Phantom F-4B, VF-84, Jolly Rogers, USS Independence 1964.

[Retired Bob]

Todays update, I'll start with the fin cap, as my build is an early Phantom it needed a clean fin cap which isn't included in the kit.  As I waited for some AM fin caps to arrive I had a go at removing the bumps from the kit item, the front bump was easy, I needed a fin cap without the front ECM bump for a Marine F-4B that I will build, with that done next attempt was removing both front and rear bumps, the rear one has the problem of a hollow section but a piece of sprue glued in sorted that and it was just a case of careful sanding and a bit of filling to remove all traces of it.  Of course not long after I finished it the CMK AM fin cap arrived, however for some strange reason they have not made it with a mounting tab, so a thin resin cap has to be butt jointed onto the tail fin, I can forsee problems with that!.  Anyway, here is a photo of my selection of tail fins, top is the kit piece unaltered, next down the kit piece with the front bump removed, next, kit piece with both bumps removed and at the bottom the CMK resin fin cap, it's a good fit but I don't think it's going to make a strong joint unless a tab is added.

Sorry its a bit blurry but my camera could not decide what bit to focus on. 

 

I have assembled and painted the inside of the intakes and the nose wheel bay, that just needs a wash of grime to make the details pop.

 

Finally for this update, the wing section has the folded outer wings attached with PVA as they can then be removed to paint the coroguard leading edges and the wing fold detail.  They have been primed with a couple of coats of white along with the airbrake doors, u/c doors and main legs, the wheels are Eduard Brassin resin, they need some more washes to pop out the details.

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

Edited October 27, 2021 by Retired Bob
missing word

[DaveJL]

Looks great Bob, coming along well!

[Thom216]

Very nice progress.

[Retired Bob]

It's time to get the fuselage together, I'm happy with the cockpit, nose wheel bay and engines.

 

It's important to make sure the cockpit section is correctly fitted into the fuselage halves or it throws the nose assembly out.

I thought the map/document box was sticking out too far from the bulkhead so I shortened the struts, the ZM Phantom has it moulded directly onto the bulkhead.

 

With the fuselage glued together I will let it harden overnight and then attach the wings.

Thanks for looking, any questions or comments are welcome. 

[Retired Bob]

Todays update, wings attached, so easy, they almost clip on, then it's just a case of running some extra thin glue along the joints.

As you can see I have removed the outer wing panels and dry fitted the intakes, canopy, stabilators and vertical tail fin.  The radome with the IRST has been painted with Mr Surfacer 1500, I will buff this up to give it the sheen that can be seen on period photos of this squadron.  Another thing that I've noticed from looking at photos of the parked aircraft with folded outer wings is that the outboard flaperons were usually in the raised or with only with a small amount of deflection, so these I have adjusted.

 

A photo of the underside shows it with the centreline tank dry fitted.  I suppose I had better start splashing some more paint around now.  

Thanks for looking, any comments or questions are welcome. 

[Thom216]

Like it's just falling together!

[Retired Bob]

9 hours ago, Thom216 said:

Like it's just falling together!

Almost, the design of the parts hides most joints along a panel line, run in some extra thin glue and leave it to dry.  If they could only eliminate the ejector pin marks then it would be even faster, every part has at least one, even the throttle levers and the backseaters tiny radar joystick.  I suppose it gives you something to do on these cold Autumn evenings.  

[DaveJL]

Nice job mate, I can echo the comment about the cockpit being nice and snug. Mine was out ever so slightly and created a small step around the nose. Nothing drastic, but I'll know for next time!

[Retired Bob]

5 hours ago, DaveJL said:

Nice job mate, I can echo the comment about the cockpit being nice and snug. Mine was out ever so slightly and created a small step around the nose. Nothing drastic, but I'll know for next time!

