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

[giemme]

On 02/09/2021 at 11:28, Giorgio N said:

Just caught up with this thread, read all 10 pages and I'm impressed ! Not that I should be surprised, your previous builds had already prepared me for this kind of work... but still, it's a pleasure watching another of your thread !

Will keep following this, I have a few Hasegawa kits in the stash and I may steal some of your ideas to improve them

CHeers G, way too kind, thanks!  And welcome on board!

 

On 02/09/2021 at 11:45, Terry1954 said:

To both Giorgio's @Giorgio N and @giemme, what a shame the Italian Air Force never bought F-4's! 😄

 

Terry

We ended up with the F104 instead....  

 

On 04/09/2021 at 03:01, VT Red Sox Fan said:

This IP coaming is amazing--hard to believe this is 1/72d--best, Erwin

Thanks Erwin   Coaming now completed, see below

 

On 04/09/2021 at 04:35, Segursky said:

Doing a great work! 

Thank you and welcome on board

 

On 10/09/2021 at 00:27, The Spadgent said:

Lovely subtle shades going on in that tub Giorgio. Nice combing and wheel well too. Ten points to Gryffindor. 🤩

 Thanks Johnny!  More shades coming over, see below.

 

Everybody, apologies for the lack of updates, but last WE I was in Florence with all the family, celebrating our wedding anniversary

 

 

I did manage to get back to the bench this WE, though, so here goes: cockpit sidewalls airbrushed with Lifecolor Dark Gull Grey, followed by a lighter mix (adding Light gull grey) sprayed as a highlight, all using my trusty Procon Boy 270. After that, the usual gloss coat, black tempera wash and flat coat

 

Assorted control sticks got painted too

 

and glued in place, prior to the tub insertion into the front fuselage

 

I then glued the tub to starboard side, sliding in the flat panel between the front bulkhead and the back IP

 

and eventually...

 

While this was let to cure, I completed the painting of the front IP coaming

 

Using some decals cutout from the spares box to represent the keypads

 

Before gluing in the top panel of the front fuselage, I needed to scratch build the typical IFF antennae as seen here:

 

So I started by guesstimating (using various reference pics) their position and size

 

Their base plate should be about 1mm wide, 3,2 mm long. They sit 1 mm apart form each other, and the antenna thickness at the base is about 0.3mm, for a total height of 0.4mm.

 

Right. Now, how do I reproduce them? I shall ponder  

 

Meanwhile, all comments welcome

 

Ciao

 

[Giorgio N]

Wonder if those IFF antennas are similar to those used by some F-16 variants? If so you msy find them in PE sets dedicated to this aircraft...

[The Spadgent]

She’s closed up! Without a hitch. Wowza. 🙌🙌🙌
That combing looks great too. 
Good luck with those antenna. 
 

Bravo that man.

 

Johnny.

[VT Red Sox Fan]

Echo Johnny—Wowza🙌—mike drop—best, Erwin

[Spookytooth]

All looks good from here Giorgio.

We are glad that your wedding anniversary celebrations went well in such a beautiful City.

 

Simon.

[bbudde]

As above G. All very nice. Good  to see you have had a slpendid time

Cheers

[hendie]

Saga indeed. Remind me... when are we going to see some actual colors on this beast Giorgio?   there's so many Grey's and blacks on this it reminds me of a Scottish summer.

 

It is looking rather dandy though 

[corsaircorp]

Scottish summer ?? I've got a deep blue sky when I get to Achnacarry house and Ben Nevis.

Both before and after scotch testings....

Tssss !!

CC

[Gene K]

Giorgio,

 

If you'd like to try these using your Silhouette, I posted 1/72 canopy masks here for the FineMolds Long Nose Phantoms. Was a fun exercise drawing them, and the Oramask 810 works GREAT!

 

 

Tomorrow I'll work up and post a link to canopy masks for the Hasegawa 1/72 Phantoms. 

 

Gene K

EDIT: I added an SVG file to the above link -- for use in other cutters or for manual cutting

Edited September 15, 2021 by Gene K

[Cookenbacher]

Glad you had a great holiday Giorgio, and happy anniversary!

The Phantom is coming up aces!

