Navy Bird

Didn't help much in this case. I learned this trick a while back with respect to the decals on the Tamiya F4D, and have always done this with these type of decals. In this case, I used Micro Set/Sol, Mr. Mark Setter/Softer, MiG Ultra Decal-Set/Ultra Decal-Fix, etc. I didn't try my old bottle of Solvaset as it might melt the plastic... ***** Thanks guys. I just need to finish up the canopies, seats, and drop tanks and that's it. The decals on the drop tanks are particularly nasty, as they have to conform over a surface with compound curvature (different curvature in different directions). I flat decal won't do this without a LOT of help. Ugh. Cheers, Bill

Brilliant PE work. You'll soon be addicted if you're not already. Happy Birthday! Cheers, Bill

OK, battery is recharged. Stickers are on and required little touch up. How I accomplished this is beyond me - as I mentioned, the decals were quite a bit thicker than I'm used to. I decided on a semi-gloss finish, courtesy of MRP Super Clear Semi-gloss lacquer. Still, with the right lighting you can see the "thickness" of the decals. And that is after I shot several coats of Mr. Color UV Cut clear gloss with Mr. Leveling Thinner hoping I could, in fact, level things out before the final coat. I give up. I'll get a better shot later, but I added the PE HUD framework from an Eduard F-4J fret. I'm painting up a pair of old Verlinden resin Mk.7 ejection sets which fit well and look so much better than what's in the kit. Stencils, anyone? The more I look at the this scheme the more it reminds me of a Pepsi can. I've mixed up some paint to "almost" match the metallic blue, as I needed this when I painted the front of the drop tanks. I made this from two Gunze flavours - H88 Metallic Blue (too green by itself) and H35 Cobalt Blue. If you don't look very close, you'll swear it matches. Cheers, Bill

More coming soon...right after I recharge the battery on my camera. In the meantime, here is how I spent my summer vacation: And I do mean SPENT. 💵 💲 💶 Me and the old lady - who conspired with all those kids to demolish my retirement portfolio: And, of course, little 2-year old Dexter who wanted to play in the sand and not have to pose for pictures: He actually calls this look his "evil eye." Kids nowadays... Cheers, Bill PS. Oh, 7-year old Carter finished his RF-4C. Need to get a picture of him with that as well.

In-process stickerating: Cheers, Bill

Thanks. She's progressing more slowly than I would have liked (our local contest is on September 17). Maybe she'll make it. Really nice design work by Fine Molds. I was a bit concerned when adding the main gear struts until they literally snapped into position, nice and solid. As far as my Mk.I ciliary zonules can tell, alignment is spot on. Ah, the Zonules of Zinn. That's either a good name for a band or a Doctor Who episode. Stickeration is in progress. Billions of stencils. And now I remember why I was leery of the metallic blue markings - whatever process is used to print those results in a rather thick decal. Tons of solvent, and some ares of "not what I'm used" surface compliance. But I think we'll get there - some nasty looking wrinkles on the neckerchief/cravat eventually settled down overnight. Cheers, Bill

I'm currently reading... ...because, well, I'm odd. Cheers, Bill

Showing off again, I see. Well, go ahead - you've earned it! Brilliant work! 👍 Cheers, Bill

