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Finemolds and Hasegawa 1/72 F-4E Phantom II - the Long Nose saga - Completed!


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On 29/11/2021 at 02:11, Cookenbacher said:

Already looking like a modern Phantom with bird slicers and bumps!

Thanks Cookie, glad you like it! :thumbsup: Although it is looking more like a sports convertible Phantom, at the moment... :D :D 

 

18 hours ago, Spookytooth said:

Coming along quite nicely Giorgio.

 

We hope that you are all safe and warm?

 

Simon and Lady R.

 

 

Thanks Simon :thumbsup: Safe yes, warm not really, at least outside - winter came in quite abruptly :cold: My bests to Lady Rose :) 

 

Ciao

 

 

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On 03/12/2021 at 04:53, VT Red Sox Fan said:

G, incredible work--really enjoyed catching up--the cockpit is stellar and the work you did on the airbrakes is solid.  Like many on here, you inspired me to take the plunge and buy an FM F-4 to join my Hasegawa F-4s--taking notes--Bravo!  Erwin

Thanks Erwin! :thumbsup:  Good job on buying the FM kit!

 

3 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Hi Giorgio. Hope you and yours are keeping well. Lovely progress as always!  :thumbsup:

Kind regards,

Stix

Cheers Stix, thank you :thumbsup:

 

1 hour ago, Desk Flyer said:

Wow! I wish my (scale) Phantoms would look half as good as yours 👏 Well done!

Thanks Desk Flyer, and welcome on board :thumbsup:

 

Not a lot of time for modelling during the last two weeks, so even if there are a lot of pics on this update, there isn't really much work behind them... :shrug: 

 

Let's see: FM wings, the inserts near the wing root left some gaps, and the area in general had a few minor gaps to deal with

fm_wings17

 

Here after some PPP

fm_wings18

 

I did glue in the radome, as you can see. The fit is good, the only thing I had to do is to give a quick swipe with a file to the mating surface on the main fuselage, port side, to have it sitting flush with the rest.


Speaking of the radome/nose area: here's Hasegawa version, in which I integrated the resin gun vents I cast from the FM part

hase_nose1

 

After a bit of surgery, I glued the two halves with the resin bit in the middle, and added some sprue goo to the join

hase_nose4

 

hase_nose5

 

and after sanding and polishing (and some rescribing)

hase_nose6

 

hase_nose7

 

and glued  to the fuselage

hase_nose8

 

There was a bit of a step all around that joint, but especially on one side of the cannon fairing, so some sanding was required

hase_nose9

 

The FM cannon fairing got glued in too

hase_nose3

 

As you can see, there's a bit of a gap around it too, but again a smear of PPP will fix it.

 

Gun muzzles: just like the whole area, the difference between Hasegawa and Finemolds here are pretty evident, also in size. I didn't check which one is correct, but judging form pics it appears that Hasegawa is on the fat side, while FM might be a tad too skinny.

hase_nose2

 

The front apertures are quite different too. I drilled them both out:

hase_nose10

 

and from the above shot you can clearly see the difference in shape too, with the front end of the FM part being pointy and rounded, while the Hasegawa one looks flat and square.

So I sanded the latter to shape (sort of):

hase_nose11

 

and glued both in place. Hasegawa first:

hase_nose12

 

hase_nose13

 

The joint needs some TLC, and I think I'll have to open up the front aperture a bit more. Finemolds:

fm_nose1

 

fm_nose2

 

Last task, I completed the FM airbrakes; in the end, I decided to copy the Eduard/Hasegawa PE parts the old way, by sticking them on some plasticard and drawing the profile and holes with a fine tipped marker; I then used a scissors, a knife and some drill bits to refine them (some riveting added too)

fm_airbrakes7

 

I also traced the bend lines on them, to conform to the outer parts. Front...

fm_airbrakes8

 

and back 

fm_airbrakes9

 

I lightly scored the lines with a knife, bent along them and superglued to the brass parts

fm_airbrakes10

 

Very little of this will be seen once in place; still, I'll have to do some tidying up before painting them. Opposite side

fm_airbrakes11

 

That's it for this update, all comments welcome


Ciao

 

 

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As above Giorgio. Great work and progress so far. Now christmas has arrived here and of course also a merry christmas to you and yours from me here. Stay safe and healthy all.

