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Because I'm Stoopid (Build #2) - Norm 81 Luftwaffe F-4F


helios16v

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I was alluding to bad decisions in my other post...well, this is it.   :mental:

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With how well the dual F-16 build is going and my curiosity of the manufacturing differences between 2 companies 3 decades apart is making me want to take the plunge.  That and I love the look of the Norm81 birds.  I think I'm actually going to be able to get away with minimal AM on this one.  I decided to hold off on seats, as after closer examination I think the kit ones may end up looking just fine w/ some belts added...I'll make final decisions after I build one up.  As far as exhausts, I think I can make the stock Academy cans out of the Eduard kit work on this with a little bit of modification (I've already done a bit of mocking up before deciding to move forward with this).  I've got some resin wheels & AIM-120s ordered...and hopefully that will be the extent of AM for this project...which is just fine as the cost of paint (converting to MRP for external paint) is costing more than I paid for the kit and the 2 pieces of AM (I'm blaming Rich for that).  :blink2:

 

It'll be a little bit before this one goes.  It'll be worked alongside the Z-M JASDF build (and the Draken) after the F-16s are finished up.  Which is fine, as it will give me a chance to find out a bit more about the late ICE update package which added the AIM-120 capability.  According to the decals "technically" only the 2 test/eval schemes carried the 120s.  One of the late schemes (81b) might be "close enough" to me since I'd rather build a service jet rather than a test/eval.  We'll see.

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  • helios16v changed the title to Because I'm Stoopid (Build #2) - Norm 81 Luftwaffe F-4F

Couldn't resist trimming out the fuselage to confirm if the Academy exhausts were going to be a go or not.  Looks like we are good to go!  That saves $30.  :thumbsup:  Also built up the seats to see what they looked like.  Going to do a little more to them before I pass final judgement, but for a kit from the '80s they certainly aren't too bad.  Resin seats are pretty cheap though, so we'll see.

 

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Excellent. I hoped you’d chosen this one originally. I take it that the Hasegawa exhausts are not very good? Too short perhaps? Are you using FOD guards for the intakes?

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19 minutes ago, Filler said:

Excellent. I hoped you’d chosen this one originally. I take it that the Hasegawa exhausts are not very good? Too short perhaps? Are you using FOD guards for the intakes?

 

The Hase exhausts are a bit shorter, but the biggest thing is the sidewalls of the exhausts are perfectly smooth.  The Academy pipes are a little deeper, the barrels have internal details, and the turbine end is separate which will make painting easier.  That's an affermative on the FOD covers.  Seems like the easiest solution to the shallow, blank intakes.  Possibly look into doing RBF flags for the weapons to kind of tie it all together.  I still need to track them down though, the supplier I ordered my paint from this afternoon was out of stock on them...at least the resin ones.  They had some Eduard PE ones, but they were more money and will take a fair bit more fiddling around to assemble...so I'd rather find a set of the resin if I can.  I've still got another place stateside to check as well as 48ers.  It'll be awhile before I'm ready for that that anyways.

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If you want a little bit of dramatic red here and there to go with the intake blanks, there's any number of bungs and blanks available. Including the pitots, come to think of it.

 

That reminds me of an 'I learned about servicing from that' story in an Air Clues magazine years ago. It seemed that a Phantom was getting uncommanded pitch ups in flight consistent with a blocked pitot but it couldn't be reproduced on the ground. Eventually the engineers dismantled the pipes in the fin and found a big fat spider nested in there. They concluded that at altitude, she swelled up just enough to block the pipe. An unusual foreign object!

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4 hours ago, helios16v said:

Couldn't resist trimming out the fuselage to confirm if the Academy exhausts were going to be a go or not.  Looks like we are good to go!  That saves $30.  :thumbsup:  Also built up the seats to see what they looked like.  Going to do a little more to them before I pass final judgement, but for a kit from the '80s they certainly aren't too bad.  Resin seats are pretty cheap though, so we'll see.

 

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Oooooo you were lucky there with those Academy cans............. try doing that with the Zoukei-Mura ones!!!!  I did and really nasty! 

 

I told you you/d like/love the MRP stuff!!  Now you've both that I can let you into a wee secret..... Ak's Real Colors have sets of paint for all the modern era Luftwaffe schemes!