I've just been test fitting my third Tamiya F-4B and it's the first time that I haven't had to find out what's stopping the nose from clicking together, must be getting the hang of it.  Not sure what markings this one will be in, so many choices but I got this sheet recently and it has some nice schemes.

Or I have the Warbird decals for this Marine F-4B.  And yes you have to put each star on, one at a time!

By the way Dave, the new Tamiya F-14A late version has just arrived at Jadlam models, I have one on pre-order. 

[DaveJL]

Nice choices there mate!

 

I'd ordered the F-14A from Luckymodel at the start of the week 🤪

[Dansk]

43 minutes ago, Retired Bob said:

Or I have the Warbird decals for this Marine F-4B.  And yes you have to put each star on, one at a time!

This is awesome! The stars won’t take so long, theres not so many, phantom stencil data takes longer.

[Retired Bob]

2 hours ago, Dansk said:

This is awesome! The stars won’t take so long, theres not so many, phantom stencil data takes longer.

57 stars in two sizes, though they do give you extra ones in each size, just in case! 

[Dansk]

22 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

57 stars in two sizes, though they do give you extra ones in each size, just in case! 

You can do it bob 👍Here’s an f-4e generic stencil sheet for comparison. Much more pain.

 

[Retired Bob]

22 hours ago, Dansk said:

You can do it bob 👍

Cockpit completed with Quinta 3D decals of course, I think it's too late to build it for this STGB. 🙄

[AntPhillips]

On 11/4/2021 at 6:05 PM, Retired Bob said:

........I got this sheet recently and it has some nice schemes.

 

 

Hi Bob, can I ask where you got the Bullseye decals, I wanted to get some but as they are only selling through the 48ers in Europe or Sprue Bros. in the States, but it's my understanding that 48ers have a €160 minimum order for the UK and SprueBros aren't accepting orders at all from the UK due to post Brexit UK Tax rules, its proving rather difficult to get them.

[Retired Bob]

53 minutes ago, AntPhillips said:

Hi Bob, can I ask where you got the Bullseye decals, I wanted to get some but as they are only selling through the 48ers in Europe or Sprue Bros. in the States, but it's my understanding that 48ers have a €160 minimum order for the UK and SprueBros aren't accepting orders at all from the UK due to post Brexit UK Tax rules, its proving rather difficult to get them.

I had exactly the same problem Ant, so I had to make up an order for 162 euros + postage from 48ers.  Their service was very fast and good, but the import tax was £28 with another £8 Post Office handling fee, so my total cost was £173.  So £20 for the Bullseye decals the rest was collateral damage.

[Bertie McBoatface]

The Phantom is looking very good Bob. I haven't been around the GB for ages, so I've been catching up tonight. I hope you are fully recovered from your op now.

[Retired Bob]

2 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

I hope you are fully recovered from your op now.

Thanks Bertie,  I have a nice scar but I'm feeling much better, even managed to get to my model club meet today. 

[AntPhillips]

2 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

I had exactly the same problem Ant, so I had to make up an order for 162 euros + postage from 48ers.  Their service was very fast and good, but the import tax was £28 with another £8 Post Office handling fee, so my total cost was £173.  So £20 for the Bullseye decals the rest was collateral damage.

Thanks for responding Bob, that confirms what I thought, I did have some correspondence with Bullseye directly a few weeks ago, they did say they might have to look at a UK distributor. I'm sure they would shift lots of Phantom decals if they were more readily available here in the UK.

 

Great work on the Phantom by the way 👍

[Retired Bob]

12 hours ago, AntPhillips said:

Thanks for responding Bob, that confirms what I thought, I did have some correspondence with Bullseye directly a few weeks ago, they did say they might have to look at a UK distributor. I'm sure they would shift lots of Phantom decals if they were more readily available here in the UK.

