Eduard 1/48 F-4 Phantom

[Kenny J]

After about 20 years away from kit-building, and a few years of getting back into it, I think it's time to actually post something, rather than just lurking.

 

I've recently completed an old Airfix Vulcan (the XH558 boxing, which my nephew got me for Christmas), followed by a quick Airfix Gladiator to cleanse my palette, and now for some American iron (by way of Czechia by way of Korea)...

 

 

I've had this in my stash since I first started getting back into building models, but now that I've built up some experience of using resin and photo-etch, I feel I'm ready to tackle it...

 

[Kenny J]

OK, not the best start. The first thing the instructions tell you to do is trim down the rear cockpit instrument panel. It's on sprue L. I start unpacking the box. No sprue L. I'm also missing a couple of other sprues, and while I could probably get by scratch-building a couple of the parts that are missing, I'm missing the rear fuselage section under the tail, and the arrestor hook, and that's a bit beyond me. It looks like the missing sprues would all have been in the same bag. Suppose I should have checked when I first got the kit.

I've sent a message to Eduard to see if they can help, but in the meantime I'll need to move to plan B...

 

[colin]

Eduard are very good at replacement parts

[Kenny J]

Thanks Colin - that's good to know.

[Kenny J]

I've decided to put this one back in the stash until I can figure out what to do about the missing parts (obtain from Eduard, try for a cheap Academy kit, or just pay full price for an Academy kit and try to copy the missing parts with Blue Stuff/resin, and build TWO Phantoms). 

 

In the meantime, I have decided to do something else twin-engined and naval.

[corsaircorp]

Welcome Kenny !!

A Phantom !! Great Idea ! I'll follow on !!

CC

[Christer A]

I have the Academy F-4C with a full resin cockpit.

You could have the plastic control panels from that if you need them.

[Kenny J]

4 hours ago, Christer A said:

I have the Academy F-4C with a full resin cockpit.

You could have the plastic control panels from that if you need them.

Thank you for the offer Christer, that's very kind. However, the good news is that Eduard have got back to me, and it looks like I'll be able to obtain the missing parts from them.

[Kenny J]

...and several months later, I'm back at it. Eduard sorted me out with the missing sprues back in, oooh, October/November, which was really great service from them.

 

I've made a start on the cockpit, and I'll post up photos later, but first a question about the main undercarriage:

 

One of the idiosyncrasies of the Academy/Eduard F-4 Phantom kit is that you assemble the undercarriage bays and main gear struts before gluing the wings together, and I've seen quite a few discussions around the pros and cons of this, and whether to trim the struts and fit them later, losing overall strength, or fit them early and risk damaging them during the rest of the build. However, one thing I can't find any reference to is the fit of parts F44 & F45. The instructions seem to indicate that they should fit into a slot on the gear bay wall, then fit onto two pegs on the main gear legs. However....

 

...as far as I can see, there's no way of doing that without a fair bit of surgery. Am I missing something?

[Kenny J]

...yes. Yes I am. Those pins are to mount the main gear doors. Realised that shortly after hitting "post", whilst flicking through the instructions. Doh! I guess I'll need to check references to see how it all looks on the real thing.

[Kenny J]

Some progress:

I got the Eduard etched cockpit parts glued together with only a few bits pinging off into the aether and some wayward glue.

 

After I took these photos, I glued the cockpit to the front undercarriage well and lower front fuselage, and promptly dropped the whole shebang, causing a few of the panels to ping off. Found them all and sorted out the damage, but it turned out to be fortuitous because when I tried test fitting the lower front fuselage to the main fuselage (after adding the IFR probe bay), I had to do quite a lot of adjustments to get it all to fit right. I'm still not convinced I've got the RIO's side panels positioned right, but I followed the instructions in absence of good reference photos (I used to have a couple of good books, I wonder where they ended up?). If/when I build another one (I've got the Good Evening Da Nang version in the stash as well), the original plastic part for the right hand RIO's side panel actually looks better than the etch IMO.

 

After that, it was on to the toxic dust stage - freeing the resin exhaust parts from their plugs:

 

....and priming them - Halfords white first, then Vallejo black:

 

Next up is making them look like they've been pumping out flames and soot:

[Kenny J]

I've been working away at this without really taking any photos, so....

 

I got the jet nozzles painted up:

 

After that, I started assembling the bulk of the kit, which went together quite quickly, with only a bit of filler needed around the rear of the intakes and the underside fuselage join. I've now primed (Halfords white):

 

One thing I did out of order from the instructions was to add the nose gear door - mainly to protect the "clip" which protrudes outside the bay, and has been broken and glued several times already. One to remember for the next build - I think that part can be added later in the process.

 

Next up is the pre-shading and colour coats. I'm aiming for a gently weathered look, just enough to break up the surface areas without looking like it's been at sea for decades. I've found a couple of good photos of the aircraft I'm building, and it looks very clean:

https://www.cloud9photography.us/US-Aircraft-Carriers/USS-FRANKLIN-D-ROSSEVELT-pics/i-pWGsvrQ/A

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimandtina99/49838041942/in/photostream/

 

 

 

[Kenny J]

Finished!