Lovebug

[David H]

15 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

How the heck did I miss this one? Wow, this is just fantastic. I knew the Tamiya Phantom was top notch, but you've taken it to another level. Beautiful paint and detail work. I love it!     👍   👍   👍   👍

 

Cheers,

Bill

I was deeply engrossed in the VC10 build. Then the RFI after action report when i finished it.... and then came the much anticipated sequel, "IRON DUCK II- The Quickening".

I reluctantly concluded that if i didn't get back to LOVEBUG, it would never get finished. So there you have it.

-d-

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

I'm another who missed this, nice to see it back on the bench David. I am loving the attention to detail and detail you are adding.

[Covjets13]

Really enjoying this build, and looking forward to the next instalment 👍👍👍

[David H]

So, then we got serious about painting.

Since i was trying to do a authentically dirty Marine Corps bird, i changed up my technique for painting by building up the gloss white undersides in a decidedly uneven pattern.

Unlike MAC or Lancome, we're not going for 100% flawless coverage here.

I kind of said, "Overspray Be Damned", so i *will* need to revisit the wheel wells at some point and clean things up a bit.

With the white roughed in, it was time to do the Light Gull Gray.

I departed from my normal doctrine of using Mr Color H315, and this time i mixed up batches of Light Gull Grey based on mixing formulae i found over at Replikator.com.

It takes a while to build up the coverage, but the finish itself is velvety-smooth (is that an acceptable adjective?).

And then came the second pass.

Tune in next time, when we mask and paint the non-skid walkway areas.

Until then... i'ts buh-bye from him, and it's good bye from Him!

[David H]

Time to address the non-skid areas.

These came in 2 variants: One, a Dark Gull Grey colour, and the other in Black. Some early F-4Bs didn't have the walkways on the fuselage at all.

The actual shape of the wing walkways follows the front and intermediate spar lines, and due to variations between kit manufacturers, decals for these things often don't line up with the kit panel lines.

To address this, i prefer to paint my walkways on. Admittedly it takes longer, but obviously it gives me more control over the final shape.

 

The walkways on the wings were not too difficult to put on...

The walkways on the fuselage shoulders got off to a good start, but i went overboard on the fading and had to re-do them.

So last night after hitting the pub, i re-masked the fuselage walkways and sprayed them this morning.

and then..... SUCCESS!

<does happy dance...>

Up Next:

The Corogard Leading Edges.

Or, the White Flaps.

Or, the Radome.

Oh... i don't know...

 

Edited August 30, 2022 by David H
correction of minor typographical errors and slight editing for length.

[David H]

So, time to do the Corogard.

Working from the easiest to the most difficult, starting off with the outer wing leading edges.

 

[phildagreek]

Superb amount of skill & effort here, this is going to be stunning!

[Navy Bird]

Nice work. I always found the lips of the intakes the most "fun" in Corogard land. To compound such fun, I work in 1:72 scale.   

 

Cheers,

Bill

[David H]

3 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

Nice work. I always found the lips of the intakes the most "fun" in Corogard land. To compound such fun, I work in 1:72 scale.   

 

Cheers,

Bill

<said in Christopher Walken voice>

Yes, i agree that the intake lips are challenging, which is why i think i will clean up some places on the white, before i execute on those.

[David H]

Minor Update: Got the inboard leading edges done.

It's really a lot easier the break the task down into two separate jobs. Not sure if i'll do the intake lips next, or something else.

Fly Navy! OOO-Rah!!

[David H]

Well, this weekend i buckled down and tended to some tedious detail painting.

Partly, striking off some small details that Tamiya plants as "Easter Eggs" in the assembly steps- Inboard flaps, fuel dump tubes, inboard flap edges, etc.

And that bugaboo that all Phantom modelers must contend with: What McDonnell called the "Expansion Surface", but what is colloquially known in the trade as the "Grasshopper Butt"

Some people go nuts with all sort of exotic metallic paint products and shades, but for me this is a region more meant to be endured than enjoyed. Since this was my first Tamiya F-4B build, and since their recommended paint mixes are often as spot on as they're way off i thought i'd try their recommended colours for the bare metal regions. Only difference being that i used the LP colour equivalents to the X and XF colour callouts.