Well, I spoke too soon on the sinus nonsense. Infectious Disease folks have identified three more bacterial infections. Of course, a couple of them have symbiotic relationships so they amplify each other. Plus, they think I may have a biofilm formed on my medical port that I get my IVIG infusions through. Now I get to have another CT scan of my sinuses and a consultation with the surgical guy. Apparently they'd like to have a go at scraping my sinus membranes. I've had this done before and it's no fun. Gawd, I love getting old. In the meantime, however, I managed to do some painting on the Spook: Top side is FS36320 and Black; underside is FS36375 (all Mr. Color). Metal stuff is Alclad Aluminum and Magnesium. I think she's ready for a glossy top coat and then I can start with all those crazy stickers. That said, the black area around the cockpit and anti-glare area is a guess. The special JASDF anniversary/farewell markings go around this area. I did my best to figure out how big the black area needed to be, and what shape, assuming that the stickers for the special markings should slightly overlap it. It would have been nice if Fine Molds had provided a printed template, but hey - that's what I get the big bucks for. The stickers that go around the cockpit look to be a representation of a neckerchief or cravat or something. Looks kind of odd, actually. Not to mention, of course, the occasional frog. The fuselage was engineered so that seams fall on normal panel lines and theoretically don't need filling. Ha - you funny guy. The seams end up a bit wider and deeper than the other engraved lines and are very noticeable. They behave after some Mr. Surfacer 1000 (applied by Mr. Brush Round 10/0 and lightly sanded with Mr. Waterproof Sanding Paper FINE). The trailing edges of the fuselage that surround the exhausts are separate pieces that are very thin (note the photo above). This is much more realistic than most F-4 kits in this scale. Nice. My 7-year old grandson Carter is just about finished with his 1:72 RF-4 USMC Phantom (old ICM kit with battle damage). I think all he has left to do is paint the inside of the exhaust nozzles orange - he wants it to look like the afterburners have kicked in. Stay tuned! Cheers, Bill PS. Bird is on her legs. @giemme Speaking of said legs, Fine Molds have engineered the gear struts with a positive lock which results in a perfect alignment. They also did this for the upturned outer wings and the down-turned tailplanes. Really nice. PPS. I know I said I was going to build this OOB, but I think I may use some resin Martin-Baker ejection seats. Just because, well, because I never build anything OOB. PPPS. Painting the nose confused me - I first painted the entire radome black, like I would do on a "normal" Phantom, and then found that this particular aircraft had only the forward portion of the radome black. Maybe I should look at the instructions first?

Thanks everyone. I think we may finally be getting on top of this sinus infection. I've been putting more stuff in my nose than an old Studio 54 regular. Arghh. 👃 Meanwhile, I have the Phantom fuselage almost completely together. In spite of its odd parts breakdown, everything fits and aligns remarkably well. But I suppose that is to be expected with Fine Molds. They recommend painting the fuselage and adding the decals prior to adding the vertical fin. I think this is a silly idea and I have decided to be a contrarian. The fin is going on! I'm quite sure I can make the stickers line up. Jeesh. Photos soon! I'll be adding just the two wing tanks and the not the centreline tank, to match my photos. No wing pylons either. The forward portions of the tanks have to be painted to match the metallic blue livery. Fine Molds specifies Gunze Mr. Color 76 Metallic Blue. I don't have this, but I do have Gunze Aqueous Metallic Blue H88 but it doesn't look like a very good match. Has anyone tried either of these colours? Are there other possible matches? Tamiya maybe? I ask because I am a lousy paint mixer. I keep adding stuff until I think it's close and then realise that I have a litre or so of mixed paint. Seems like overkill for a couple of 1:72 drop tanks. Cheers, Bill

Superb work on the old Airfix tooling. You should be real proud of that one. I have the new Italeri kit but I am a bit dismayed at the panel lines and other surface detailing. A bit overboard I would say. I've been reluctant to build it... Cheers, Bill

In case anyone reported me to the Missing Persons Department, I can confirm that I am still alive and well. Although, well might be too strong of a word. Let's say I'm still getting better. I survived the trip to Hawaii, but the sinus problems persisted, even with the new antibiotics. Long story short, when I got back I had more tests done and it looks I have some goofy fungal infection. Serves me right for sniffing hallucinogenic mushrooms. Cue some more drugs I can't pronounce and hopefully I can return to being my normal grumpy self. Today I played some more with the Phantom. I did a quick job on the cockpit, using the kit decals for the controls. Fine Molds provide you with two sets of instrument panels and side consoles - one set has 3D details and is suitable for painting and the other has flat details for the stickers. Since I am a contrarian by nature, I decided to put the stickers on the 3D parts starting with the side consoles. Wow, tons of decal solvent were necessary. The decals seemed quite thick, and I hope this doesn't mean the fancy fuselage markings will give me grief. Thereafter I used the flat parts for the instrument panels. Check out the big honking pins to locate the cockpit in the fuselage. A bit of overkill, mate. I'm not sure why Fine Molds thought it was necessary to make the intake ramps two pieces with this funky insert on the back side, but these seams have to be filled as they will be partially visible. I like the slot for positive positioning of the ramp though. The intake tunnels were sprayed white, with a bit of FS36320 at the forward portion of the outer intake cowling. I did some test fitting of the intake bits, and although they won't technically result in a "seamless" intake, the seams will be pretty hard to see. There were some ejector pin marks on the inside of the tunnels, but these were easy to sand away. I think this is the first 1:72 F-4 kit I've built (others were Hasegawa, Fujimi, Revell, Italeri, etc.) that has the four vanes that go underneath the front of each intake ramp. Nice work by Fine Molds. That's it for now. Wish me luck in my endeavour to rejoin the human race, sans fungi. Cheers, Bill

