Retro Norm 81 F-4F Phantom II, Hasegawa 1/48th

[Mark V]

After completing my 2 RAF Phantoms, my next project is the continental version, the Luftwaffe F-4F in the Norm 81 camo from the 1980's.  I remember seeing a few of these jets live and in person when I visited Pferdsfeld and Neuburg an der Donau Airbases. 

The Neuburg visit was an unscheduled 3 day stay when the F-4E I was in, as the backseater (WSO), had a hydraulic failure in-flight.  This was about July/August 1984.  We lost our Utility Hydraulic system when a leading edge slat line ruptured during a manuever.  Loss of Utility Hydraulics disables the wheel brakes and nose wheel steering, making landing a little sporty. Neuburg was the closest base so we landed there, taking the approach end cable to stop.  It took a few days for our own maintenance troops to get there and make the repairs.  My pilot and I hung out with the "Zapatas", JG 74's 2nd squadron, waiting for the jet to get fixed.  Since this was on my first mission qualification check ride, which we flew as if it was a wartime sortie, neither my pilot nor I had very much money with us.  The German squadron was very welcoming and provided us free meals during the day from their exceptional kitchen.  (I always envied the Luftwaffe for their in-squadron kitchens.)  There was also a USAF Major on an exchange tour with the squadron that gave us some money to go into town for dinner.  After we returned to Spangdahlem we completed the check ride debriefing and passed with good reviews.  

I went to Pferdsfeld a couple of times for what were scheduled as "Ample Gain" sorties.  For Ample Gain, NATO jets would visit other NATO airbases so that the host base personnel could gain experience servicing, and sometimes arming, other NATO jets.  Of course, Pferdsfeld was an F-4 base so not really dissimilar aircraft to them.  My usual pilot had lived in France for a while before his USAF time and was fluent in French. He liked to go to Colmar AB, France and anytime the schedule called for a trip there he volunteered.  Although not technically NATO, it was always an enjoyable visit.  The French aircrew would always offer wine to go with our lunch, but we had to kindly refuse.  We also went to either Kleine Brogel or Florennes, Belgium (I forgot which one, whichever had Mirage Vs at the time, 1985/86).  That was during an exercise (wargames) so we parked, got into a van and were driven to the squadron building.  We had a forgettable lunch, then back to the jet and headed back to Spang.  Good times...

The point of my rambling memories, other than to validate to myself that I still have the memories, is that when I saw the Norm 81 F-4Fs, I thought they looked really cool.  So after almost 40 years, here we go.

 

The kit is the old Hasegawa 1/48th kit.  It's the original F-4E kit with unslotted stabilators substituted for the slotted ones.  I bought it second hand with a damaged box.  The upper left wing was cracked and the center canopy section was broken in half.  It also had a set of engraved panel line intakes loose in the box as well as the raised panel line intakes on the sprues.  I don't know if the seller had put those in or if the kit came with them.  I also had a spare True Details cockpit set that I'll throw in.

 

Here's my current to-build pile of Phantoms.  Along with a spread of aftermarket, mostly for the Hasegawa kits.

 

I have plans for almost all of the aftermarket, i.e., which parts go with which kit.  I'll probably have some leftovers when the kits are built, eventually.

[Winded Penguin]

Insider Knowledge, a stash of AM and multiple kits here. Lovely start to the thread in my book.

You have enough distraction here to disappear for a whole year during the forthcoming promised apocalypse,

and emerge post-event absolutely none the wiser that it ever happened 😉

[Mark V]

 

 

I ordered the Caracal decals as soon as they were available, a few years ago.  I think that they are sold out now.  Definitely required since the Hasegawa kit decals are usually poor.  In this case, the kit decals were not even in the box.  

 

I started the kit last week, modifying the fuselage to accept the True Details cockpit.  After putting the Aires cockpit in my last FGR.2 build, I was expecting this one to be just as tough.  It actually wasn't as bad.  The detail in the TD resin is mostly very good.  Not quite as sharp and clean as Aires but is better detailed in some areas.  The TD fits better than the Aires.  In fact, I removed too much of the base of the cockpit and had to shim it up to fit correctly.  

