Royal Canadian Air Force F-4 Phantom FGR.4 Finished!!!!

[FAR148]

Well, the first time I saw Richard's Phantoms profiles I knew I wanted to build one. My F-4 will not look exactly like Richard's profile but the Paint scheme will be based on his profile. A buddy of mine at work give me a 1/48 Hasagawa F-4G, it will make a great start to this project. Here's Richard inspiring profile.



Let's get started. My Buddy started the kit before giving it to me. He painted the cockpit tub and the two instrument panels. I found two resin seats in my stash, painted them up and did some
drybrushing...looks good to me. I'm not too happy with the detail behind the rear seaters instrument panel. I know on the real deal you can see the back side of the gauages and a bunch of wires. Well with my Chopper, I cut up some round stock for the gauges and superglued in place. Will add some wires later.




Next, Weapons!!!! Here's the result of one of my side projects, AGM-84L SLAM-shorty. It started life as a SLAM-ER from academy's F-15K and I cut her down to size and found some fins that look cool. Molded the master in RTV then I cased a bunch resin copies. My Phantom FGR.4 will have two of these bad girls.



And on center line, I'm putting this beast! It has the seeker head from again academy's SLAM-ER and the body scratchbuild. Inspired by
My ASM-4's



Like Richard's profile, my FGR.4 will have a targeting pod. It will have a shorty targeting pod, very similar to the one for my JASDF Rafale. Also going to update the old missile rails with new
resin LAU-128 rails.



More resin goodies. Going to be replace the two inboard hardpoint with new resin ones from True Detail Pylon set(Great resin set Ex- KMC set and at a very nice price) The lumps and bumps to the right are homegrown resin copies from kinetic f-16I.



The centerline hardpoint is a shorten center pylon from Revell F-15E. Below is the section of the pylon that I removed.



Rhinos are mean! Here's my Rhinos teeth 3 AIM-120's from kinetic and 2 AIM-9X's from Hasagawa.

[FAR148]

Here's Aires beautiful Spey nozzles. Gave them a coat of MM Burnt Metal Buffing metalizer and a gloss coat to seal them.



Here you can see the new tail fairing that I scratchbuilt from stock styrene. It still got some work to done to it but it looks cool.



Typically when the F-4 is at rest, it's ailerons droop. With my razor saw I cut both of them out. Needless to say when I went to check the fit, both were a bit short. This is due to the razor saw and sanding. So I glue a piece of styrene to both ailerons and sanded them back to it's proper size and shape.



Like the Greek Rhinos, mine too will have updated avionics. Part of the avionics update is new IFF antenna or "bird slicer" added to the nose. With my Chopper, I cut up a bunch of bird slicer blanks. Once I glue them to the nose,  I will then sand them to shape.




Last but not least, drop tanks. I have always love the look of the F-4 with drop tanks on the wing. I wanted to add new tanks to her but still keep somewhat the look of the older drop tanks. Fortunately the kit's tanks sucks! Revell's Rafale kit comes with two sets of drop tanks, 1250 and 2000 liter tanks. I'll be using the 2000 liter tanks. The first thing I did was glue them both up and sanded off the raised detail. I then rescribed the panel lines with some graphic tape and the back side of a no#11 blade. For the pylons, I'm using True Detail's F-4 pylon set (again, a great little set). The set comes with some nice little sway braces for the center hardpoint. You only get 4 in the set and I need 8 ( 4 per pylon). So I mixed up the last of my RTV. Molded and casted another 4. I also added a small strip of styrene on the tank where the sway braces mount on. Next, I added a strip of styrene to the side of each tank to give it the look of the older tanks.



Now time to work on my RAAF RF-104!



Until later,
Steven L  

[Cliffy B]

Oh God, he's at it again! 

*grabs popcorn and settles in*

[bearmatt]

Yeeehaaaa!
There he goes again 
2012 starts very good, hehe

Question as for the bird slicers....
How (and with what kind) do you glue them, in order not to have it everywhere and to make them stay in place, even once you touch / sanding them to wanted shape?

bearmatt

[FAR148]

Question as for the bird slicers....
How (and with what kind) do you glue them, in order not to have it everywhere and to make them stay in place, even once you touch / sanding them to wanted shape?

Thanks guys  

Bearmatt,
About the Bird slicers shape, check out this quick sketch. I think after alittle sanding I can get them to look like this.



On to the tricky part, How did I glue them down and with what glue? Lets start with the glue, very very little gel super glue. Just to tick them into place. Once I got all of them in place, I went back over them with Ambroid Pro Weld. Once dry, there're not going anywhere. How did I glue them down?.... I use a brand new no#11 blade and very very lightly stuck it into the blank.  Just light enough so when the super touch the nose, I could gently remove it.

Hope that helps,
Steven L 

[McColm]

Wow!! Your attention to detail is outstanding.

[bearmatt]

Thanks Steven,

I guess I see what you mean..  I proceed usually in the same way with delicate things like this.
Where I'm not that sure, is about the Ambroid pro weld? Don't know that kind of glue, but I assume that it must be similar to the green Tamiya Glue.
Does it work with capillary? You touch a spot at the base of the slicer and it spread all around it?

[Old Wombat]

Oh, my giddy aunt!


Why do the rest of us bother?


Apart from because we enjoy modelling & being made to look like 3 year olds with "play-doh" by FAR148, I mean.


Chair. Popcorn. Cider. I'm ready!

[FAR148]

Where I'm not that sure, is about the Ambroid pro weld? Don't know that kind of glue, but I assume that it must be similar to the green Tamiya Glue.
Does it work with capillary? You touch a spot at the base of the slicer and it spread all around it?

I have not used green Tamiya glue but it does sound very similar to Ambroid pro weld.

Steven L  

[Geoff]

Oh, my giddy aunt!


Why do the rest of us bother?


Apart from because we enjoy modelling & being made to look like 3 year olds with "play-doh" by FAR148, I mean.


Chair. Popcorn. Cider. I'm ready!

Sums it up - mines a beer.

[McColm]

Gin and tonic please

[Cliffy B]

Gin and tonic please

Make that two please  

Color question, is that Hemp over some shade of Light Gray or are my eyes deceiving me?

[kerick]

Looks amazing, can't wait to see more!  Did you consider adding the IR sensor like on the CF-101?  Just my $0.02.

[Army of One]

Some great work there......loving it....load out is awesome....!!

[ChernayaAkula]

Another masterpiece in the making! 

Lovin' the attention to detail (such as the sway braces), the modified weaponry and the Rafale tanks.