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

[Serkan Sen]

She  looks like the real machine Bill...

Serkan

[billn53]

1 hour ago, Serkan Sen said:

She  looks like the real machine Bill...

Serkan

Thanks! But I still have much to do, and plenty of opportunities to muck it up. 

[billn53]

Here's what I've been up to today (at least, what I'm willing to share 😜

 

Finished the pitot & ram air probes, and installed the rectangular red light on the fin. That done, I was ready to add the tail decals:

 

 

 

I then moved to the front-end work. I spent a fair amount of time deciding how to best do the ejection seat face screen handles, which are so prominent on the Martin Baker Mk 7 bang seats. The resin handles that came with the aftermarket seats were non-starters for me: much to fragile. The kit handles were (and still are) an option, but I'd have to cut them away from the seat's top piece, and then there's the problem of neatly painting little black & yellow stripes. I tried a technique that I read about on the web, which involves twisting black & yellow wires tightly together -- my attempts were disappointing. Finally, I decided to go with some pre-painted Eduard ejection seat handles.

 

In this pic you can see (top to bottom) the kit piece, the Eduard PE, and my lame scratchbuilt handles:

 

 

 

Main concerns about the PE handles are:

 

1. The handles are created by bending a piece of PE together, to give some thickness. If the bending isn't precise, then the two halves will show (you can see this in the Eduard piece on the right, above.) Fortunately, the Eduard set includes a bunch of handles so if you mess up, just throw it away and try again).
2. Once you bend the PE together, you end up with handles that are perfectly flat. Care must be taken bending them to get a more natural shape.
3. Looking closely, the PE handles do not have a circular cross-section. Instead, they are two flat pieces of thin metal joined together. I addressed this issue in the following way, which seems to have helped. After bending the PE to shape, I brushed clear, thin, UV-activated acrylic gel onto the handles and set the gel with my UV light. I repeated the process one or two more times to build up the handle thickness.

Here's my cockpit now with the crew no longer headless and the ejection seat handles installed:

 

 

 

Bar Room Brawler, in the backseat, is focused intensely on his pre-flight checks while Pretty Boy pilot is looking off to the left, probably ogling some gal (or guy?) on the deck crew who's bending over to collect the wheel chocks and tie-down chains. 

 

And, here's the big-picture view of my build's progress so far:

 

 

 

 

[billn53]

More work done in preparation to adding the fixed canopy sections:

 

Painted up the forward cockpit console (is this the correct term?) The instructions aren't terribly clear about this, but the HUD frame needs to lean nearly as far back as it can, in order to clear the windscreen. I used UV-activated clear acrylic to create the HUD projector lens (can you tell that I'm hooked on that stuff?)

 

 

 

I'm trying something new with the HUD screen -- thin iridescent film. I applied it with Future, if I don't like how it looks I'll simply strip if off.

 

 

 

The windscreen section of the canopy fits perfectly:

 

 

 

But, in back, we have a problem. The RIO's panel interferes with Hypersonic's resin bits attached to the center canopy frame. Somethings gotta go, and it's probably NOT going to be the Hypersonic kit.

 

 

 

 😠 grrrrr...

 

[Col.]

10 hours ago, billn53 said:

In this pic you can see (top to bottom) the kit piece, the Eduard PE, and my lame scratchbuilt handles:

 

 

I'm thinking you're on the right track with those scratch-built handles One thing I've noticed on the real seats is how scrappy and untidy they are so your wire ones have great potential.

[billn53]

I prepped for surgery by isolating the operating area. Some sponge and tape masked off the area, to prevent grinding debris from finding its way into the cockpit.

