McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom, 57th FIS, USAF, Iceland.

[Hewy]

Just now, Col. said:

Aye, quite right, anything for a quiet life  Best to just do as we're told most of the time.

Yes col, especially at this time of year ,thats why I'm  tiling the bathroom out before the outlaws arrive xmas day, all the time I'm looking across the landing at "the toy room" (mrs hewys words not mine) at my su-35 with it's  recently painted bmf parts wondering when I'm gonna get time to do some weathering ,

[Col.]

8 hours ago, Hewy said:

Yes col, especially at this time of year ,thats why I'm  tiling the bathroom out before the outlaws arrive xmas day, all the time I'm looking across the landing at "the toy room" (mrs hewys words not mine) at my su-35 with it's  recently painted bmf parts wondering when I'm gonna get time to do some weathering ,

Hopefully you're racking up plenty bonus points there Glynn.

[modelling minion]

27 minutes ago, Col. said:

Hopefully you're racking up plenty bonus points there Glynn.

Those bonus points are far more valuable than any from a model store!

[Retired Bob]

On 06/12/2020 at 08:20, modelling minion said:

Those bonus points are far more valuable than any from a model store!

If your Mrs is like mine, good luck with trying to redeem them.  

[Filler]

Excellent to see another 57th FIS aircraft in the GB. Genuinely looking forward to following your build.

[modelling minion]

1 hour ago, Filler said:

Excellent to see another 57th FIS aircraft in the GB. Genuinely looking forward to following your build.

Thanks, we've got a little 57th FIS mini GB going on because @Enzo Matrix is building a TF-102 as well.

[modelling minion]

You have a few days off from doing updates and before you know it you're relegated to page 3! Not that page 3 before some of you mucky minded individuals start, and yes I know that I would be one of you were this someone else's update  .

Well in between work (fortunately that nastiness is now finished with until January 21st thanks to a combination of holidays and furlough) and family life I have been slowly plugging away at my Phantom and she looks a lot more Phantom shaped than she did last time. The seats and cockpit were finished off and then the whole cockpit assembly was added to one of the fuselage sides and aligned properly, fortunately I took a couple of pictures along the way so here's a couple of the cockpit fixed in place;

 

 

With that all in place I could get the fuselage halves closed up and that was a relatively painless experience with just a small  amount of filler and sanding being required along the spine but nothing drastic, and then before you know it the wing assembly was added too.

 

With the seams and cleaning up all sorted I could then concentrate on the finishing touches in the cockpit and getting the canopy parts fitted, I also made and added the handles for the ejector seats as I didn't want to fit them before in case they got damaged during the construction process;

 

There's really not a whole lot of the cockpit visible with everything fitted but at least we know it's in there don't we.

 

I have also painted the wheel wells and the areas for the air brakes, the respective inner faces of their covers have also been painted too;

 

Once the red overspray has been cleared off I will temporarily fit the covers in place ready for the painting of the airframe, I also need to paint the interior colour on the canopy pieces before the ADC Grey can be sprayed on.

 

Well thats how she looks at the minute so apologies for taking so long between updates, hopefully it won't take so long before the next one, so thanks for looking and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

[Hewy]

That cockpit looks superb craig ,well done mate, keeping an eye on this for pointers, upon your advice I've  got hold of an aires cockpit for my hase  E, along with  the gear bays a bit of pe and masks that I've already got ,with the addition some incoming hellenic decals ,  its now moved up the to do list 👍,

[modelling minion]

10 hours ago, Hewy said:

That cockpit looks superb craig ,well done mate, keeping an eye on this for pointers, upon your advice I've  got hold of an aires cockpit for my hase  E, along with  the gear bays a bit of pe and masks that I've already got ,with the addition some incoming hellenic decals ,  its now moved up the to do list 👍,

Cheers Glynn, it's not a bad fitting kit at all but one area to be wary of is where the bottom of the wing joins the lower front fuselage, I rushed mine a bit but take your time and keep test fitting and you should get a good fit. The same is true of the cockpit, but its not your first resin cockpit so you know the score there.

[Ray_W]

Really looking very nice Craig. The fit on this kit looks exemplary, no doubt a reflection of the builder's skill.

 

Ray

[modelling minion]

31 minutes ago, Ray_W said:

Really looking very nice Craig. The fit on this kit looks exemplary, no doubt a reflection of the builder's skill.

 

Ray

Thats really kind of you to say so Ray but its more the kit than me, its certainly worth your while test fitting all the main parts before committing glue though.

[Col.]

Nice work Craig. Your page 3 model is looking good  

[modelling minion]

23 minutes ago, Col. said:

Nice work Craig

Cheers Col, much appreciated.

23 minutes ago, Col. said:

Your page 3 model is looking good

Didn't they all!

[Col.]

10 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Didn't they all!

Gail McKenna was always my favourite

[modelling minion]

10 minutes ago, Col. said:

Gail McKenna was always my favourite

Can't fault you there, though Linda Lusardi was (and still is) a top contender!