The Tamiya LP metallic paints so far have worked well. Some colours have a little bit of a "grain" to them, but LP-11 silver is not one of them. Like with most metallic finishes i've used. Single action internal mix Badger airbrushes don't like them, but they shoot through a dual action Iwata just fine.

The grasshopper butt was primed with Tamiya Semigloss Black acrylic as a base coat and since it was thinned with MLT, there were no apparent compatibility problems with laying the Tamiya lacquers over them. No issues with lifting so far, either.

In case you forgot, The tailplane and cradle/bearing structure was painted a while back....

And at some point, i'm gonna have to ruin all that meticulous masking and paintwork with boatloads of exhaust soot.

Life is unfair.

[Autle]

Easily one of the best works in progress I've seen on any site. Amazing work and great to follow.

[David H]

3 hours ago, Autle said:

Easily one of the best works in progress I've seen on any site. Amazing work and great to follow.

Thanks, Bro/ Cheers, Mate 😀

[David H]

<said in Christopher Walken voice>

Hello, Kids. Are you seated comfortably? Then i'll begin.....

Today, we complete the somewhat haphazard approach to painting the back end, and i assemble and paint the first Afterburner nozzle.

One of my first discoveries, is that choosing to use an undercoat- or not- will have an effect on the appearance and tone of the subsequent bare metal finish.

The lighter section, the tailplane cradle, was painted long ago. It was merely Tamiya LP applied over the bare, but sanded plastic.

We turn next to the assembly and painting of Nozzle number one.

In terms of the engineering and fit....Woww!

Having built up the first one, the toughest part i'd say is carefully cutting the nozzle segments off the sprue and cleaning them up. The attachment of the sprue lands are at some kooky angles; using a sprue cutters is a bit clumsy. In my case,  i carefully cut each sprue land using a JLC saw,  clipping away sprue as i went along, in order to get it out of the way.

The mating surfaces need minimal cleanup. After the insides are painted, they slot into place. It helps to use small pieces of Tamiya tape on the outside to hold each segment in place (there are 6), as you insert them. Once the last two pieces are inserted, they don't need tape.

The last insert is a snap fit, holding all the other segments in place correctly. Once they were all butted against the front of the Afterburner can, i applied liquid cement to the joints.

After drying overnite, i wet sanded the outside using a wet 1000 grit sponge, and painted the flaps with Model Master Metalizer, non buffing burnt iron. Next, i applied masks to the burnt iron segments in between the nozzle flaps. These came from New Ware Models.

 

When this was done, the can exterior was painted overall with Tamiya LP-61, Metallic Grey.

 

The masks were then removed, and i drybrushed the nozzle flaps with Metalizer Dark Anodonic Grey (Buffing).

 

After that, i applied a wash of Tamiya Flat Black thinned with water. I applied this to the inside of the nozzle flaps as well.

Finally, i tried drybrushing again with a couple of different shades of Metalizer. However, in the end the only colour that seemed to work was the Dark Anodonic Grey (again).

I'll let the photographs here speak for themselves.

 

I've installed the tailplane solely for illustrative purposes..... because it looks cool.

With the painting of the afterburner nozzles worked out, i can turn to the painting of nozzle number two, and that will almost do it for the back end of the LOVEBUG.

As Lee likes to say, Keep your knots up and your powder dry.

 

[David H]

Another update on LOVEBUG, coming next week.

[David H]

Hi Everybody.

 

Work has progressed slowly on LOVEBUG for the last few weeks, partly because i've been distracted by these other projects running simultaneously...

Buccaneer 2- Hansen's Revenge...

 

 

And then there's Weinel's Whale....

 

Having just come off masking the A3D canopy, i finally mounted the rear instrument panel, canopy deck and front instrument panel cover with the gunsight.

 

With that, i could finally install the windscreen.

i first removed the masking from the windscreen, inside and out. Next, i took the NewWare mask material that surrounded the center windscreen pane mask, and carefully laid that on the inside of the windscreen.

Next, i created a mix of Mr Super Clear UVCut, tinted with one part X23 Clear Blue and one part X25 Clear Green. This mix was then thinned down considerably and carefully sprayed on the inner center windscreen pane. Once i had the degree of tint i wanted, i carpet bombed it with MLT and set it aside to dry. I then polished this down with a Q-Tip and Novus No. 2 polish.

