Tamiya F-4B Phantom sorry to 'Drone' on

[Retired Bob]

When I decided to join this GB, I was going to build the Tamiya F-117 Stealth Fighter but, I've decided I'd rather build a Phantom.  There's a couple already in this GB but , as they say, you cannot have too many Phantoms and I have the this kit, the Tamiya Phantom.  The best kit available to build an F-4B.

 

Now back in 1974 I bought this Japanese book, the cover photo and some photos inside showed a bright orange/red Phantom converted into a drone designated a QF-4B.

 

At the time, there were no accurate Phantom kits or decals available, but now....There is a kit, some 3D decals for the cockpit, and a set of Caracal decals for a selection of QF-4B drone Phantoms.

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All straight forward, what could go wrong with a Tamiya kit?   Well, Tamiya have made their Phantom with three decal options for the Vietnam War era and have made it without many optional parts if you want to make your Phantom different.  Luckily, as other versions of Phantom are planned from these moulds, some parts require flashed over holes to be drilled out which helps make this kit into a drone version as it retained many early features like the smooth top wing surface, non-slotted stabilators and non of the wing mounted ECM bumps.  To recreate the photo of the NMC drone on the book cover and make it totally clean winged with no pylons, fuel tanks or missiles.  I will need a new fin cap without ECM bumps and will also have make some other changes as Tamiya only give you the option to add front Sparrow missiles and a centreline 600 gallon fuel tank.  More about these changes as I build the kit.

 

 

Edited October 2 by Retired Bob
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[Col.]

This is going to make for a colourful model. Nice subject choice Bob

[Mjwomack]

8 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

When I decided to join this GB, I was going to build the Tamiya F-117 Stealth Fighter but, I've decided I'd rather build a Phantom. 

 

I think any Tamiya is good, but I'd also rather build a Phantom than a Stealth Fighter

[Retired Bob]

1 hour ago, Col. said:

This is going to make for a colourful model. Nice subject choice Bob

Thanks for the welcome Col, I remember buying that book over 50 years ago, the Aviation shop near Heathrow Airport and thought I'd like to build such a colourful Phantom.  So all this time later I'm going finally going to, I have some MRP paint, red and orange so I can mix the correct shade, the red warning markings in front of the intakes should still stand out against the background colour.  Much more interesting than a black jet.

[Mjwomack]

3 minutes ago, Retired Bob said:

the Aviation shop near Heathrow Airport

I'm guessing that was The Aviation Hobby Shop, which seemed to stock everything! Alas, I'm pretty sure it's a thing of the past😭

[Retired Bob]

It was indeed, and the last time I was down at Heathrow driving along the A4, it was no longer an aviation hobby shop. 😞

[Col.]

The crew at TAHS were always good to deal with in my experience and did indeed stock a vast array of stuff.

 

41 minutes ago, Retired Bob said:

Thanks for the welcome Col, I remember buying that book over 50 years ago, the Aviation shop near Heathrow Airport and thought I'd like to build such a colourful Phantom.  So all this time later I'm going finally going to, I have some MRP paint, red and orange so I can mix the correct shade, the red warning markings in front of the intakes should still stand out against the background colour.  Much more interesting than a black jet.

I'm delighted to see you getting to create this one after all those years

[Retired Bob]

To get this project started I'll start with the cockpit.  The Quinta 3D decals are very accurate when compared to photos of a F-4B cockpit, the raised detail on the kit parts needs removing of course and then a spray of Dark Gull Grey, I use some Future to gloss the areas where the decals will be applied, and some PVA ensures they stay stuck down.  I did some detail painting, adding wear areas around the rudder pedals, shiny metal with zinc chromate around the edges, and a wash to make the shadow areas darker.  The Quinta decals have a lighter/bluer shade of grey to the paint, but cockpit panels were often replaced and so varied in shade and don't always match exactly.  As I'm not fitting any ECM bumps I've not fitted the threat indicator display to the instrument panel cover so the hole needs filling and the raised strips had to be reinstated to make it look like an original cover before the Shoehorn ECM system was added.   Likewise the rear instrument panel requires the early style without any threat displays, luckily Quinta supply both types of these secondary display panels.

