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RF-4E 2-6504 Islamic Iranian Air Force (IRIAF)


fmichelsen

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7 hours ago, fmichelsen said:

After going through some photos I could see it variates a bit how deep the colour goes in to the intakes, so I just chose to do mine where it do not go very far in.

 

Thanks for that. It's so much easier painting before assembly, and I never thought of that in this context.

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Yes, things went quickly this time, but I did get some unexpected extra time due to Covid-19.... Yes the build is now complete, but the painting is where the time really flies :D But I got it primed black last night, so now it's time for some colours :)

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Just thought I would would show you something from the kit. So far must stuff fits very good, but then I had to do the canopy. Fortunately I'm planning on doing it with glass open, and there not some you would see, but still, this is just not good. (The white you can see between is some sort of bluetac, to prevent colours from entering the pit ;) 

Hopefully it will turn out fine later when I glue them on open :)

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Phantastic preshading!:thumbsup:

 

It's a good idea to finish this bird with open canopies.

The Revell kit, generally very nice, has a problem with slightly oversized intakes - so the canopy seems too small if closed...

 

Re stencils - please take care, as the German stencilling is different from the US one...

 

During the long Iran-Iraq War (1st Gulf War) 1980-88 all RF-4Es were based at TFB-1 (the 11 TRS being the only recce asset of the IRIAF) . Only after the war, the remaining RF-4Es were split between the fighter Phantom II squadrons. Therefore, if doing the 1980s bird, please use the "1" markings on the tail, if doing a bird from the 1990-2000s you can use the "3" as on the blue sister-ship.

 

2-6504 was used intensively since the late 1970s (with black belly) so, during the 8 war years the camo got a really used appearence, with most of the  stencils worn out etc.  The IRIAF RF-5A fleet had similar extremely weathered, patchy appearance during the 1980s, as Iranian recce assets were too few and in constant demand. 

Also, it would be no wonder if the original, black painted fuel tanks had been replaced by one or both underwing tanks painted with a standard camo ( green/light grey) , taken from another Phantom...

Also the underfuselage tank used for long range missions would be light grey, as these were "precious but expendable" items (RF-4 pilots had instructions to jettison the fuel tanks only in case of emergencies, like encounters with enemy interceptors...that often happen during wartime missions over enemy territory )

After the war, the 2-6504 was fully overhauled, like all of the remaining precious RF-4Es of the IRIAF, and got a new camo with standard light grey undersides and full stencilling following the manufacturer standardized pattern... 

 

Greetings

Diego

Edited by Diego
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15 minutes ago, Diego said:

Phantastic preshading!:thumbsup:

 

It's a good idea to finish this bird with open canopies.

The Revell kit, generally very nice, has a problem with slightly oversized intakes - so the canomy seems too small if closed...

 

Re stencils - please take care, as the German stencilling is different from the US one...

 

During the long Iran-Iraq War (1st Gulf War) 1980-88 all RF-4Es were based at TFB-1 (the 11 TRS being the only recce asset of the IRIAF) . Only after the war, the remaining RF-4Es were split between the fighter Phantom II squadrons. Therefore, if doing the 1980s bird, please use the "1" markings on the tail, if doing a bird from the 1990-2000s you can use the "3" as on the blue sister-ship.

 

2-6504 was used intensively since the late 1970s (with black belly) so, during the 8 war years the camo got a really used appearence, with most of the  stencils worn out etc.  The IRIAF RF-5A fleet had similar extremely weathered, patchy appearance during the 1980s, as Iranian recce assets were too few and in constant demand. 

After the war, the 2-6504 was fully overhauled, like all of the remaining precious RF-4Es of the IRIAF, and got a new camo with standard light grey undersides and full stencilling following the manufacturer standardized pattern... 

 

Greetings

Diego

Hey Diego

Thank you for the comments about stencils, I'll have to pay close attention there, to be sure im not doing it wrong. I do have a Hasegawa kit in the stash, guess I can "borrow" some stencils from that one if all else fails :) 

Regarding the black belly, I'm sticking with my original plan of doing it in FS 36622 since that's what I've been told from a friend and his source. I do not have the knowlegde or source to question whether or not it had flown with a black belly though ;) If I ever see a picture of one with black belly, I'll start a new build immediatly because it does look awesome on the other models I've seen done like that :D 

I can only imagine that being in nearly constant service its paint job will look faded, I hope I can achieve something similar with this one :)

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New pics :) 
I've painted the most of it now :D I've used a combination of WEM, Model master and AK real colours for it, and must of the time, it worked fine. For the metallic I have used vallejo acrylic metal color :) There is still a lot of details to be done, but things are moving along nicely :)

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Thank you for all you comments :D 
I'm quite pleased with it as well. Yesterday I put on the clear coat, so I hope to get started on decals very soon:) It will however have to wait a bit, because the stencils are still on their in the mail :D But the decals from the aftermarket sheet can go on soon ;)  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello, It's been a while! Alot of things came in the way of this build, but the next days, I should be able to get in some hours! The stencil ark from print scale has arrived, and I'v put on quite a few of the stencils, but dear god there's many, and they are small 😱 But here are som pictures of the progress so far :D 
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y4mYjP6Gt-2BHlZGzrB6fdxeNRyHib8hZjmMVUDn

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36 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Have the same set of stencils, how do they work, anything I should know about them ? 

Well maybe its just me and my big fingers, but they tend bend around it itself when tranfering them from wetpaper to model, so it is a bit of a pain getting them "unrolled and flat" sometimes. But mostly they work good, I use mark fit strong once they are in place, and that work good for me :) 
Other than that, they are very thin and looks good once in place :) There is many of them however :D

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