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1/48 ESCI F-4J Phantom, Done, 5/24/12!


ghodges

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Been too quiet lately....here's a Phantom I'm working on....OOTB except for some resin bits in the offices....note the clear plastic light in the fin edge, as well as the steel tube bases for the steel pitot tubes to be added later.

 

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Model Master gloss white and flat gull gray over flat black pre-shading. The orange is MM trainer orange. The anit-glare panel is Floquil engine black. The model was glossed with Alclad Klear Kote and then Alclad steel (rear keel), duraluminum and white aluminum were applied on the rear and the tail planes.

 

Next....DECALS for VF-114 Aardvarks! More pics when she is fini! Questions, comments, and critiques welcome, as always!

 

GIL :smiley16:

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I like the shading a lot. Its one of my favorite methods to add depth to an aircraft. Very clean work to this point. Can't wait to see it marked up.

 

Thanks for sharing

 

Chris

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Gil, great looking bird! Excellent job. Gil, this is my opinion, so put the gun back in the drawer. ;-) To me the pre shading is alittle heavy, rthis maybe the light or it may blend in with the dull coat. I am not a real fan of the current wave of shading. Just my view. I do like the Esci kits. I have the 1/72 scale ones and found them to be very good. I believe they were the first Phantoms with engraved panel lines. The lines arefine and crisp. I have about 40 F-4s in various makes and manufacturers. Just can't do one in meatballs. It just not right!

Wayne

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Outstanding Gil! That is one awesome clean build!

 

Quiet? I guess you haven't been following my build thread under On the Bench. I've been making a lot of noise there with three posts in the last week and a half. Not to mention the one aircraft and three armor I finished in that same time... :smiley2::smiley14::smiley16:

 

Keep these posts coming, we need to keep the noise level up in here. :smiley20:

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I was refering to the a/c forum here.....seems to be fewer posts the last few months. Got the decals on the Phantom, so progress is being made! Thanks for kind words, and NO problem if you don't like the shading...that's why we all build them like WE like them!

 

GIL :smiley16:

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You want "posts"? I give you stinkin' posts! How about this one:

 

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday, Dear Gil, Happy Birthday to You! (And many More.......) (All sung with appropriate gusto but off key. You're lucky this is visual only. I'm sending this early because your birthday is Friday because, well, you never know....)

 

There, I've covered "Facebook" AND IPMS/USA Forum notifications, all at once! :Smile-tongue:

 

Personally, I've tried to quit counting birthdays, but they keep coming anyway. I guess it's better than the alternative, but the count will be up to SEVENTY-NINE this August 19th, if I make it tht long. The self-portrait in my picture at left was taken FIFTY-ONE years ago ..as evidenced by the old P-series helmet with the unshielded visor. I took the picture in the front cockpit of a T-bird by the simple expedient of holdling the camera at arm's length, pointed backwards ...look closely to see the reflection of the windshield bow in the helmet visor. This was during the Berlin Wall Crisis, and we were at 35,000' over then-West Germany simulating a Matador missile for ground radar weapons controller training. Ah, those were the days!

 

Getting back to birthdays, ;there never are guarantees, a fact gets ever more painfully obvious as that old bastard with the scythe (Father Time) keeps creeping up.....

 

So, Happy Birthday early, my friend.

 

Oh, almost forgot ....this is a model forum, I'm supposed to mention something about models. Neat looking Rhino, but I'm not a big fan of forced shading on panel lines either. Unless the F-4 in question has been abord a big Navy flat-topped boat for a while, where shading on REAL panel seams would show that the hard working maintenance guys have been busy with spray cans doing corrosion control! But it is a personal preference thing. Ain't it nice that we don't all agree on anything! :smiley14:

 

Reviewing all the above shows that while I don't post very often, they're always verbose!

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Been too quiet lately....here's a Phantom I'm working on....OOTB except for some resin bits in the offices....note the clear plastic light in the fin edge, as well as the steel tube bases for the steel pitot tubes to be added later.

 

Note: the top "pitot" tube wasn't a pitot tube. It was an inlet for the "artificial feel" system and was the same diameter for its whole length. It wasn't "stepped" as the actual pitot tube was. It looks to me like you've left it a little short now.

 

Also, the gray on those beasts didn't weather very much, at least not the paint they had on them when I was in. It was two part epoxy paint, much like DuPont Imron. It was tough as nails and tended to look brand new right up until the jet went back to depot.

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Thanks for the info David! Part of this is "art", and sometimes an accurate finish (like an unblemished gray) is a bit too monotone for my eye. But, as stated above, that's what's neat about this hobby! We can all build as we see fit to satisfy our own eye. Decals are on it, so I'll try to get another pic posted this evening! Cheers!

 

GIL :smiley16:

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Here's a couple of pics showing the current status......

002.jpg

 

004-1.jpg

The Sparrow missiles are only sitting in the bays for the pic....

 

Getting closer, but still have a myriad of small things to do to get it done. More pics when she's finished! Cheers!

 

GIL :smiley16:

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Lookin' mighty fine, Gil! :Smile_sceptic:

Just now I realized that in all these years I've never ever built a model of the Rhino! This, despite having owned most of the kits at one time or another, and either given away (the fate of most of my rather extensive stash on moving to North Carolina) or sold them on E-bay.

 

My only connection with the Rhino in 1:1 scale was not in the Air Force, but before that as a newly-minted engineer in 1954-1955 working in the structures lab (sort of a torture chamber for airplanes) at Mac (McDonnell Aircraft Corp ...this was long before McDonnell-Douglas). I was assigned to testing the wings of the Navy Talos surface-to-air missile, but recall vividly the day when the aircraft test group received a simple sketch of a big new fighter that Mac was proposing to the Navy. The drawing was sent only for the lab to plan test requirements (space, materials, etc) to test the beast, should Mac get to build it.

 

I recall looking over their shoulders at the little drawing, as somebody made the remark that with it's wing tips "bent" up and it's tail slab "bent" down, that it "...looks like somebody slammed the hangar doors on it!"

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I used a True Details F-4J resin set. BUT! Due to the step in the kit nose gear well, it's impossible to sand the resin tub to fit on top of it......So......I resorted to using a motor tool to remove the side console details from the resin tub and then simply glued them to the kit tub! Luckily, the side wall details also fit perfectly above the kit tub inside the cockpit, so the rest of the detailing was a snap. Hope to finish assembly of all the fiddly stuff tonight!

 

GIL

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Got her done, warts and all!

001-2.jpg

 

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Overall, I'm happy with the "look" I ended up with...it was what I was trying to do. I'm also happy to have an Aardvarks Phantom on the shelf! It's always been one of my favorite markings on F-4s! Comments, critiques, and questions welcome, as always!

 

GIL :smiley16:

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That is awesome Gil! I am very impressed with the look of this beast. I've always loved the Phantom; she's so ugly she's gorgeous! I'd make one small suggestion though if you're taking her to a show: check the alignment on a couple of the bombs underneath the wings. So far that's the only thing that jumped out at me except for all the fine finish!

 

Way to go Gil, and congrats on a job well done.

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Good eyes Mark! I pinned all of the ordnance so I wouldn't be knocking things off, and I guess the pins for the triple ejection rack aren't quite square with the sidewinder rails and pylons. Don't know that I'll bother with it as I built it on a lark, and not for a show. I don't mind displaying it and losing....which is typical even when I don't have alignment problems! :smiley14: Cheers!

 

GIL :smiley16:

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