1/48 Tamiya F-4B, VMFA-323 'Death Rattlers', Chu Lai, 1967. Finished 25/11.

[DaveJL]

2 hours ago, Dansk said:

How disappointing - that Leathernecks piece is not even a close fit, what where they thinking?

 

edit: they should make the whole tail as one piece to slot onto the tamiya fuse. No cutting and joining then.

It's not great; their stuff usually is which makes this a head scratcher. Still, the Hypersonic one should save the day!

19 minutes ago, Retired Bob said:

After Rich @trickyrich found the problem with the Flying Leathernecks fin cap I tried to thin a spare early fin cap from a ZM kit.  Trying to get it thinned sufficiently over the whole fin cap turned out to be near impossible so I reverted to removing the bumps from the Tamiya part, not easy either but it looks better.  Another problem with the scale, or does it have a skinny fin?  I tried fitting some Master, turned brass pitot tubes.  The lower one is doable with careful drilling but the upper probe is the same width as the fin!  I will have to put some primer on to see if I have "got away with it"  

Suppose I could try modifying the kit part, but I'm lazy and like quick fixes

[trickyrich]

I'll be very interested in seeing how the Hypersonic fin tip goes. The stuff of there's I've used so far has been great.

[Retired Bob]

12 hours ago, DaveJL said:

Suppose I could try modifying the kit part, but I'm lazy and like quick fixes

I've had an early fin cap on order but so far Hannants have not had any in so I thought I'd give it a go, CMK are making an early fin cap and a separate rudder for the Tamiya  F-4B. 

[Ray_W]

Nice progress Dave, That Quinta stuff looks superb. Well fitted. I purposely didn't look until I had painted my cockpit and had it firmly locked up in the fuselage 🙈

 

Ray

 

 

[helios16v]

44 minutes ago, Ray_W said:

Nice progress Dave, That Quinta stuff looks superb. Well fitted. I purposely didn't look until I had painted my cockpit and had it firmly locked up in the fuselage 🙈

 

Ray

 

 

 

Wise, wise man.  That's money saved towards the next kit.  

[DaveJL]

On 10/8/2021 at 3:35 AM, trickyrich said:

I'll be very interested in seeing how the Hypersonic fin tip goes. The stuff of there's I've used so far has been great.

 

On 10/8/2021 at 9:33 AM, Retired Bob said:

I've had an early fin cap on order but so far Hannants have not had any in so I thought I'd give it a go, CMK are making an early fin cap and a separate rudder for the Tamiya  F-4B. 

Likewise mate, I've just ordered a few! Their images online look perfect!

16 hours ago, Ray_W said:

Nice progress Dave, That Quinta stuff looks superb. Well fitted. I purposely didn't look until I had painted my cockpit and had it firmly locked up in the fuselage 🙈

 

Ray

 

 

Thanks Ray. The Quinta stuff is nice but it did feel like a bit of a shame sanding off all that lovely detail on the kit parts. I have a few sets for upcoming F-14s even though I'm adamant that the kit cockpit is the best in plastic

15 hours ago, helios16v said:

 

Wise, wise man.  That's money saved towards the next kit.  

1/4 of the cost of another Tamiya kit in the bank

[DaveJL]

Progress on the intakes. After painting the relevant areas, I masked up the inners to allow them to be fitted now. Should be easy enough to remove as the demarcation line is along a panel trough which should facilitate a scalpel to allow removal:

 

 

Assembled:

 

I should say that I did notice the inner lip, which is meant to be Gull grey - will rectify that later. Fitted to fuselage:

 

 

Great fit, though I did run some Tamiya Extra thin along the joins just to tidy them up. As you can see, I've also fitted the tail fin (minus the tip) and a few other bits and bobs. A few sub assemblies also ready:

 

 

I really like the way Tamiya has approached the various sub assemblies, makes life a lot easier! Only a tiny bit of filler has been required to tidy up the wing/fuselage join at the rear. Nothing major at all, hardly worth mentioning

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

[DaveJL]

Cracking on with this, one little bit (or several little bits at a time)! I'm waiting on the Hypersonic fin tip arriving so in the meantime I painted up the front coaming, added the HUD and the last bit of the Quinta set:

 

 

The windscreen was masked off using the Furball mask set and sprayed before being fitted:

 

 

That's about as far as I can go with the fuselage for now. I had toyed with the idea of fitting the cockpit frame and centre section but I think I'll leave these off until after painting as this should make it easier to mask up. In the meantime, I built up and painted the exhausts. Now, I was a bit dubious at the way these were to be assembled but shame on me for doubting Tamiya, as they just fall together and look great fitted:

 

 

The ejection seats were painted and detailed.

