Robin Olds 'Fighter Pilot' - Hobby 2000 1/72 F-4C. +++ FINISHED +++

[Thom216]

1 hour ago, giemme said:

The inner side of the Aux intake doors was red, just like the air brakes. The inner of the Aux intake itself,  no clue - but that's really invisible; I'go with a dark metallic hue and a black wash.

 

Underside looking neat after the touch ups

 

Ciao 

Doing the same. Dark aluminum with a dark wash and red on the inside of the doors.

 

 

[Johnson]

2 hours ago, giemme said:

The inner of the Aux intake itself,  no clue - but that's really invisible; I'go with a dark metallic hue and a black wash.

 

Underside looking neat after the touch ups

 

32 minutes ago, Thom216 said:

Doing the same. Dark aluminum with a dark wash and red on the inside of the doors

Thanks Giorgio and Thom, good advice.

[Alan P]

13 hours ago, giemme said:

The inner of the Aux intake itself,  no clue - but that's really invisible

It was interior green, the primer colour

 

Keep going Charlie, I'll race you to the deadline!

[Johnson]

1 hour ago, Alan P said:

It was interior green, the primer colour

Brilliant, thanks Alan!

 

1 hour ago, Alan P said:

I'll race you to the deadline!

Which, for me, is next Thursday! See what I can do.

 

Cheers,

[DaveJL]

Looking good mate!

[bentwaters81tfw]

That's looking really good.

 

A general tip for you if you do SEA or Euro 1 again - the USAF airframe painters always sprayed the whole airframe the darkest colour first, then the lighter shades followed.

I know it seems counter intuitive, but that's what they do. We have an ex USAFE painter at our club. It's the same with figures, always lighter over darker.

 

[Johnson]

12 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

the USAF airframe painters always sprayed the whole airframe the darkest colour first, then the lighter shades followed.

 

Thanks @bentwaters81tfw, useful to know. And I do have more SEA Phantoms in the pipeline.

 

What I found it difficult to decide was whether to actually spray the whole model with the first colour, then add the later colors with masking. It can produce a better result and is easier (less masking). But with this kit where the panel lines are very fine (old Hasegawa moulds?) I was worried about losing the surface detail.

 

I shall follow the USAF painters with the next build.

 

Cheers,

[Alan P]

On 11/12/2021 at 11:51 AM, Johnson said:

I shall follow the USAF painters with the next build.

It might be that way for the 1:1 USAF paint shop, but I reckon it's better to start with the lightest colour first for a model. Just saying 😉 The only time it works for me starting darkest colour first is for a mostly monochrome finish, like the B-1B:

But hey! Whatever works. The day we stop experimenting with this hobby is a sad one indeed....

 

[Johnson]

Nearly there with the painting. radome and the thing underneath (the thing underneath actually housed two strike cameras on this F-4C, apparently quite unique in the SEA theatre).

 

Alclad for the jet exhaust area and elevators. Aluminium, Steel and Jet Exhaust. I love Alclad!

 

 

The Aires jet exhausts aren't cheap, but much better than the kit parts. Painted with Mr Surfacer 1500 black base, Alclad dark alumnium, jet exhaust and very light dry brushing with aluminium. I think the detail is too small for the effort, but I enjoyed doing it.

 

 

I think, from looking up the exhausts of various real aircraft (we all have our weaknesses) that the whole area should be much more flat (or matt). Any opinions?

 

Final bit of camo painting, Col Olds' F-4C was re-sprayed around the cockpit area and on the intakes with fresh paint;

 

So this is where I am;

 

I'll get on with a Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles this evening. And hopefully, decals tomorrow! Whoopee! 

[Dansk]

Looks great charlie. love that nose repaint detail (clever with your cutout too).

The cans look great under the final matt coat they’ll look perfect I think.

[Dansk]

Hey, p.s. charlie

I gave my nozzles a black panel line wash after a protective gloss coat. It gave them a little extra depth, could be fun to consider.

 

[Johnson]

1 minute ago, Dansk said:

I gave my nozzles a black panel line wash after a protective gloss coat. It gave them a little extra depth, could be fun to consider.

I'll try that, it was what I was trying at achieve. Thanks Paul.

[Dansk]

Cool. I also rubbed the side of a regular graphite pencil’s nib against the nozzles all over stroking the higher relief areas. A poor mans dry brushing i guess. It didn’t do much but maybe just subtly it accentuated the higher points with a little sheen. Give that a go too charlie see if you get stronger results than me. It takes seconds but maybe adds a a little touch of depth.

[Johnson]

I'm now ready to start the decals. But I'm faced with a bit of a dilemma. Whether to do stencils on the top of the wings.

 

The Hobby 2000 instructions/decals include stencils on the wing tops;

 

 

But I've been using the excellent and very well researched Fundekals guide (available on their website) which suggests that many of the stencils on the tops of the wings were not reapplied when the SEA camo was later painted over the factory grey/white scheme at Clark Field AFB.

 

 

 

This would save me a lot of work. But I'm wondering why the stencils would have been omitted from the wings when some (not all - so Fundekals may have a point) were applied to the fuselage? Fundekals admit that the wing top scheme is fairly speculative due to the lack of corroborating photos. I believe that @Jennings Heilig did the research on the Fundekals Op Bolo decals, possibly if he reads this he might be able to comment? And @Gene K who has tremendous experience with operational USAF Phantoms may have a view? Any guidance, before I leave them off forever, would be much appreciated.

