F-4D over Oman, 1/48th

[Daniel.H.]

Hello gentlemen,

I am starting a new project which I had planned a long time ago. I am going to build an IIAF F-4D which took part in the Iranian military intervention during the Dhofar Rebellion. And, as this is a quite unusual subject, I'll give you a brief summary about this conflict.

Historical summary of the situation in Oman in the 1970s

The year is 1952, the country is the Sultanate of Oman. An armed rebellion, which will last until the late 1970s begins. On the rebel side, radical left armed groups, mainly supported by South Yemen, the USSR, China and other Eastern bloc countries. They fight against the Omani government, which receives help from the United Kingdom, and later, Persia, who was at this time, an important ally of the United-States. The Shah's intervention will take place in the late 70s, with sources claiming the exact date to be around January 1978, and will include more than 4000s troops, including an important air support, consisting of Helicopters (Hueys, Cobras, Kiowas, Chinooks) and aircrafts (F-4s, C-130s).

The province of Dhofar (read "Zofar") in the Sultanate of Oman

British troops searching for mines in Oman

About the Airway in Oman

​At the beginning of the conflict, Oman's military isn't really advanced, and lacks of airpower. Britain will help them by providing them with Hunters and Strikemasters, which will show useful in anti-guerilla fight, but will later be no match compared to the weapon capacity and range of the F-4s.

On the Iranian side, the Shah being a strongly "anti-communist leader" and his nation being in a period of trouble, with leftists groups taking importance in Iran in the late 70s, he sees as crucial to extermine any communist threat in the Middle-East which could propage to his country and thus when he will send his troops in Oman, will he make a very intensive fight to eliminate the menace as quickly as possible. When the Iranian Revolution starts in 1979, the "Red Threat" in Oman will indeed have been wiped out.

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in his military uniform

​Iran didn't publish a lot of informations about their part in this conflict, the Islamic Government didn't appreciate to telle the "exploits" of the government they overthrew, but here are some things we know:

C-130E, F-4D, RF-4C and F-4E models aircrafts took part in the task force, with alternating squadrons, keeping always at least a dozen aircrafts on Omani soil. By the way, a dozen aircrafts might seem like a low number, but it already had a bigger fighting power than the whole omani Strikemaster air fleet combined.

My aircraft will be a F-4D with the markings 3-616

For the weapon load they carried it would usually consist of:

​23mm SUU-16 canon, extremely useful against low armored targets and cheaper than missiles or bombs

2x AIM-7E-2 missiles as a security measure

Mk. 82 Bombs, 12 on high value targets, 6 against lower value targets.

About my model kit.

I chose Academy's new tool F-4D, which seems quite nice for the moment, crisp details and easy adjustments, I don't think I'll need a lot of putty. It is the ROKAF model because I couldn't find any other versions at my local model store, but since I won't be using its decals, if anyone is looking for a Korean F-4, I'll gladly give them to him!

I'll also add some detailing and, of course, the IIAF decals, which are from Hi-Decal, a brand that I highly recommend for anyone interested in exotics paint schemes.

I started with the cockpit, using Eduard's PE parts:

The main challenge about this kit will be time: I want to finish it before November so I can give it as a present to my aircraft enthusiast and modeler uncle, who lives on the other side of the Atlantic and I thus can't often see.

And finally, please excuse me for my English, I guess I did some mistakes, but I am still learning this language, so I can't guarantee a perfect level for the moment.

Have a nice day,

Daniel

[Air Hockey Propellers]

Hi, I'm new at this forum and I'm wondering how one gets to choose these topics. They seem to be quite specific and generally well studied. May I ask if you knew anybody who took part in that conflict, for instance? Or did you just spin a globe and investigated about armed conflicts in the area where your finger landed?

As for me, Im doing mostly what ifs and my modelling skills and the kits I buy are way basic.

[Kagemusha]

Interesting project. Your English is fine by the way.

Edited August 26, 2016 by Kagemusha

[Parabat]

This looks like it will be a superb subject, the Iranian F-4's look good and I'll be watching this one as you build.