[giemme]

On 12/09/2021 at 22:49, Giorgio N said:

Wonder if those IFF antennas are similar to those used by some F-16 variants? If so you msy find them in PE sets dedicated to this aircraft...

They look similar, although the base plate seems rather different:

 

Anyway, your suggestion prompted to raid the PE spares, and I found a base plate just like I needed. Problem is, it was only one, and I needed four... so I went for scratch building, see below  

 

On 12/09/2021 at 23:33, The Spadgent said:

She’s closed up! Without a hitch. Wowza. 🙌🙌🙌
That combing looks great too. 
Good luck with those antenna. 
 

Bravo that man.

 

Johnny.

Cheers Johnny, thanks - much appreciated  

 

On 13/09/2021 at 01:24, VT Red Sox Fan said:

Echo Johnny—Wowza🙌—mike drop—best, Erwin

Thanks Erwin   Might be a little early for a mike drop, though....    

 

On 13/09/2021 at 18:28, Spookytooth said:

All looks good from here Giorgio.

We are glad that your wedding anniversary celebrations went well in such a beautiful City.

 

Simon.

Thanks Simon  Take my bestest to Lady Rose  

 

On 13/09/2021 at 19:28, bbudde said:

As above G. All very nice. Good  to see you have had a slpendid time

Cheers

Thank you Ben

 

On 13/09/2021 at 19:40, hendie said:

Saga indeed. Remind me... when are we going to see some actual colors on this beast Giorgio?   there's so many Grey's and blacks on this it reminds me of a Scottish summer.

 

It is looking rather dandy though 

There's no pleasing you , is there?       See below, a couple more colors have shown up....

 

On 15/09/2021 at 04:02, Gene K said:

Giorgio,

 

If you'd like to try these using your Silhouette, I posted 1/72 canopy masks here for the FineMolds Long Nose Phantoms. Was a fun exercise drawing them, and the Oramask 810 works GREAT!

 

 

Tomorrow I'll work up and post a link to canopy masks for the Hasegawa 1/72 Phantoms. 

 

Gene K

EDIT: I added an SVG file to the above link -- for use in other cutters or for manual cutting

I wuill certainly try those, thanks Gene!   

 

On 19/09/2021 at 21:26, Cookenbacher said:

Glad you had a great holiday Giorgio, and happy anniversary!

The Phantom is coming up aces!

Thanks Cookie, much appreciated!    

 

Alright, WE progress report.... one day later. I had some trouble with my PC yesterday that prevented me from posting this, but now it's all sorted. On we go; I decided to scratch build the IFF antennae, by cutting their base plates with my Curio, gluing them in place with TeT Quick Setting and gluing on top of them some duly shaped 0.4mm plasticard bits

 

 

 

They'll probably show up better under some paint.  A quick dryfit:

 

In for a penny, in for a pound. Right behind the starboard antenna there's a small intake that is often seen open on parked Phantoms. Here's the FM version (in the closed position) with some black wash in it

 

 The Eduard PE set for the HASE kit sports this detail, so I just copied it onto some brass sheet cutout (0.1mm) and bent to shape

 

After having carved some plastic out, I glued it in place with CA

 

Before gluing the top part of the nose to the rest of the front fuselage, I tidied up the WSO IP cabling

 

And it's in!

 

I also glued the "hump" in place

 

As you can see, it shows a but of a step/gap, but I think this is totally self induced; when I glued the fuselage halves together, I clamped the back side and squeezed them together, but in retrospective I think I should have left them loose - the Door 19 (that's the correct name for that part) sets the correct width and height of this part of the fuselage.  I also removed the beacon antenna from there, as it's not present on the HAF Phantoms.

 

Next, the IP coaming went on (glued with TeT)

 

It was only at this point that I realized I stupidly neglected to protect the molded in AoA probe, that become completely blunt as a consequence of continuous manipulation

 

So, just like I did on the Hase kit, I replaced it with a sewing needle tip

 

It would have been much easier to do it beforehand, to wit before gluing the fuselage halves - that will teach me

 

Time to thin of the intakes; first off, FM offers these sensor mounts molded inside the main intakes, but without the actual probes

 

So I glued in two brass pipe segments with CA

 

 

The airframe I'm modelling also sports the DIAS ECM antennae, two of which are on the intake shoulders; they are not present in the FM kit, but luckily they can be found in all the Hase boxings, so:

