Gidge Posted August 15, 2021 Share Posted August 15, 2021 Here's my contribution. I'll be building Zoukei-Mura's F-4EJ Kai Phantom Forever 2020 kit with some HGW seatbelts, New Ware masks and some Hasegawa AAM-3's kindly donated by @trickyrich (not pictured). This is a seriously impressive kit that I'm looking forward to starting. Stalemates project link: https://www.scalemates.com/profiles/mate.php?id=92942&p=projects&project=98971 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted August 15, 2021 Share Posted August 15, 2021 nice!!!! Was thinking about building mine, but got distracted with other builds. Am interested to see how those decals go on, they look so nice. Hopefully he decals with this one behave themselves! i have packed up those missiles, now I just have to remember to send then!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertie McBoatface Posted August 15, 2021 Share Posted August 15, 2021 I'll be interested to see how this kit compares to the Tamiya one. I dig those masks for the jetpipes! The scheme looks very eye-catching. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted August 15, 2021 Author Share Posted August 15, 2021 2 hours ago, trickyrich said: nice!!!! Was thinking about building mine, but got distracted with other builds. Am interested to see how those decals go on, they look so nice. Hopefully he decals with this one behave themselves! i have packed up those missiles, now I just have to remember to send then!!! Those decals really are something special. Photos don't really capture the blue's which are multi layered pearl blues with a faint silver flek in them that would be really hard to replicate. I'm hoping you just got a dud set. These are done by Cartograph who are supposed to be the best so here's hoping. DN Models do a mask set for this model and scheme, SMS recently put out some similar pearl blues which are close enough to use as a base to blend a colour match, that's the backup plan which I hopefully won't need. Should be a good option for anyone who's keen to build one but missed the limited run of of the kit with these decals. https://dnmodels.com/product/phantom-forever-2020-f-4ej-demo-scheme-paint-mask-set-sws/ https://www.scalemodeller.com.au/collections/pearls-1?page=1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted August 15, 2021 Share Posted August 15, 2021 now if you could get that finish and colour with masks!!! Fingers crossed those decal do the trick. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted August 15, 2021 Author Share Posted August 15, 2021 (edited) 7 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said: I'll be interested to see how this kit compares to the Tamiya one. I dig those masks for the jetpipes! The scheme looks very eye-catching. Will be very interesting. Level of detail on the moulding is like nothing I've ever seen before. The instrument panels in particular have raised dials and other notches. I wish I had the skill to paint it like they've done on their example build. 3 hours ago, trickyrich said: now if you could get that finish and colour with masks!!! Fingers crossed those decal do the trick. I'm sure it can be done. The concept isn't new, that style paint was popular in automotive paints at one stage (50's?) . Some guys in the car threads could probably tell us how to go about it or specialist autobody places that work on classics from the right era. Edited August 15, 2021 by Gidge typo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJL Posted August 15, 2021 Share Posted August 15, 2021 Very nice. I have one of these in the stash and it looks great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted August 15, 2021 Share Posted August 15, 2021 8 hours ago, Gidge said: The instrument panels in particular have raised dials and other notches. I wish I had the skill to paint it like they've done on their example build. the instrument decals that are supplied actually work really well and look fantastic once one. I found I needed to use a bit of softening solution to get them to snuggle down nicely. The results though were very nice, plus remember a lot of it is sort of hidden too unfortunately. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted November 1, 2021 Author Share Posted November 1, 2021 Finally getting started!!!! Delays in my previous project and the Australian postal system falling apart held me up a little but here I am. Finishing by the end of the group build is probably going to be ambitious but we'll see how I go. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helios16v Posted November 1, 2021 Share Posted November 1, 2021 Looking forward to seeing what mine could've been had I possessed more skills. Solid start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thom216 Posted November 1, 2021 Share Posted November 1, 2021 Nice looking detail in that kit. Would be real interested in a 1/72 version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted November 2, 2021 Author Share Posted November 2, 2021 12 hours ago, helios16v said: Looking forward to seeing what mine could've been had I possessed more skills. Solid start. I'll try live up to those goals. The instructions are very busy but give great detail and are user friendly. Little details like telling you what order to assemble key items and having the real part names listed so you can easily google reference pictures