Ben Brown
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Posts posted by Ben Brown
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Looking forward to watching your build!
This brings back a lot of memories. I built two of these simultaneously about 30 years ago, a red one for my dad and a BRG one for a friend of his who had a green TC in his garage. Dad was one of the co-founders of the NC MG Car Club.
Ben
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“Land” might be a bit too optimistic a term for what will happen at the bottom of the slope! 😄 That said, I remember seeing a HUD video from an F-16 that managed to make a dead stick landing on an uncontrolled civilian airfield, dodging a Beechcraft Bonanza on final in the process. It took place in the mid-80s.
Ben
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Is this what you're looking for?
Ben
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Looking forward to this one! I guess they canceled the 911 GT3R they had announced at the same time they announced the RSR?
Ben
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Back when these were being built, a guy in my town bought one and had it painted red. It actually looked better than the stainless steel ones. Not that it was a good looking car to begin with.
Ben
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33 minutes ago, Dave Swindell said:
Is your local hobby shop printing them just for you or do they intend to sell them?
Check the terms on which the models were offered on line, most are for personal private use only irrespective of whether free or paid for. You would need a commercial licence to sell copies.
Definitely a good question to bring up. In this case, the shop just provides the printing service and the models would just be one-offs for my own use only. The shop does a lot of printing for the local gaming community but won’t sell copies of the models they print.
Ben
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Thanks, Lee! I’ll check my math several times before I do anything.
Ben
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Hi All,
Apologies for a very basic question: I’m just starting to learn Fusion 360 with the end goal of eventually resizing some models I’ve found online so my local hobby shop can print them. One of the models I’m looking at is an assembly kit with ~50 parts in separate files. The original model is 1/64 and I’d like to scale it down to 1/72. If one were to reduce the size of each piece, would I have a fairly reasonable chance of having everything still fit together properly? I understand that some tiny details might be reduced in size to the point where they can’t be printed, but overall, is it as simple as telling the software to reduce the model size x% or does the way the software works make it far more complicated than that? I’m afraid I’ll start with something that fits together like a Tamiya kit and end up with a resized model that fits together like an Eastern European limited run kit.
Thanks!
Ben
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I can’t add anything other than to say the 131st had the absolute best looking shark face ever put on an F-4E!
Ben
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Thanks for posting these pics! This is one of the (many) things I miss about the Smithsonian’s now closed Paul S Garber facility. You could go through and see the restorations up close and talk to the people working on them. I got to watch most of the progress of the restorations of the Ar 243 and Sierran back in the 80s. I just wish I’d thought to take more photos!
Ben
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I just skimmed through the F-4E flight manual that’s available on the F-4 Phantom Society’s web site and there’s no mention of using the speed brakes in the section on normal landing procedures.
Ben
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The areas under the slats are the same as the surrounding camouflage color.
Here’s a walk around of the NMUSAF jet that shows most of the antennae: LinkPart 95 - one goes on the forward nose gear door and one goes on the fuselage spine, just aft of the hump for the cockpit.
Part 125 and 126 can go on the aft nose gear door and on the fuselage spine to starboard of the centerline, just aft of the inflight refueling door. Usually the straight one was seen on the fuselage, but the jet at the NMUSAF has a straight one on the nose gear door.
R5 and R6(are they the same as R5?) probably go on the sides of the nose - they’re the black rectangles in the photos.R7 on the sides of the tail above the W? It’s hard to see what they look like in your photo.
Not sure about the ones you’re holding. They look a little bit like the single blade antenna found under the port intake on some F-4Es, but I’m not sure.
Ben
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The outboard section should be painted FS 36118 Gunship Grey on a Hill Grey II camouflaged jet like the one you’re building. The arrowhead-shaped stiffener plates were also painted. IIRC, the natural metal parts were stainless steel with the dark bit being titanium. The fixed slat area on the leading edge was bare metal almost all the way down to the tip. This page has several photos of the stabs on different versions of the F-4: LINK They’re museum jets, which are usually suspect painting references, but these all have the stabs as they were seen on operational jets. The stiffener on the TD coded jet was painted, but the paint has worn off.
It looks like the instructions have you painting the underside light grey as in the early Hill Grey I scheme. The underside should reflect the topside, with the dark and light grey sections: LINK The drawing is labeled Hill I but is actually Hill II.
