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

[Retired Bob]

Todays update, I've painted the engine parts ready for assembly.  When I saw the colour call out for the afterburner tubes, parts D1 as being dark green I double checked in the Daco book, "Uncovering the US Navy Phantom" and sure enough they are green.

 

 

Not that it can be seen when the parts are assembled, I've replaced the exhaust nozzles with some resin ones, as can be seen, they are much thinner.

 

With the exhausts assembled I can now close up the fuselage halves. 

[Col.]

Those resin parts look great.

[Retired Bob]

With the cockpit and engines fitted into the fuselage it only took a few minutes with some Tamiya extra thin glue and it was all joined together.  The intakes have been painted gloss white inside and joined together ready for the engine front to be attached, the main intake parts need some of the exterior orange paint applied where it wraps around the intake lips.

 A view from the underside shows the rigid structure of the sub-assemblies, and is why this kit fits so well.  No need to make your own spreader bars here.

While I was on a roll, I added the wing assembly and nose panel, again, a perfect fit, just some extra thin glue run around the joints and it was done.

No gaps or any other problems.

The usual problem area, the join next to the exhausts is perfect as well.

The vertical fin is just dry fit, as are the other control surfaces.  Next up are the folded wings, stabilators and air brakes. 

[Col.]

The perfection of Tamiya fit may be helping your cause but this is great progress Bob.

[Retired Bob]

4 hours ago, Col. said:

The perfection of Tamiya fit may be helping your cause but this is great progress Bob.

You can certainly throw away your tubes of filler with this kit. 

[Retired Bob]

I have assembled and primed the wing fold parts. the  photos show the hinge area is white.  The large attachment panel means that it will make a secure joint.

While the kit air brakes are not bad (upper set) the detail is a bit shallow compared to the lower ones, 3D printed ones by Eduard.

I'll get some Insignia Red paint sprayed on them, the kit ones will be ok if they are being positioned just slightly open.

 

The pair of stabilators are assembled from five parts to make sure they are correctly angled and the in-fill panels ensures there are no shrinkage marks.  The left parts are glued in position showing the superb fit, the small plate is the lower pivot cover.

[Col.]

More nice progress on this impressive kit Bob. Those aftermarket Eduard airbrake petals certainly have more depth of detail over the already decent Tamiya parts; I sometimes wonder if 3D printing is coming to the point that digital photography was a few years ago and any model kit companies who do not embrace the opportunities is offers will find themselves, at least in part, going the way Kodak did.

[Retired Bob]

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole while searching for some detail photos of the wing markings of Phantom drone aircraft.  On a site I found out that the radar was removed from these drone aircraft, so, of course the pilots and rear seaters instrument panels did not have any radar scopes or weapon panels.  They replaced them with switch panels relevant to their testing of systems and when being used as drones.  I decided to use the instrument panels from a another Tamiya F-4B that I have in the stash and the set of Quinta 3D cockpit decals that I have for it.  Although I couldn't find a photo of a 1970s drone I have managed to make a fair representation of the drone instrument panels with radar scopes or weapon panels removed, using details of the later drone aircraft.  The original panels are at the top, they'll now go onto a F-4B that the USAF borrowed and added the F-110 logos on the nose.

The lower panels have the radar screens and weapons panels replaced with some generic switch panels.  Play - 'spot the difference'

[Col.]

Nice work on the panels Bob.

[Retired Bob]

After some clean up and making sure that the correct aerials fitted I've sprayed a coat of Mr Surfacer matt 1500 white over the whole airframe.  I'm just deciding whether to pre-shade the panel lines or apply the orange and post-shade.  The real one was very clean and shiny but I don't want it looking too 'toy' like.

[Retired Bob]

I just "re-found" these photos on Flickr.  These are the two photos that were taken back in October 1972 of this QF-4B drone after it had been converted from a US Marine F-4B and painted orange.

 

As can be seen, the stabilators are the early non-slotted type without any bare metal leading edges which is unusual.  The engine exhaust appears very dirty/sooty.

[Col.]

The contrast between the shiny new fresh paintwork and the tarnished exhaust and heat shields makes for an interesting variation.

[Retired Bob]

6 hours ago, Col. said:

The contrast between the shiny new fresh paintwork and the tarnished exhaust and heat shields makes for an interesting variation.

The surface detail and fit of this kit is stunning, I'm using lacquers to paint it which are new to me, the difficulty will be making it bright orange, shiny but not toy like.