A Bigger, Badder Aardvark: 1/48 Zoukei-Mura F-4J Phantom

[Christer A]

Dang! Those Hypersonic resin bits looks Ace! I wonder if I bought some for my F-4C?

The Flory wash turned out great as well

[billn53]

Today's progress (admittedly not much): I did a clearcoat over the gull gray and white surfaces, then masked and painted the a base coat of Xtreme Metal dark aluminum on the Phantom's rear end:

 

 

I'll give that time to dry, then add additional metallic shades

 

 

[billn53]

More paint on the Aardvark's tail-feathers:

 

 

 

Base colors are Xtreme Metal Dark Aluminum and Gun Metal.

 

Heat darkening applied to panels behind the engine nozzles using Xtreme Metal's Jet Exhaust:

 

 

 

I also darkened the center of the nozzle petals with Jet Exhaust, to add some interest:

 

 

[coneheadff]

Niiiiiice!!!

[billn53]

I've finished painting the metallics on the rear, still need to add weathering and exhaust stains. But that's for later.

 

 

 

   

 

   

 

All done with AK Interactive's Xtreme Metal enamels, except for the dark stripes on the horizontal stab's rivet lines, which were added using powdered metallic pigments.

 

- Bill

[Covjets13]

Great build, loving all the goodies too👍

[billn53]

It's been a few days since the last update on my Phantom's progress, so let me bring everyone up to speed.

 

For the first time ever, I'm doing three builds at once, so progress on any one of them is slower than usual for me. In case you're interested, my other two builds are covered in this thread:

 

 

But, for my Aardvark, I painted the black anti-glare panel

 

 

And you'll notice I've removed the masking from the cockpit, which should tell you I'm about to do some more work in the Phantom's office. But, before I go there, my plan is to weather-up the Phantom's underside. 

 

I want to get markings and stencils in place before starting the weathering. For stencils (which I positively dread doing), I thought I'd try this product from HGW Models:

 

 

 

Wet transfers are similar to, but not the same as the water-slide decals we all know and love. The main difference is that the clear carrier film is on top of the decal pigment. Once the transfer is in place and dry, the carrier film can be removed, leaving the text, graphics, etc.  The big upside of this is that there is no possibility of silvering!

 

The process is described more clearly in HGW's instructions:

 

 

 

Another benefit, especially when it comes to stencils, is that multiple items can be combined onto a large section of carrier film. In the below diagrams, each blue section includes multiple stencils:

 

 

 

 

 

The photo below shows sixteen individual stencils on my Phantom's wing, which I was able to add all at the same time using a single wet transfer:

 

 

 

In just a few hours work, stenciling of my Phantom's underside was complete. Normally, it would have taken me days to accomplish!

 

 

 

Now, some "bad news -- good news". After finishing the underside, I discovered my stencil set was missing the sheet needed for the Phantom's upper and side surfaces. That's the bad news. The good news is that I e-mailed HGW, and got an immediate response from Martin there, promising to send me a replacement sheet ASAP. The amazing thing is, this all happened on Sunday evening. That's great customer service!

 

------------------

 

P.S.  A question for those who know: Did I screw up by doing the stenciling before adding the national insignia? In particular, on a Navy phantom, would the wing stencils ever be applied on top of the Stars & Bars?

[Col.]

Wow! Those stencils look great. Nice work and a sheet that looks to be worth investing in.

[billn53]

42 minutes ago, Col. said:

Wow! Those stencils look great. Nice work and a sheet that looks to be worth investing in.

Check out the HGW web store, there are a number of other wet transfer products, and other goodies, there. 

- Bill

 

[billn53]

Having finished stenciling (at least, on the Phantom's belly), I gave the underside a coat of clear semi-gloss and then a liberal layer of Flory "Dark Dirt" wash:

 

 

After the gunk had dried, I wiped the belly down with a damp cotton cloth and finished it off with a clear gloss, in preparation for some detail oil weathering:

 

 

 

There's more dirty work to be done!

[coneheadff]

Niiiiiiiice

[billn53]

I believe I'm done with dirtying up the Phantom's belly. Some may think I've gone too far... But, see the photos I've attached of actual F-4s -- I don't think I'm out of the range of realism. Also, there's a guy in my group who was once an Air Force aircraft mechanic, and he keeps reminding me about how filthy the rear of the F-4 would get. If I didn't dirty-up my model to his satisfaction, I'd never hear the end of it! 

 

 

 

 

 

I used Abteilung's "Starship Filth" oils for the leaky panel streaks. The two black lines of exhaust are Tamiya flat black, sprayed through a mask held off the surface with BluTack sausages.