 

 

 

After very careful grinding of the RIO's panel and the resin parts hanging off the canopy section, I was able to get a good fit:

 

 

 

This is how things look now. I'll have to attend to the gap at the canopy-fuselage join:

 

   

 

Moving on to forward windscreen, I attached the clear HUD screen with its iridescent film:

 

 

 

Here's a shot at a different angle, to show the iridescence effect:

 

 

 

It's just a simple matter of the film's bi-directional reflectance distribution function (yes, I have a Physics degree) 👨‍🔬

 

The canopy windscreen is now installed:

 

 

 

Battle won! But, not without some casualties along the way:

 

 

 

Those brass probes sure are sharp!

 

 

[Col.]

Tidy integration work John, looks suitably busy in there now, worth a little blood-letting  

[billn53]

20 minutes ago, Col. said:

...worth a little blood-letting  

Just like this:

 

https://images.app.goo.gl/Phko6iW7E4HkAv317

 

[Booty003]

Superb work Bill.  Great scheme as well.

[billn53]

I was able to return a day early from my business trip, and had some time this evening to work on my Aardvark. 

 

Got the canopy piece between the pilot and RIO faired in and painted. With that done, I'm ready to do the stencils and decals for the nose area.

 

   

 

I also did a bit of detailing on the riveting for the horizontal stabilizers:

 

   

 

 

[billn53]

Stencils and decals around the nose area are done, and I believe that mostly finishes all the decaling, etc. 

 

 

 

Nice how the blue tint shows on the forward windscreen!

 

I was going to add the splitter plates, but I discovered a seam in one of them that must be corrected first:

 

 

 

Here's how the Aardvark is looking now (splitter plates and stabilizers tacked into place)

 

 

 

 

[Serkan Sen]

6 hours ago, billn53 said:

Stencils and decals around the nose area are done, and I believe that mostly finishes all the decaling, etc.

She is very eye catching Bill...

Serkan

[JeffreyK]

A really superb build! I'm sorry about the ill-fitting centre canopy section! I do test fit and usually mention all potential pitfalls in the instruction sheets, but I only had Zoukei Mura's F-4D and an F-4S to hand. I did test fit Hasegawa's F-4J when I first developed the canopy sets, but didn't know the Zoukei Mura J panel was that tall...

But you managed well in the end .

 

Cheers,

J

[Vladan Dugaric]

That seam is supposed to be there; this is the edge of the outer movable ramp:

[billn53]

5 hours ago, JeffreyK said:

A really superb build! I'm sorry about the ill-fitting centre canopy section! I do test fit and usually mention all potential pitfalls in the instruction sheets, but I only had Zoukei Mura's F-4D and an F-4S to hand. I did test fit Hasegawa's F-4J when I first developed the canopy sets, but didn't know the Zoukei Mura J panel was that tall...

But you managed well in the end .

 

Cheers,

J

Thanks Jeffery.  Expect to see a couple more orders from me, for the Academy F-4B and F-4D in my stash.

[billn53]

4 hours ago, Vladan Dugaric said:

That seam is supposed to be there; this is the edge of the outer movable ramp:

Ahah! Learn something new every day. Well, it’s gone now 

[billn53]

It's been a week since I did any work on my Phantom -- I've been busy finishing off a Meng F-102 as part of a two-part, Wisconsin Air National Guard build. But, now that the Deuce is done I have room on my workbench for the Aardvark.

 

Today, I've focused on a number of little items I want to have finished before installing landing gear. Mostly, these are various antennae and lights.

 

On the dorsal spine behind the canopy I added a blade antenna and position light. The kit comes with a clear part for the light, but past experience tells me they hardly ever fit well. Either they are too big for the opening, or there are annoying gaps around the edges. So, instead of using the kit's clear lens, I inserted a disk of aluminum foil in the bottom of the opening and filled it with clear, UV-activated acrylic gel.

 

 

 

A few seconds of zapping with my UV torch, and the light was done!

 

 

 

I did the same for the position lights on the bottom of the air intakes:

 

 

 

I used the kit's clear parts for the nose gear door. I painted the three approach small approach lights with transparent gloss red, orange, and green.

