RF-4EJ Final flight scheme (Now resurrected) ***** FINISHED****.

[Jabba]

Thank you.

 

I have sprayed a matt varnish on this on and added the U/C and wheels. Although the engines are fitted they are not at the moment glued in place. Mind you as they fit very well I might leave them like this. I have also applied the decals to the wing tanks, but will not apply a varnish yet as I still have to fit some decals to the centre line sensor pod. I will not be applying any weathering, for one reason I forgot before I applied the varnish and I thought that this being a specaial scheme it might be quite clean in the first place, unless anyone knows better.

 

 

 

 

 

[Jabba]

The good

 

I have applied a wash to the U/C areas so that the starkness of the white is dulled down a bit. I have also fitted all U/C doors apart from but smaller nose one. they fitted very well apart from the small Main U/C ones, because stupid did not follow the kit instructions. These should have been fitted before the actual U/C legs, but I managed to cut down the locating spigots a little and they fitted fine.

 

 

 

The bad and ugly

 

I sprayed a matt varnish on some of the parts that I have added decals to, but unfortunately the fuel tanks and the ECM pod have not turned out as they should. There is a white powdery look to them. The ECM pod is easy to clear up in that I will just repaint it going around the decals, but as for the fuel tanks I am at a loss apart from repainting and applying a new set of decals. Any advise from some more experienced modellers such as @Alan P, @Red Dot, @Mottymight be able to help. Perhaps I should have left them in the glossy finish or perhaps a satin vernish would have been better? Any help will be gratefully received

 

 

 

[Red Dot]

Hi Jabba,

 

Well persevered with the model. To get rid of the white powdery bits, I would just sand the area with 8000 grit micromesh, used wet.

 

Remember, you are only reducing a layer of clear paint so as long as you don't go too far, all will be well. 

 

Just respray afterwards.

 

Andy

[Jabba]

Thanks for that Andy, I will give it a try later.

 

To ask another question that is related to this issue. I am using Humbrol aerosol spray varnishes and I am trying to find out what causes the white powdery effect to occur? On some parts it is fine whilst on others this effect happens even though I am spraying in the same style. Any thoughts?

[Jabba]

Unfortunately the sanding down of the tank with 8000 Grit Micro Mesh did not work that well, some areas the white stuff came off, in other areas it did not and then in other areas it went straight down to plastic. So with this happening I have decided since I have some spare decals for the tanks to repaint and redecal them.

[Thom216]

Even one step back after two forward, is still forward!😉

[Jabba]

Thanks I know what you mean, but it just feels as if the steps forward are being taken by a baby, whilst the step backwards is being taken by a giant.

[Jabba]

The decals have now been added to the repainted fule tanks. I have also added the adaptor to the ECM pod, which has an ingenious way of fitting it in the correct place in the Fwd Sparrow well. I has a bit of plastic moulded on that fits into one of the recesses for said missile. I have also bought a new Matt Varnish, which I wil be doing a trial on tonight to see what happens before applying to the tanks.

 

 

 

[Jabba]

Another update of one step forward two back. I carried out a test of the new varnish on this Harrier fuselage and it certainly worked with just one coat. So I applied it to the fuel tanks and after several coats (applied after 24 Hr wait), they are still not fully of a matt varnish. I do not think that the photos show this up well, but there are some areas of gloss, a sort of satin and matt. This was done with it watered down 50% or actually straight from the bottle.  Does anyone have any advise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[trickyrich]

I have had similar issues with clear coats in the past going white and hazy looking. For me it was applying the clear coat too heavily, plus not thinning it back enough, you are getting too much of the "Matting" material building up in one area. It can be a great effect in some cases as it gives the paint job a really nice oxidised look....not what you want in this case.

 

To get rid of this issue is not so easy, micro mesh is good, but as you have found out it can go quite patchy very easily, flat surfaces ok, not so flat, not so good. I have used a paper towel or soft cotton cloth in the past to try and remove/knock back areas which are course and powdery, it can work. The areas where it has gone smooth and cloudy there's no real way to correct as you need to some how remove that layer. A coat of clear gloss might work or not, you would need to do some test runs, again it's all on how the original flat clear went on.