Here is the packaging for the cockpit.  I am on the "new" Squadron email list and the latest said that the True Details line will be resurrected.  No details on what parts exactly, from the previously extensive list.  Hopefully they will bring back this cockpit set.  It's not bad.  (Old Squadron went bankrupt a couple of years ago.)

 

One negative on the cockpit set are the instructions.  Not that Aires is great in this regard either.  It seems the TD instructions do not match the parts.  Somewhat confusing but if you study the parts and have good references it should be easy enough to figure out what goes where.

 

Here are the painted cockpit parts ready to be placed into the fuselage.  Of particular note are the cockpit rear wall details.  These are the most detailed that I have ever seen in a model.  I am planning on building one of the E model kits as a QF-4E drone with the aft seat removed.  I'll need to find another TD set just for the rear bulkhead details. 

 

 

I really butchered the underside of the cockpit tub.  I expected it to be like the Aires where I would be sanding the bottom to translucency.  Wrong.  To get it to fit correctly I had to shim it up with sheet plastic and cut sprue.  No modifications to the nose gear well.  The rear bulkhead sides were a little wide so had to be sanded down to close the fuselage.

 

 

The forward IP glareshield and gunsight part required sheet plastic supports on either side to hold it in place.  You can see the white peeking out under the glareshield.  I didn't paint the entire cockpit floor since the seats will fill in the aft parts of the floor.  I will have to highlight the cables forward of the rear IP a bit more.  They kind of disappear in the picture, but the detail is really nice.  There is no detail on the aft deck, behind the rear seat headrest.  Once the canopy is in place, detail in this area isn't critical for me.

 

Next up is to glue the fuselage halves together, then start the fill, sand, rescribe routine.

 

[Mark V]

One last thing for today -

 

I copied this color chart for somewhere on the web, maybe here on BM?

 

 

I'm trying to figure out what paints to use for the RAL colors used in the Norm 81 scheme.  I see that there is a Hataka modern Luftwaffe set that includes all of them, but I'm not sure that I want to spend another $40 on a paint set.  I have so many other paints, there has to be something close enough.  I have a bunch of US Federal Standard grays, and some UK BSC colors from the FGR.2 builds.  Does anyone have a conversion for RAL to FS or BSC codes?  I searched the web for a few hours last week with no joy.  

[Greg B]

I can’t help with the RAL colours, I’ve been trying to work out the matches myself and ended up getting the MRP paints. However Little Shop of Phantoms recently pushed out a NORM 81 sheet that is exceptional. The instructions might fill a few gaps for you, they have made them downloadable as well which is even better - Link

 

https://shopofphantoms.com/rhino/Pulsar/en_US.Shop.displayShop.8964./hopd-48002-luftwaffe-f-4f-norm-81

 

The NORM 81 scheme has long been a favourite of mine. I was lucky enough to see the repainted airframes shortly before the types retirement from Luftwaffe. Roll on the ZM F-4F that will be going straight to the front of the build pile. The Hasegawa kit is great but having built the Academy, ZM and just finishing off the Tamiya B, it’s now been truly eclipsed.

[janneman36]

Hereby a linky to a site were you can put in the ral color (in this case ral7039) and get the FS equivalent and BS numbers.

Just scrol down the list to see all paints.

https://www.e-paint.co.uk/colour-alternatives.asp?cRange=RAL+Classic&cRef=RAL+7039&cDescription=Quartz+grey

 

The shop of phantom decals and the instructions are gorgeous and a great reference.

Those FS colors will be mostly not the same as RAL as it is still a different colors range.

I invested in a colorset from Hataka and I didn’t regret it.

 

good luck, Jan

[Mark V]

18 hours ago, Greg B said:

I can’t help with the RAL colours, I’ve been trying to work out the matches myself and ended up getting the MRP paints. However Little Shop of Phantoms recently pushed out a NORM 81 sheet that is exceptional. The instructions might fill a few gaps for you, they have made them downloadable as well which is even better - Link

 

https://shopofphantoms.com/rhino/Pulsar/en_US.Shop.displayShop.8964./hopd-48002-luftwaffe-f-4f-norm-81

 

The NORM 81 scheme has long been a favorite of mine. I was lucky enough to see the repainted airframes shortly before the types retirement from Luftwaffe. Roll on the ZM F-4F that will be going straight to the front of the build pile. The Hasegawa kit is great but having built the Academy, ZM and just finishing off the Tamiya B, it’s now been truly eclipsed.