helps. My first impressions are it's a well engineered and reasonably user friendly kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted November 2, 2021 Author Share Posted November 2, 2021 12 hours ago, Thom216 said: Nice looking detail in that kit. Would be real interested in a 1/72 version. FineMoulds make one in 72 scale along with it's yellow squamate and several other US and Japanese Phantom variants. Made on brand new 2020 tooling and looks fantastic. There's a WIP thread on someone doing one of their Phantom kits somewhere and it looks fantastic. seems to really be pushing the boundaries of how much detail can be moulded into a 72 scale kit. https://www.finemolds.co.jp/ https://www.scalemates.com/kits/finemolds-72838-f-4ej-kai-fighter--1310489 https://www.scalemates.com/kits/finemolds-72938-f-4ej-kai-last-flight-memorial-yellow--1310488 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted November 2, 2021 Author Share Posted November 2, 2021 So the sidewalls of the cockpit and nose wheel well pieces here are all just dry fit together. The pieces are all keyed and tension fit so they'll hold themselves together whole the glue cures. Keying is asymmetric so you can't accidently put things together the wrong way (I tried) or accidently use the wrong variant part. This is impressive engineering. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted November 2, 2021 Author Share Posted November 2, 2021 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted November 3, 2021 Author Share Posted November 3, 2021 The detail moulding detail on the instrument panels is remarkable. How the hell they were able to paint that detail for the example build on their website is beyond me. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted November 3, 2021 Author Share Posted November 3, 2021 Cockpit ready for primer 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted November 4, 2021 Author Share Posted November 4, 2021 Probably overkill but I like to mask the surfaces that'll need to be glued or cemented before painting. The cement seems to permeate most paint I've tested on and give a reasonable bond but I figure why chance it when you don't have to 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thom216 Posted November 4, 2021 Share Posted November 4, 2021 The details in there are impressive! Have fun painting. Or decaling..? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted November 4, 2021 Author Share Posted November 4, 2021 Productive session in the spray booth. This is my first project using all lacquer paints and I wish I'd done it sooner. Working with SMS paints (domestic Australian brand) and finding them very user friendly. In hindsight it would have been smarter to paint the wheel well before assembly to get a more even coat but the result is more than acceptable. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted November 5, 2021 Author Share Posted November 5, 2021 A little brushwork today. Seats are ready for gloss coat and decals before I do the seatbelts 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted November 7, 2021 Author Share Posted November 7, 2021 Those are some very nicely detailed out of the box seats. Only thing left to add from the kit are the decals from the seat cushion. For such a comprehensive kit with a very detailed cockpit out of the box it's strange to me that no seatbelts or crew figures are included. Zoukei-Mura clearly spend a lot of time and money working on other cockpit details that will barely be visible if at all only to leave a relatively glaring omission. There are several aftermarket alternatives on the market (such as the HGW ones I will attempt to use), I'm surprised they didn't simply outsource and bundle one of them in. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffreyK Posted November 7, 2021 Share Posted November 7, 2021 Note that both your reference pic and the kit seats themselves are US Navy type seats with the oxygen emergency supply in the survival pack (the hole near the front of the bottom pad is the pressure gauge for it). Air Force type seats have the bottle in the rear lower left corner of the backrest where the Navy seat has the supply line quick connectors. There is no pressure gauge in the pad on Air Force seats. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted November 7, 2021 Author Share Posted November 7, 2021 45 minutes ago, JeffreyK said: Note that both your reference pic and the kit seats themselves are US Navy type seats with the oxygen emergency supply in the survival pack (the hole near the front of the bottom pad is the pressure gauge for it). Air Force type seats have the bottle in the rear lower left corner of the backrest where the Navy seat has the supply line quick connectors. There is no pressure gauge in the pad on Air Force seats. Thanks for the tip. That's just the first refence pic I could google for general look. I couldn't find any good photos or details on the JASDF's domestically produced EJ and EJ Kai variants so I've got no idea which seats they used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thom216 Posted November 9, 2021 Share Posted November 9, 2021 @Gidge Thanks for the heads up on the Fine Molds kit. Bought the Aardvark boxing with a DXM decal set for the Jolly Rodgers. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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