No apology needed! Feel free to post here whenever you wish. Soon I'll be starting on my FAW.9 using your parts. Can't wait! Cheers, Bill

Nice work Terry! I really like how the North American logo is depicted on the rudder pedals (at least I think that's what it is). Sweet. Cheers, Bill

Libor strikes again! Fantastic job on the build - capped off with your outstanding painting skills. Marvelous. 👍 Cheers, Bill

This build is a side project to occupy the spare (?!?) moments when I'm not working on the big Victor. The new FineMolds Phantom models look quite nice in the box and have been engineered to allow a large variety of marks to be built. I recently built the recent FineMolds F-14, and if this kit goes together as nice as that one did, I'll be happy. What attracted me to this model is, of course, the special livery. Let's hope I can do it justice. For those who haven't had a good look at this kit yet, here are some sprue shots. But first, Der Boxentoppen. Note the "bonus parts" - what everyone else does in photoetch (harnesses, face curtain handles, etc.) FineMolds decided to do in styrene. Heck, why not? We'll give it a shot. Somehow, all that stuff will end up looking like a Phantom. Here are the "styrene-etch" detail up parts: Now, the fun part - stickers! How about we start with a few stencils? I love stencils. Especially in one seventy-tooth scale. And some really cool metallic blue - I think this will make or break the build. So there it is. No aftermarket - I'm going to do my best to build it OOB. First, though, I have to go to Hawaii for my 50th wedding anniversary and I probably won't actually start building this until I get back. But I thought it was important to do my share to rebuild the tourist economy of the 50th state. Somebody's got to do it. Cheers, Bill PS. I hate sand.

First, the good news. Infectious Disease Dudes have me on a 21-day course of some antibiotic I can't pronounce that they use to treat Anthrax and Lyme disease. (I don't have Anthrax or Lyme. See? Good news.) It's not Cipro, which I can pronounce, but since the name seems Latin, it must be Roman. I saw one of the Vestal nurses sacrificing to Aesculapius, so, yeah, Roman. Oh, Prednisone too, my favourite steroid. After my first week on this regimen, the symptoms are muchly improved. Fingers crossed and the sloth-virus be damned. Now, the bad news for this build. Next week I travel with wifey, children, children's spouses, children's children, and a few odd in-laws for ten days in Hawaii to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary (in the planning stages for years). Obviously, I won't be taking the Victor with me. Heck, I was going to bail on this trip if the new treatments weren't working. But they seem to be, so I'll offer myself up. We all know how germ-free the environment on an airliner is, especially for someone who is immunodeficient. Besides, somehow I got roped into paying for this whole kerfuffle. I was hoping my finance guy wouldn't let me take this much out of my portfolio, but he just smiled and said "I never saw a hearse with a luggage rack." Right - you can't take it with you. On top of this, I'm losing some of the old mojo for this project. Nothing to do with the model, and everything to do with me. This always happens when I embark on a large project. Like, say, binge-watching Vera. After a few shows I have to switch over to Blackadder. So I think I'm going to start a smaller project to run concurrently with the big 'un. Stay tuned for an upcoming announcement. I want to build a model OOB. Really. I can do it. Probably. Maybe. We'll see. I don't know. In the meantime, I've done more work on the intakes, blending them into the fuselage. This was more work than I expected, filling the seams etc., but after the first go-around, I primed those areas and they're close. Just a few more spots and I'll be happy. Cheers, Bill PS. Still don't like them clear wingtips. Are there any lights other than the small navigation lights on these pieces? I don't understand why Airfix bothered to engineer it this way.

Thanks mates. Sorry to say but since the last update I've done nothing. Except, of course, to continue my steady stream of visits to my doctors in order to ensure their forthcoming yacht payments are rendered on time. Geez! I've been bounced from my primary care physician to an ear, nose, and throat specialist, to the latest (and my favourite) - the infectious disease group at der Krankenhaus. It seems my bouts of pneumonia and my never ending sinus and chest congestion, coupled with hacking up an occasional lung (which started last September) have yet to be explained by modern science. Nothing tried, so far, has seemed to improve or remove these symptoms. I'm beginning to think that this whole thing started after my trip to Honduras when I snuggled with a sloth for five minutes or so. Cute little buggers. If you hear about a new pandemic of sloth-virus, I'm patient zero. I'll try to spend some more time on the Victor, but it's tough to sand when you have to breathe through your mouth. The dust from my spot glazing putty has an odd piquant. 👃 Cheers, Bill PS. If you notice the stock price of Kleenex going up - that's me too.