 

Cheers,

 

 

[Alan P]

Stencils weren't always reapplied following depot paint jobs, but panel numbers would have been. In this case, the available evidence points to fewer stencils than the factory finished versions.

 

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, I guess you get to do whatever you want! But if Gene can set you straight, it's probably worth waiting, but I wouldn't lose sleep over it 👍

[Johnson]

Thanks Alan, good advice. It's hard to be objective about it when I'm working on the model and an independent opinion is very welcome!

 

2 hours ago, Alan P said:

but I wouldn't lose sleep over it

 

No time for sleep!  Too many bloomin' stencils! Deadlines approaching! I've been decaling the underside all afternoon and only about half way through.

 

  Oops, what was I saying? nodded off again... 

 

Cheers,

[Johnson]

Just about done the underside decals, only the National Insignia which I'll leave until better daylight and less knackered eyes.

 

 

There were very few stencil decals with the Hobby 2000 kit. These are almost all from the Print Scale Phantom Technical Stencils sheet. They're OK, but not as well printed as say Cartograf and they're incredibly thin, a bit like Techmod decals, so getting them off the backing sheet without them folding up is a bit of a challenge, then moving them on the model. the best way is plenty of water and then Microsol which helps them to move. Topside decals tomorrow, thankfully not quite as many.

 

Any comments, advice (like the essential decal I missed) much appreciated.

 

Cheers,

 

 

[giemme]

Almost there Charlie, keep going!  

 

Ciao

[Johnson]

Hi Pholks (you can get away with this once or twice I reckon),

 

The model really starts to come alive when the decals go on. And it's something I find both enjoyable and stressful at the same time, I always manage to mis-position something, in this case it was the SCAT XXVII decals which should have been about 0.1mm to the right. The sort of thing only I could worry about. And why do I notice when it's just too late to do anything about it?!

 

There were, according to Fundecals (Mr Heilig I believe, who is banned! No wonder he didn't get back to me) whose research seems very good (there are a couple of things I disagree about) very few stencils on the upper surfaces that were repainted in SEA camo at Clark Field. Gene K. agrees with this, which is certainly good enough for me! But it is clear from available photos that the little lifting 'hook' stencils were present on the fuselage, and painted black. All my 'hook' decals were yellow . It was quite a bit of work, and a reason why I'm still in danger even with the later finish date, but I had to have these black hook decals.

 

The solution; scan some yellow ones, change them to black in Paint Shop Pro (poor man's Photoshop) and print them on decal paper;

 

Hey Presto! 

 

Actually, it took a bit longer than 'Hey Presto' (my magic is rusty) and I then had to seal them with clear gloss acrylic. But happy with the results. I didn't need that many, just printed them in different sizes.

 

This is where I've got to. I'll do more decals tomorrow when at least I can get them in the wrong position in daylight.

 

Cheers,

 

[Dansk]

Nice Charlie, like your ingenuity and attention to detail.

We’ve got until the 28th as I understand now so you shouldn’t be too stressed for time.

 

[Johnson]

Nearly there! Everything's painted except the canopy. Flat coat tomorrow.

 

 

Been pretty busy, so more pics tomorrow.

 

Cheers,

[Alan P]

Getting closer now! Keep it up

[Johnson]

Here are some of the reasons why, the day before the GB ends, I'm still trying to get this build finished...

 

Eduard's beautiful AIM7E Sparrows and AIM9B Sidewinders. Each is a little kit in it's own right. In the old days I could have built and finished (badly) an Airfix Spitfire IX in the time each one took to complete. And that's before I got involved and made things even more complicated, cutting off the wrong fin on a Sparrow!

 

 

The Sparrows didn't come with the correct markings for Vietnam era F-4s. But I have waiting in the stash (for a F-4D build) the Fine Molds missile set #2 that has AIM7Es and does have the correct markings. I scanned the FM decals and printed them on Mr Decal Paper, sealed with gloss acrylic. With a white background on the missile they went on fine, but oh-so fiddly! Each one having to be cut to miss the bumps on the Sparrow's sides.

 

The sidewinder's front lens is a mix of very old Humbrol 11 'silver' (which is nothing like the modern stuff, it has a lovely chrome gloss to it) mixed with gloss black. I made a small/thin puddle of 'the mix' on a sheet of glass and dipped the end of the missile nose in which gave just the effect I wanted.

 

Right, out with the pooch for a quick bracing walk (bit windy here in the west of England) and then on with the F-4C.

 

Cheers,

[Dansk]

Very very nice job on those charlie. They look awesome.

It’s good you know your stuff for accuracy.

[Johnson]

-10 hours Update...

 

This is like hanging a Christmas Tree, so much stuff to hang on a Phantom;

 

 

Drop tanks and front u/c covers to go (still being painted/decaled). Canopies are painted and need attaching. Lots of little aerials (RHAW antenna etc) to find, paint stick on.

 

I don't envisage much rest today, but hopefully something will appear in the gallery.

 

Cheers,