1:72 FineMolds F-4EJ Kai Fighter (2020 Special Marking Blue)

[Navy Bird]

This build is a side project to occupy the spare (?!?) moments when I'm not working on the big Victor. The new FineMolds Phantom models look quite nice in the box and have been engineered to allow a large variety of marks to be built. I recently built the recent FineMolds F-14, and if this kit goes together as nice as that one did, I'll be happy.

 

What attracted me to this model is, of course, the special livery. Let's hope I can do it justice. For those who haven't had a good look at this kit yet, here are some sprue shots. But first, Der Boxentoppen.

 

 

Note the "bonus parts" - what everyone else does in photoetch (harnesses, face curtain handles, etc.) FineMolds decided to do in styrene. Heck, why not? We'll give it a shot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Somehow, all that stuff will end up looking like a Phantom. Here are the "styrene-etch" detail up parts:

 

 

Now, the fun part - stickers! How about we start with a few stencils? I love stencils. Especially in one seventy-tooth scale.

 

 

And some really cool metallic blue - I think this will make or break the build.

 

 

So there it is. No aftermarket - I'm going to do my best to build it OOB.

 

First, though, I have to go to Hawaii for my 50th wedding anniversary and I probably won't actually start building this until I get back. But I thought it was important to do my share to rebuild the tourist economy of the 50th state. Somebody's got to do it.  

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. I hate sand.

[ernestf]

Congrats Bill

enjoy your trip !!!

looking forward to the build

 

Ernest

[Tiger331]

Looking forward to this build in due course. I have invested in one or two of these Fine Mold F-4s including the F-4EJ with the yellow scheme (seen in the background on your boxtop). Kit look nice...my only gripe is the complete lack of weaponry.

 

Cheers

[Hamden]

 

Looking forward to watching you work your magic on this one once you return Bill, have a great trip

 

   Stay safe          Roger

[Robert]

Excellent choice. I have completed a Finemolds F-4EJ ànd it was a joy to build

Regards

Robert

[Vultures1]

Looking forward to this!  Nice choice of markings too

[Terry1954]

Wow, another Navy Bird F-4 build, and it's a FineMolds too! Can't miss this one, but it sounds like I have to wait till you are back from hols.

 

Don't bring back any sand!

 

Terry

[Fukuryu]

Will love to see what you do with this kit, Bill.  Congratulations on your 50th anniversary to you and Mrs. Navy Bird. Enjoy your vacations and come back recharged to entertain your followers.

 

21 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

PS. I hate sand.

 

Never been there, but is my understanding that there is also volcanic ash... Perhaps more to your liking?

Edited July 2, 2023 by Fukuryu

[Chrisj2003]

Phantastic. Love the FineMolds F-4, have built 2 1/2 so far and have a lot more to do. Tried the soft plastic harness, found it very hard to make it stick, prefer 3d decals for that. Will watch and see how you solve that. 

Enjoy the vacation. 

Chris

[alt-92]

On 7/1/2023 at 11:59 PM, Navy Bird said:

How about we start with a few stencils? I love stencils. Especially in one seventy-tooth scale

At least FineMolds has combined a lot of the stencils in one decal, so it's not as bad as doing each individual stencil

[Navy Bird]

In case anyone reported me to the Missing Persons Department, I can confirm that I am still alive and well. Although, well might be too strong of a word. Let's say I'm still getting better. I survived the trip to Hawaii, but the sinus problems persisted, even with the new antibiotics. Long story short, when I got back I had more tests done and it looks I have some goofy fungal infection. Serves me right for sniffing hallucinogenic mushrooms. Cue some more drugs I can't pronounce and hopefully I can return to being my normal grumpy self.