Thanks for the link.  The Caracal painting and decal instructions are pretty good, but the Shop of Phantoms set is definitely an extensive reference.  I will be consulting it quite a bit.

I hope to get to the ZM S model next, then Tamiya.  I hope it doesn't spoil my taste for the Hasegawa kits.  So much aftermarket already purchased...  I did build one Academy F-4J.  Meh.  Better than the Hasegawa, mostly, but not enough to replace the kits already in the stash.

I did copy several photos of the Norm 81 38+33, repainted for retirement, from Airliners.net.  It looks strange being so clean.

Edited September 28, 2022 by Mark V
added comment

[Mark V]

17 hours ago, janneman36 said:

Hereby a linky to a site were you can put in the ral color (in this case ral7039) and get the FS equivalent and BS numbers.

Just scrol down the list to see all paints.

https://www.e-paint.co.uk/colour-alternatives.asp?cRange=RAL+Classic&cRef=RAL+7039&cDescription=Quartz+grey

 

The shop of phantom decals and the instructions are gorgeous and a great reference.

Those FS colors will be mostly not the same as RAL as it is still a different colors range.

I invested in a colorset from Hataka and I didn’t regret it.

 

good luck, Jan

Jan, awesome resource.  Thank you.  That's what I was searching for last week but couldn't find anything close.  I'm pretty sure that I have enough Testors Model Master enamels to put together a set of RAL-similar colors.  Might be mixing a little here and there, but nothing impossible.  I do like Hataka, but am being a cheapskate on this, I don't want to buy another paint set to use once.  

[Mark V]

I have spent the last few days airbrushing samples of my Testors Model Master enamels onto strips of white plastic card.  My compressor is slowly dying so I could only spray a few at a time before the compressor overheated.  Time for a replacement I guess...

Anyway, here is what I did.  

 

 

The colors in the photo are a bit off from how I see them live.  I think I have colors selected that look close to what I see in photos of the jets in the 1980s.

I think the WW2 RLM colors look about right (RLM 74/75/71), and I'll use the FS 36495 Light Gray as the base color (RAL7030 Steingrau)  and FS 36320 Medium Gray (RAL7039 Quartzgrau).  When I spray them on the model I'll try to do thin, light, coats to fade the colors together.  Otherwise I may have to do some color blending in the airbrush cup.  It will be an experiment to get it to look right.

My photo for the short list didn't come out too well so you'll have to trust me.  

Hopefully I'll get the fuselage together today, then get on with the build.

[bar side]

Anyone tried the Hataka set for a Luftwaffe F-4F?  
 

[Mark V]

Thanks for the heads up!  I love Hataka Orange Line lacquers.  The Hataka paints that I have used so far look great, color-wise, and lay down nice and smooth on the model.  My problem is that I have loads of Model Master enamels and am too cheap to spend $40 on another set of paints that I will barely use.  In the case of some of the colors it would be just a few drops in the airbrush cup.  Once the model is finished, these paints will go into the drawer to slowly solidify over the years.  May as well use what I have in hand.

[bar side]

Get that @Mark V I tend towards rattle cans but at £7 to £10 a can a set of Hataka at sub £20 posted looks a good deal.  Mind you by the time I get new decals I am looking at £30 when I already have paint & decals for Norm 72 splinter scheme.  Is it worth the expense?  This is my splinter camo RF-4

 

[Mark V]

Bar Side, that's a really sharp looking RF.  I totally understand your dilemma with buying new paints/decals.  I was briefly involved in a discussion last week, on another forum, concerning aftermarket ejection seats.  The new seats are MB Mk7s for the USAF and USN Phantoms.  They are 3D printed and look very nice.  However, I pointed out some errors and/or omissions with the parts.  At $20 or $30 for a set, I would expect perfection.  These were not perfect to my eye, and are not worth the cost considering other, less expensive and nearly as well detailed aftermarket is available.  One respondent stated that they only plan on building one model of a given aircraft type.  They would willingly pay big bucks for the kit, then that and more for new 3D printed aftermarket landing gear.  Implied in the response was additional purchase of 3D instrument panels, seats, engine exhausts, decals, etc.  To each his, or her, own. 

