Second life

Patrick Hagelstein
Hmmm.... Quite a Phantom Phury on the Phorum recently. 🙂

Spanjaard
i have to do some day the same work with some of my old models.... although i have some that maybe i will have to let rest in peace (or pieces....) since they are buried under so match paint that it will take for ever to remove it.

Patrick Hagelstein
I know exactly what you mean Spanjaard. Next weekend I will submerge the parts in oven cleaner trying to get rid of the thick layer of enamel. Let's see what happens.... 🙂

Spanjaard
i have heard that Dettol (antiseptic) works but i have not tried myself.

Holger Kranich
Yeah, thats one of the good kits from Revell. Canopy is a bit flat but it does not matter to me. Although the fit is really good!You wanna build it with all bells and whistles, hu? Have you bought the aftermarket recently or back then?

Spanjaard
Holger, there are lots of after market in the third picture😉

Holger Kranich
Spanjaard, i just wanted to know if he already had the AM or if he bought it now for the project.😢

Spanjaard
sorry, i should have read your post more carefully.

Holger Kranich
No worries, Spanjaard😢

Patrick Hagelstein
🙂 To answer the question:..... Since as a teenager I had a picture in my mind as to how to build this kit I went on a crusade to gather as many aftermarket parts as my allowance made possible. Then my working life kicked in and this box moved to my parrent's attic to gather dust.... I recently decided to pick up on my hobby again and this box has since last week become my prime project. From now on I will finish it! (OK, in a subtly different livery, being greek instead of german, but with the lizard wrap-around camouflage) I recently found two boxes of PJ-production german pilots and now I have to decide which ones to use.
First I have to clean the parts and I will look into Spanjaard's suggestion of using Dettol.
@Holger; for a 1994 kit the fit is excellent!!! Yes, the canopies are a little flat but I am planning on leaving them open. Hopefully the shape won't be that noticable.

Holger Kranich
Hagel, i am absolutely convinced that you will make the best of it! And don't mind the shape of the canopy. I think it would not be seen in open position!🙂

Patrick Hagelstein
Thanks for your compliment Holger! Now I have to live up to your expectations.... 😉

Holger Kranich
Hagel, if you have any questions, dont hesitate to ask! And i have no expectations, i´m just looking forward your build!🙂

Ich weiß noch wie ich mich gefühlt habe, als ich wieder angefangen habe. Ich hatte Motivation wie ein Iltis aber Ahnung von nix! 😄

Holger Kranich
Und damit möchte ich natürlich nicht sagen, daß Du keine Ahnung hast!

Patrick Hagelstein
:-D Kein Problem! Wird schon schief gehen. 😉

Patrick Hagelstein
@Spanjaard; what kind of Dettol should I use?

Spanjaard
for what i have seen in several tutorials (not by own experience, sorry), the brown one that contains chloroxylenol
dettol.co.uk/products/first-aid/dettol-liquid/
here you have two of the tutorials i have found
realmofchaos80s.blog..o-best-clean-up.html
Youtube Video

in most of them they streess the following points
it does not smell very nice (if botle smells good, it is the wrong one)
keep pieces of the model in a closed container, coverd with the liquid for a couple of days,
use toothbrush to do final cleaning with some cleaner (kitchen one like Fairy for example) but do not mix with water, it will make it more difficult
make sure you use gloves with it.

i have not got a bottle yet, so that is why I have not yet tried myself. i would anyway suggest to first try with some sprue pieces for example, to see if that specific plastic does not get affected. also just in case that formula is different in specific country, and eats your model away......

Patrick Hagelstein
Excellent tip Spanjaard!!! Worked like a charm! Is this Mick Jagger's Brown sugar???

uncle chop chop
Acrylic and enamal??

Patrick Hagelstein
This was enamel paint but according to articles I read it should work for acrylic as well.

Spanjaard
i am really happy it worked for you 🙂

Patrick Hagelstein
Yesterday I made another modeling discovery; for the first time I glued parts together using MEK. For the gas bags I held the parts together and put a small drop on the seam: voilá seamless bond! Great stuff for this kind of parts!

Wim van der Luijt
tamiya extra thin smells like MEK to me....I always keep a bottle of MEK handy, much cheaper 😄

Patrick Hagelstein
I use 'Bison Ontvetter' in the tin can. Apparrantly it contains about 40% MEK. Mayby I should obtain pure MEK somewhere.

Holger Kranich
MEK? Methylethylketone?

Wim van der Luijt
yup, bad for your brain in the long run, excellent for glueing 😉

Holger Kranich
Hihi, i have a bottle at home and finally got a Tough ´N Flow applicator. But currently i didnt had the Occasion to use it. But i´m looking Forward using it.

Wim van der Luijt
can also be brushed on (lightly)

Holger Kranich
Sprayable? Ohhh, i see vapors eating my brain like modeling-maggots! 😄

Patrick Hagelstein
🙂

MICHAEL WOODHOUSE
Hi Hagel - seems you got alot stuff to add to this bird and looking good.