Link to photo of actual jet
HTH.Ben
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I think the 131st TFW has the best shark mouth design ever painted on an F-4.
It looks like you can’t go wrong when choosing between the Meng vs Z-M kits. I’m going with Z-M, in spite of the canopy shape. As Jeffrey says, this can be mostly hidden by opening the canopies. I don’t want to have to figure out how to fix the keel between the afterburners on the Meng kit.
Ben
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I’m building the Zoukei Mura F-4E right now and I’ve built several Hasegawa kits.
Zoukei-Mura: You’ll need the later version of the F-4E with leading edge slats to build an F-4E in your photo, which rules out the current Z-M kit, unless you add a slat conversion set from Hypersonic (adds to the cost of your model). Z-M are releasing a later version with slatted wings this spring. The current kit builds into a beautiful early version, like those that served in Vietnam. I’m enjoying the kit, but it can be a bit fiddly in some places.
The Hasegawa kits are pretty old (1980s) but they have held up well. They are relatively simple but you’ll end up having to spend some time filling seams. They’re not as detailed as the Z-M or Meng kits, but that can be a good thing for a less experienced modeler. Hasegawa released both a slatted version and an early version (under the ProModeler label).
Everything I’ve read about the Meng kit says what Rob said above. It is simpler and easier to build than the Z-M kit, so it might be the best option for a less experienced modeler. It only comes in the slatted version.
Ben
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It was most likely 0-62-932. PACAF presented the serial numbers differently, for some reason. Where USAFE and CONUS put the fiscal year under the small AF, PACAF used the last digit of the year and the last 4 of the serial number. I can’t find exactly when PACAF changed to be the same as the rest of the USAF, but the practice continued into the ‘70s. A quick google search turned up photos of 3rd TFW F-4Es from 1978-79 still with the PACAF version of the serial number.
Ben
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From a modeling perspective, it should be relatively easy, since most of the differences were internal. Just remove the extensions on the stabilators that make up the slots or adapt some unslotted stabs from Hypersonic to fit. The cockpit is the basic F-4E pit, even though they provide the doghouse spine antenna for the later ARN-101 system. There may be a few more mods necessary to build an ICE F-4F, but I’m not very familiar with that variant.
Ben
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The -2 Banshee is going to be one of those “shut up and take my money” kits! Same for the DBMK F11F.
Ben
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Bonus points if they make the label decal for the Limburger scented. Or scratch & sniff.
Ben
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SK Decals has a test shot and posted a picture on their Facebook page. Link (Sorry, stupid iPad won’t let me post the photo.)
I wonder if SK have a hand in producing Nunu’s decals? The quality of the decals in their other kits is outstanding.Ben
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If the Nunu Porsche 911 RSR actually hits the shelves this year, I’ll clear the bench for it. SK Decals has a test shot of it, so here’s hoping! In the meantime, I’m debating whether to start another Nunu M6 GT3 or a Tamiya Jäegermeister 635 CSI.
Ben
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Very nice build! Your fix for the ride height is perfect. Hasegawa has been putting out some great car kits lately.
These are such great cars. There’s a guy in my town that has a supercharged one. I see him driving it pretty often.
Ben
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Seeing the mention of Joe Baugher, I was told he passed away last week.
Ben
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What car do you 'wish you still had' - or are glad you don't!
in Vehicle Discussion
Posted
Cars I miss:
96 Mazda MX-6 V6. Loved that car. It wasn’t the fastest thing on the road but it handled well and was a hoot in the handful of track days I did with it. Sounded good and the styling was hard to beat.
86 Integra LS 5-door. Handled well, was fairly quick for its day, and was as reliable as an anvil. It was also the first car my wife and I bought together so there’s the sentimental thing, too.
04 Mazdaspeed Miata. I’m about to sell it and I’m sure I’ll miss it, even though its replacement is a 23 BRZ Limited, which will probably end up being my favorite of the cars I’ve owned.
Cars I don’t miss:
75 TR7. Enough said. Should’ve bought that 914 I was also looking at.
04 Acura RSX Type S. It was a great car, I really wanted to like it, but I never could find a comfortable seating position in it. I once drove it 5 hrs to the Road Atlanta race track and by the time I got there, my back was hurting so badly I literally had to crawl out of the car.
Ben