You can see at the top of this thread that I've collected a bit of aftermarket for my Hasegawa F-4s.  Other than decals I will try to build the ZM F-4S out of the box and may use the kit decals on the Tamiya F-4B to keep it 100% OOB.  I already have the paints required, if they don't dry out by the time that I need them.

Now back to the actual build of the F-4F.  Thanks for the comments!

[Mark V]

Progress.  I did some filling and sanding on the fuselage to get it ready to mate with the wings.  

 

 

I added a plastic card shim between the lower fuselage plates forward of the engine exhaust holes.  This spread the rear fuselage just enough to match to width of the rear wing/fuselage part.  I also sanded the forward mating surface of the wing to fuselage and intakes to get a smooth fit along the lower wing/fuselage seam.  I swabbed some flat black in the area of the Aux Air Doors to cover the bare plastic.  Once it's all done there's nothing to see in there anyway.

 

 

Before attaching the wings, I painted the interior of the Aux Air Doors flat red and the surrounding area flat black.  It's almost impossible for me to paint the inside of the doors red after the wings are attached.  I stick a piece of tape on the red and stuff some tissue into the hole when I paint the bottom of the model.

 

 

Wings are attached.  The horizontal stabs are just pushed into place.  They will be removed until the end of the build.

 

 

One of the left outer wing (right in the photo) slat actuators has broken off.  I will replace it once the slats are attached. I think it will be easier to glue both ends rather than one and risk knocking it off again later. 

A little more filler on the wing/fuselage joints.  Some scribing, and sanding, then paint.

Speaking of paint, here are the colors I have chosen.  All Testors Model Master enamels.  For the RAL 7035 Lichtgrau I will mix white with the FS 36495 to lighten it up.  

 

 

[phildagreek]

Looking good!

[Mark V]

After a couple of weeks of slow progress of fill, sand, wash, scribe, repeat, I finally got to the paint stage.  I studied many photos of Norm 81 Phantoms with a wide variation of finishes.  I settled on NORM 81A with a lightly feathered edge.  I discovered an error in my paint selection chips, shown in a previous post.  I had transposed a couple of colors.  I also swapped out a color.  Here is what I ended up using, all Testors Model Master enamels.  

 

 

The FS 36495 doesn't look as "tan" when on the model and adjacent to the other grays.  For the RAL 7035 Lichtgrau (not listed above) I added about 40% Testors flat white to the FS 36495.  It wasn't a huge color shift, but it's only used on the underside so it is acceptable to me.

 

 

 

 

I think the color choices look good.  This was a rather complicated scheme to mask up.  I didn't expect it to be that hard.  I'm not very good at freehand airbrushing so masks were required.  I used paper and masking tape.  I left the paper masks slightly loose for a bit of overspray edge.  For the masking tape I ran a length of sewing thread just under the edge to lift it slightly above the surface.  It worked for the most part to get the effect that I wanted.

 

Now I have to go back and do some touchups to the camo colors to correct some excess overspray and missed patches.  

 

One thing that I added to the kit was the gun gas purge door on the right upper forward fuselage, aft of the radome.  On the gun-nose F-4s this door is hydraulically opened when the gun is fired to use ram air to help clear the nose compartment of gun gases.  It also opens on the ground when hydraulic pressure is lost at engine shutdown.  I thought the Hasegawa kits included this, but not this kit.  I made one out of a piece of photo etch fret, cut and bent to make the part.  It's a fairly simple piece but took me a couple of tries to get it bent correctly.  

 

Hopefully I'll get the painting done this week and be ready for decals either later this week or next.

 

 

 

[Mark V]

Making slow progress on this one.  I failed to mix the paints to tone down the contrast.  I had hoped to add a little of the light gray to the darker colors to "blend" them to a more uniform tone.  But I forgot to do that.  With the gloss coat it makes the contrast more acute, so hopefully weathering and the flat coat will tone it down some.  I made a few mistakes with decal placement.  The Caracal decals worked well but seem just a tad thick.  They went down easily with Micro Set/Sol.  Virtually no silvering, so that's good.  I put the fuselage crosses on before the red turbine warning stripe and got the cross a little too far forward.  The placement instructions were vague on where exactly the decals should be placed.  I also placed a couple of stencils in the wrong place, or got them a little bit mis-aligned with respect to kit panels (yellow canopy jettison door, left forward fuselage).  Not really noticeable, except to me.  I did the dark gray wash around the control surfaces, vents, and some underside panels.  I will use a lighter gray wash on the upper wings and fuselage.

