F-4B WIP

Mirko Römer
Comfy seats - I'm in. Great start!

Thomas Bischoff
I'm in too 👍

Patrick Hagelstein
Once I move back home, this will be the first kit on my hopefully immaculate desk. I'll watch along with this build for now. 👍

Daniel
@ Mirko: Thanks mate and welcome! I wonder how comfy those really were, they look awfully straight-sitting to me 🙂

@Thomas: cool, welcome 👍

@Patrick: Nice, a great kit to open up the new bench and enjoy it 👍 that low-viz BK version you got there looks really cool as well 😎

Maciej Bellos
In, in IN!!!

Patrick Hagelstein
Thanks Daniel! I had that project collecting dust for the Academy kit, but when Tamiya announced their F-4B (an F-4N should be easy to convert) it resparked my interest. Sadly, I seem to have missed out on a Furball sheet containing a VF-21 low-viz F-4N… Fingers crossed Furball chooses to reprint some of those with this kit hitting the shelves now.

Konrad -
Count me in here as well.
Nice Pit looking forward to something more?

Daniel
@maciej: 😄 alright alright, have a seat and stop screaming 😉 welcome!

@Patrick: Maybe that still exists in some online stores or the bay...you have a special interest in that special livery/squadron?

@konrad: thanks a lot, great to have you arround 👍

Patrick Hagelstein
There was one Mate that had the sheet up for sale, but apparently he sold it already before I could contact him. No particular interest other than that I like the contrast between the Light Gull Grey aircraft and the Engine Grey markings. We'll keep our fingers crossed for a reprint or another decal company to step in...

Spanjaard
Cockpit looking great
That reminds me my painted Aires F-4J cockpit that I may never use......

John
Great start!

Martin Oostrom
Can I get a seat with my Phantom Club member card?

Daniel
thank you and welcome Spanjaard, John and Martin!
Sure sure, step in, hang your trenchcoat+hat next to the door 😉

Alexander
Following, great detail paintwork so far in the pit and the exhaust cans looks quite good too 👍, though they probably need a wash to accentuate the details that seem to be there.

Daniel
Thanks Alexander, great to have you on board!
Concerning the cans I just looked at some random examples on the internet which all were greyish/green, not too far off from mine...I also used a light gray wash as a last step as there was very prominent burnt out light residue in all the corners.
Later on I watched a documentation were they said that later jets got smokeless engines. Mine being a smoky F-4 it may be too clean in there, dont know, but I'll put more soot on the outer part of the cans

Alexander
With oil paints you are rather flexible if its too much for example, so I guess there is still time to flesh out to your desire.

Sergej I
Back from vacation and... taking a seat, this looks very promising 🙂 👍

Jos Jansen
Well the Zoukei Mura kit is already a gem, I think the Tamiya engineers took this F-4 to another dimension in modeling! Like their F-14 Tomcat kits this is also a skake and bake kit. I am currently working on a Hasegawa version, which I already love to build. I'm really looking forward to the rest of your build and how you experience this Daniel. Nice progress so far mate...👍

Daniel
sergej and jos, thanks, nice to see you here!

I cant recommend this kit to any serious modeller, it makes you dumb, lazy, you loose your skill and start a rant over your next kinetic kit 😉

It truly is a marvel of engineering (of course I recommend!), didnt build their tomcat yet, but a review said this one is even better...wont argue so far...if I had to find an issue, I would criticize the lack of positionable flaps, slats and maybe an extended NLG, shouldnt have been a problem for them and would be cool for everyone wanting to build a "ready to launch" phantom

Clifford Keesler
Looking awesome Daniel.

Daniel
Thanks clifford!
primer is down, next is some preshade and FS17875

Daniel
preshade done with ak "rubber black" which leaves a bit of brownish shade when thinned, which is quite nice
really lots of panels on this jet compared to a super hornet...and I fear every one of those gets at least one stencil type decal...

Daniel
many thanks argento!

Spanjaard
Not sure if tamiya has all those stencils, but there are sets (Hobbydecal) that have them. Quite some fun, I can promise you 🙂

Clifford Keesler
Looking amazing Daniel.

Daniel
Merci clifford!
Spent some quality time on the balcony and got AKs RC222 and RC220 down...which leaves me face to face with the dreaded metallics...

Clifford Keesler
That is going to be one good looking bird.

