanks for the welcome to the Zoukei-Mura world. I’ve only just begun, but so far I surely do like the quality, detail, and fit.
I am a such a sucker for modeling tools and supplies. .4mm? If my math is right, that’s .0015" (15 thousandths)? Wow, that’s skinny! I think I will have to buy a roll of it, and the next wider size just to have it!
Sorry to have left you two hanging for a few days, I sort of lost track of my own thread.