 

 

 

I also added a small probe forward of the nose gear, and replaced the blade antenna that I had broken off at the beginning of this build:

 

 

 

This large light on the starboard side of the cockpit is for night aerial refueling. It is a clear kit part that I painted with gloss transparent red:

 

 

 

ZM molded the wingtip lights directly into the gray plastic for the wings. I carefully ground them away and replaced them with drops of thick UV-activated gel:

 

 

 

Here are the portside lights after painting with transparent red. I'll need to do a bit of touch-up painting around the edges:

 

 

 

And, I was having so much fun with the UV-activated gel, I decided to give my AIM-9 Sidewinders clear lenses for their seeker heads. Yes, I admit... I'm totally out of control!

 

 

 

That's it for now. I have a 1/72 F-16C to finish for my Wisconsin ANG project.

[exdraken]

Amazing attention to detail!

Great work!

[JeffreyK]

Looking really good!!

[billn53]

This morning I made a punch-list of things still to do, and the order in which to do them. I got nearly all the way down the list, and my Aardvark is very nearly finished!

 

Most of the items involved adding the various bits and pieces that hang off the bottom of the aircraft. All of those are now in place:

 

 

 

Here are some detail pics of today's efforts:

 

Finally added the intake splitter plates:

 

Nose gear:

 

 

Main landing gear:

 

 

The main gear is raked forward about 85-degrees. Thoughtfully, ZM provides a diagram showing the correct angle. (Note that I didn't take the gear angle into account when I set the tire's flat spot. Oh, well...)

 

 

Similarly, I used the provided ZM diagram to set the 23-degree anhedral of the rear stabs:

 

 

The arresting hook has been suitably sooted up. I still need to add some smoke stains to the bottoms of the stabs:

 

 

Here is my gorgeous centerline fuel tank, in place:

 

 

With the auxiliary inlet hatches in place, it is nearly impossible to see the engines I worked so hard on:

 

 

Speed brakes:

 

 

AIM-7E Sparrows in the rear fuselage recesses:

Untitled by billn1953, on Flickr

 

The Sidewinder pylons are yet to be outfitted:

 

 

The outer pylons are beautifully-detailed resin by Hypersonic (thanks, @JefferyK !).  The kit's pylons are acceptable, but come with the fuel tanks attached. I wanted my outer pylons to be bare, as is often seen on Navy Phantoms:

 

 

That's most of what I've been up to today at my workbench. I'll let my Aardvark rest on its back until the glue holding the landing gear is firmly set.

 

I bet you're itchin' to see her on her feet. Me, too. So, I'll risk long enough to take a pic:

 

 

Next up: Do some detail painting & touchups, then give her an overall clear coat to even out the finish. Once that's done, I'll add the crew's hatches (and the Sidewinders), and she'll be finished.

[Serkan Sen]

Amazing work Bill. Many of Flankers that I have built are still incomplete because I am too lazy to finish the weapons...

Serkan

[billn53]

Just now, Serkan Sen said:

Amazing work Bill. Many of Flankers that I have built are still incomplete because I am too lazy to finish the weapons...

Serkan

Yes. A Flanker without weapons is just... a naked Flanker, I guess?

[billn53]

She's done!

 

RFI is here:  https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235067807-148-zm-f-4j-phantom-vf-114-aardvarks/

 

 

 

Many thanks to everyone who has followed this three-month effort, and for the encouragement & advice along the way!

[Andy350]

Thanks for taking the time and effort to record to this degree, it really helps people like me with understanding the techniques of these builds.  Painting and weathering is an art form, and you've nailed it.

[billn53]

4 hours ago, Andy350 said:

Thanks for taking the time and effort to record to this degree, it really helps people like me with understanding the techniques of these builds.  Painting and weathering is an art form, and you've nailed it.

When I got back into modeling three years ago, after being away for a very long time, BM is where I learned most of my methods. The WIP section is a great resource, not to mention the combined experience of the always-helpful BM community.