Hi, I'm new at this forum and I'm wondering how one gets to choose these topics. They seem to be quite specific and generally well studied. May I ask if you knew anybody who took part in that conflict, for instance? Or did you just spin a globe and investigated about armed conflicts in the area where your finger landed?

As for me, Im doing mostly what ifs and my modelling skills and the kits I buy are way basic.

Typically (in my case) I'll have an aircraft I want to build, I'll do some reading on an operation or squadron, then decide to try and nail down a specific aircraft to model. In the case of WWII planes, I might try and model a certain pilots' aircraft in a certain timeframe.

You never HAVE to do all this, I just find it interesting to do the research on a specific plane and pilot combo and try and get the model top match the plane as it was in a certain time and place.

[Air Hockey Propellers]

Hi Parabat,

That's quite a passion you have for your hobby. Until now, I made the model first and then read about it but not to the extent of studying the squadrons or pilots. In fact, if any pilot/plane relation came to my mind, it would be Otto Lilienthal's last flight. That one I'd thoroughly investigate.

But reading your post, a few ideas come to mind such as modelling the challenger tank that got hit by tens of rpgs while being stuck in a ditch and survived. That one would require a lot of imagination or the accounts of the crew at least.

[Daniel.H.]

Good afternoon gentlemen,

And thank you all for your comments

Hi, I'm new at this forum and I'm wondering how one gets to choose these topics. They seem to be quite specific and generally well studied. May I ask if you knew anybody who took part in that conflict, for instance? Or did you just spin a globe and investigated about armed conflicts in the area where your finger landed?

As for me, Im doing mostly what ifs and my modelling skills and the kits I buy are way basic.

Hello Alberto,

There are multiple reasons to why I chose this indeed quite specific subject. First of all, I am Iranian, born in Iran but living in Switzerland for the moment, and I am very interested in my country's history. And also, I didn't know much about this conflict until I bought a decal set which included it, and amongst the different Iranian F-4s I had to pick one to build, this one had an interesting background to it since we don't hear every day about this war so it took my attention.

I advanced a bit theses days. First, the color of the PE parts didn't match the color of the cockpit, so I carefully painted some of my gray on them to correct this:

I also started the engines, Eduard's resin pieces are very sharply detailed, it'll look great once painted:

I also added Master's brass pieces, different antennas and the pitot tube:

Yesterday, I glued the cockpit inside of the fuselage and today, I added the wings, I'll add some pictures tomorrow probably

Have a nice day!

Daniel

[Air Hockey Propellers]

Hello Danuel,

I see you are quite detailed in your work. I'm starting to conclude that the more detail one wants, the larger the scale. This might have come as obvious to lots of people but since Im relatively new in the hobby it wasnt so obvious to me.

And about your choice of topic, I can see now that it wasnt random at all.

Keep up the good work, and I'll be stopping by to see how it comes out.

Regards,

Alberto

[Duncan B]

I have known about the UK involvement in Oman for many years but was totally unaware that Iran had taken part too, although it does make sense that they would have. I'm looking forward to watching your build progress and learning more about the subject as we go.

There is nothing wrong with your command of the English language either, good work all round.

Duncan B

[Daniel.H.]

Good evening gentlemen,

And thank you a lot for your comments

I had quite some time to work this weekend so I've been able to give my Phantom its shape

I painted these parts, (I don't know how you call these in English, air intakes? ) in white, by the way, as you may see, this kit is in multiple colors plastic, which is intact quite useful, for the missiles for example.

Then I glued them to the aircraft:

Added the last PE parts on the canopy:

Which I then fixed, but without gluing every part since I'll let it open in the end so we can see the nice PE details and resin seats in the cockpit.

And that's it for this week, I'm happy with the work I've done, I've been quite productive, I'll be able to finish it on time hopefully!

Have a nice day

Daniel

[Blogs On]

Looking good :-)

[Daniel.H.]

Thank you very much Blogs on

These lasts days, I let the mains parts away for a while and painted the bombs to change a bit from all this gluing job.

So first, a lighter coat of olive drab, mixed with some khaki:

A pinch of salt, a bit of pepper... Oh non sorry, only salt

And then, a coat of olive drab, the real stuff this time:

Looking at the real ones, they are quite weathered as well, so I thought this was appropriate.

