Moments of Zen

[NARSES2]

Best of luck with the new band and the SEA camouflage. I think my first attempt at it would of been on a Monogram (?) F.105 back in the day when inspiration would have come from the 6:00 o'clock news.

[DogfighterZen]

Jeepers, now he's even Whiffed a band! 

I just hope i don't have to do much PSR on the new one...

Best of luck with the new band and the SEA camouflage. I think my first attempt at it would of been on a Monogram (?) F.105 back in the day when inspiration would have come from the 6:00 o'clock news.

Thanks, Chris! 
It's a shame i haven´t done a SEA camo yet, most of the PoAF planes were painted in that scheme and being a Portuguese aircraft modeler, that's almost like treason...
Are you saying it was back when the Vietnam war was still going?  6:00 o'clock news doesn't mean much to me so i have no idea why it would've been inspirational for a camo scheme.

[NARSES2]

Are you saying it was back when the Vietnam war was still going?  6:00 o'clock news doesn't mean much to me so i have no idea why it would've been inspirational for a camo scheme.

Yup back when the War was still going on. And sorry for the reference. Here in the UK the BBC evening news is on at 6:00pm, and back then the War was in the news most evenings for a lot of my teenage years and indeed early 20's.

[Old Wombat]

Are you saying it was back when the Vietnam war was still going?  6:00 o'clock news doesn't mean much to me so i have no idea why it would've been inspirational for a camo scheme.

That's exactly what he means, DfZ.

Although watching a black-&-white TV, as I was at the time, the colours weren't very inspirational, &, here in Australia, it would have been the 6:30 News (pretty much every channel had their news show at 6:30pm back then).

And just because I can: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjEQq_6yWKQ

[DogfighterZen]

Are you saying it was back when the Vietnam war was still going?  6:00 o'clock news doesn't mean much to me so i have no idea why it would've been inspirational for a camo scheme.

That's exactly what he means, DfZ.

Although watching a black-&-white TV, as I was at the time, the colours weren't very inspirational, &, here in Australia, it would have been the 6:30 News (pretty much every channel had their news show at 6:30pm back then).

And just because I can: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjEQq_6yWKQ

Yup back when the War was still going on. And sorry for the reference. Here in the UK the BBC evening news is on at 6:00pm, and back then the War was in the news most evenings for a lot of my teenage years and indeed early 20's.

No need to apologise, Chris. 
I just wasn't sure but the SEAC and F-105 were the things that led me to that conclusion.
Wombat, i believe it must have been a scary time to be a teen, getting bombarded with death and destruction on the news everyday., even more so with the Cold War ghost always present.
Although i wasn't born before the war ended, in the 80s there was still a lot of talk about the Vietnam and Portuguese Colonial wars in Africa, which many people compared regarding the type of fighting conditions and even the outcome. A lot of the older folks say that the colonial wars were our own Vietnam.
I guess i had a slight notion of what happened back then since a very young age cause i used to watch documentaries about the wars in Africa with my dad and he would explain the stuff i didn't understand. He was very lucky that the war was put on hold before he shipped out to Mozambique. He already had his papers and was scheduled to go on the week after the military coup d'etát of the 25th of April, 1974. My brother was one week old when that happened...

[kitnut617]

Are you saying it was back when the Vietnam war was still going?  6:00 o'clock news doesn't mean much to me so i have no idea why it would've been inspirational for a camo scheme.

Yup back when the War was still going on. And sorry for the reference. Here in the UK the BBC evening news is on at 6:00pm, and back then the War was in the news most evenings for a lot of my teenage years and indeed early 20's.

Yeah! much of what I remember as the war was what I saw on the BBC News, or what the News wanted to show if I think about it now.

[kitnut617]

It's a shame i haven´t done a SEA camo yet,

One of the first kits I built after my big move to Canada was an F-4E in SEA scheme (trying to get my son interested in the hobby but ended up interesting me again back in 86'  ).

Some inspiration for you

[DogfighterZen]

Just watched the Skyhooks video, very cool song! Can't say the same about the singer's outfit though... 
Thanks, Wombat! Will have to listen to some more.

Thank you, Kitnut! 
Well, at least you tried to get him into it... but still, the outcome wasn't bad. 
Your Phantom looks very good but why didn't you put markings on it?
Back in 86... i was only 6 years old and the only plane i had was a Matchbox die-cast Harrier but the following year my dad bought me, IIRC, the Esci 1/72 F-16 "Electric Fighter" and i believe that just a few weeks later, he bought me the Hasegawa 1/72 EA-6B Prowler. I remember going to the toy store and choosing the kit, and the store owner telling my dad that there were a lot of small parts and it would be hard for me to assemble it... I'm very glad that my dad didn't listen to him. 