Daniel
I hope so! ?
Before the metallics I added a ton of touch-ups with lightended and darkened LGG, trying to stay subtle (the camera has a really hard time picking those up and the upload kills the rest but maybe still visible...)
I dont want this to be particularly dirty (on the upper side) but still want it to look pretty used

Thomas Bischoff
it looks pretty used 🙂
Well done 👍

Alexander
Indeed, looks great! 👍

Chris H.
Nice! I'm currently working on Academy F-4B. Quite some differences in the kits.

ZHOU Kun
Nice start!

Slavo Hazucha
A-ha - so the "Phantom Alley" following the Tamiya kit's appearance is coming to scalemates - and what a start to watch 🙂 👍

Let me guess - a somewhat aged, worn and wet-dirty bird in the making? Looking forward to every last bit of it! 😉

Daniel
Many thanks guys, a little glimpse update from the bench.

I got the dreaded metallics down quite ok and hope I dont ruin them during weathering which is bound to happen.

But I will try to restrain myself slavo, no salt crusting, paint chipping, bird striking, oil leaking this time. (ok the oil leaking will happen though 🙂
Goal is to make it look like a show-off CAG jet from 5 steps away and like a MiG-killing workhorse from 1 step away, we'll see 🙂

David R. Meizoso
I'm late, will seat at the back! Metallics look great also, good work!

Alexander
Agreed, metallic looks really nice already!

Clifford Keesler
That is looking really nice.

Daniel
Thank you David, Alexander and Clifford!

Finished the big decals today, like it quite a lot already 🙂

Tamiya decals is a love-hate-story...they are indestructible and have great color, which is great on the tail part especially with a perfect white on black background.

But my god do I need to treat them with the micro set/sol before they finally give in and conform at least a bit. Had to mostly re-cut the panel lines and punch a lot of rivets, also the RWR on the tail still needs fixing.

Continuing with the stencils now, time for a coffee

Alexander
Woah, looks really good already! 👍
As an advice I heard from Florymodels, you can use the Tamiya thinner X-20A as a setting solution as well, it is said to be a bit stronger than Micro Sol for example. At least it worked quite well in my cases.

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Looks great, Daniel. 👍
Isn't that the kit with 500 or so stencils?

Daniel
Thanks a lot Alexander! Will keep that in mind for my next encounter...they should fill that into little bottles labelled "mark fit extra strong" and sell it for the tripled price? I know, I am a natural born capitalist?

Whiteglint, thanks a bunch! Thank God they shrunk the stencils down to I guess around a hundred, but there are aftermarket sheets out there that give a true masochist the full dose...something about 800 I heard? Not going to happen, also since those were regularly overpainted during wartime deployments

Clifford Keesler
I also that on the flory models site, have not tried it yet. That bird is looking just awesome Daniel.

Spanjaard
try the sets from HobbyDecal. result is fantastic... but i would say the number is much higher than 800 😛

Alexander
I wonder how big the number of Begemots decals for their Flanker sets are - at least I remember spending two whole days decaling my Su-33.

Though decals on planes are not that much of a problem imo, especially such a big and flat one as this. Decals on the weapons on the other hand... I was thoroughly reminded of that yesterday, especially for the Brimstones.

Spanjaard
i have the Begemot full set in 1/72 and it has loots of stencils, certainly. the 1/48 version probably would be enough to drive many modellers insane 🙂 looks like fun!

Clifford Keesler
That is why my Su-33 and SU-27's stay hidden in the clooset. The amount of decals are just staggering, but I had to have the Begemots sets for all of them. The kit decals just would not of cut it.

Daniel
Thanks everyone for the kind words!

I did get begemots full stencil for my academy flanker as well (since the included ones are for the bin) it promises a lot of modelling fun ... for days...and nights... in the vinegar fumes...?

@alexander: Reminds me of the AMK tomcat where one Phoenix needed 40 of these little f...fellas

Björn Svedberg
Love the progress so far! 👍 Interesting to see this new kit being built. 🙂

Robin (WhiteGlint)
40 stencils for one Phoenix sounds... like torture? 😄

Alexander
Well, it's a big missile - but yeah, not fun at all. Especially the yellow and brown circular markings...

Spanjaard
all those stencils can be a pain, but the final result is worth it. if you want nerve wrecking add to it, try to do that amount of stencils using dry transfers instead of decals. great result, but you wonder why scale modelling has SM initials not by accident....