 

 

For some reason, the right intake vari-ramp is cursed.  I painted it just like the rest of the parts.  I used Testors spray can Gloss Coat to protect the paint from the enamel wash.  The Left ramp took the wash (Tamiya gray) just fine.  When I wiped the wash off with a cleaning swap damp with artist-grade thinner it wiped off the paint!  Grrrr.  So I soaked the part overnight in a bath of purple degreaser from the hardware store. It takes of all paint but does not harm the plastic.  Oncce stripped, I washed the part and repainted it after it dried.  Rather than spray the Testors gloss again, I brushed on a couple of coats of Future/Pledge.  I should work right?  Wrong.  I let the future dry overnight and applied a bit of wash to the ramp.  G__Dang! Did it again! 

 

 

 

Now I'm soaking the part in window cleaner (ammonia based) to strip just the Pledge.  Next I will wash it to clean out the "holes" and repaint, again.  

 

 

If anyone has a suggestion for a good gloss clear coat I'm listening.  

[Shalako]

On 9/28/2022 at 12:03 AM, Mark V said:

After completing my 2 RAF Phantoms, my next project is the continental version, the Luftwaffe F-4F in the Norm 81 camo from the 1980's.  I remember seeing a few of these jets live and in person when I visited Pferdsfeld and Neuburg an der Donau Airbases. 

The Neuburg visit was an unscheduled 3 day stay when the F-4E I was in, as the backseater (WSO), had a hydraulic failure in-flight.  This was about July/August 1984.  We lost our Utility Hydraulic system when a leading edge slat line ruptured during a manuever.  Loss of Utility Hydraulics disables the wheel brakes and nose wheel steering, making landing a little sporty. Neuburg was the closest base so we landed there, taking the approach end cable to stop.  It took a few days for our own maintenance troops to get there and make the repairs.  My pilot and I hung out with the "Zapatas", JG 74's 2nd squadron, waiting for the jet to get fixed.  Since this was on my first mission qualification check ride, which we flew as if it was a wartime sortie, neither my pilot nor I had very much money with us.  The German squadron was very welcoming and provided us free meals during the day from their exceptional kitchen.  (I always envied the Luftwaffe for their in-squadron kitchens.)  There was also a USAF Major on an exchange tour with the squadron that gave us some money to go into town for dinner.  After we returned to Spangdahlem we completed the check ride debriefing and passed with good reviews.  

I went to Pferdsfeld a couple of times for what were scheduled as "Ample Gain" sorties.  For Ample Gain, NATO jets would visit other NATO airbases so that the host base personnel could gain experience servicing, and sometimes arming, other NATO jets.  Of course, Pferdsfeld was an F-4 base so not really dissimilar aircraft to them.  My usual pilot had lived in France for a while before his USAF time and was fluent in French. He liked to go to Colmar AB, France and anytime the schedule called for a trip there he volunteered.  Although not technically NATO, it was always an enjoyable visit.  The French aircrew would always offer wine to go with our lunch, but we had to kindly refuse.  We also went to either Kleine Brogel or Florennes, Belgium (I forgot which one, whichever had Mirage Vs at the time, 1985/86).  That was during an exercise (wargames) so we parked, got into a van and were driven to the squadron building.  We had a forgettable lunch, then back to the jet and headed back to Spang.  Good times...

The point of my rambling memories, other than to validate to myself that I still have the memories, is that when I saw the Norm 81 F-4Fs, I thought they looked really cool.  So after almost 40 years, here we go.

 

The kit is the old Hasegawa 1/48th kit.  It's the original F-4E kit with unslotted stabilators substituted for the slotted ones.  I bought it second hand with a damaged box.  The upper left wing was cracked and the center canopy section was broken in half.  It also had a set of engraved panel line intakes loose in the box as well as the raised panel line intakes on the sprues.  I don't know if the seller had put those in or if the kit came with them.  I also had a spare True Details cockpit set that I'll throw in.

