VT Red Sox Fan

Martin, this is moving along nicely—really enjoyed the run down on printing your own decals and your explanation of the challenge with making the decals. I also appreciated the bartering for more display space—congrats on the negotiationscheers Erwin

@Gene Kthank you for making the time & I apologize for the tardy response—I have been on the road this week. As luck would have it, all the PE frames fell off when I temp glued the canopy down for painting so I will have a solid chance to fix—I agree this is big error I need to fix. Thanks for the compliment on the pre shading——this is my 1st pre shade model—cheers Erwin

Late to this build, but glad I found it Really like the weathering on this model & transparencies came out awesome! Thank you for making the time to share, best Erwin

Cant believe I missed this--well done!

Thanks Ron @f111guru--great thoughts about how to use the spares--best, Erwin

Priming and post shading--finally! Initially I sprayed the cockpit area black for the interior of the frame--I was not as brave as @giemme in painting the interiors themselves--maybe I will get there some day . Following the black cockpit area, I sprayed the entire aircraft Tamiya grey primer, then I airbrushed Tamiya Red for the Turbine warning and spray painted flat white around the nose air conditioning intakes--on my aircraft these were red trimmed in white. Once the white had tried, I brush painted insignia red and let this dry. I decided to follow @giemme's build with the red turbine warning lines below the national insignia (I confirmed photographically for my machine) and guessed that this extended partially underneath the airplane in the same manner as in the build I leveraged fro reference. It seemed to make sense that early F-4Ds would be painted very similar to the F-4C @giemme built. I made the stipe by using a decal as a guide for the stripe's thickness and cut based on photos from @giemme's build. I also masked the air-conditioning intakes to provide the white trim. I then sprayed a 2d coat of Tamiya primer & a 3rd to get rid of the red. Once this was done I pre-shaded with Tamiya black. Photos follow--next will be the camp--keep your fingers crossed for the metalic area! As always, thank you to everyone's ideas on how to improve myself intros hobby... Best, Erwin

On to masking!!! I think I jumped the gun--I think I will save metalizing for post camo-in my next F-4 build. I found that wet newspaper did not stick, so I went with Silly Putty. I am not too worried if there are issues down the road--I can always replace the tin foil--its cheap & the Aclad 2 was fun to apply Canopy frames were masked with Tamiya tape without issue. Intakes & wheel wells masked with silly putty.

Photo etch round 2! The good news is that with the help of @giemme awesome build (supported by @Gene K ) the remaining photo etch went on without a hitch... it is almost like the Airwaves was made for the Hasegawa--ok that is overselling the fit Minor bends and cuts were made to the canopy frames... given some of the finagling to fit the PE, I decided to use simple Elmer's glue to fix. The biggest mod I made to chop the mirrors on the rear canopy and make it single mirror frame vice the 2 mirror frame--photos of my machine indicate this is the way it was in Vietnam. Of an interesting note, if you go to the USAF Museum website's cockpits and look at the Gen Old's aircraft, you will see the rear canopy does have 2 mirrors--wonder if the 2 mirrors was a standard post-Vietnam mod. Anyway, on to the photos:

@Johnv--great work on the crew!

Sorry for the long spell in not posting pictures--but I have moved on to priming!!! Pics will follow--I promise--I got to at least share my masking to those who understand Quick question for anyone who might have gouge--if you see the red turbine stripe beneath the national insignia on a SEA camo aircraft, does that mean that stripe would extend to the bottom of the airframe? The airplane I am building clearly does not have the stripe above the national insignia, but the stripe is certainly below it. When I look at photos of Vietnam era F-4s, I frequently see the underside missing the rede stripe, so I am a bit confused. Thanks for any thoughts folks might have. Hope everyone's projects are coming along well! Best, Erwin

Great job on the nose—looking forward to this light grey build—best Erwin

I for one, am looking forward to seeing this build

Awesome work John, great job on the cockpit... you really made the cockpit sing with the definition between the grey and the instrument panels... do you have any profile shots--looks like you did a great job converting the D to a C on the nose... Cheers, Erwin

@giemme thanks for the thumbs up & perspective on the Airwaves set--I just purchased the Big Ed set for the Airfix FG.1. (figured I had to do a Brit subject soon if I am to keep my Britmodeller card ) Will be interesting to compare the PE. Really looking fwd to that build, although, it seems that there are mixed opinions on Airfix's latest offering here. Since I have a whole bunch of Phantom Phans watching this, does anyone have any good builds that they recommend looking at? One other question, were the cockpits of the UK Fg.1's painted in US colors? I found this blog really helpful with a lot of technical details on UK Phantoms Sorry for the detour in my own blog, but I figure I would ask. You guys are all awesome. All the best to all, Erwin

This build will rock, particularly if @Gene K is involved --really looking fwd to the cockpit portion since Japanese WW2 cockpits generate a lot of great conversation--watching with interest--best, Erwin