It would be a good result if the Bullseye decals were readily available in the UK,  I'm sure Hannants or BlackMike Models would be a good distribution point.  You probably did the same as me and looked on ebay etc in your search for these decals but in the end I took the 48ers route, I mentioned that the final cost to me was £173 in total, the items I added to make up the amount to meet the 160 euro minimum were usually not available in the UK so it's not possible to cost them as a comparison, but I was happy with transaction, as a footnote it took the parcel 4 days to get from Cyprus to the post collection office 10 miles from where I live, and 6 days to be delivered that last 10 miles. (I could have walked there to collect it quicker but due to covid restrictions it had to be delivered)  

[Retired Bob]

I always seem to be very busy at weekends but one thing I did manage to do was this with the centreline fuel tank:

The small fins on the fuel tank have the panels from the underside of the fuselage moulded on them.  When fitting the full size tank to an aircraft the small panels are opened by using small wedges, they are spring loaded so automatically close.  The tank fins are positioned against those small open panels to keep them open, when the tank is jettisoned they act as a pivot, the front of the tank is pushed down by the pistons of the explosive release unit, and the tank is pivoted away from the aircraft and those little panel doors can then snap shut.  Seeing as they are moulded to the tank fins I have cut away the panels on the underside so that they appear open.

[trickyrich]

On 11/5/2021 at 5:17 AM, DaveJL said:

Nice choices there mate!

 

I'd ordered the F-14A from Luckymodel at the start of the week 🤪

 

Mines on the way! 

 

On 11/6/2021 at 6:59 AM, Dansk said:

You can do it bob 👍Here’s an f-4e generic stencil sheet for comparison. Much more pain.

 

 

 

I have the Speed Hunter Graphics F-4E Early Stencils set, equally as scary, made more so by you can barely see the decal film! Leat they supply 7 A4 sheets of instructions where they all need to go!

 

On 11/7/2021 at 5:49 AM, AntPhillips said:

 

Hi Bob, can I ask where you got the Bullseye decals, I wanted to get some but as they are only selling through the 48ers in Europe or Sprue Bros. in the States, but it's my understanding that 48ers have a €160 minimum order for the UK and SprueBros aren't accepting orders at all from the UK due to post Brexit UK Tax rules, its proving rather difficult to get them.

 

I've had similar problems, Sprue Brothers had the set I need, but wanted $65 USD postage and that was just for USPS to.... for a sheet of decals! It would have ended up costing more than the model and some of the AM stuff!!! 

 

I'm not sure if it's just to the UK, but I use 48ers all the time and there is no minimum, there charges are a bit high (not like Sprue Brothers), but they use FedEx and only take 4 days to get here.

 

It would be nice to have a 3rd option, with someone who like to look after modellers!

[trickyrich]

Nice work with the build, I didn't know that about the outer control surfaces, may have to Mod mine now as I'm having mine with the wings folded.

[Retired Bob]

On 20/11/2021 at 21:55, trickyrich said:

I'm not sure if it's just to the UK, but I use 48ers all the time and there is no minimum, there charges are a bit high (not like Sprue Brothers), but they use FedEx and only take 4 days to get here.

Sorry for the delay in answering Rich, the 160 euro minimum order is to the UK now that we have left the EU, the 48ers take off the tax and it's added back on when it arrives in the UK, along with a flat rate charge to collect it by the Post Office.

 

I've been deliberating what to do about the flipper doors, what? I hear you say, On the rear section of the forward Sparrow missile indents there was a sprung door that smoothed the airflow over the rear of the indent when there was no missile fitted or after it had been fired. (Tamiya decals 196 to 199 outline them)  Most photos do not show Sparrows loaded to the forward missile stations because the centreline tank had to be jettisoned before they could be fired or as with VF-111 Sundowners, they did not carry Sparrows because of problems with getting a radar lock on a target and the missile engaging.

The ZM kits have the flipper doors as an optional part if you don't want to fit forward Sparrows.  My problem is:  do I fit the missiles?  Copy ZM and make some closed flipper doors? or just stop faffing around and just finish building it?