 

Today I played some more with the Phantom. I did a quick job on the cockpit, using the kit decals for the controls. Fine Molds provide you with two sets of instrument panels and side consoles - one set has 3D details and is suitable for painting and the other has flat details for the stickers. Since I am a contrarian by nature, I decided to put the stickers on the 3D parts starting with the side consoles. Wow, tons of decal solvent were necessary. The decals seemed quite thick, and I hope this doesn't mean the fancy fuselage markings will give me grief. Thereafter I used the flat parts for the instrument panels.

 

Check out the big honking pins to locate the cockpit in the fuselage. A bit of overkill, mate.

 

 

 

I'm not sure why Fine Molds thought it was necessary to make the intake ramps two pieces with this funky insert on the back side, but these seams have to be filled as they will be partially visible. I like the slot for positive positioning of the ramp though.

 

 

The intake tunnels were sprayed white, with a bit of FS36320 at the forward portion of the outer intake cowling.

 

 

I did some test fitting of the intake bits, and although they won't technically result in a "seamless" intake, the seams will be pretty hard to see. There were some ejector pin marks on the inside of the tunnels, but these were easy to sand away.

 

I think this is the first 1:72 F-4 kit I've built (others were Hasegawa, Fujimi, Revell, Italeri, etc.) that has the four vanes that go underneath the front of each intake ramp. Nice work by Fine Molds.

 

That's it for now. Wish me luck in my endeavour to rejoin the human race, sans fungi.    

 

Cheers,

Bill

[giemme]

Good to hear from you,  Bill - and 🤞 for the fungus battle.

 

Lovely kit this one, uh?  

 

Ciao

[Fritag]

4 hours ago, giemme said:

Good to hear from you,  Bill - and 🤞 for the fungus battle.

 

Goes for me too, Bill.

 

 

[Terry1954]

Welcome back Bill, and likewise good luck with the fungal fight!! 

 

Like Giorgio says, these FineMolds F-4's are pretty neat kits, I have "a few". 

 

Nice start on the cockpit and intake innards.

 

Terry

[GROWLER]

On 02.07.2023 at 00:59, Navy Bird said:

FineMolds Phantom

 

 

 

 

🤤🤤🤤

[81-er]

A slightly belated congratulations to you and Mrs Navy Bird on the 50th wedding anniversarym Bill  Good to see you back to building, fingers crossed those new drugs see off the fungal infection ASAP

 

James

[Dave Slowbuild]

A great start to the week, you’re back and posting!
Hope the new drugs do the trick 🙏

 

Dave

[lyn]

A great start and get well soon

[Navy Bird]

Thanks everyone. I think we may finally be getting on top of this sinus infection. I've been putting more stuff in my nose than an old Studio 54 regular. Arghh.     👃

 

Meanwhile, I have the Phantom fuselage almost completely together. In spite of its odd parts breakdown, everything fits and aligns remarkably well. But I suppose that is to be expected with Fine Molds. They recommend painting the fuselage and adding the decals prior to adding the vertical fin. I think this is a silly idea and I have decided to be a contrarian. The fin is going on! I'm quite sure I can make the stickers line up. Jeesh. Photos soon!

 

I'll be adding just the two wing tanks and the not the centreline tank, to match my photos. No wing pylons either. The forward portions of the tanks have to be painted to match the metallic blue livery. Fine Molds specifies Gunze Mr. Color 76 Metallic Blue. I don't have this, but I do have Gunze Aqueous Metallic Blue H88 but it doesn't look like a very good match. Has anyone tried either of these colours? Are there other possible matches? Tamiya maybe? I ask because I am a lousy paint mixer. I keep adding stuff until I think it's close and then realise that I have a litre or so of mixed paint. Seems like overkill for a couple of 1:72 drop tanks.    

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Navy Bird]

Well, I spoke too soon on the sinus nonsense. Infectious Disease folks have identified three more bacterial infections. Of course, a couple of them have symbiotic relationships so they amplify each other. Plus, they think I may have a biofilm formed on my medical port that I get my IVIG infusions through. Now I get to have another CT scan of my sinuses and a consultation with the surgical guy. Apparently they'd like to have a go at scraping my sinus membranes. I've had this done before and it's no fun. Gawd, I love getting old.   