 

Here's my current to-build pile of Phantoms.  Along with a spread of aftermarket, mostly for the Hasegawa kits.

 

I have plans for almost all of the aftermarket, i.e., which parts go with which kit.  I'll probably have some leftovers when the kits are built, eventually.

 

On 9/28/2022 at 12:03 AM, Mark V said:

 

 

What a collection !!!! Beautiful!

[Mark V]

Possibly last update here.  Hopefully I can finish off the weathering and glue all of the dangly parts on in the next few days.

 

 

I am still struggling to get the right intake vari-ramp painted.  I'm on my 4th repaint after several frustrating problems.  Hopefully I can get it done, even if it's the last piece stuck onto the model.

 

I wanted to try a different, for me, weathering technique.  I read about using artist oil paints and watched several good you tube videos.  I went and bought a few little tubes at the local Michael's craft store.  (Their plastic model section is a pitiful 1/4 of an aisle with just a very few Revell USA aircraft and cars.  The Testors paint rack was 95% empty.  Sigh, another place I won't be going back to for model supplies.)

Anyway, I mixed some of the white, black, and brown for a dirty oil and grime mix.  I applied it to the belly to see how it looks.  I think it came out well for a first try.  I will add a few more streaks but otherwise it's ok.  Much easier than my old technique of using acrylics and trying to streak and blend the grime.  Plus if it's too much the oils are easy to wipe off with the Gamsol.  The acrylics dry too fast and get really stubborn to remove.  Oils are much more forgiving.  I always worried that the oils would take days to dry, but with the techniques learned from the videos, very thin paint and letting it sit overnight was enough.

 

 

 

One note on the forward AIM-7 missile wells.  I read that, since the Luftwaffe did not have AIM-7 capability, the forward fin slot was covered with an insert to improve aerodynanics.  I guess a little less drag from the recesses?  I just cut a little slip of paper and glued it over the slot.  They only did this for the very forward slot apparently, none of the others.  

I also added the little block at the rear of the high speed centerline tank, attached to the lower fuselage.  It's difficult to see in the photos here.  It's just a little rectangle of plastic.  On the real jet it accepts a ball fitting on the tail fin of the tank, allowing a clean rotation point and separation when the tank is jettisoned.  In my photos it's a dark smudge just forward of the panel line forward of the aft AIM-7 aft fin slots.

 

 

If I have any other pointers for this WiP I'll post up again.  Otherwise look for this one in the Ready for Inspection in a week or so.

[baldwin8]

Your paint chip image looked familiar, hopefully it helped. Your build looks good. I use thinned Pledge floor wax, aka Future, for my clear coating but perhaps it wouldn't hold up to enamel based washes. I thin mine with alcohol as I find it speeds up the cure time of the Pledge.

 

[Learstang]

24 minutes ago, baldwin8 said:

Your paint chip image looked familiar, hopefully it helped. Your build looks good. I use thinned Pledge floor wax, aka Future, for my clear coating but perhaps it wouldn't hold up to enamel based washes. I thin mine with alcohol as I find it speeds up the cure time of the Pledge.

 

 

I used to thin my modelling with liberal amounts of alcohol. I found it sped up the time it takes me to complete a model. Funny, now that I don't drink, my model production has dropped precipitously.

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

 

P.S. The build does look very good! Nice camouflage scheme.

[Mark V]

6 hours ago, baldwin8 said:

Your paint chip image looked familiar, hopefully it helped. Your build looks good. I use thinned Pledge floor wax, aka Future, for my clear coating but perhaps it wouldn't hold up to enamel based washes. I thin mine with alcohol as I find it speeds up the cure time of the Pledge.

 

Yes, the paint chip image did help.  In my research I probably looked at most every F-4F related post that I could find.  I didn't keep track of where I found useful information.  I just copied and pasted good photos into a folder on my PC.  Thank you for posting it originally.

[darthspud]

Just starting my F-4F. Random, but which intakes did you use?  The instructions seem to be wrong. Ta.

[Mark V]

I used the kit intake parts. I don’t remember if there were two sets in the box, one set with raised panel lines and the other with recessed. I have swapped sprues between the various Hasegawa F-4E/F/G kits in my stash so I kind of lost track of what was original to each box. Other than panel lines (raised or recessed), I think the intake parts are interchangeable between the kits.