Joe's 1/72 F-4C Phantom II

[flyjoe180]

Not much to add I'm afraid, been busy learning about a new aircraft type for work.

Cockpit canopy masked and glued on. I've primed some parts of the airframe for spraying white (intake areas, landing gear bits and bobs, wheel hubs etc).

[ATTACH]274715[/ATTACH]

The external stores are limited on this kit to fuel tanks. They all have vertical seams and needed tidying up. Had to rescribe some of the lost detail after sanding.
[ATTACH]274716[/ATTACH]

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The exhausts received a polished steel coat (Humbrol). Next step for these will be to add a gun metal colour, then a dark wash inside to provide the signature F-4 extensive exhaust staining. The exterior will receive, along with the bare metal underside of the fuselage around the exhaust area, a mixture of colours and chalk rubs to simulate the varying shades of metal and stains.

[ATTACH]274718[/ATTACH]

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That's about it for now. Progress is slow, and I'll be offline quite a bit until I finish training at work. A good thing there is six months to get this done!

[flyjoe180]

Should be able to update this soon, no progress since last post but now my course is nearly complete I should have a few more hours to proceed with this Phantom. I'm checking in regularly for a peek, the other builds are providing inspiration, good work everyone.

[papa 695]

Hope to see you back at it soon Joe

[flyjoe180]

Just to prove I've been doing a little bit when time permits!

I've sprayed white on the tail, horizontal stabs where the checker markings will go, and I've also started preparing the landing gear and wheels. Next step is to tidy up the intakes (that common problem we all seem to have had), connect all the various little aerials etc, and then prime for the main colours.

[ATTACH]280188[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]280189[/ATTACH]

[flyjoe180]

Some pretty rough shading to give the paint scheme a patchy look
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Nose masked off, and camouflage grey applied to the undersides and stores (Humbrol 28). The black patches worked to a degree, there is definitely variation in the paint finish, but it's hard to see in the photo. The (empty) missile rails will get touched up with the appropriate metallic finish later on.
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Today's mission, colour number one of three for the South East Asia scheme, the tan Humbrol 118... Again, hard to see but there is a slight variation in the finish due to the random black undercoat.
[ATTACH]280508[/ATTACH]

I'll leave this for at least 24 hours and then look at masking and applying the lighter olive green colour. I'll use the Blu-tac rolls I've used before on other builds to mask the various colours. The rolls give a very slight feathered edge which will be appropriate for this scale.

[papa 695]

Looking good Joe.
I tried black basing on the Phantom I built for this GB, it looks like your technique is very similar.

[flyjoe180]

I tried black basing on the Phantom I built for this GB, it looks like your technique is very similar.

Cheers Ian. I don't have much time on my hands so instead of black-basing and applying white blobs and streaks, i went for the very random pre-shade sort of thing. It seems to be working, but is very subtle.

[flyjoe180]

Colour number two of three for the South East Asia scheme, light olive green, Humbrol 117. This is a SUPER enamel, dates from my childhood and it goes on like it was new.

[ATTACH]280569[/ATTACH]

Another 24 hours to dry, then I'll mask and apply the final main camouflage colour, dark US green, using the same technique. I'll have lost a lot of the black variation on the final coat, but it won't be so obvious and a lighter background should do the same thing under the dark green...


In the meantime, here are my burner cans and exhausts. Painted per an earlier post, then weathered with various shades of grey, orange, blue and yellow chalk. The interior was dry brushed with aluminium.

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[rickoshea52]

I like seeing this scheme come together, my Phantom is two tone grey. The jet pipes look good.

[flyjoe180]

Colour number three of three for the South East Asia scheme, dark US green, Humbrol 116.
[ATTACH]280665[/ATTACH]

Some minor touch ups required around the intakes and some seepage on the underside demarcation, but otherwise pretty pleased with the scheme so far. After touching up the grey and intake areas I'll apply the metallic areas around the tail area and horizontal stabilizers. Then it'll be time for gloss varnish and decals.

[Dave W]

Looking good.

[yak face]

Looking amazing joe Top class scratching on the cans , really nice work on the SEAC camo too , cheers tony

[Pikeman]

Looking really good Joe making great progress on this nice kit.
Love the detail on the cockpit and jets,also camo is great looks the part

[papa 695]

That's looking great Joe.

[eddiesolo]

Top work Joe, she is taking shape nicely.