1/72 Scale USN F4-L USS Hancock 1978

[Gondor]

Oh how jolly annoying.  Did you say a bad word?

I probably said one, not normally what I do as I was thinking that it was going to be a bu&&£r to find because a large section of my stash is in the assumed direction that the piece flew along with storage boxes!  I did find a Hawker P1101 conversion set which I was looking for to use in another build so something good has come out of it.

Gondor

[Gondor]

So rather than just delve through a large chunk of my stash I checked the boxes on and near the bench that are open. No luck in finding the missing piece so I looked again at what was missing and realised that there was a clean break next to the parts used for the Strop hook which makes scratching a replacement section of airframe a lot easier and that is what I am going to do.

Missing section



Strop hooks in place



I have started work on the intakes so I can attach the fuselage parts together with tape etc to act as a guide while building the replacement section of airframe.

Work on the fin tip has also progressed with the kit's fin being fully levelled to an existing panel line. This left a thin gap which I have filled with a thin piece of plastic card



In the picture it still needs to be shaped to the profile of the fin. There are two parallel lines engraved on the fin so the fact that I am reproducing this with a section of plastic card is fairly satisfying.

Gondor

[Gondor]

So even more progress this afternoon

This is what the side view of the fin looks like with its new fin top



And from above



Now in the upper most of the above pictures the fin tip does look a little odd so I took some other pictures for comparison.

On the left (very tempted to say "In the Blue Corner") is the tail of an F-4M while on the right (In the Red Corner) is the tail of the F-4L



And here is the F-4L along with the tail of an F-4J



Admittedly the F-4L is an F-4J with Spey engines so the tail area in the pictures should be the same, however the F-4J is all Hasegawa where as you know from reading this build thread, the F-4L is mainly Fujimi with a few Hasegawa parts for detail such as the fin tip.

The overhead view of the vertical tail does show that there is a difference in thickness between the Hasegawa and Fujimi Phantom tail surfaces, so I am going to have to add a little filler to fatten up the new fin tip a bit. I did consider adding the DECM antenna to the Fujimi fin tip but decided it was far easier to just replace it with a ready made item out of my spares box.

Gondor

[Gondor]

The last day or so I have not been doing much. Did a little work on the intakes as the fuselage has been hacked up a bit so that needs hiding. As they intakes were painted white I thought I would just use some white primer to cover the multitude of sins that I am leaving in there. Only problem was that I got a little carried away with the rattle can and sprayed a touch too much paint causing some of the pieces to get stuck to the old newspaper they sat on to dry off on. 



And here are the pieces with their improvements



and following that, with a pair of unaltered intakes



The work I have done to the intakes is to blank off the rear of the separate intakes following the step at the rear.





I did not bother with the vertical part of the step on one intake as the is the side that still has the original lower wing surface, unfortunately the larger vertical face on that side is missing quite a large area so I decided to blank that off. It was also just as easy to do that for the other intake as well. You will see why in the pictures below.



And a view on the underside to show the re-constructive work.



So this is a mock up of the intakes as they are right now



Still some way to go and just like my other builds at the moment it's held up by my "fondness" for cockpit painting 

Gondor

[Gondor]

Some progress with the painting, still needs more done to the cockpit area but I have managed to sand down most of the filler used to blend in the fin cap to the rest of the fin. Unfortunately almost everything is waiting for me to get the cockpit finished.

I have also been thinking about the weapons load, thinking Sparrows and Sidewinders. Sourced a pair of US Navy Sidewinder launch rails from a Hasegawa weapons set as well as reasonably early missiles as well. The next thing for me to start thinking about will be decals, but I also have to decide if I really want to keep the Hancock or not as the carrier for this aircraft. Considering the name I will probably keep changing my mind every half hour 

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Considering the name I will probably keep changing my mind every half hour 

Gondor

Oh very good! 

Of course only Brits 'of a certain age' will get that. 

[Gondor]

Considering the name I will probably keep changing my mind every half hour 

Gondor

Oh very good! 

Of course only Brits 'of a certain age' will get that. 

The funny thing is that I was sure I had made a similar joke previously, but I can't find it 

Gondor

[Thorvic]

The Matchbox British Phantom has both types of tail planes for respective FG1 & FGR2 versions

[Gondor]

The Matchbox British Phantom has both types of tail planes for respective FG1 & FGR2 versions

Thanks Thorvic but I already sorted that out in reply #17

I realised last night that I have a Fujimi F-4S that has become a bit of a "hanger queen" and wondered if the tailplanes from that would for the F-4K/M fuselage. Well the look of the parts is promising so I should be able to use those rather than get help from anyone else. Thanks Captain Canada for the offer of help but I don't think I will need it now.
I prefer the Hasegawa F-4 family over the Fujimi lot but unfortunately as things stand Fujimi are the only real game in town for a semi decent F-K or F-4M.

Gondor

Regards

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

That is some excellent work, and really brings to life the meaning of the word 'bashing'. So many bits and bobs and cuts coming together to make a model !

[Gondor]

That is some excellent work, and really brings to life the meaning of the word 'bashing'. So many bits and bobs and cuts coming together to make a model !

I once was a member of a local modelling club Captain and it was usual from time to time for one of the members to perform a little modelling talk or demonstration.

So one time I decided to perform a talk about kit bashing as I was building several tank kits at the time and swapping parts around to make a model that looked or had a better feel to it that what was provided in the box.

So it came to the evening of the talk and I sat at the desk provided and had a Panzer II sitting on the table unpainted. I started talking...

"Some people think that kit bashing means this.................." followed by my bashing the model several times with a claw hammer I had hid at the side of my chair!
I then proceed to talk, to a stunned but attentive audience, about swapping parts from one model to another because one kit provided a part that had a better shape to it or to use after-market parts.

This build is not of that vein but I thought you would like the story 

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

lol that is an awesome story !

[NARSES2]

Now that is the way to get people's attention 

[DogfighterZen]

 Yep, and everyone must have left the session with that bashing image in their minds...

[Gondor]

So I am guessing that enquiring minds would like to know the progress of this interesting Hasefujimigawa Phantom 

Well just to tease you a little here are a couple of pictures to show where the progress has been made up to tonight



The cockpit has been painted and closed up and while test fitting the underside of the cockpit I discovered why a lot of my Fujimi Phantoms had a slight offset with this piece. It turns out that the part that makes up the front of the nose wheel bay is a little to large for the thickness in the fuselage on that side, the left side if viewing from the front. So a few swipes with a file and the underside fitted beautifully. Even chance that once I apply glue it will end up not wanting to fit again.



This shows the Hasegawa inner wing pylons built up. I was going to adapt the pylons from the Fujimi kit but the conversion work was not going smoothly so I searched around for a Hasegawa kit that was going to be Either US Navy or US Marines and not carry any weapons on the inboard pylons. After a little bit of thinking I realised that as the F-4A was only operational with the East and West coast training squadrons the need for weapons on them was minimal so I borrowed all the parts for the pylons, sidewinder launch rails, sway braces and fairings for the top of the pylons. A template is going to be needed to make sure that there are locating pegs for the pylons to fit under the wings as the replacement pylons don't match with the existing holes under the wing. While I was about it I managed to update my list of F-4 Phantom builds both real world and speculative. Somehow I had missed the F-4L from it 

Gondor