[2996 Victor]

I never managed to visit TAHS in person, but I did order quite a few kits and bits from them. I've still got some Evergreen styrene with their price tickets on the sleeves, ordered circa 1995!

[Retired Bob]

27 minutes ago, Col. said:

I'm delighted to see you getting to create this one after all those years

Back in 1974 when I bought that Japanese Phantom book, I was a radar operator at the nearby RAF Station, West Drayton (Like the TAHS, long gone)  During the following four years I would retrain as an armourer and end up working on RAF Phantoms out in Germany.  Which links in with my RAF Phantom build on the British Phantom STGB. 

[Retired Bob]

While I was spraying the cockpit sections I also did the inner fuselage halves and did some detail painting.  There are some Quinta 3D decals to add on the sides as well.  The canopy operating lever is on the side of the cockpit, the rear one is added with the top cover and rear instrument panel.  The left side ones are the jettison levers and are painted in yellow with black stripes, the right side ones are to lock/unlock the canopy and are  just painted black.

[Col.]

Everything is looking grand in the 'pits Bob. Nice start.

[Retired Bob]

I cannot find a photo of a QF-4B Drone with the NMC logo on the tail but it ticks all the other boxes.  While these Phantoms have not had any airframe upgrades they have had the ejection seats upgraded to the Martin-Baker Mk.7 versions.  I will build mine in this configuration and with folded wings.

 

[Wings unlevel]

Wow Bob, this will really stand out from the crowd! Are you going the Hypersconic route fro the find cap and IR pod fairing? Will follow with interest!

[DaveJL]

Cockpit looks great Bob!

[Col.]

10 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

I cannot find a photo of a QF-4B Drone with the NMC logo on the tail but it ticks all the other boxes.  While these Phantoms have not had any airframe upgrades they have had the ejection seats upgraded to the Martin-Baker Mk.7 versions.  I will build mine in this configuration and with folded wings.

 

Is the logo featured on a couple photos near the bottom of this selection Bob?

 

https://www.piccianiaircraftphotos.com/f-4b_phantom

 

[Retired Bob]

11 hours ago, Wings unlevel said:

Wow Bob, this will really stand out from the crowd! Are you going the Hypersconic route fro the find cap and IR pod fairing? Will follow with interest!

Hi Gerard, I have an Eduard 'clean' fin cap ready to attach and the fairing under the radome is the same as supplied with the kit.  The IR sensor was discarded by around 1967 as it didn't work.

[Retired Bob]

2 hours ago, Col. said:

Is the logo featured on a couple photos near the bottom of this selection Bob?

 

https://www.piccianiaircraftphotos.com/f-4b_phantom

Yes it is Col, photo# 2 and it's the same aircraft as on that Japanese book, just photographed from the rear/side aspect. But it does show that the tail stabilators were the non-slotted ones.

Some really good photos on that link, there are some interesting ones showing later drones with slotted stabs and ECM/RWR bumps in place.

[Col.]

1 hour ago, Retired Bob said:

Yes it is Col, photo# 2 and it's the same aircraft as on that Japanese book, just photographed from the rear/side aspect. But it does show that the tail stabilators were the non-slotted ones.

Some really good photos on that link, there are some interesting ones showing later drones with slotted stabs and ECM/RWR bumps in place.

Hope they are of some use to you Bob. Now, between the photos and your progress, I just need to try and resist the temptation to buy the same kit and decal sheet you have... it may not be easy for me to do so 

[Retired Bob]

1 hour ago, Col. said:

I just need to try and resist the temptation to buy the same kit and decal sheet you have... it may not be easy for me to do so 

A bright orange/red Tamiya Phantom.......Resistance is futile!  

[2996 Victor]

1 hour ago, Retired Bob said:

A bright orange/red Tamiya Phantom.......Resistance is futile!  

I was thinking the same.....