 

Below are pics of real F-4 bellies I used as models for my modeling 😉 

 

 

 

   

 

Next up is adding stencils and markings to the upper surfaces, but first I need to receive my replacement sheet for the HGW wet transfer stencils. There won't be too much weathering to do topside on the F-4, other than on the walkways. Here's a pic to illustrate my point:

 

 

 

And, since I mentioned stencils, take a look at the HGW stencils on this weapon pylon:

 

 

 

All of these tiny, tiny stencils were on a single clear transfer. I never could have done this if working with individual decals.

 

 

 

 

[billn53]

Here’s a real quick update, not even any photos worth posting. 

 

I have received the Part 1 sheet of the HGW wet transfer stencils, and am applying them to the Aardvark’s upper surfaces now. I ran into a minor snag, however, when I went to add the gray walkway decals from Furball. It seems they are intended for the Academy Phantom, and don’t even come close to properly fitting the ZM kit. 

So, it looks like I’ll be painting the walkways (that’ll look better, anyway, so no loss there). But, before I can do that, I need to let the stencils I’ve just applied set up. About 4-hours. Guess I’ll go back to working on my Meng F-102. 

 

Hopefully, come Sunday I’ll have some good pics to show!

[Serkan Sen]

This is an awesome build Bill. Thanks for sharing your finish skills step by step. I will use this post as a reference in my ongoing builds.

 

I am very patient on engineering side building/modifying parts but I have no patience or less talent in finishing model.

 

Serkan

[Chemguy3000]

“Phantastic” job weathering the belly. I also love the metallic effect you achieved on the stabilators.

 

Those HGW transfers are intriguing. I might have to use them when I finally get to my ZM Phantom.  

 

David

[billn53]

Thanks David. As you can tell, I really like the HGW transfers (and they make them for other aircraft as well, mostly WW2 and Russian jets). The Phantom transfers are designed for the Academy F-4s thus they are probably off position in some places. I’m not a rivet counter nor a stencil expert, so they’re good enough for me. 

[billn53]

This weekend I painted the Phantom's walkways and have been stenciling & decaling the upper surfaces.

 

First, I masked off the walkway areas:

 

 

 

Then sprayed a base coat of Tamiya Nato Black:

 

 

 

I added a few drops of flat black to the Nato black, and marbled in some variation to the walkways:

 

 

 

Next, I created the impression of a well-trod surface using dark shades of ground chalk and a small brush:

 

 

 

Unfortunately, when I applied a clear flat overcoat to protect the chalk, everything darkened up to the point that it couldn't be seen! So, I repeated the process using lighter shades. Here is the final result:

 

 

 

Here's where I stand now. All stencils between the intake and wing trailing edge have been applied, as well as a couple of the larger decals for the wing:

 

 

 

Stenciling and decaling of the nose and tail will have to wait for a while. For the nose, I want to get the fixed parts of the canopy in place first. And, I need to do some minor re-paint on the tail where the metallic coats have worn away.

 

 

[AdrianMF]

The weathering looks great! I admire your use of reference photos of the real thing to get a realistic effect rather than "weathering by numbers". Look forward to seeing more progress.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Col.]

More great quality progress

[Christer A]

I must say that the weathering is top notch!

Those HGW transfers looks like a good choice too.

[Serkan Sen]

Great weathering...

I had bought these chalks many  times ago but not used yet. I will give try in my A-12 Oxcart build.

Serkan

[billn53]

1 minute ago, Serkan Sen said:

Great weathering...

I had bought these chalks many  times ago but not used yet. I will give try in my A-12 Oxcart build.

Serkan

I use pigment powders a lot, but this is a first time for me with chalks. On the plus side, they’re not nearly as messy as pigments. 

- Bill

[woody37]

Great lesson in weathering, you've captured the look of the real thing amazingly well

 

[billn53]

My bench time the past few days has focused on my Meng F-102 build, but I'll be dedicating this weekend to the ZM Phantom. Not to say I haven't done a few things!

 

Installed the afterburners/nozzles and arresting gear. Later I'll smoke up the hook so it doesn't look so factory-fresh. I had a scare with the afterburners, when the nozzle on one of them broke free and the can fell into fuselage. Fortunately, I was able to fish it out (no small effort) and set things right.

 

 

 

Added the inboard flaps:

 

 

 

Got more decals on the fuselage, including the Aardvarks' bright orange flash:

 

 

 

Last, but not least, I added Model Master's brass pitot and ram air probe to the fin. After I get these painted, and install the transparent red light below the ram air probe, I'll do the fin decals.

 

 

 

My goal for this weekend is to finish up the cockpit (my pilot & RIO will finally get their heads), install the fixed parts of the canopy and intake splitter plates, and stencil/decal the nose. Then, I'll be ready to work on all the thingamabobs that hang out from under the aircraft (landing gear, doors, pylons and stores).

 

And, I'll be off to Boston for business first thing Monday morning, so there's no pressure!

 

 

 

[Col.]

She's looking great Bill