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Lol, Spanjaard. That's true, it is SM for a reason. 😄
But I agree with you, the result is worth it as it looks more like a real aircraft with all these stencils attached.

Alexander
Yep, thats the reason I try to do as much decals as possible.
As all things, the more effort you put in, the better it looks.

Slavo Hazucha
Looks plain excellent already! 👍 Vibrant colors, bold patterns on a proud shiny airframe - compact-car sized full-color insignia on the wing! Pretty jealous coming right out of a lo-vis decal session 😄

I actually like putting on stencils & all, trouble is I always manage to move some unintentionally when touching the model half an hour later while those I put on to final-position a minute later tend to stick on immediately like I burned them in or something... 😄

Jos Jansen
Very nice Daniel

James C
Looks to be progressing nicely 👍

Moritz Fentzahn
Top work Daniel 👍 a great reference for when I start my

David H
Looking good, just picked one of these up so be watching with interest. Living the pilots !!

Clifford Keesler
Agree, looking great Daniel.

Juskifo
Aside from the great job on this build, the sense of humor isn't bad too

Daniel
Thanks mates for your nice comments!

Lord be praised, I have finished the tamiya decal sheet!
Though theres only a fraction of the real stencil amount seen on phantoms this work still sucked the joy right out of my soul.
Mainly because they are so thick and rigid and the smaller the more prone to silvering and each and every one of them needed so much careful convincing and attention...if I do this kit again I'll go for aftermarket stuff (full stencil o.c. 😉 ) or look for some more potent softener like the X-20

I'll keep the jet a bit duller than the original, for one because I like it, and also because the fat decals show up on high gloss quite a bit...

David H
Looks just awesome to me, missiles looking ace .I've started doing weapons first now cos they bore me rigid, so i like to get them done whilst the mojo is high 😂

Spanjaard
I would not add much of a shadow to the missiles... or if you do, do a very, very light one. the reason I am saying that, is that i did a wash on mine, and I got comments from somebody who served in USN. He said that ordnance was kept spotless, so my wash was a bit too much... but do as you please, it is your build at the end 🙂

Spanjaard
looking fantastic after all those decals, by the way.

Alexander
Agreeing with the others, Stenciling looks amazing, really adds a lot of detail to the plane! Also great work so far with the light wash. 👍 👍

Clifford Keesler
Weapons look amazing.

Robin (WhiteGlint)
As we were talking about it, it looks really great with all the stencils applied. Well worth the effort. 👍

Regarding the silvering and please someone correct me if I am mistaken, but could you not use some flat clear to get the silvering out and apply some gloss afterwards?
I've seen this on my Seafang. With just a bit of flat clear the decals looked as if they were painted on.
However, I did not add another gloss coat after that and I am not sure if you can achieve some nice semi-gloss or even glossy finish again.

Jos Jansen
It's absolutely a joy to watch your progress Daniel, on the pics I can't hardly see any thickness of the decals.

Slavo Hazucha
Looks absolutely fab, and as I mentioned on Jos's build too, the belly when done as great as here is actually too nice not to be seen in some form... Decals look like sprayed on too! 👍

Daniel
Thank you very much Dizzy, Spanjaard, Alexander, Clifford, Whiteglint, Jos and Slavo! Its a pleasure to share the build here with you guys 🙂

@Dizzyduck: Good plan 👍 often you are finished with the jet after blood, sweat + tears and then you realize you still have a full loadout to paint and decal...and then you rush those and it shows in the end

@Spanjaard: jep, read that comment as well, but spotless is a bit far fetched imo...as soon as the ordies touch the glistening white with their notsowhite deck gloves - goodbye spotless ... [img1]
but I want to give a nice contrast to the grimy underside, so really only some shadows planned for the 3D effect here

@whiteglint: I already treated all the silverings (which is also why this took forever) my usual technique is cut them with a sharp blade and massage some future into the cuts. The flat coat is down and it absolutely helped with blending the decals into the picture...still the fin should be rather glossy and thats where I am not really satisfied with the carrier film showing up quite a bit. I am considering some carefull sanding and adding more gloss coats to reduce the difference - or totally ruin it during that. So not decided yet.

