F-4J Phantom

[specky]

Hi everyone

 

Why is it that the universe seems determined to continually have a bit of laugh at my expense? I've waited weeks longer than I really should have had to for this pre-order ...

 

 

.... which finally arrived on Wednesday, delayed even longer, I'm sure, by the Easter holidays. So, I duck out of work for an hour yesterday to score some EDSG from a local hobby shop and as I step through the door, this bad boy almost has my eye out!

 

 

Slightly discounted....

 

 

.... but to be honest, they're still not exactly giving it away are they?, but it would have been rude not to, so now I'm almost inundated by Phantoms!

 

After a careful study and comparison of the kits, I really don't see that either offers a significant advantage over the other in terms of being a quicker or easier build, so on the basis that bigger is almost always better, Airfix is now in the stash and Tamiya on the bench.

 

 

The internet has been its usual 'helpful' self and drawn my attention to numerous 'issues', which is not really surprising since the original toolings are more than 20 years old. Some are very minor and I'm happy to ignore, but others are a little more 'in your face' and will need to be addressed.

 

The under-sized exhaust nozzles have been resolved by placing an order on every ones favourite internet auction site this morning, but that, on its own, has kicked me over the psychological £100 barrier. 

Poorly designed intakes used to be an easy fix when 'seamless' replacements were available from a number of sources, but, as I assume, sales of these kits dropped-off, manufacturers began deleting them from their ranges, so they will need fixing with filler and elbow grease.

The 'spartan' cockpit probably won't look too bad with the crew figures in place until I can justify the expense of some better resin bang seats and maybe figures as well and by only temporarily fixing the kit parts, it shouldn't be a big deal to swap them later - maybe!

 

More to come

 

Craig

 

 

[trickyrich]

welcome aboard Craig and for a minute I thought with one of the missing essentials for this GB a RN Phantom, but then you decide to go large with a bargain monster Phantom!  Can never have enough Phantoms!

 

It's still a nice looking model after all these years and I actually saw a set of seamless intake go quite cheaply the other day too! Or you could always fit a set on intake covers? It's very easy to overtake the initial price with extras, a problem I always have...

 

Good luck with the build, I'd love to be build one of these in this scale, but even in 1/48th they take up a lot of space (says he who's building a Vigilante!!), so I'll just have to make do following your build. 

[infofrog]

i started this F-4 . Love it so far 

Rick 

 

[stevej60]

Well I guessed a few Phantom's would show up in this GB but not this kit,looking forward to this one!

[trickyrich]

On 07/04/2018 at 09:20, infofrog said:

i started this F-4 . Love it so far 

Rick 

 

 

you should start a thread for this one....unless you already have! I nearly bought one of these...though I guess I have to wentthey release the E or G.

[infofrog]

1 hour ago, trickyrich said:

you should start a thread for this one....unless you already have! I nearly bought one of these...though I guess I have to wentthey release the E or G.

I should start a build thread , i have been working on it and  taken photo as a process . I'm not far into it 

Rick 

[trickyrich]

go for it, to go past the 25% rule you would have had to have done quite a bit.

[John Masters]

I haven't pitched din my hat yet...but I will.

 

Specks...I think you and I might be building the same Airfix Phantom from the Ark Royal...is that a problem?  I could build something else...

 

 

[specky]

Hi everyone - long time, no see!

 

Don't let this mock-up, posed with a 1/72 Spitfire for scale, fool you into thinking that any significant progress has been made, because it just hasn't!

 

 

Anyone familiar with the kit will probably have already guessed that it has stalled badly at the intakes which have proven to be every bit as nasty as the internet suggested, but if you're not familiar with it, allow me to explain.....

 

Step 1 of the assembly guide shows the rear, tubular section of the 2 intake ducts (B26, 27, 42 & 43)

 

 

All are covered with ejector pin & sink marks on the inside, visible face, but that, to be honest, is a minor inconvenience compared with the 'trench-like' joints that's are a proper pain to sort thanks to the S-shape of the lower joint

 

 

These sub-assemblies then fit, very poorly, to a half centre section moulded as part of the fuselage & once again there are pin marks & perhaps even worse joints to try & sort

 

 

Once you've overcome those, as best you can, the whole thing is covered by the front intakes with more pin marks on the inside, but otherwise they're pretty good right up until the point that you look down the 'hole' & see this

 

 

The ducting doesn't even begin to match the shape & size of the intake. All of these issues are why seamless replacements are essential (or are they? - see below), unless you're going to use covers!

 

Research suggests that these days, there's only 1 source for these parts (new) & the guy only releases limited numbers, only sells on E-bay & only lists 2 or 3 times a year! After 3 failed attempts to make the kit plastic 'play the game', I was ready to give-up & return it to the stash for another day, when I spotted one of his elusive listings - result! An order was placed, cash electronically changed hands & I'm left twiddling my thumbs for potentially as long as 4 weeks whilst the box makes its way to me from the West coast of America.

 

Now I had a 'fall-back position', I figured there was nothing to lose by getting way more aggressive with the kit & I cut the ducting out of the fuselage. A paper template was made, transferred to thin plastic card & after using that to replace most of the hopeless kit plastic, I ended-up with this...

 

 

 Although it looks absolutely rubbish (I was making lots of mistakes as I went), the thin card remains flexible enough to conform to the inside profile of the intake

 

 

Rubbish photo I'm afraid, it proved to be impossible to hold in the correct position with one hand & operate a camera with the other!, but I think you can see that this is getting pretty close to 'seamless' & I'm certain that with a bit more time, I could have cracked it. But, way sooner than expected, a delivery from the USA has arrived & although most of the set is no use to me, but to be fair it isn't 'J' specific, the one piece intakes & ducts are lovely!

 

 

Again, not the best photo - its gloss white!, but since they are 'plug-in & play' & I've already lost a load of time on this build, I'll be using them rather than my homemade efforts & cracking on - finally!

 

More to come

 

Craig

 

 

 

 

 

 

[trickyrich]

oooo those intakes were horrible, I hadn't read anything on this model so didn't know they were bad. You would have guessed the Zoukei-Mura model would have been almost perfect, but I've built the Ta-152H-1 and it was terrifying in places! You had to be perfect in fitting pieces in their exact position or else you'd have big "issues" later on.

 

Those new intakes look gorgeous!