1/48 HAF F-4E (AUP) Peace Icarus

[NontasB]

Great work so far Pappy!! It's always nice to see a Phantom from my country!!

I see GBUs, so you're going for a plane from 338 Squadron (338M role is A/G).

You will need also a litening pod that only AUPs from 338 carry.

Regards,

Nontas

[Pappy]

G'day Nontas!

Thank you for the great pics, and yes, I will be adding a LITENING pod, as well. You don't happen to have a clear shot of the antenna located in the tail cone/parachute housing?

I think that this is part of the DIAS antenna package?

cheers,

Pappy

[NontasB]

Hello Pappy,

I do have some walkaround photos, but I must search my hard disk drive to find them. I will send you as soon as possible in a PM.

For now, here is one that I found from Airfighters.com. The photo has been taken by Nikos Fazos, excellent photographer and also excellent modeller in 1/72!!

http://www.airfighters.com/photo/42285/M/Greece-Air-Force/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E-AUP-Phantom-II/1501/

Edited June 10, 2016 by NontasB

[Pappy]

Hello Pappy,

I do have some walkaround photos, but I must search my hard disk drive to find them. I will send you as soon as possible in a PM.

For now, here is one that I found from Airfighters.com. The photo has been taken by Nikos Fazos, excellent photographer and also excellent modeller in 1/72!!

http://www.airfighters.com/photo/42285/M/Greece-Air-Force/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4E-AUP-Phantom-II/1501/

Perfect!

cheers Nontas,

Pappy

[Pappy]

G'day people,

Thanks to the generosity of a fellow modeller (Andrew P), I have a "High G" (F-15 style) centreline tank.





As already pointed out, this is the correct tank carried by the HAF F-4E (AUP) jets

Here is a comparison shot between the two tanks types,



Whilst I was waitingfor the tank to arrive, I did a little more work to the wing sub-assembly. The new tank requires that the aft centreline locating hole is filled in. Additionally, the new tank uses a different type of pylon. Finally, the centre jug requires an aft pivot assembly fairing. Another modeller (Mark M.) donated the adapter and aft pivot fairing from his scrapped F-4G kit. These changes have been incorporated into my wing assembly





At rest, the F-4E's auxiliary inlet doors are open when the jet is on the ground without power. Hasegawa has faithfully reproduced this feature but there is no internal detail. Not much can be seen through the kit openings, but I did want to have some detail there without recreating every bolt and nut. Taking a page out of the late great celebrated Shepherd Paine, I have gone down the 'creative gizmology' path and have added some sidewalls,



I will add some more features once these have set. Still on the wing assembly, I bit the bullet and bought some aftermarket inner wing pylons. these resin items are amazing, but to get them to fit, the wing underside will need modification. Hasegawa mold on the pylon to wing fairings, and these fit the kit supplied pylons very snugly, however the gap is too narrow for the resin aftermarket pylons, so I needed to widen the gap carefully so as to avaoid any remedial repair work.



Here are some pics of the replacement resin pylon with a single LAU-7 installed, if you look carefully, you can see the twin rocket motor striker points!







cheers,

Pappy

[woody37]

Great detailing, even the primer showing through on those pylons, brilliant

[Andrew Perren]

Looks great Pappy. Keep the updates coming.

[Pappy]

Great detailing, even the primer showing through on those pylons, brilliant

Looks great Pappy. Keep the updates coming.

Thanks very much fellas.

G'day people,

I managed to get the intakes in today.

These fit very well but I to ensure a good fit I needed lots of test fitting and minor adjustment as well as ensuring the mating surfaces were square and cleaned of excess resin material.

I also added some sections of sprue attached with CA to bolster the joints as I did not want these to come apart with handling during sanding and clean up.

The resin intakes are designed to fit onto a resin bulkhead that contains the compressor face mouldings. I found that the aft ends of my resin intakes did not match up the the compressor faces very well, partially due to shape issues and partially because of alignment issues. My solution was simple, I simply sawed the compressor faces apart from the bulkhead and attached them individually to each intake.

It is hard to get a decent picture of the compressor faces but they look good, and decidedly better than the truncated blank intakes as depicted in the kit.

