Phantom F-4B, VF-111, Sundowners, USS Coral Seal 1972.

[Retired Bob]

My second entry into this STGB is a Phantom F-4B from Academy, released in 2012 it was a better kit than the old Hasegawa F-4B, it had recessed panel lines and rivets and the rear cockpit was better having the navalised side where the refueling probe is positioned.  I will build it for comparison with my other build in this GB, the Tamiya F-4B.

Here is the box of untouched sprues still in their plastic bags.  The kit is described as being MCP-multi coloured plastic, luckily not such a garish selection of colours like Matchbox used to use.  

Academy have moulded the lower kit parts in white plastic, upper fuselage and upper wings in a light grey/green colour and the wheels, exhausts and ejection seats in black.

 

I'm not using the kit decals, VF-111 Sundowners is the only choice in the kit.  I will use a Furball Decal offering on a sheet of early F-4B's, VF-11, the Red Rippers flying off the USS Forrestal in 1973, their last cruise with the F-4B before they received the F-4J.

Any comments or questions are welcome.

[Bertie McBoatface]

Well at least you won’t have to paint it. 😏

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Definitely nothing wrong with a Rippers build. 👍🏻

[franky boy]

Nice choice Bob. 

 

Looking forward to to seeing how this one builds up compared to the Tamiya kit. 

 

Nice choice of markings too. 

 

James

[Retired Bob]

On 21/08/2021 at 06:59, Bertie Psmith said:

Well at least you won’t have to paint it. 😏

I nearly added that but someone might have taken me seriously. 

[Foxbat]

I'm very jealous and shall follow this build closely whilst cheering from the sidelines - I NEED a set of  Rippers decals for my Tamiya F-4B and know of three sets. Two (including these) are out of print, the third is only sold by Sprue Brothers in the US and they don't list the UK as a shipping option  

 

Andy

[Retired Bob]

I have made a start on this kit after having a dry fit session to see the best way to tackle it, first I added the the nose section to the lower main wings because that looked a problem joint, I added some plastic card strips to strengthen the small tabs then added the main wheel bays, nose gear bay and intake trunks, they are now ready for some white paint.  the engine faces have been painted silver and are ready for a dark wash to bring up the compressor blade detail.  The upper wings fitted with only a small bit of filler to hide the joint on the flap underside, late F-4B's like this one should have a small bump over the main u/c legs, they are on the sprue, parts G-27 but they are listed in the "not for use" section?  I will add some spare ones from my next Tamiya F-4B build.

Academy would have you attach the main u/c legs at this stage but they can be fitted later with some careful trimming of the attachment struts.

The cockpit is rather sparsely detailed, I added some Eduard p/e side consoles and circuit breaker panels etc in the rear, I will add some more detail as I go and some better ejector seats.

The one piece fuselage was lightly sanded to remove the slide moulding lines and the in-flight refuelling door and the spine blank for the Air Force door were fitted, there were gaps as the filler shows.  From the Eduard p/e set the canopy seals were added then a quick spray of grey primer to check it looked ok.   I found some Hypersonic cheek intakes in the stash, they should improve the look of the nose over the kit ones after I have cleaned off the pour stubs I'll show the difference.  I did notice when I was about to open up the holes for the outboard pylons that Academy have put them slightly too far outboard, the wing underside is nicely engraved with the correctly positioned panels and for the pylons/fuel tanks but if you open up the attachment holes, they are a couple of mm further outboard on both wings, curious?  I will deal with the problems with the horizontal stabs on my next post.

Thanks for looking, any questions or comments are always welcome. 

[Retired Bob]

16 minutes ago, Foxbat said:

I'm very jealous and shall follow this build closely whilst cheering from the sidelines - I NEED a set of  Rippers decals for my Tamiya F-4B and know of three sets. Two (including these) are out of print, the third is only sold by Sprue Brothers in the US and they don't list the UK as a shipping option  

Andy, if you need these decals I'm quite happy to send them to you. I have more options and I can easily change the title of my thread.  PM me with your address.  

[Foxbat]

50 minutes ago, Retired Bob said:

Andy, if you need these decals I'm quite happy to send them to you. I have more options and I can easily change the title of my thread.  PM me with your address.  

You sir are a scholar and a gentleman, but on this occasion please hold on to them and do them justice. It will be some time before I'm in a postion to even start my build never mind getting to the marking stage and I'm sure something will come along in the meantime  

 

BTW, I have a special interest in the Red Rippers as the boar's head in their badge is pretty much a straight lift from my clan badge. I have several kits in the stash already covering their history from WW2 when they were VF-41 flying Wildcats up to their current F-18F Super Hornets. The French EC3/3 are another favourite unit for the same reason. 

 

Andy

[Retired Bob]

2 hours ago, Foxbat said:

You sir are a scholar and a gentleman, but on this occasion please hold on to them and do them justice. It will be some time before I'm in a postion to even start my build never mind getting to the marking stage and I'm sure something will come along in the meantime  

That's tempting fate, what I will do is change my marking option, as I said I have several other choices on that sheet alone, plus others.  Perhaps Furball might re-issue those sets to get sales from all of us phanatics that have bought the Tamiya kit, in my case kit's.   If they don't re-issue you know where you can find a set.  Now where's that VMFA-321 decal sheet, I've put it in a safe place.....somewhere, plus I'm waiting for the Fundekal F-4B sheet that they are bringing out, but they do take their time.   

[Retired Bob]

As in my post above, I have changed the title to reflect that I will keep the Red Rippers decals incase Andy @Foxbatcannot get hold of any for his build.  Another Phantom that I have always wanted in my collection is a Sundowners Phantom, I have a two choices of decals, the CAG bird or an ordinary squadron aircraft. both are by Furball Decals.

I did some more work on the kit today, cleaned up the very large ejector pin marks in both of the intakes and they have been primed and pushed into place, I made the pilots i/p by adding the Eduard photo-etch to the kit i/p and added it to the cockpit tub, when I added the i/p coaming it was rather short, there should be a ribbed cover that keeps the sun off the i/p, so I made one from a bit of thin plastic card, added the ribbed effect with some stretched sprue and melted them into place with some thin glue, it should look ok when it's painted matt black.

 

Before I fitted the i/p which is Eduard coloured photo-etch I compared it to the new Quinta 3D cockpit decal that I have just got for a ZM F-4C, they are just stunning. 

I cannot wait for the ones for the Tamiya F-4B.

Any comments or questions are always welcome.

[Bertie McBoatface]

Both sets of pre-printed I/Ps look startlingly good. Your whole cockpit so far is excellent.