I say, we've been Zapped by those Colonial blighters!!!

[exdraken]

wow!

really looking good!

somehow missed to follow your build here....

 

[FortyEighter]

Hi Chris

 

Your colour shot of the painted over "Royal" is really useful; in B&W shots it was obviously overpainted but the colour could have been a darker grey.  I did consider this detail but in the end wasn't sure if I could get it in the right place before applying the decals, so didn't bother - perhaps I could have done it as in real life by actually overpainting the ROYAL before applying the COLONIAL.

 

Glad to see that you are now making progress again. 

 

Mike

[Fatcawthorne]

On 10/2/2019 at 9:58 PM, exdraken said:

wow!

really looking good!

somehow missed to follow your build here....

 

Thanks exdraken, the way I've been feeling for the past couple of months I'm pretty sure I missed most of it too!!

On 10/4/2019 at 5:09 PM, FortyEighter said:

Hi Chris

 

Your colour shot of the painted over "Royal" is really useful; in B&W shots it was obviously overpainted but the colour could have been a darker grey.  I did consider this detail but in the end wasn't sure if I could get it in the right place before applying the decals, so didn't bother - perhaps I could have done it as in real life by actually overpainting the ROYAL before applying the COLONIAL.

 

Glad to see that you are now making progress again. 

 

Mike

Well as it happens I had put it in the wrong place on the port side anyways, so am a bit pigged off with myself.  Made a bit of a horlicks of getting off the decal too as noticed it well after applying it.

 

All in all I'm not too chuffed with progress at the moment as I'm rushing to finish, and with not being 100% am making mistake after mistake.

 

I think I'm calling this a wave-off on the ramp, so "Bolter, Bolter, Bolter"!!!

 

Here's where we got to:

 

 

 

Well as I mentioned the first of the mojo-sapping errors was painting my black oblong in the wrong place and then applying the sticker on it. I only noticed when applying the serial on that side then had to take drastic action with very hot towels to remove it (which also made the Klear coat look like a disaster zone and I thought I'd killed the paintjob for good - I'm so glad Klear can self heal!!!).  Adding to this more decals had to be removed on the tail as despite having posted lovely clear colour photos of this bird's rear end, and having studied probably hundreds of photos of this and its other Squadron mates, I stupidly slavishly followed Xtradecals markings guide and put the two big red Omega tail stickers in the wrong place!  My fault but no thanks to you Xtradecals!!!  I knew it looked wrong at the time, especially with the placement of Ark's 'R' identifier, but as I said I was rushing - doh!

 

Now I'd given the other decals some MicroSoling so when I noticed the tail error, I was so careful not to disturb any softening decals whilst removing the offending items.  OK so I never touched any of them, but excess MicroSol had pooled around the port intake and as that's where I was gripping I left a horrible thumbprint in the melted and softened Klear coat.  At least this will be hidden by the splitter plate.

 

Well removing the tailstickers didn't go without a hitch.  One side came off fine, but the starboard side was having none of it, causing the decal to split into loads of bits that were stuck good and which only came off after being rubbed with the backside of a scalpel blade taking a fair bit of the paint finish with it.

 

I tried the ancient Hasegawa kit decals but as expected they had deteriorated over time and disintergrated into too many bits for me to be happy using them.

 

Ah well, we still had the Aeromaster set (even if they didn't have the US unit crest Zap, as I'd saved them), but as soon as they hit the water they jaggedly split in two or three pieces each and trying to jigsaw them together whilst keeping a clean join edge was proving very difficult. As I still had the kit decals, which were a good colour match,  I used parts of them to try and patch over the joins but it looked like a dog's dinner.  I'm not happy so I'm going to strip the fin again, repaint and will buy in another set of Xtradecals and will ignore their instructions in order to put them in the right place this time. 

 

And finally to compound my miserable luck I knocked over my bottle of surgical spirit that I use to clean my airbrushes, covering the pre-painted undercarriage doors with paint-stripper!

 

Well sorry to bail out on you @PhantomBigStu right at the death but I'm not in the right state to push this one over the line.  It will get finished, so @Mike could I ask you to move this to the WIP thread so I have to put my money where my mouth is!

 

Stu, thanks for hosting this and again, sorry to let you down.

 

TTFN, Chris

[FortyEighter]

Sorry to read about all of your issues Chris but I can sympathise re the tailfin red/omega decal - it IS too large compared to all photos and shouldn't meet the bottom fuselage/fin joint.  Of course it's impossible to trim it as the Omega must extend from top to bottom of the decal.

 

Hopefully a new set of decals will get round your problems and perhaps this will be another Phantom in KUTA?

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[John B]

I've been following your build and have been impressed with progress so far.  That's unfortunate that the tail marking decal is too large.  I also purchased the Xtradecal sheet with the idea of doing the same project.

 

Would you consider using the tail marking from this sheet -> Impact Decals VMF/VMFA-531 Review.  I think the decals were sized for the Hasegawa F-4B, but it is an alternative to seeking out the Hasegawa kit decals.

 

Impact Decals is no longer in business, but the sheet can still be purchased from on-line retailers.

 

(The irony is not lost on me that it would be using the markings for when the roles were reversed - FAA markings applied to the US Phantom.)