 

 

Pictures aren't great, but you get the idea

 

My intention is to paint and finish the sub assemblies - landing gear, pylons, MK.77s and so on in stages until the fin tip arrives. Hopefully by that stage I'll be able to fit it and go straight to priming. I'm away to Malta for a few days from the middle of next week so hope to make a dent in the above over the next couple of days, though I can write off Saturday as that's my birthday 😆

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

[Ray_W]

Hi Dave,

 

Good fun watch you put this together. A little ahead of me. I am making slow progress due to work commitments. Hope to catch up soon.

 

12 hours ago, DaveJL said:

I had toyed with the idea of fitting the cockpit frame and centre section but I think I'll leave these off until after painting as this should make it easier to mask up.

 

I am planning to use the closed canopy as a mask for the cockpit area held in place with PVA. Then remove it to fit the open canopy sections.

 

12 hours ago, DaveJL said:

Now, I was a bit dubious at the way these were to be assembled but shame on me for doubting Tamiya

 

I too like the way Tamiya have done these and looking forward to painting them up. My usual aftermarket for jets - exhaust nozzles and seats and yet in this kit I feel Tamiya have done a great job with both.

 

Ray

[DaveJL]

5 hours ago, Ray_W said:

Hi Dave,

 

Good fun watch you put this together. A little ahead of me. I am making slow progress due to work commitments. Hope to catch up soon.

 

 

I am planning to use the closed canopy as a mask for the cockpit area held in place with PVA. Then remove it to fit the open canopy sections.

 

 

I too like the way Tamiya have done these and looking forward to painting them up. My usual aftermarket for jets - exhaust nozzles and seats and yet in this kit I feel Tamiya have done a great job with both.

 

Ray

Thanks Ray. I forgot about the closed canopy, might use that myself - means I should be able to add the framing and rear IP beforehand.

 

I agree with the exhausts, although I must say the Hypersonic seats are a work of art!

[Ray_W]

1 hour ago, DaveJL said:

I forgot about the closed canopy, might use that myself - means I should be able to add the framing and rear IP beforehand.

 

Should work. I am hoping so. Will significantly simplify the masking.

[DaveJL]

1 hour ago, Ray_W said:

 

Should work. I am hoping so. Will significantly simplify the masking.

Anything for an easy life

 

Managed a couple of hours this morning. All this talk of the Hypersonic fin tips must have sped up the post, as they arrived early doors:

 

 

You can see the difference at the trailing edge between it and the Flying Leathernecks pieces (bottom):

 

 

Perfect fit:

 

 

The MK.77s were finished. The images I've seen of these shows a lot of them covered in dents etc. I was content just to add a light wash!

 

 

All the ordnance together:

 

 

One or two of the yellow bands on the MK.82s needs a bit of tidying but will do that towards the end.

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

[Dansk]

All looking good dave. Love the ordnance youre planning.

The hypersonic fins look perfect.

[modelling minion]

Nice work Dave, the Hypersonic fin is a very good fit.

Happy birthday for Saturday mate, hope you have a great day, all the best people are born around this time.😉

[DaveJL]

40 minutes ago, Dansk said:

All looking good dave. Love the ordnance youre planning.

The hypersonic fins look perfect.

Thanks Paul. The fin is very good indeed. Ordered a couple for good measure

 

28 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Nice work Dave, the Hypersonic fin is a very good fit.

Happy birthday for Saturday mate, hope you have a great day, all the best people are born around this time.😉

Cheers mate. Agree with that sentiment!!

[DaveJL]

A little progress over the last two days. Firstly, the landing gear was painted, detailed and assembled:

 

 

With the remaining undercarriage assembly ready to go on the airframe:

 

 

One thing I did notice, and have noted in previous Tamiya kits is that their decals can be quite thick. To that end, I'd ordered a set of the new Tamiya specific Eduard decals, in the hope that these would be printed by Cartograph like some Eduard sheets of old. Unfortunately not and they're the new style with the excess carrier film that needs peeled off. Anyway, I persevered with the Tamiya stencils for the pylons etc but they are quite thick so I might have to revert to these Eduard stencils for the airframe. I digress.

 

 

Pylons and fuel tank finished off. Weathering on the tank is a mixture of Abteilung oils. I do love a grimy fuel tank!

