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McDonnell Douglas F-4S Phantom II VMFA-321 "Hell's Angels"


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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/27/2015 at 06:50, Duncan B said:

I hope you have a good time and come back feeling recharged.

Duncan B

 

Yes, I am back and ready to resume flight operations. The Spook is nearly all assembled and ready for some of that famous Light Gull Gray! :)

 

Cheers,

Bill

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On 5/27/2015 at 16:31, giemme said:

Yeah, we love Light Gull Grey! :thumbsup:

What's your paint of choice for that?

ciao

 

GSI Creos Mr. Hobby H315. And make sure you get that Yankee spelling right, it's Gray! :):)

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Time to sharpen up your eagle eyes, mates! Have a look at this link that was previously posted by Andrew.

 

USN and USMC aircraft usually have the leading edges of flight surfaces painted with an anti-corrosion product called Corogard. This appears similar to natural metal, but weathers to a light grey. On the F-4, the leading edges of the tailplanes, vertical fin, and the intake lips were typically painted. Oddly, the leading edge of the wing itself often did not have Corogard.

 

The link above shows the subject of my build, and I noticed a few things. First, the leading edge of the vertical fin does not appear to have any Corogard, but is instead the same dark blue as the fin. Next, the leading edges of the wings are Light Gull Gray. Lastly, the intake lips appear to be painted in the same dark blue as the intake ramp. (I think the ECM antenna on the top of the intakes will have to stay off until the intake lip is painted.)

 

This photo...

 

DD-ST-91-11910

 

...clearly shows the Corogard on the leading edge of the tailplanes, and confirms the leading edge of the fin is dark blue.

 

Everyone in agreement with these observations before I fire up the old Paasche Model H beginner's airbrush?

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. The shaft of the pitchfork on the vertical fin is where the formation light panel should be - I'm surprised that it looks white in this photo.

 

PPS. Still thinking about whether I should cut the nose off and use the PE radar stuff from Verlinden. I hate cutting off perfectly good noses.

 

PPPS. Retired!

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PPPS. Retired!

Congrats! Only thirty-five years to go for me.

PPS. Still thinking about whether I should cut the nose off and use the PE radar stuff from Verlinden. I hate cutting off perfectly good noses.

I don't believe in it myself, but on the other hand, how many times do you get the chance where you won't also spite your face?

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Most of the photos on cloud9 refer to 3904 as being a "static" aircraft. I assume that means it is no longer operational and that it has been prepared for static duty as a display aircraft.

If I am correct in my assumption, and you want to depict the aircraft in its static state, go ahead as planned. If however, your intention is to model the aircraft in an operational state, I suggest examining images of other operational Marines F-4s from the relevant time period to see what they look like.

But then again, given the variability between operational aircraft, who's to say any one of those would be particularly representative. As has been pointed out in the past by others, without reference images of the actual operational aircraft from the relevant time period, a model is only ever going to be an artistic interpretation anyway, at best, an informed artistic interpretation.

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...clearly shows the Corogard on the leading edge of the tailplanes, and confirms the leading edge of the fin is dark blue.

Everyone in agreement with these observations before I fire up the old Paasche Model H beginner's airbrush?

Cheers,

Bill

PS. The shaft of the pitchfork on the vertical fin is where the formation light panel should be - I'm surprised that it looks white in this photo.

PPS. Still thinking about whether I should cut the nose off and use the PE radar stuff from Verlinden. I hate cutting off perfectly good noses.

PPPS. Retired!

Not quite in agreement, the leading edge of the stabs are in natural metal rather than coroguard and the pitchfork is painted around the (rather faded) formation light panel.

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I agree with Dr. Evil, the leading edges of the tailplanes are in natural metal on the Phantoms, not corogard. All pictures I have show a number of variations in the metal, and often arre quite dark,

Regarding the other details, the leading edge of the tail is clearly in dark blue and I believe the wings have leading edges in the camouflage colours. Having these surfaces repainted in the camo colours is not unusual on USN Phantoms of the era.

And I agree with the intake lips, dark blue.

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Thanks everyone!

 

Air-to-Air: My intent is to build a model of this aircraft using the decal scheme supplied by Hasegawa. This is a special scheme that was applied to this aircraft when it was at the end of its service life, just before it became a static display aircraft (gate guard?). I believe the squadron was transitioning away from the F-4 at this time. The aircraft did in fact fly in this scheme:

 

vmfa321mag41anniversary4 800

 

Also, I know that the formation light panel is contained in the shaft of the pitchfork - I was just wondering why it appeared white. I was expecting the usual yellow-green. I guess it is faded as Dr. Evil mentioned.