[Col.]

4 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

...Linda Lusardi was (and still is) a top contender!

Oh absolutely yes!

[Gene K]

On 12/19/2020 at 11:17 AM, modelling minion said:

I have also painted the wheel wells and the areas for the air brakes, the respective inner faces of their covers have also been painted too;

Looking good Craig. 

 

You may want to check the color of the speed brake wells - the inside of the speed brakes themselves are red, but the wells are usually white, or the same color as the bottom of the wing.

 

Gene K

[modelling minion]

17 minutes ago, Gene K said:

Looking good Craig. 

 

You may want to check the color of the speed brake wells - the inside of the speed brakes themselves are red, but the wells are usually white, or the same color as the bottom of the wing.

 

Gene K

Thanks Gene and thanks for pointing out the correct way to paint the speed brake wells, you are quite right and I should have checked it out before painting. Seeing how red is such a fun colour to paint over I shall have mine in ADC Grey to give me a chance.

[Dansk]

Really nice work craig. Those ejection seat handles stripes particularly are so nicely done 👍

[Jabba]

That has gone together well Craig and some good work in the cockpit.

[Chrisj2003]

Rumour has it painting is done and decals started on this. Looking forward to seeing this as it’s a scheme I like; being done by someone very competent. 
 

Chris

[modelling minion]

1 hour ago, Chrisj2003 said:

Rumour has it painting is done and decals started on this. Looking forward to seeing this as it’s a scheme I like; being done by someone very competent. 
 

Chris

Rumours are right Chris, though I'm not sure about the competent bit!

I have been plodding away with this despite the lack of updates, it seems to be taking me ages to get this done as I have been struggling modelling mojo, nothing to do with the kit though the decals are another story. I have also started doing a panel line wash and adding some dirt as these were not spotless in some of the pics I have seen of them and I can't bring myself to build a model that clean anyway.

Lets start with some pics of how she looks at the moment, starting with an overhead shot to give a general idea of her appearance;

 

You can see the panel line wash but it isn't too stark. You will also notice that their are two shades of black used for the cockpit surround and radome as used on the real thing, I used a semi gloss black for the radome area and Gunze's Soot for the other black areas which gives a nice contrast. Another area finished in Soot is the walkway area on top of the intakes, note that this shape seems unique to the 57th and is something not picked up on by some decal manufacturers but you need to check your references as some of their aircraft did carry the usual full length markings that go most of the length of the fuselage. The walkway areas on the wing area also different to regular USAF ones in their colour so they're being repainted in the same Soot.

Now the underneath;

 

As you can see the air brake recesses have been repainted as @Gene K pointed out they shouldn't have been painted red as I had originally painted them. Note the undecarriage doors, not only have some come loose (only tacked in place for painting) but a couple of pieces have disappeared completely! I have a set of resin ones so I can put them in another of my Phantom kits and use the kit ones from that.

Next is a close look at the cockpit area;

 

Nothing of any real note  there, the splitter plates have been left off on purpose to make it easier to both paint and apply decals in the area, really helps a lot and is worth doing if you're planning on building one of these.

Next a closer look at the top of the port wing;

 

Note the size of the national marking, most decal sheets including Experts Choice, would have you fit the very large decals as carried by ANG F-4's in the ADC scheme but the aircraft of the 57th, certainly the ones I have seen pictures of, have markings which are the same size as those on the fuselage so that is what I applied using some extras from an Aeromaster sheet.

Next is the tail area;

 

The checkered markings were a pain, they are very thick and don't conform well at all and don't cover the very top of the tail either so I have had to paint that by hand. The carrier film on the Experts Choice decals is quite thick and quite yellow so I cut it as close to the markings as possible but on some of them it still shows so I will have to try to cover as much up as possible with paint.

Next up and last picture is of the metallic exhaust area;

 

The paint used is by Vallejo and went on quite nicely. I started with a chrome and then added alight coating of their exhaust for the lower area and have added touches of blue and orange and then some soot, I actually quite like how it looks.

So thats where she is at the minute, still plenty to do and there are a couple of other GB's looming that I have signed up for so I had better get a move on!

 

Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

[Ray_W]

Hi Craig,

You're making some good progress. That exhaust treatment looks especially good. Decals - my love hate relationship - looks a good recovery on the checker board tail. The stenciling has gone down nicely.

Ray

[modelling minion]

Cheers Ray.

The stenciling is mostly from the Hasegawa sheet but some are from the spares box as the 57th seemed to have a great variety in the stencils carried by their aircraft, I dare say there should be more but finding decent pictures of them is an issue so it shall remain as it is.

[Ray_W]

11 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

I dare say there should be more but finding decent pictures of them is an issue

 

I do not want to drive you crazy with this but take a look here http://web.ipmsusa3.org/content/stencil-decals-f-4e-slatted-wing-phantom-ii-sea-camouflage