Getting started on sanding/filling - surprisingly, there are quite a few small sinkholes in the fuselage which I hadn't noticed until I put everything together. A bit of filler should make short work of those. The seams (fuselage halves, wing leading edge, etc.) should clean up without any major application of filler (if any at all), but the areas where the intake and wing join, along with the "splitter plate", will require some work. The small steps that reared their ugly little heads when I assembled the wings to the fuselage have been removed. I think there will still be some Mr. Surfacer required in a few spots and some re-scribing of a few lost panel lines. Nothing too bad. Wing roots look good top and bottom without any sanding or filling required. The jury is still out on the clear wingtips. I think I don't like them. They are not yet on the model, as they don't seem to fit well at all. It looks like I need to either thin the tab on the wingtip, or open up the slot in the wing in order to have them align properly. An unusual goof from Airfix is the part which covers the bomb bay and has the cutout for the Blue Steel missile. It's too short so there is a considerable gap. Some card stock should alleviate the error. In-between sanding sessions, it was time for Gear Strut Tarting, Episode 2. How long before I bend all those fiddly things? I've already lost the tubes that go from the ejection seats to the escape hatch, and they'll be put back on prior to the canopy attachment. Speaking of the canopy, I can verify that the Mayfair magazines cannot be seen when it's in place. I guess I need to add them to the top of the instrument panel. Anyone know how big the opening is that I have to add to the port wing root leading edge? Cheers, Bill

The quote from Life of Brian is "All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?" None of these things can definitely be said to have originated with the Romans. However, they did give us French Toast. Here is the entry in the recipe book Apicius (circa first century CE): "Another sweet dish - break fine white bread, crust removed, into rather large pieces, soak in milk and beaten eggs, fry in oil, cover with honey and serve". Cheers, Bill

OK, the fuselage is together and you guys weren't kidding about the fit of the upper wing assembly and fuselage. I did a ton of grinding and sanding and while test fitting showed it was good, somehow I still ended up with a wee bit of a step. Not huge, and it will sand away with no problems. I guess the thickness of the superglue caught me out! Before I put the bottom of the wings on I have a question. There is a notch cut out of the inboard edge of the bottom starboard wing. Airfix provide a part (J13) to close it off, otherwise you combine J13 with H55 to make an intake of some sort and install it in the notch. According to my cutaway drawing, this intake provides cooling air to the power unit that drives an emergency alternator. Would this intake be correct for the aircraft I'm building (XL512 in 1965)? Cheers, Bill

Keep on trying, you'll get the hang of it someday. Cheers, Bill PS. Nah, I think you got it already! You must have done a Modelling Mind-Meld with Baldrick. 🖖

Adventures in Origami Photoetch Part 2 -or- Photoetch Bending for Modellers on a Bender -or- Even Eduard Didn't Use All of These Bits in Their Website Photos! Remember this particular photoetch fret (on the left - the one on the right is either a masking sheet or part of a legal pad from the office of @Fritag which is blank because he's on holiday again) Anyway, Eduard would have you fold this stuff up to make Airfix replacement bits. Especially note the item in the top right corner of the fret. No, it's not a Ninja Frisbee of Death, it's some kind of Y-shaped yoke thingy. Apologies in advance, but I don't have any of those fancy folding/rolling tools. I'm too cheap for that, so I just use some tweezers and maybe some pliers. In fact, you can discover my neolithic methods in a PowerPoint I once made for a contest presentation. You can download the PDF version here. Here are some of the bits after folding, bending, flailing, and more importantly, cursing. All this lovely stuff will be used in the air brake assembly at the aft end of the Victor. I think it actually looks kinda good, and it was probably worth the effort - although I generally enjoy anything that involves cursing. That, and single malt. If you go over to their website and look this fret up, you'll find that Eduard provide a bunch of photos showing how the photoetch parts are used. But they didn't use all the bits! Apparently their neolithic tools aren't as advanced as mine. And don't forget the actual airbrakes - they got tarted up a bit too. Naturally, all this will look better? different? under a coat or three of paint. That comes soon methinks. Cheers, Bill

I must be a geek - I'm (re)reading Parallel Lives by my man Plutarch. Cheers, Bill

Carrot notch McCutting: Wingage minus tippage: Cheers, Bill