The hardest part of this whole evolution is keeping the center pane clear of any stray Q-tip fibres or contaminants landing on the pane while you're spraying it. I got some junk on the pane the first time, and after polishing it, it wouldn't come out. I removed most of the tint with a Q-tip and some MLT and repeated the process. Second iteration came out better, though not perfect.

The masking was removed and i then applied liquid carnuba wax to the insides of the windscreen, being careful to avoid the flat black interior framework. I use a flat, 1/8" wide brush that i make soft and pliable by holding under hot running water.

When dried, i polished away the dried wax with another Q-tip and inspected it for any remaining wax "crumbs".

Finally, I glued the windscreen in place using Mig AMMO white acrylic glue. I applied the glue along the fuselage mating surfaces (badly) with a small brush. Next, i placed the windscreen in position, trying hard to avoid any unwanted overhang (The F-14 was still very fresh in my mind) along the longitudinal mating surfaces.

I then took a wet paintbrush and rinsed away the excess "ooze" that came out along the joints, wiping away the excess with a Q-Tip and a tissue.

Finally, i secured the windscreen in place with strips of Tamiya tape while i waited for everything to dry and set up.

 

And now, a few words about the windscreen.

Tamiya introduced this method of installing windscreens on their previous F-14 Tomcat kit and by all accounts it has performed brilliantly. The same can be said for the windscreen on the Phantom. Actually, the first folks to adopt this approach on the F-4 was Airfix, who came up with several interesting innovations in parts breakdown that i'm sure Tamiya looked at.

Bottom line is, it's the only way to go with something like this, and honestly i'm surprised people like ZM, FineMolds and Meng are still doing this part "The Old Way".

 

However, there is one sticking point that makes this scenario one step short of Unicorns and Skittles.

That is the front end of the windscreen piece. I had a significant gap as well as a step around much of the radome, the worst of which is on the upper part. I tried to fill the gap with slivvers of .005 and .010 styrene, but i was still left with some discontinuities that you can see in the photos. Fixing those comes next.

Now, in all fairness to Tamiya, what we have here are 5 (yes, 5) pieces that are all coming together in one place, and to expect all of these to fit perfectly might be asking a little too much.

It might be operator error, it might not be. Other people that have built the kit will make that determination.

Anyway, next step is to re-mask the windscreen, clean up the joints a little bit, and repaint.

 

Until next time, thanks for shopping.

 

-d-

[F-104 nut]

Great work as usual my fiend 😀

[Jens]

4 hours ago, David H said:

However, there is one sticking point that makes this scenario one step short of Unicorns and Skittles.

That is the front end of the windscreen piece. I had a significant gap as well as a step around much of the radome, the worst of which is on the upper part. I tried to fill the gap with slivvers of .005 and .010 styrene, but i was still left with some discontinuities that you can see in the photos. Fixing those comes next.

Now, in all fairness to Tamiya, what we have here are 5 (yes, 5) pieces that are all coming together in one place, and to expect all of these to fit perfectly might be asking a little too much.

It might be operator error, it might not be. Other people that have built the kit will make that determination.

 

The small gap is most likely caused by the ridge in the fuselage parts. The fuselage seam goes right through that ridge, and any small excess glue or melted plastic will push the windscreen part aft. I simply enlarged the ridge on my kits, and the radome-to-windscreen fit is next to excellent now.

 

Jens

[k5054nz]

What's the significance of "Lovebug"? Was it the name worn by the subject aircraft?

[David H]

1 hour ago, k5054nz said:

What's the significance of "Lovebug"? Was it the name worn by the subject aircraft?

VMFA-115 used several call signs, the most commonly used one being "BLADE", but Lee also said they used "LOVEBUG" when flying close air support missions.

Ties in with the Walt Disney movies of the time, too.

[k5054nz]

Ah, that's very cool!

[David H]

Fast Forward to February, 2023.

In between painting and decaling my A3D, and constructing the fiddly bits for the Buccaneer, i finished up the stripes, troubleshot and fixed the pointy end.

Now the long slog that all Phantom builders know and loathe, is upon us...

Decaling of the Mighty LOVEBUG begins.

This is gonna take a while.

More to Come...

[David H]

Well Sports Fans, we're 30 decals in with no end in sight...

The decaling will continue until morale improves.

[Navy Bird]

Stencils are my life.    

 

Cheers,

Bill

[ruudster]

Great work Dave!

Stencils receive their payment in your time... but they are worth it!