The external shapes match the kit fuselage contours very well

Finally, the centreline tank got some attention as well.

I have added the fuel and air probes to the tank as well as the aft pivot fitting. Most of these details will be hard to see when the tank is installed but I know that they are there!

cheers,

Pappy

[Pappy]

G'day people,

I have managed to get the fuselage together. The inner sides of the intake/compressor face joints needed a flat sanded into each and the interfered and would not allow the fuselage to close properly. Once this was done, the fit was fine

I cut out the outer flight control surface from each wing using a razor saw. These characteristically droop once hydraulic power is removed from the jet

I also checked the fit of the wing assembly with the assembled fuselage. The upper wing/fuselage join is nice and snug,

However there is a gap at the front of the wing/ forward fuselage

I think that this is because the back end of the resin intakes are slightly longer than the kit items. I have a little work ahead of me to fix this area up,

cheers,

Pappy

[Pappy]

G'day people,

Before the wing assembly can be mated to the assembled fuselage however, I need to finish up the details in the aux engine inlet area. Not much will be seen, but I didn't just want a void so some details were mocked up using the usual culprits



I have also painted up the LITENING pod,



A very nice touch is the PE back plate that includes the mesh air conditioning exhaust areas, often an overlooked feature on kit pods, although some manufacturers do supply a representative decal.



The resin pod does not include any lenses for the sensor windows, so I added some acetate windows.

The fit of the turret is superb and I have left it unglued

Meanwhile, back on the fuselage, the front instrument coaming has been attached





I will blend this back in before adding any more detail

cheers,

Pappy

Edited June 19, 2016 by Pappy

[mirageiv]

Fantastic work Pappy, always a joy to watch your WIP threads!

[Tiger331]

BRILLIANT…..Just picked this up and will follow it avidly……really like the HAF F-4Es in their latest color scheme.

[Janremco]

Great details on the litening pod Pappy.

Jan Remco

[Pappy]

Great details on the litening pod Pappy.

Jan Remco

Thanks Jan, careful painting will really make the details pop out,

G'day people,

I spent a little more time on the fuselage today. First up, the ram air intake at the base of the fin got a little love. The detail provided is adequate, but my PE set includes some parts to make this area look a little more delicate. It requires the removal of some of the kit area which will be replaced by PE

Next up, the kit aft cockpit fairing is supplied as a separate item. This area should have a smooth transition between the upper fuselage and the fairing. The kit part looks like a separate part added to the fuselage, which is exactly what it is.I have added some putty around the base and will sand it back to attempt to show a more 'blended' transition

Moving further forward, I tackled the gap around the front instrument coaming

Whilst that lot was curing, I went back to the wing assembly and painted up the details inside the auxiliary engine air inlets

These details are not accurate, merely representative and will be pretty difficult to see. A mate of mine calls this sort of detailing 'modelling for god'. I will need to make up a couple of 'roof' sections to represent the bottom of the engines. These will representative as well, as I am aiming for busy rather than accurate ,

cheers,

Pappy

Edited June 24, 2016 by Pappy

[Dads203]

Great work Pappy, always a pleasure to read your updates fella.

Dan

[Pappy]

Great work Pappy, always a pleasure to read your updates fella.

Dan

Cheers Dan!

Work moving forward. The join between the forward and aft lower fuselage is a weak point on the Hasegawa kits.The use of aftermarket intakes may also have contributed. The misalignment issue is most evident in the seam which travels through the forward missile wells. Since my ordnance load will be mostly air to ground, I cannot disguise the issue by chucking a couple of missiles in there, although I will be fitting a LITENING pod to the forward left well, so hopefully this will mitigate the issue a little.

In between puttying, sanding, scribing (repeat!) of this seam, I decided to reward myself with some painting and weathering of the wing jugs. The HAF F-4E wing tanks have been seen in a variety of colours from the SEA scheme, re-sprayed in a single green shade to the current low viz greys. The tanks also show lots of evidence or wear and tear. I tried a couple of different approaches

cheers,

Pappy

Edited July 7, 2016 by Pappy

[neil5208]

I think the top tank is most natural looking.

[Teeradej]

Brilliant paint scratch and chipping effect.