[DogfighterZen]

So, back to modelling matters, haven't had dinner yet but the compressor is on and i'm about to begin the camo. Gonna start off with the XF-52 flat earth... now, i wonder why does that name sound familiar? 
If that goes well and the paint dries up quickly as it normally does, i might even begin masking for the second color tonight but let's see how it goes...

[kitnut617]

Your Phantom looks very good but why didn't you put markings on it?

Thanks, I didn't like the way decals looked when they dried on the models, you know with that obvious flat looking decal carrier film in between the actual decal, so I didn't put them on. Wasn't till later after I got onto forums like this, I discovered what the trick was to do it so the carrier film didn't show. Meanwhile I had built a few models by then and I've always meant to put the decals on them but never got around to it, especially once they got hung up on the ceiling.

Back in 86... i was only 6 years old

So was my boy --- but by then he was into Nintendo or the other thing that was the rage back then.

[DogfighterZen]

Thanks, I didn't like the way decals looked when they dried on the models, you know with that obvious flat looking decal carrier film in between the actual decal, so I didn't put them on. Wasn't till later after I got onto forums like this, I discovered what the trick was to do it so the carrier film didn't show. Meanwhile I had built a few models by then and I've always meant to put the decals on them but never got around to it, especially once they got hung up on the ceiling.
So was my boy --- but by then he was into Nintendo or the other thing that was the rage back then.

I know what you mean, it was almost the same with me but i did put the decals on, even not being happy with the looks. I thought i'd learn how to do it properly with more builds.
Game consoles in 86? i only heard of that in the 90s cause that kind of stuff always got to Portugal after a few years of being available everywhere else...
But i have to admit that when i bought something similar, it was the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128K with an integrated tape deck... fun memories of playing Chuckie egg...  But it wasn't fun when you waited for 30/40 mnts for the game to load and then a "Loading error" message would appear on the screen...

So, i did get to spray a bit tonight, but not after i spent 2 hours speaking to my Landlady's boyfriend, the guy who was a PoAF F-86 and G-91 crew chief at Guinea Bissau, during the war. It's easy to lose track of time when we start the chat...  But i do like the stories and inside knowledge of what happened there during his time and the planes he worked on.
Went for a light coverage of the black basing and tried to keep it as random as i could so it would be an uneven layer, to get something similar to the tone variation of dirty and slightly faded colors. I'd like to make it look a bit weathered but not too much.
This is how it looks at the moment...



Can't see much of the effect on the photo but it's not supposed to show very much anyway...
Tomorrow i'll have a busy night so not much will be done but maybe i can get it masked up for the first green when i come home from work.

[TheChronicOne]

I love it!!   Doesn't get much better than SEA on a Phantom!!!  I don't care what anyone says, I don't think Phantoms are UGLY at all. I don't think they're the pinnacle of beauty, but they look "good" and look "badass" and you've captured that so far.

[DogfighterZen]

I love it!!   Doesn't get much better than SEA on a Phantom!!!  I don't care what anyone says, I don't think Phantoms are UGLY at all. I don't think they're the pinnacle of beauty, but they look "good" and look "badass" and you've captured that so far.

The flying anvil... I know that some folks don't like it but hey, that's the beauty of it all, there something for everyone.
I like the looks of the beast, i had one of the Italeri 1/72 F-4S kits when i was kid, it became one of my favorite planes back then and still is.
Regarding this kit, i'll have to take a better look at it today to see the result with "fresh" eyes... 

[Old Wombat]

Glad you liked the Skyhooks track, DfZ ... It was the '70's, what can I say!


The F-4 Phantom is like the Pitbull of the aviation world; big, thick-set, powerful, with a bite much worse than its bark but it's a good looking beast because of how all that strength & purpose come together.

[DogfighterZen]

Glad you liked the Skyhooks track, DfZ ... It was the '70's, what can I say!


The F-4 Phantom is like the Pitbull of the aviation world; big, thick-set, powerful, with a bite much worse than its bark but it's a good looking beast because of how all that strength & purpose come together.

I could call the Singer's outfit a "Horror movie right here on my laptop screen"... 
I understand, i feel the same about the baggy pants and hoodies i wore when i was a teen, it scares me to look at pics of me back in the 90s... You could fit two of me in the same pair of pants...    Let's call it "The march of time"... 

Regarding the Phantom, it really is a beast of a fighter that did a good job even in roles it wasn't designed for. That's what made it an icon in the military aviation world. Might be horrible for some but not for me.
I feel like a kid, can't wait to go home and get on with the paint job.