Cheers Benedikt

Edited by bbudde
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On 13/12/2021 at 00:38, Terry1954 said:

Great progress Giorgio. When those undernose cannons go on, you know you have an E!

 

Terry

Agreed! Thanks Terry :thumbsup:

 

On 14/12/2021 at 22:03, The Spadgent said:

That is a long nose! 🤥😮😀

lovely work on those delicate air brakes. Bravo that man. 😍

 

Johnny

Thank you Johnny, glad you like it! :thumbsup:

 

On 24/12/2021 at 15:51, bbudde said:

As above Giorgio. Great work and progress so far. Now christmas has arrived here and of course also a merry christmas to you and yours from me here. Stay safe and healthy all.

Cheers Benedikt

Thanks Ben! 

 

Apologies guys, no progress to report - I just wanted to say that I haven't forgotten this build, it's just that I'm almost to the final stretch of my Mustang build and all my modelling time is going into that.

 

As for this build, I'm actually pondering on how to scratch build the DIAS antenna mounted on the gun fairing for the HAF Phantom; a quite composite shape really - but the truth is that I'm trying to gather all the courage I need to tackle the modification of the outer wings, in order to better represent the slats.

 

Ciao

 

 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, giemme said:

I just wanted to say that I haven't forgotten this build, it's just that I'm almost to the final stretch of my Mustang build and all my modelling time is going into that.

I wondered where you had gone, I thought you had gone skiing.

 

Simon

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1 hour ago, Spookytooth said:

I wondered where you had gone, I thought you had gone skiing.

 

Simon

No Simon, not yet :winkgrin: I've been here:

 

 

Ciao

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Boy, it's been a while!

 

On 25/01/2022 at 03:03, billn53 said:

How did I miss your Mustang build??? You’re doing a yeoman’s job with it!!!

That one is completed now, Bill. RFI here:

 

 

Now back to this - before I start my second (and last) entry for the museum, that is :winkgrin:

 

Not much of a progress, I only scratch built the DIAS ECM fairing that sits under the gun fairing. To do that, I taped some Tamiya Millimetre tape in place and traced the outline of the faring base with a fine tipped marker

DIAS1

 

I then transferred that onto a piece of very thin styrene, and cut it to shape following the traced outline

DIAS2

 

Glued in place with fast setting TeT

DIAS3

 

Then using Oramask, I did the same to trace the outline of the bulky part of the fairing

DIAS

 

In this case I needed a thicker bit of plastic, so I used an old phone card support

DIAS5

 

DIAS6

 

This needed to be tapered in thickness front to back, and then glued in place with Gator's Grip

DIAS7

 

DIAS8

 

I had to do some filling with PPP and CA, and some filing/sanding to get to the correct shape, but nothing dramatic. The last bit to be added was a rounded protuberance; you can make out the appearance from the pic at this link:

https://www.milavia.net/specials/greek-airforce-patron-saint-flight/img960/haf-tanagra_16.jpg

 

To reproduce that, I cut out the corner part of a bit of sprue

DIAS9

 

It's rounded enough to be a starting base to work with. After some sanding and reshaping, I got this

DIAS10

 

DIAS11

 

DIAS12

 

 

Right, now I really need to tackle the outer wings, but also the speed brakes and auxiliary air doors on the Hasegawa kit. Plenty of fun ahead! :) 

 

All comments welcome

 

Ciao

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G, I love it--"nothing dramatic", while everyone is taking notes 🤣  Seriously, I know this is not your most intense scratch work but I greatly appreciate you sharing your tricks in making some of these important details pop--bravo!  Best, Erwin

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Nice work Giorgio, and good to see the Phantoms back on the bench.

