1/72 Scale USN F4-L USS Hancock 1978

[Captain Canada]

They look good ! I have to admit reading the description several times before I understood what was going on....I'm blaming the injury/ pain meds.

[Gondor]

They look good ! I have to admit reading the description several times before I understood what was going on....I'm blaming the injury/ pain meds.

I suggest that you stay clear from my description of Cricket, reply #181 or your head could really be in a spin 

Gondor

[Gondor]

This evening I have mainly been working on the inner wing pylons. As the pylons I am using are From a Hasegawa kit while the majority of the aircraft is Fujimi the locating pins do not match. I decided to add no locating pins to the pylons as it's a fairly easy task.

So I started by performing the plastic equivalent of something that any European school child will probably done at some time. Brass Rubbing! So here is what I did to start with...



The above picture is of the underside of the Fujimi kit. I did the same with the underside of a Hasegawa Phantom and then overlaid the two marking where the holes were on the Hasegawa rubbing onto the Fujimi rubbing. Some drawing of straight lines and a short while later I knew exactly what the differences between the spacing of the holes was. However there is no guarantee that the distance between the wheel wells in the wings of each manufacturers kit was the same distance from the leading edge where the pylons are located.
Then I realised that I had been wasting my own time by trying to be clever and technical about the location of the pins on the pylons. I had a spare pair of Fujimi pylons from when I was attempting to mount the Sidewinder launch rails and they still had their locating pins which were designed to fit exactly. All I had to do was line up the pylons and mark onto the Hasegawa ones where the pins were on the Fujimi pylons  
So within a few minutes I had got as far as this..... one done and holes drilled for the red plastic pins.



It's a good job its nearly the time I head off to my bed as after that I should probably go lay down in a darkened room  

Oh, and I now know which decals I am looking for. Either VF-211 or VF-24 of CVW-21 with the tail code of NP. Both the squadrons used red checks on various parts of their tails. If anyone has a spare set from a 1/72 scale F-8 Crusader that they can let me have I would be much obliged.

Gondor

[nighthunter]

I might have some, let me make certain they're 1/72, and I'll be glad to get them to you!

[Gondor]

I might have some, let me make certain they're 1/72, and I'll be glad to get them to you!

Thanks nighthunter   I did a little research to make sure about what I was after. Tail code is NP for either VF-211 or VF-24. There were two decal sheets made, one by AVI Print called Mig Masters, 72006 and Xtradecals X72140. Kits that have decals for one or the other squadrons are Revel 4364 from way back in the 80's and Italeri 1230.

Work done so far this morning is to add a little filler around the join between the cockpit sides and the underside of the nose, just to make sure.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Realised I made a mistake with the squadrons flying of the USS Hancock. I mistakenly was writing VF-21 which was an F-4 Phantom squadron when it should have been VF-24 which was an F-8 Crusader squadron and part of CVW-21 flying from the Hancock.

I have corrected my previous postings.

Gondor

[nighthunter]

Gondor, I must have given them away with a F-8 Crusader kit

[Gondor]

Gondor, I must have given them away with a F-8 Crusader kit

Thank you anyway nighthunter

Gondor

Update: Due to a message from Thorvic via facebook, I have sold my soul to the devil to pay for Xradecal set X72160 which he found on ebay so I no longer require any assistance in getting hold of decals, I hope  

[Gondor]

Received the above decals so part of my time will be figuring out which of the two squadrons operated on the Hancock will be used as that should depend on how well they fit on the Phantom or can be made to fit.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Very little done with this build over the last day or two.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Did a little painting today.



All in all I now have eight ejector seats in various stages of being painted although most are waiting for the seat belts to be painted.

I have no found all my missing Fujimi Phantom parts, well enough to mean I have enough for all the current planed builds.

The aim at present is to complete the cockpit and seal that in prior to glueing the nose to the rest of the fuselage so in a couple of days that should be due or done.

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

Nice work ! Glad to hear you found all the parts as well...Phantom on, my friend !

[Gondor]

Slow progress as is the norm at the moment. seats and control sticks are in and glued, cockpit canopy later today so the nose will be back on the fuselage later this week. More pictures around about then I think.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Not only have I managed to fit the canopy to the cockpit I have changed the parachute bay cover!

Because the F-4L is effectively a re-engined F-4J I have been robbing my Hasegawa Phantom spares box for anything that relates to their F-4J. The Parachute Bay cover is one thing that I know Hasegawa provide as multiple options and so I have several spare of each type so one I had isolated a specific type the equivalent part of the Fujimi fuselage was sawn off!



The difference between the two parts



Fitted in place



Different angle



Comparison to the usual F-4K/M parachute cover



And as hoped earlier, a picture of the canopy in place.



I have tried Humbrol Clear Fix to hold the canopy in place. Next thing will be to cover the canopy in loads of masking tape then add the cockpit section back to the rest of the fuselage. The reason the fuselage of this Fujimi F/4K/M is in several parts is due to it being the kit I started off with for this build. That build has stalled but will continue at a later time.

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

That's one thing I never knew...the differences in the covers ! I guess you learn somat new every day.