@slavo: ... true, since my latest effort I am thinking of an inflight display to show off the belly as well, since it is quite a nice contrast to the topside. But I am not sure if the bays can be closed up, as the kits not designed for that and I'd have to cut stuff, possibly gaps to close...another chance for total ruin, so I better head down the safe route and leave it on the ground

Clifford Keesler
Looking awesome sir.

Spanjaard
you are maybe right on that Daniel 🙂
Beautiful streaking in the belly. I never did it in mine (maybe I simply did not dare to...). I need to repair a couple of broken pieces and I may use your streaking as a guide when I have the bird in the bench.... been thinking adding some dirt from a long time ago....

Daniel
Thanks Clifford, Roland and Spanjaard!

@Roland: Well if you liked their Tomcat you will for sure love this one...pretty much flawless build

@Spanjaard: Just go for it! If you dont like a streak you can make it totally disappear with a soft rubber without messing everything up with white spirit. Made a lot of streaks dis-and reappear on this one 🙂

I like to put a larger umber (w&n azo brown in my case) streak first, keep it thin+translucent+dry and then smear a smaller black dot over it. But its always good to vary and keep it random. I also started to add some very thin and tiny ones with a black watercolour pencil which works easy peasy on matt/semigloss and is very controlable

Treehugger
Re. photo 33, you referring to water color pencils, are those the "AK" pencils, the ones with metal coloring? (Unsure if AK ones are "water colored".)

Spanjaard
thanks Daniel. i will certainly will do it. i have several options to use, from oils to watercolour pencil (from art store, not from any modelling brand... but i am sure they are the same or even better)

Spanjaard
will you be also adding them on the top? I guess lighter ones right?

Daniel
Yep, I also use some art supply watercolor pencils, so far only the black one but you can use e.g. a light green pencil on a dark green surface to make convincing scratches or lighten up protrusions and corners. Maybe I'll buy some AK pencils as well as they have great earth/dirt tones which are missing in my set.

The metallic stuff is ak xtreme metal "pale burnt metal" and the typical soot lines then done with the black watercolor pencil

I will add some small streaks on the moving surfaces on top as well and maybe a bit of oily grime to the wing root but nothing compared to the belly 🙂

Daniel
@spanjaard: I also found another pic (34) concerning the spotless missiles 😉

Spanjaard
Nothing spotless in that beautiful Spook 😄

Daniel
little update, some work on the rear end happened, still some little treatment needed but I am on a good way and also very impressed what OOB delivers

Slavo Hazucha
well, if that´s the J-79 exhaust you get OOB here, the Resin-makers may have a problem coming... Very nicely done too, goes for the whole engine rear-end assembly 👍 Yet I am still drifting towards those belly-treatment pics every time I see this pop-up... 😉

Spanjaard
very nice detail on those cans, and beautifully painted

Clifford Keesler
Nice J-79 nozzles.

Daniel
Thank you Slavo, Spanjaard and Clifford!
I am now in the phinal stage of this very enjoyable build so some updates from the kitchen table with wheathering done...err phinished. Happy with it so far, does not look too clean, pretty used, but not "in your face dirty" (doesnt apply to the belly)
So if nothing exciting happens during final assembly it'll be rollout time soon!

Spanjaard
Very nice weathering!

Sergej I
Beutiful!

Jos Jansen
Nice authentic and subtle weathering...👍!

Clifford Keesler
Agree with every one, beautiful.

Gary Victory
I Really love your work Daniel. The weathering looks spot on to my eye. Some real lovely details added....and it's VF-161. What's not to love..! Well done Sir. 😉

Slavo Hazucha
Oh how we rejoice when they get on their own legs for the first time... the first shaky stand, bravely resisting the urge to get seated on the tail... (guess not really a topic with the Phantom LG layout... 😄 )

It looks sublime already and can (and will...) only get better from here... Metalwork & Weathering, all fantastic - but I can´t decide which side looks better - top/belly... 👍 Some models would really benefit from a presentation on a turning skewer... 😉

Maciej Bellos
It is beautiPHul!

Daniel
Phinished! Rock River 100 | Album by halohead (1:48)

Thank you Spanjaard, Sergej, Jos, Clifford, Gary, Slavo and Maciej for your nice words and also to everyone else who stopped by here! 🙂

Neil
Just Phantabulous!! Sorry 😆, seriously it looks absolutely excellent 👏