 

I'm similarly distracted from my Fine Molds 'MiG Killer' F-4D by the MiG-21 STGB. Quite fitting really! ^_^

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On 3/6/2022 at 7:45 PM, giemme said:

Boy, it's been a while!

 

Yeah.  Unconscionable delay G.  At least I’ve not missed owt. :whistle:

 

Typically nice skills :D

 

I need to go and check out the Mustang now.  Looking forward to this….

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On 07/03/2022 at 03:05, VT Red Sox Fan said:

G, I love it--"nothing dramatic", while everyone is taking notes 🤣  Seriously, I know this is not your most intense scratch work but I greatly appreciate you sharing your tricks in making some of these important details pop--bravo!  Best, Erwin

:D Thanks Erwin :thumbsup: Glad if I can be of any help :winkgrin:

 

On 07/03/2022 at 13:27, Johnson said:

Nice work Giorgio, and good to see the Phantoms back on the bench.

 

I'm similarly distracted from my Fine Molds 'MiG Killer' F-4D by the MiG-21 STGB. Quite fitting really! ^_^

Thank you Charlie :thumbsup: It's a good distraction, anyway :D 

 

On 07/03/2022 at 15:50, Spookytooth said:

Nice detailing there Giorgio, as per norm.

Good to see her again.

 

Stay safe.

 

Simon.

Thanks Simon, glad you like it :thumbsup:

 

On 07/03/2022 at 19:31, Thom216 said:

Awesome lil bit of scratching!

Thank you! :thumbsup:

 

On 08/03/2022 at 00:18, The Spadgent said:

Nice to see this lot back in action. Great work. 👏

Indeed! Still lots to do! :frantic: Thanks Johnny! :thumbsup:

 

On 08/03/2022 at 01:31, hendie said:

Sheesh.  You're taking your time getting paint on this one are you not Giorgio?  :D

Beg to differ: both cockpit were fully colored, and so were the air intakes interiors.... :D  :D  

 

On 11/03/2022 at 08:06, Fritag said:

 

Yeah.  Unconscionable delay G.  At least I’ve not missed owt. :whistle:

 

Typically nice skills :D

 

I need to go and check out the Mustang now.  Looking forward to this….

Unconscionable, no less.... new word for me, thank you :D  :D  Thanks Steve :thumbsup:

 

Alright, belated WE progress report; not a lot, still it's progress. I glued the small air intake in on the FM kit

 

fm_airscoops1

 

fm_airscoops2

 

Far better represented parts than the Hasegawa correspondents, and they have aligning tabs on the back, so gluing them on was super easy. Port one had a scratch on the visible side, but it was an easy fix. I then dry fit the auxiliary air doors, trying to determine if it was worth cloning them for the Hasegawa kit

fm_auxdoors1

 

They are brilliantly engineered, in that they have a solid reference for gluing them in place and at the right angle, as you can see here

fm_auxdoors2

 

So I think I'll just scratch build two for the Hase kit, but using the same concept. Onward, time to hack some plastic; first the bumps marked in red had to go

hase_wings1

 

Then I drilled out all the holes for pylons and slat actuators

hase_wings2

 

Then, with my favorite Dremel tool, I opened up the aux air doors and air brakes bays

hase_wings3

 

After some refining

hase_wings4

 

and with the air brakes bays PE interior superglued in place

hase_wings5

 

I then scratch built the tail fuel dump, to replace the (rather poor) Hase offering. Setup:

hase_fueldump1

 

After a few failed attempts, I remembered that it's always the case to use a mild abrasive ton the surface you want to solder :banghead: 

Here's the result, compared to the kit part

hase_fueldump2

 

You don't see much, right? How about now?

hase_fueldump3

 

Still in need of some refining, but definitely getting there.


All comments welcome, as usual

 

Ciao

 

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