 

The FM outer intakes clearly show the pre-set holes for future, different variants releases, albeit placed differently compared to the Hase mounting pegs

 

Anyway, keeping the aft peg as reference, it was easy enough drilling a corresponding new hole and gluing them in with TeT

 

As usual, Hase plastic reacted a lot to the TeT and some pressure, hoozing some plastic out of the joints. Also, a few gaps needed some PPP treatment. Here after cleanup and filling

 

I then airbrushed the inside with Tamiya Flat White

 

Same for the inner intakes

 

 

Which then got glued in place with TeT

 

While I was at it, I airbrushed AK Extreme Metal Steel on the compressor faces of both FM and Hasegawa kits, followed by a black tempera wash.

That's it for the day, all comments welcome

 

Ciao

 

 

[The Spadgent]

Loving those little details. I do

love the way your builds never get messy. It’s a joy for the eyes. 🤩

 

Johnny

[rob85]

Your normal meticulous attention to details G,  you make it look simple. I really enjoy watching your builds, even these big grey jet things.

 

hope you and the family had a nice time in Florence, I’ve always wanted to go but not ticked it off yet! Might break out the Irish passport to get ahead of the Queues and get a trip over there some day. 
 

Rob

[hendie]

Nice update there Giorgio. Lovely detailing work and even a small splash of color here and there.

[Terry1954]

Love the way the cockpit and front fuselage has come together. Interested to know more about the black tempera wash. I recall tempera paint being used by aryists, but what sort of paint is it exactly?

 

Terry

[Biggles87]

It's been a while since I've seen your progress as the pictures have not been loading and I haven't been able to post,  but it's all working today so I echo all the above comments.

Stay safe

 

John

[billn53]

This is really look great, Giorgio! Can’t wait to see these come together 

[corsaircorp]

Pristine job detailling the Rhino !!

Now, I look at mine, considering  it as a messy undetailled toy....

Congrats my friend !!

Sincerely.

CC

[Fritag]

On 9/20/2021 at 9:13 PM, giemme said:

 

 

Who says a grey/black cockpit can’t be interesting? Lovely looking work G.  Nice detailing too 

 

[keefr22]

Very neat and tidy work G - as to be expected!

 

K

[Spookytooth]

A very nice update Giorgio, adding all those details most of us miss.

 

The Lady Rose sends her best regards.

 

Simon.

[TheBaron]

The usual Giorgio.

You do good.

I say it looks good.

Might mention I always love your paintworking.

And detailing.

And patient purposeful assembly.

It must be admiration. 😁

[71chally]

On 4/24/2021 at 9:03 PM, giemme said:

So I thought: why not a double build? Maybe trying to duplicate some of the features form the modern Finemolds kit and use them to improve the venerable Hasegawa kit? And maybe viceversa?

 

Right. Which subjects to represent, though? I don't really file like I want to build a Japanese aircraft, at the moment; and I don't particularly care for the schemes proposed in the Hasegawa boxing too.

...are you mad!  Oh, you are, service is resumed😄

 

Superb work going on Giorgio, and I really like the Hellanic jets.  Really fancy the new FineMold Phantoms.

 

Bit late, but hope these may help with the nose strakes.

 

F-4E Phantom AUP 01618 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

F-4E Phantom AUP 01618 by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

F-4E Phantom AUP 01508 by James Thomas, on Flickr

Edited September 22, 2021 by 71chally

[Gene K]

On 9/14/2021 at 9:02 PM, Gene K said:

 I'll post a link to canopy masks for the Hasegawa 1/72 Phantoms. 

Giorgio,

Here's that link to the Silhouette Hasegawa masks. Included is an SVG file for use in other cutters or manual cutting.

 

 

Do the Phantoms you are modeling have the belly strap?

 

Gene K

[Terry1954]

17 hours ago, 71chally said:

Superb work going on Giorgio, and I really like the Hellanic jets.  Really fancy the new FineMold Phantoms.

 

Bit late, but hope these may help with the nose strakes.

 

Great pictures James, and I'm with you on the Hellenic jets. Have to confess to having ordered two FineMold Phantoms this week . An F-4E Early USAF and an F-4J.

 

It's all Giorgio's fault!

 

Terry