Now I'll have to add the yellow lines and the texts on them.

Have a nice day comrades!

Daniel

[Daniel.H.]

Hello Gentlemen,

The work continues

First, I did a bit of sanding work on the nose, it didn't fit perfectly because of the weight I added inside of it:

Then I did the pre shading, wasn't very straight; I tried archery last week and it didn't work out very well, got a lot of aches in my right hand

For those interested, these are the most accurate pure paints for the Iranian Asia Minor scheme:

(the gunze is H 309)

And the first coat of paint

Looking at the pictures again I thought it is maybe a bit over-weathered ?

I'll see, maybe I'll add some more XF-60 to make it look cleaner.

Have a nice day!

Daniel

[rudi]

Great choice of subject...will follow with interest.

[At Sea]

Looking very good.

[Graeme H]

I really like this scheme, and what you are doing

[exdraken]

Great paintwork!

Thanks for the background info as well!

[Daniel.H.]

Thank you a lot for your comments mates!

I added some colors to this paint job!

First, the brown:

Followed by the free, to complete this Asia Minor scheme.

There are still some improvements I can do on them, then I'll paint the underside and finally, I'll be able to try out my new polishing tools for the metallic parts

And lastly, a small picture of the painting bench to give you an idea of how my magical basement looks like!

Yes, I AM messy, I know it

Have a nice day fellows!

Daniel

[Daniel.H.]

Good afternoon gentlemen,

Here is the next update.

I painted the aircraft's underneath in its grayish-white color, for which I used about 8 parts white to 2 parts light grey (Tamiya's XF-20 I think it was)

And I also made some adjustments on the camouflage, the brown was too faded so I colored it a bit more:

And then come the metallic parts

First, Alclad's gloss black base, which will add to the surface's smoothness and also deepen the metallic shine:

Followed by a first coat of Alclad Aluminum:

Some other metallic colors added on some panels:

Then, on the "hot parts", some pale burnt metal and hot metal sepia:

Followed by some burnt Iron:

Masks away

And that's it for this week. Hope you enjoyed.

Have a nice day!

Daniel

[amblypygid]

very nice, Daniel. May I ask: are the burnt & hot metal colours also Alclad, or are they some other brand? The result looks very convincing.

[Daniel.H.]

very nice, Daniel. May I ask: are the burnt & hot metal colours also Alclad, or are they some other brand? The result looks very convincing.

Thank you Chris,

Indeed, I forgot to mention, they were all from Alcald, and I used the names they have given them. I sometimes used those paints without the gloss black base and the result is very less convincing, I can search for some pictures of my older builds, but the gloss base really adds a lot to the final shine of it.

[amblypygid]

Thanks, Daniel, much appreciated.

[exdraken]

looks perfect!

some dirt on the shiny exhaust area

I guess/ hope the nozzles are not glued yet... they are in a strange angle in the e.g. 3rd to last picture...

[Daniel.H.]

looks perfect!

some dirt on the shiny exhaust area

I guess/ hope the nozzles are not glued yet... they are in a strange angle in the e.g. 3rd to last picture...

Thanks!

Now that you say it, I see, the left one points to a strange angle, they are glued but I can maybe do something about it I'll see.

[Blogs On]

More lovely work Daniel. The discolouration is very convincing.

If you can free up the engines, then I believe that the exhaust petals should be almost in contact with the fuselage.

A quick Google search should provide confirmation :-)

[Daniel.H.]

Thanks Blogs on. I'll have to correct that indeed.

Here's what I did this week-end:

 

First, I painted in black the tip of the nose:

 

 

Then I applied the wash, using AK's dark brown enamel wash. I usually add the decals first on WWII aircraft as they are quite large and can be weathered, but here, the only insignias are quite small so there is no real need for that.

 

 

 

I often have some troubles placing the wash inside of the rivet lines, but this time I'm quite glad with the results 

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for today. However, tomorrow is a bank holiday where I live, and since the weather looks like a meeting between the Scottish sky and the Greenland's temperatures, I'll probably end up working on my models

Good evening!

Daniel