A Little Rhinoplasty Pt2 Pluss other F-4 whiffs

[Gondor]

I have been reviewing my work so far on this build with a view to starting this build up again. I have put the parts of the lit supplied ejection seats together which I will not have to do a large amount of work to because there will be a crew sitting in them so they will hide most of the detail 
A question I asked elsewhere about Skyflash air-to-air missiles is actually redundant for this build as the picture below shows an aircraft carrying a pair of dummy missiles and I intend to copy the picture saying that its a very good Photoshop of XV462 as they managed to edit out the M61 installation 



I also realised from the picture that the air relief doors? on the underside of the aircraft were open and the wing/lower fuselage what was in the box had those doors shut. Fortunately another build of XV462 had the correctly modelled doors and will be depicted on the ground so simply swapping parts between box's is not a problem.

To help depict XV462 in the pose depicted above I decided it would be best to mount the aircraft on some acrylic rod and I happen to have some spare which might be usable. The exhausts with the separate petals was found to have slightly too small an exhaust ring for the acrylic rod so I checked the older more basic Fujimi exhaust, with the spokes, and found that to be a good match and I have no problem in cutting up a pair of exhausts like that!

Gondor

[Gondor]

So while I have not done much with this build for a while and being in a modelling mood I decided to get a bit more done with this build.

After a bit of a panic trying to find the under nose areas partly because it had been so long since I put them to one side for some work on them I got on with what I had planed.

To start with, take a Hasegawa F-4E and a Fujimi F-4M and swap parts over, but you know that part. The fun bit is adding the extra parts at the front of the nose undercarriage bay. So a couple of "U" shaped channels to start with.....



Modify slightly after thinning one side which I decided would be the bottom of the "U"



Apply a little glue and stick in place...... easy 







Of course the first one was nice and simple. The second one was a waste as I copied the first one. The thinned side is higher at the front of the aircraft than it is at it's rear, it is also angled towards the centre line as you move away from the front so very easy to get wrong and after the second failed attempt to produce an opposite handed part to compliment the first one I drew what I needed in pencil onto the "U" section plastic and shaded the waste. The result is this....





Not perfect but they will do 

Gondor

[Gondor]

I realised later that I needed to do the same to another Fujimi F-4M so the "extra" one I made earlier by mistake didn't go to waste. 

Gondor

[Gondor]

Well quite some time since I posted on this thread but its time to add to it anyway.

Starting to get my modelling Mojo back and with the release of the new Airfix Phantom a chance to update and improve how I model some of this build, probably going to make it more technically challenging as well.

The first of my new Airfix Phantoms will be made as an early machine parked on the flight line so there were several parts that would be spare and just happen to fit the idea of using the strengthening modification to the underside of the airframe.

So the idea is this.....



Not all of the airfix parts will be used. I intend to keep the main undercarriage bays and covers including the area between them and the strengthening strip as per the Fujimi kit. The same goes for the areas outboard of the flaps and ailerons as well. Quite a bit of cutting and feteling will be carried out but I think it will improve the look of the build. Just don't hold your breath on progress though.

Gondor

[Gondor]

So a little bit more work today, but that's what you get for lots of interests and watching X-Files. I have simply marked out where I will cut prior to trimming back the edges so everything fits.



Hope it makes sense from this picture. The leading edge of the wings will be glued to the upper wing prior to getting everything put in place, but lets see how that goes. Cutting will probably commence on Wednesday.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Well that went reasonably well. Plastic has been cut so there is no going back with this build, not without a lot of hidden supports and filler to hide the joins and gaps. Saying that, that will probably happen anyway 

The proof is in the pudding as they say, especially when it's Xmass pud with brandy 



Ok, all I have done is cut the Fujimi parts up and trimmed the Airfix parts a little, however I am being cautious with my cutting as although it's plastic and easy to add pieces together, it's not always the best option as surface detail can get lost which is the issue here.

Gondor

[Thorvic]

Interesting solution should look quite tasty when all back together 

[zenrat]

Did you sit back, look at the parts and have one of those "oh no, what have I done" moments?

IME that usually means you are onto something good (usually).

[Gondor]

Interesting solution should look quite tasty when all back together 

I thought it might be easier than scratch building the strengthening plates. Sort of why do that fiddly work when Airfix has done it for me

Did you sit back, look at the parts and have one of those "oh no, what have I done" moments?

IME that usually means you are onto something good (usually).

I had misgivings before I started cutting up the plastic, we will just have to see if they were justified or not over the weekend.

Gondor

[zenrat]

Nah, she'll be right mate.

[Gondor]

A small amount of progress at the moment, hoping to do more over the rest of the weekend

One set of doors in place



Make that two sets of doors in place 



I had decided that it would be far easier this way as the doors could help keep everything in place due to the Airfix part coming very close in some places to the doors. Some superglue later when I am happy on how the doors are sitting, just the add strength and rigidity.

Gondor

[Gondor]

After some fetteling I have the airfix part fitted to the Fujimi underside.



And from the messy side



I just realized that I don't know if the Airfix part is longer than the bit I have cut out of the fujimi wing, if so it should not be much trouble to remove the Airfix part and cut back the Fujimi part 

I have noticed that the chord of the aileron is longer on the Airfix kit than on the Fujimi one, this will not pose a problem, I will simply have to add a filler peice to close the gap.

Gondor

[Gondor]

The fuselage is now buttoned up, or rather the fuselage half's are glued together with the cockpit tub between them. Next I intend to work on the crew and the seats that they will be sitting in. The seats are made up but I need to make sure the crew will fit and that I can get the instrument panels in as well. I also have to make sure that I have a good methos for displaying the aircraft in it's display pose which may take more working out than doing.

Gondor

[Weaver]

Re Skyflash vs Sparrow, as far as I know the airframes were identical, but the markings and surface features wern't. Skyflash had four long, black rectangles on the forebody which were flush aerials for it's proximity fuse. Earlier Sparrows didn't have these at all, and on the AIM-7M, which came after Skyflash, they were much thinner. Skyflash missiles on Phantom squadrons had large black or dark blue circles on the wings to ensure that they couldn't be confused with Sparrows.

[PR19_Kit]

Skyflash missiles on Phantom squadrons had large black or dark blue circles on the wings to ensure that they couldn't be confused with Sparrows.

With some extra imagination they could have painted roundels there instead.