Edited October 9, 2019 by John B

[Fatcawthorne]

On 10/9/2019 at 6:50 PM, John B said:

I've been following your build and have been impressed with progress so far.  That's unfortunate that the tail marking decal is too large.  I also purchased the Xtradecal sheet with the idea of doing the same project.

 

Would you consider using the tail marking from this sheet -> Impact Decals VMF/VMFA-531 Review.  I think the decals were sized for the Hasegawa F-4B, but it is an alternative to seeking out the Hasegawa kit decals.

 

Impact Decals is no longer in business, but the sheet can still be purchased from on-line retailers.

 

(The irony is not lost on me that it would be using the markings for when the roles were reversed - FAA markings applied to the US Phantom.)

Thank you John for the kind words. 

 

@FortyEighterI've not found yet that the Xtradecal tail flash is in fact too large, but as their placement instructions are totally wrong and by following them slavishly like wot I stupidly did I ruined the tail.  Until I stick it in the right place I'm not sure but will take your word for it and look out to see what I can do to fix the issue.

 

There should be an EDSG "stripe" left between the flash and the fin leading edge as per this picture, not a red leading edge as per the destructions.

https://i.imgur.com/kPDZhng.jpg

 

I've got another set from Mike at MJW Models @Mikemx and I'm masked up and just about to repaint the RWR panels before Klearing it ready for more stickers.

 

I will report back and show 'n' tell the class once I've re-stuck 'em!

 

Catch you all later.

Chris

 

[FortyEighter]

Hi Chris,

 

The Xtradecal fin decal doesn't allow for an EDSG border under the red flash as per your picture.  If aligned at the top with bottom of RWR block the red comes down to fin / fuselage joint but it should about 2mm above that joint.

 

Mike 

[Fatcawthorne]

22 hours ago, FortyEighter said:

Hi Chris,

 

The Xtradecal fin decal doesn't allow for an EDSG border under the red flash as per your picture.  If aligned at the top with bottom of RWR block the red comes down to fin / fuselage joint but it should about 2mm above that joint.

 

Mike 

You're spot on Mike, I copied the decals and cut out one of the flashes and as you say it's about 2mm too tall.

 

I have made a few copies of the flashes so next step is to get the scalpel out and see if a few nips and tucks can get it to the right size.

 

Something that also has struck me is that the white space around the Omega symbol could be too large so perhaps making the white diamond smaller too could be the key here.

 

Again will have a play and will report back. 

 

Oh yeah and as you can see in the above, the Tamiya tape has again reacted with the Gunze Aqueous paints, despite a goodly amount of drying time so yet another rub back and more EDSG to try and fix things.

 

 

Chris

[FortyEighter]

19 hours ago, Fatcawthorne said:

You're spot on Mike, I copied the decals and cut out one of the flashes and as you say it's about 2mm too tall.

 

I have made a few copies of the flashes so next step is to get the scalpel out and see if a few nips and tucks can get it to the right size.

 

Something that also has struck me is that the white space around the Omega symbol could be too large so perhaps making the white diamond smaller too could be the key here.

 

Again will have a play and will report back. 

 

Oh yeah and as you can see in the above, the Tamiya tape has again reacted with the Gunze Aqueous paints, despite a goodly amount of drying time so yet another rub back and more EDSG to try and fix things.

 

 

Chris

Sorry to hear of the tape mishap Chris, I too used Gunze Aqueous EDSG and has no issue masking round the rear fuselage metallic area.  However, I did have one issue when using the tape to hold the rub down stencils in place whilst applying them - lifting the tape removed part of the port roundel (despite the complete aircraft having had a coat of varnish after the waterslide decals.  Luckily of course there were 2 spares due to the zapped ones so not a big issue.

 

As for the tailfin decal, I can't think how you could make the white Omega kite smaller; changing its height is easy but if you alter either the upper or lower apex, then the corresponding edges will be at a sharper angle and so the red section will then be too small.  Or am I missing something obvious??

 

Will be interested to see what you can achieve.

 

Mike

[FortyEighter]

Hi again Chris,

 

If it helps here is a shot of my Xtradecal tailfin with the Hobbydecal version sat alongside:

 

You can clearly see the difference in proportions of the white Omega kite (and it isn't as tall, so would allow an EDSG border underneath the red).  I didn't use the Hobbydecals as the white in this flash (and the roundels) appears to be a bit "creamy" but that might be due to the backing paper??

 

I don't suppose I'm going to build another Navy Phantom, so PM me your details if you'd like me to pop the two fin decals in the post.

 

Mike

[Fatcawthorne]

10 hours ago, FortyEighter said:

Hi again Chris,

 

If it helps here is a shot of my Xtradecal tailfin with the Hobbydecal version sat alongside:

 

You can clearly see the difference in proportions of the white Omega kite (and it isn't as tall, so would allow an EDSG border underneath the red).  I didn't use the Hobbydecals as the white in this flash (and the roundels) appears to be a bit "creamy" but that might be due to the backing paper??

 

I don't suppose I'm going to build another Navy Phantom, so PM me your details if you'd like me to pop the two fin decals in the post.

 

Mike

Mike, you're a diamond, pun intended, and I've been faffing around trying to turn Omega into "Oh my god" as my way of expressing thanks but I failed miserably.

 

PM has winged its way to you a while back (that's how long I've been working on the "Oh my God" bit!).