 

https://ak-interactive.com/product-category/paints/ak-real-colors/?pa_prod=rc-modern,rc-air&pa_army=germany&pa_product-pack-units=product-pack-set

 

They are proper lacquer paints like MRP, but are super thick so you need to this to suit, They have their own Universal thinners, but Tamiya's Cream Cap Lacquer thinners work just as nicely. Goes on just like MRP (if you thin it right), finish is just as good, super tough finish as well. Plus the nice thing is it's about 1/3rd the price (here anyway).

 

Either ay, going lacquer is the only way to go, super thin layers and an awesome finish......plus normal Tamiya acrylic work perfectly as a base primer. 

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3 hours ago, trickyrich said:

 

I told you you/d like/love the MRP stuff!!  Now you've both that I can let you into a wee secret..... Ak's Real Colors have sets of paint for all the modern era Luftwaffe schemes!

 

https://ak-interactive.com/product-category/paints/ak-real-colors/?pa_prod=rc-modern,rc-air&pa_army=germany&pa_product-pack-units=product-pack-set

 

They are proper lacquer paints like MRP, but are super thick so you need to this to suit, They have their own Universal thinners, but Tamiya's Cream Cap Lacquer thinners work just as nicely. Goes on just like MRP (if you thin it right), finish is just as good, super tough finish as well. Plus the nice thing is it's about 1/3rd the price (here anyway).


Good thing they don’t have Norm 81 set.  since I’ve already ordered the paint.  :P

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2 hours ago, helios16v said:


Good thing they don’t have Norm 81 set.  since I’ve already ordered the paint.  :P

Weeeeeell, Norm 81 only means that the F-4 was painted in those colours starting 1981. So you could actually use three out of four paints from set RCS065 MARINEFLIEGER NORM 76 AND 87 SCHEMES

and additionally RC213 RAL7030, RC216 RAL 7037 and RC215 RAL7037 😁

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18 hours ago, helios16v said:

converting to MRP for external paint

 

This is the first time I've heard of MRP as opposed to Mr Hobby. Are they the same manufacturer? They appear to be airbrush ready as opposed to needing thinner, do you know if they are brushable?

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2 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

This is the first time I've heard of MRP as opposed to Mr Hobby. Are they the same manufacturer? They appear to be airbrush ready as opposed to needing thinner, do you know if they are brushable?

 

They definitely don't brush very well with how thin they are.  You can probably get away w/ small touchups w/ multiple applications, but I certainly wouldn't want to try covering anything of any area.

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Woke up this morning w/ an itch to see if I could get the kit seats to the point I'd be ok with them, as they had a fair start out of the box.  Added belts, grab handle, and a small detail on the right side of the seat.  I think these will pass off as good enough for me.

 

Before & after primer.

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3 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

This is the first time I've heard of MRP as opposed to Mr Hobby. Are they the same manufacturer? They appear to be airbrush ready as opposed to needing thinner, do you know if they are brushable?

No...different manufacturers.

 

Here's the link to MRP https://mrpaint.sk/ 

Ordered several times directly from them and the paints arrived quickly...well, at least at the mainland. Don't know how it works with the UK nowadays 

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4 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

They appear to be airbrush ready as opposed to needing thinner, do you know if they are brushable?

 

Hmmm I've tried painting these with a brush, and it don't work very well at all, maybe tiny touchup spots, and then it all depends on the colour, they really are airbrush only paints. Even with airbrushing they are a bit different to what most people are use to. It takes a wee bit of adjusting, but the final results are more than worth the effort.

 

 

Nice job on those bang seats!!!  :thumbsup: 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Seats are done except for a final wash.  Sorry for the duplicate post...but didn't make any sense to waste Flickr space on 2 files of pretty much the same thing.  I'll probably try to do the wash tomorrow after the paint has an opportunity to dry for 24 hours.

 

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Started some work on the cockpit last night.  It's definitely a much simpler construction.  :D  I think it will look ok in the end though.  A lot of the little stuff gets buried in the cockpit of this bird.  Though I might scratch build some throttle quadrants... :hmmm:

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4 hours ago, Filler said:

Those seats are awesome. Is that tin foil you've used for the belts? The painting is sublime!

 

Sort of.  It's an aluminum HVAC tape.  The simplicity of masking tape combined with the sculptability (actually more so) of PE.  It's been my go to since I experimented with it earlier this year.

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Got the cockpit finished up after another decal session on the F-100.  Scratched a couple throttle quadrants.  The don't look so pretty out in the open like this, but should look fine nestled down in the cockpit.  Much better than nothing.  :D

 

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