 

With you new clear I would thin it back a lot, better to gradually build up the flat finish.

 

I hope it all works out as its a great scheme!

[Motty]

G'day Jabba,

 

As those markings were quite newly applied, the special markings and tanks did have a fairly satin finish to them which was different to the main paint, so they are probably ok as they are?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Motty.

 

 

 

[Jabba]

Thank you both for your answers. @MottyI had been looking at the special markings in the boks that I have and wondering as to whether to redo them with some Klear as a glossyish varnish. Having seen your pictures above I think this may actually be the way to go.

[Jabba]

I have applied a coat of Satin Varnish to the banner decals and the fuel tanks. Not quite right, but better and I will apply another coat tonight. It is fun painting around some of the decals that should not have the varnish applied, especially around the nose band. I have also applied the sealant decals to the windows that were supplied with the kit decal sheet, the ejection seats and the under fuselage sensor pod have also been fitted. I have also started to paint the actuators for the canopies. When I started I noticed some thing odd about them (from when I used to work on RAF Phantoms at St Athan) in that the lock so that the canopy does not drop is moulded within the part. They must have been fitted (as they should) when Fine Molds went to do their survey of the aircraft.

 

 

 

 

[Jabba]

Tah Dah!! All finished now.

 

The final parts were added over the weekend, with one of the easiest fitting of the canopies I have had with a Phantom.

 

I would like to thank the following with their help, advice and encouragement throughout this build. @Red Dot  @trickyrich  @Alan P and @Motty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Alan P]

What a beauty Mark - all credit to you for persevering with it 👏 👏 👏

 

Alan

[Chrisj2003]

@Jabba phabulous; great that you persevered with it; looks great and different with the retirement scheme. 
 

Chris

[Red Dot]

Great job Jabba

 

Andy 

[Motty]

Nice work @Jabba. Good to see it finished.

 

Cheers,

Motty.

[stevehnz]

That has come up beautifully Mark. two observations, one immediate, get yourself some better lighting for your photos so I can enjoy them all the more.  A cheapish angle poise light clamped onto the edge of your work area would make a big difference perhaps.  

Re Varnishes, I'm a confirmed Klear (or substitute) user. At one stage I was using Tamiya flat base in differing ratios with it to give myself satin & matt finishes, now I just use Vallejo matt varnish the same, far more convenient. I'm equally sure the W&N matt varnish you have or the Liquitex matt varnish I use will do the same thing. About 30% matt for satin more for flatter finishes. I firmly believe that modern fats jets are are never fully matt & that finishing a model too glossy makes it toy like. Here endith the lesson.   

Take care mate,

Happy New Year.

Steve.

[Jabba]

Thanks for your kind words and your advice @stevehnz. Unfortunately the lighting problem is due to where I take my photos, especially of the finished article. This is done in mine and SWMBO bedroom on a chest of draws as this is the largest open space that I have in our house. Unfortunately I do not have room for the light that you suggest, I turn the lightning in that room up to its maximum and hope for the best. When taking photos of my progress this is done on the floor of our spare room, again because of space limitations of our house, so the lighting for this is from the light overhead. I too am a bit worried that my photos do not turn out as good as other modellers, but I have to live with the limitations of the house that I live in. 

 

            As for the varnish I have always used Klear as a gloss base, but I have found that since I am now using Acrylic paints more it takes more of the Klear to get a truer overall Gloss covering. Whether this is hampering the matting process I am not sure. I have tries several products in the past which when I first started to use them worked well, but then for some reason did not, even though I had not changed anything in the building and painting beforehand. As fro the Humbrol spray I have noticed the effect that I got before, but not to the way it occurred this time. I shall try the newer W&N stuff on my next model and see what happens. Thanks again for your interest.

[helios16v]

Despite the hassles, you ended up with a rather nice finished product.  Well done sir.