 

In the meantime, however, I managed to do some painting on the Spook:

 

 

 

 

Top side is FS36320 and Black; underside is FS36375 (all Mr. Color). Metal stuff is Alclad Aluminum and Magnesium. I think she's ready for a glossy top coat and then I can start with all those crazy stickers. That said, the black area around the cockpit and anti-glare area is a guess. The special JASDF anniversary/farewell markings go around this area. I did my best to figure out how big the black area needed to be, and what shape, assuming that the stickers for the special markings should slightly overlap it. It would have been nice if Fine Molds had provided a printed template, but hey - that's what I get the big bucks for. The stickers that go around the cockpit look to be a representation of a neckerchief or cravat or something. Looks kind of odd, actually. Not to mention, of course, the occasional frog.

 

The fuselage was engineered so that seams fall on normal panel lines and theoretically don't need filling. Ha - you funny guy. The seams end up a bit wider and deeper than the other engraved lines and are very noticeable. They behave after some Mr. Surfacer 1000 (applied by Mr. Brush Round 10/0 and lightly sanded with Mr. Waterproof Sanding Paper FINE).

 

The trailing edges of the fuselage that surround the exhausts are separate pieces that are very thin (note the photo above). This is much more realistic than most F-4 kits in this scale. Nice.

 

My 7-year old grandson Carter is just about finished with his 1:72 RF-4 USMC Phantom (old ICM kit with battle damage). I think all he has left to do is paint the inside of the exhaust nozzles orange - he wants it to look like the afterburners have kicked in. Stay tuned!

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. Bird is on her legs. @giemme Speaking of said legs, Fine Molds have engineered the gear struts with a positive lock which results in a perfect alignment. They also did this for the upturned outer wings and the down-turned tailplanes. Really nice.

 

PPS. I know I said I was going to build this OOB, but I think I may use some resin Martin-Baker ejection seats. Just because, well, because I never build anything OOB.

 

PPPS. Painting the nose confused me - I first painted the entire radome black, like I would do on a "normal" Phantom, and then found that this particular aircraft had only the forward portion of the radome black. Maybe I should look at the instructions first?

[Pete in Lincs]

Bill, sorry to read about the nasal problems. Car restorers are getting amazing results from blasting dry ice at the chassis. Maybe that's what you need?

The 'Tomb' is looking rather good. I do like that paint scheme. Keep on keeping on, Dude.

[cpoud117]

Great work so far! That OOB cockpit is such a major improvement over what Hasegawa offers. 30 years of molding innovation helps!

 

I hope your sinuses will heal up quickly, that scraping procedure sounds like hell  

[giemme]

Sorry to hear that the bacterial struggle is still ongoing - hang in there, Bill! 🤞

 

Phantom looking super-smooth, as always   

 

9 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

Bird is on her legs. @giemme Speaking of said legs, Fine Molds have engineered the gear struts with a positive lock which results in a perfect alignment. They also did this for the upturned outer wings and the down-turned tailplanes. Really nice

Agreed, I noticed the same on the one I'm currently building. And it's also quite easy to fit these parts (legs included) at the end of the build....  

 

9 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

I know I said I was going to build this OOB, but I think I may use some resin Martin-Baker ejection seats.

That's one thing I did too, compensating for the only real flaw of this kit: the upright cushion shape is just wrong on the kit ones, they miss the very typical cutout at the base. Small detail, but older kits had it just right...

 

Ciao

[bissyboat]

Coming along nicely and great photos of the whole working progress on the Ghost. ⚓👍

[David H]

Looks very nice so far, Bill.

 

Also interesting to hear about the gear leg alignment. That aspect drove me batty with the Hasegawa Phantoms; the retraction struts are too short and if built from the box it gives the model a weak, bow legged look- Not the wide, confident stance that a Phantom really has.

 

-d-