[Retired Bob]

An update on my making this kit with 'clean' wings.  When I contemplated building this QF-4B it seemed an easier choice of kit would be the Academy F-4B.  That has features that would be much easier to build it as a 'clean' aircraft without any pylons, tanks or missiles.  However, it doesn't have the option of being able to fold the outer wings but, as each Tamiya F-4B Phantom kit has a pair of folded and extended wings in each box, that's not too difficult to make.  There are a couple of things that make having a 'clean' winged aircraft from this kit, first is the centreline store attachment part.  There is an Ejection Release Unit 120 (ERU 120) fitted into the belly panel, this is used to attach fuel tanks and weapons, known as station five.  Tamiya have made the part for this with a big wedge to fit their centreline 600 gallon fuel tank.

Here is the kit part, great for securely fitting the centreline fuel tank but allows no other option with the kit.

So After some white primer to help see what I was doing, I cut off  and filed away the wedge.

 

Now, I could have put a strip of plastic card to cover the gap, but that's a bit of a cop out, so, from a scrap old kit I added the ERU 120, some white primer and a wash to show the detail.

 

With the centreline problem sorted the next thing was the wing centre section.  For some reason Tamiya decided not to mould any 'flipper doors',  These are two spring loaded doors at the rear of the front missile bays.  After a Sparrow missile has been launched or if it is not carried, these aerodynamic doors smooth the airflow out from the missile bay and under the fuselage.

I experimented with an earlier Tamiya Phantom build on how I could add these.  Why, you may ask?  Well, US Navy Phantoms during the Vietnam War, operating from aircraft carriers. usually carried the centreline fuel tank but rarely carried front Sparrow missiles.  This was because you were required to jettison the centreline tank before firing either or both the front Sparrow missiles, and as they didn't carry many spare tanks onboard an aircraft carrier they didn't want to have to jettison them unless in an emergency.  On the left is my previous attempt to make the doors from plastic card and Milliput,, on the right is the new wing for my QF-4B Drone.  There are good photos of this area in the Daco book "Uncovering the US Navy Phantom". 

 

Hasegawa and Academy avoided this problem by moulding the door in position and rounding off the rear of the Sparrow missiles to accommodate it.  ZM provide a separate door part if you don't fit any front missiles.  But this solution is poor, if Tamiya had done sufficient research, they would have found out about the missile issues and one of the kit decal choices, VF-111 Sundowners did not use any Sparrow missiles on their deployment because of missile guidance issues.  Anyway, My solution was to attached some thin plastic card to narrow the oversized slots for the rear missile fins and surrounded the area to be filled with plastic insulation tape, masking tape is not robust enough.  I removed the tacked in catapult hooks to avoid breaking them and applied some white Milliput, pressed it into shape using the plastic card to keep flat edges for the fin slots and left it a day or so to harden.

 

Once the Milliput had hardened, it was sanded to shape.  I use an old kit Sparrow missile, cut off the wings and fins and glued some wet and dry abrasive paper to sand the Milliputt to shape.

Here is the finished item.  As can be seen, the indents for the inboard pylons were also filled with white Milliput and sanded smooth.

 

One clean Phantom wing, ready for some primer.  Any questions or comments are always welcome. 

[Parabat]

A very good solution, nicely executed and clearly explained, thank you.

[Retired Bob]

35 minutes ago, Parabat said:

A very good solution, nicely executed and clearly explained, thank you.

That's what these GB's and the Forum is all about, helping each other build better models.

I mentioned that I have a smooth fin cap, 3D printed by Eduard for this kit, here it is, cleaned up and sprayed with some white primer. If anyone is tempted to fit Master brass pitot/probe to the vertical fin of this kit...don't.  The Master brass probes are almost the same diameter as the thickness of the fin, very difficult to fit.  Not sure if the Tamiya fin is too thin or other kits have fat fins. 

 

The kit wheels are a bit meh!  So I have obtained a set of Eduard resin wheels as they have superb hub and tyre detail.

Thanks for looking. 

Edited October 4 by Retired Bob

[Col.]

Clever work well executed Bob. This is rapidly coming to look like a great reference build for this kit.