 

 

I also fitted the canopy framing and popped in some wiring at the rear of the WSOs IP:

 

 

Intakes masked up and fitted the spare canopy with blu-tack to protect the cockpit.

 

 

Another thing I noticed is that these VMFA-323 jets didn't seem to have the walkways on the upper fuselage marked off, the Eduard instructions for the decal scheme would appear to confirm this:

 

Saves me a bit of time at least

 

Another thing I noticed, forgot about, then remembered again after following @Dansk's build is that Tamiya doesn't mention the red trim around the edges of the undercarriage doors. I know it's commonplace on all F-14s and F/A-18s for example, but were all F-4Bs decorated in such a way?

 

I'm about ready for primer now but that'll have to wait as I'm working the next two days then off to Malta for a long weekend so will be next week before I'm back at the bench.

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

 

 

[DaveJL]

So I may have answered my own question about the red trim on the U/C doors. Seems to be hit and miss with airframes that had it done, and others didn't.  For example, BuNo 152253 (close to my build here) does not have the red trim:

 

https://www.airfighters.com/photo/220704/M/USA-Marines/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4B-Phantom-II/152253/

 

And here is 152258, in later life with VF-301 prior to becoming a drone. Alas, no red trim around the undercarriage doors:

 

 

That's that query answered!

 

 

[Dansk]

I don’t know if it’s still any help but Danny Coreman’s reference book shows original wheel bays and doors unrestored and both red framed and white framed are used as you stated Dave.

 

[DaveJL]

6 minutes ago, Dansk said:

I don’t know if it’s still any help but Danny Coreman’s reference book shows original wheel bays and doors unrestored and both red framed and white framed are used as you stated Dave.

 

Cheers Paul. Seems to be a mixture of both painted and unpainted. I'm happy with seeing a picture of 152258 without the red trim, so will go with that!

[modelling minion]

Nice work Dave, I really like the weathered fuel tank.

[DaveJL]

12 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Nice work Dave, I really like the weathered fuel tank.

Cheers mate. Will be going for a fairly grubby underside on this one so the tank was a starting point!

[Ray_W]

19 hours ago, DaveJL said:

Tamiya doesn't mention the red trim around the edges of the undercarriage doors.

 

I am going with Tamiya recommendations based on hunting through images and finding some with red, some without. So much repainting and refurbishment on Naval aircraft I think Tamiya's position is reasonable.

 

15 hours ago, DaveJL said:

Will be going for a fairly grubby underside on this one so the tank was a starting point!

 

Really like your subtle wash application on the undercarriage. The fuel tank is nice. Looking forward to more oil weathering

 

Ray

 

 

[DaveJL]

4 hours ago, Ray_W said:

 

I am going with Tamiya recommendations based on hunting through images and finding some with red, some without. So much repainting and refurbishment on Naval aircraft I think Tamiya's position is reasonable.

 

 

Really like your subtle wash application on the undercarriage. The fuel tank is nice. Looking forward to more oil weathering

 

Ray

 

 

Thanks Ray, it's hard to beat a grubby Phantom!

 

I agree with your input on the red trim. The same seems to go for the walkway markings. I thought all USN/USMC F-4s, amongst others, had the walkways marked. Alas not, again another mixed bag. Some do, some don't, some have them on the wings but not the fuselage and vice versa. I'm lucky that the jet I'm depicting has been replicated by several decal manufacturers so I'm able to do a bit of research. Furball explicitly state 'no walkways applied' and their research is usually spot on.

[DaveJL]

Back from a lovely few days in the very sunny rainy Malta. What a wonderful place. Anyway, back to the important stuff! Model has been primed and pre-shaded. The quality of the Tamiya plastic really shows under primer. Only issue I had was the windscreen masks appeared to lift slightly. I've found this with vinyl masks before (Furball were used here - I went with the kit masks for the rest of the canopy parts) so I just hope no primer has seeped onto the glazing. I sprayed the stabilisers and parts that require metallic overall black as a base coat.

 

 

Will crack on and get the white sprayed tomorrow - the majority of this jet is white with the nosecone being so. If that goes well and knowing how quickly MRP dries, I might be able to get the grey on too, but we'll play that by ear.

 

More soon and stay safe

 

Dave

[DaveJL]

Just found some new decal sheets for this scheme - one from AoA decals and the other from Eduard (which has resized their schemes from the Good Morning Da Nang kit). Might invest in one of these, again in the hope that the Eduard sheet doesn't come with their new style decals