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. Maybe I can fire up the airbrush tonight. I spent all day fixing gutters. I thought retirement was about having more idle time! :)

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Congratulations on the retirement. I think everyone I know who's retired say they seem busier than they ever were while working. Hopefully you managed to get something done on this yesterday evening.

Kind regards,

Stix

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PlaStix is right - I've been busier the last few days since I retired than when I was working. Need to find more time for modelling! Believe it or not, I have done some work during the last few weeks. Here is a photo of the cockpit prior to closing the fuselage up, and with the resin seats standing by. I typically leave the seats out until the end, I'll have them painted and detailed later in the build.

 

100_5745

 

After the fuselage was closed, I painted the areas that will be inside the intakes with a flat white. I probably should have made some seamless intake tunnels like Giorgio did (nice work!) but I got lazy.

 

100_5746

 

Next, to give the intakes some more depth, I removed the flat portion that creates the "end" of the intakes (nah, not really, I just painted them flat black).

 

100_5747

 

Believe it or not, this helps quite a bit. If I left that area white, it's painfully obvious that there is no intake tunnel. By painting it flat black, it's much less of a problem. The lack of intake tunnels is one of the weak areas of the Hasegawa kits. And Fujimi too for that matter.

 

I added the outside portions of the intake, and I remembered to add the small pitot that is inside each intake. Hasegawa provide this, but I usually forget all about it. It's much easier to add before you put the outer intake panel on. The fit was pretty good, and considering all the pieces that make up this area of the model, Hasegawa's engineers did a great job.

 

Next it was time to slice off the nose in anticipation of adding the radar kit from the Verlinden detail set. So out comes the razor saw...

 

100_5748

 

Verlinden provide some nice looking PE pieces, including some that need to match the outline of the fuselage and radome. I was a little worried that there might be some mismatch here, but to be honest it looks pretty good.

 

100_5839

 

I will need to put some plastic card behind this PE part so you aren't able to see into the cockpit. Verlinden also provide some nicely cast resin parts for the yoke that holds the radar dish. Of course, these goodies will also wait until much later in the build.

 

You may have noticed that I left off the ECM antennae from the top of the intakes. This is solely so I can mask off the leading edge of the intakes in order to paint them dark blue. I hate it when you have to think ahead like this, it takes away from the spontaneity of it all. What's next? Will I have to follow the instructions?

 

Cheers,

Bill

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... I hate it when you have to think ahead like this, it takes away from the spontaneity of it all. What's next? Will I have to follow the instructions?

:rofl: No way! :rofl:

The nose part looks very interesting :thumbsup:

You've probably already mentioned it, but who's the producer for those resin seats?

TIA

Ciao

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Next, to give the intakes some more depth, ...just painted them flat black). Believe it or not, this helps quite a bit.

Very nice. What also works well is to add a darkened compressor face graphics to the black area. As a further step, shading that black face with a lighter white radiating out from the compressor face will "kind of" blend that area into the intake walls ... thus giving a pretty good appearance of depth.

Really like your cockpit.

Gene K

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:rofl: No way! :rofl:

The nose part looks very interesting :thumbsup:

You've probably already mentioned it, but who's the producer for those resin seats?

TIA

Ciao

They look like Verlinden seats.

Jens

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On 6/15/2015 at 06:38, Gene K said:

Very nice. What also works well is to add a darkened compressor face graphics to the black area. As a further step, shading that black face with a lighter white radiating out from the compressor face will "kind of" blend that area into the intake walls ... thus giving a pretty good appearance of depth.

Really like your cockpit.

 

Thanks, Gene! That sounds like a great idea, I'll have to try it next time seeing as I've already got the outer intakes in place. It's kinda hard to reach down inside now.

 

On 6/14/2015 at 13:02, giemme said:

You've probably already mentioned it, but who's the producer for those resin seats?

On 6/15/2015 at 14:42, Jens said:

They look like Verlinden seats.

 

Jens is the winner - Verlinden seats they are. They look pretty nice, even without any paint!

 

Cheers,

Bill (who still hasn't started painting yet!)

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Hi mates,

 

I used my 1:72 scale LIDAR unit and 3D printer, and made this nice little plug for the front of the fuselage. The Verlinden PE will fit nicely on top of this, and those pesky judges won't be able to poke their LED flashlights inside to find that I failed to paint the back side of the rudder pedals.

 

100_5840

 

Cheers,

Bill

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On 6/15/2015 at 20:08, Gene K said:

:doh: OK, I give up. Details, please? Laser scanner?

Gene K

 

Well, maybe it was just a 150mm machinist's scale and a mechanical pencil. But it sounds more "new school" the other way. :):):)

 

Cheers,

Bill the "old school" old man

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