Patrick Hagelstein
Thanks Michael! It's about time to add some more pictures. Some progress has been made and some things have changed.

Patrick Hagelstein
It's about time to let you all know how this project is coming along. Well, to be honesst, it isn't.... I mentioned earlier that my three weeks of vacation would be used for building. I did a lot of fun things during those three weeks, except building... I spent my vacation on a trip to Riga with my friends (beautifull city by the way!), making day trips with my brother and.... soaking the affected parts in Dettol... Spanjaard's tip on using Dettol is wonderfull, it works like a charm! Unless you thinned your enamel paint with thinner which I did. The thinner etched the paint into the plastic, leaving the panel lines filled with paint even after prolonged soaking.

So seeing my nightmare unroll before my eyes I took the brave step of looking into eBay to see if somewhere in the world another copy of this kit exists. I was very pleased to find the Revell-Monogram RF-4C in Pennsylvania. After deliberating about the costs and the shipping fee to the Netherlands I took the plunge to bid, just to find out a week later that the Revell Germany RF-4C was offered in France. Well, why not bid on both? Small chance one wins both of these bids.... Lucky me, I won both!... From having allmost no RF-4E to having three kits in just a couple of days. The first one I picked up today in the post office, the second one should be on it's way.

Knowing that I would have plenty parts to work with I started cutting away! In this article is stated that the Revell empanage is too squared and should be narrowed: modellversium.de/gal..antom-ii-revell.html
So I took the fuselage parts and started scribing away to separate the tailfin from the fuselage. The tailfin wasn't affected by the thinner and could be used for this build. By doing the same with the newly arrived fuselage, I can sand the fuselage to the proper width and afterwards attach the tailfin.

I allso started detailing the cameras. In this yotube movie: Youtube Video an allround view of the KS-87 camera is presented which I used to rebuild the camera with the kit's camera as a template.

With the new plastic in and more new plastic on it's way this build can now really start! On to the next update! 🙂

zuma zuma
great story

Spanjaard
Interesting how build progresses sometimes.... I may have a similar "problem" with my F-4J, and due to my cockpit issues i got myself into, I may end up doing two Phantoms at the end 😛
what is "wrong" with the F4 Phantom, that we need to find excuses to make more? 😄

Patrick Hagelstein
Because it's called 'Double Ugly'! We have to build it double. 😉

Spanjaard
ha ha ha ha 😄 👍

Robert W Martel
Oooweee, sounds like your in for some fun! lol good luck!
BTW, I did spend the new millennium (Christmas & New Year 2001) in Nederland. My brother, his wife & 3 daughters lived there for some ? years. She worked for the military as some school administrator. They paid for my plane tickets.
Anyway, a beautiful country, I enjoyed the heck out it, the people there were very friendly, Had a great time there.

Patrick Hagelstein
Hi Robert! I'm in for some serious modeling. Just waiting for the seamless intakes to arrive. I'm on a schedule though as I'm leaving for a three year stay in the US for my work in the next year. So a kind of switching places than. 😉 Were you by any chance staying in the Brunssum area that time. I know that there is a school for US military kids. Love to read you had a nice time over here!

Robert W Martel
Yea as a matter of fact it was in Brunssum! I remember that name. She worked at that school. Wow
Where about in the US are you Headed?, hope you have a good stay here.
I also have a 32nd F-4, the Revell kit. Its a great looking kit but it's so BIG, I got a 1:48 instead. I really would love to build it though.
You have some work cut out for yourself!!!

Patrick Hagelstein
Cool! What a coincidence! I'm headed for Oklahoma City and I hope I will enjoy my stay over there. The Revell 32nd F-4 is basically a very nice kit. Nice detail and fits like a glove. But for this project I want to go the extra mile.

Robert W Martel
After looking at what you have there so far I'm considering keeping the 32nd kit! ??
Well.....maybe....it is a pretty impressive kit!

Bart Teunis
good luck building the orange one.... nice decals... been there done that

Patrick Hagelstein
Thanx Bart! Actually the WTD 61 bird was meant as a spares supply. But now I have another RF-4E so the F-4F will end up as yet another project... So many kits, so few modelling moments....

Spanjaard
indeed....😉

Bart Teunis
Hagel ... sounds so familiar

Spanjaard
about the Dettol,. i must say that i have tested it myself last weekend, and it works like a charm BUT make sure you follow the advice about the globes... and make sure they are good, or replace them after a while. this stuff is eventually eating them, and if you do get some liquid in your fingers (like i did) you may end up stripping not only the paint from your model, but also the skin of your fingers...... i got a nice chipping effect that i would love to achieve in some model in the future 😛

Patrick Hagelstein
🙂 Indeed it's nasty stuff! Because of the large fuselage I thinned it down and put it in a big plastic tray to completely submerge the fuselage halves. But even then I was very carefull not to spill something and wore gloves all the time. It is essential to clean everything off otherwise you get some nice chipping effects when you apply paint.