F-4EJ Digital Camouflage
Yesterday the base kit arrived in the mail. Hoping that I have the same luck as Hans Robben and that the Fujimi decals fit the Hasegawa kit.
Starting clipping the parts from their sprues and glueing some parts. I guess I started a new project! 😄
According to the kit instructions the strengthening plates should be retained. The box picture and Augie’s picture prove otherwise.
Off they go!
In contrast to the Revell F-4F kit, this kit’s forward fuselage is made up of a couple of parts. Lined up on a flat surface, I like to add these parts before joining the fuselage halfs.
The basic cockpit will suffice for a closed canopy display.
Because the kit shares the same wings and fuselage as the Navy versions, the catapult bridle hooks are blanked off by alternative inserts.
Because of the modular setup (or my inability...) some Mr. Surfacer has to be used.
Is it cheating when I add some seats I started on for another Phantom?....
Not much progress today... As much as I love the Hasegawa Phantom, I loath this approach to attach the wing halves. Somehow I always end up puttying this seam.
Michael Hickey pointed out that the underside of the stabilizers had strengthening plates. I traced the outline using some F-4F stabilizers.
Transferred those outlines to 0.25 mm plastic strips.
Cut...
... et voilá!
Tried putting in the original cockpit decals, they decided against that....
So I used the Fujimi ones. Now I see the difference in cockpit setup between the two kits. Fingers crossed for the rest of the fuselage decals later on!
As this cockpit isn’t receiving the love my other Phantom is getting, I might use these 29 years old side panels from the ESCI kit.
Although I’m waiting for the Bilek set to arrive, I got some filling/sanding/filling/sanding/filling/sanding/rescribing done.
Not bad for practicing but I prefer a little shimming under the lower wing part on my next Phantom.
Hozzászólások
2 27 January 2019, 04:17
Michael HickeyLooking really good so far Patrick, but I wish you hadn't removed the arrow shape strengthening plates on the horizontal stabilizers. According to Jake Melampy's "The Modern Phantom Guide" most F4-EJ's had these strengthening plates.
27 January 2019, 04:43
Michael HickeyAccording to a reference photo that I have those strengthening plates only appear on the underside of the horizontal stabilizers.
27 January 2019, 04:47
Patrick HagelsteinTrue! But if you look at the in flight picture Angie posted to this project, the strengthening plate isn't visible. This is a confusing tail number as this isn't a Kai and doesn't comply with general Japanese Phantom rules.
27 January 2019, 04:49
Ingo FNice, looking forward to see how it turns out. Love digi camo on jets. 🙂
29 January 2019, 20:35
Patrick HagelsteinWelcome aboard Ingo! Hoping to get some more work done this week...
29 January 2019, 21:16
Spanjaardinteresting camo, i am in 🙂 i am really curious what you do with it Patrick 🙂
30 January 2019, 23:07
Patrick HagelsteinWelcome Spanjaard! I won't be doing extensive detailing on this one, I'll save that for an upcoming F-4F. In this build I want to let the decals speak as a means of getting attention to the plane.
31 January 2019, 02:55
Patrick HagelsteinWeird... The kit I'm using obviously came with decals and I thought I'd best use those as those are designed for that kit anyway. That sheet was lying on the bottom of the box and upon submerging them, they disintegrated... No worries, I still had an F-4F with sealed decals I wasn't going to use anyway. This time the decals only disintegrated while moving them to the IP... The Fujimi ones performed flawlessly and even have the panels 'raised'. Only drawback is that the Fujimi cockpit has a far narrower IP and their decals cater for that. Now I have to find some IP side panel ones to put next to this one. Well...Did I mention that I wasn't going to super detail this one?
4 February 2019, 14:47
Patrick HagelsteinAnd exactly THAT got me wondering! It looked weird to me but I just wanted to put some decals in. Now where did I put that FS 36231? 😄
4 February 2019, 23:39
Patrick HagelsteinGood to know for my (somewhere in the far future) RF-4E build. 🙂
4 February 2019, 23:40
Patrick HagelsteinOK then! I managed to win the bidding for a Bilek F-4E pre-colored PE cockpit set. As the cobbling together of those cockpit decals conflicted with my AMS, I decided to use that set instead and have some peace of mind. 🙂
12 February 2019, 00:43
Patrick HagelsteinWell, I was putting some left over resin seats in and now with this PE set I might as well open the canopies. 😉
12 February 2019, 13:58
Bryn CrandellF-4..check! JASDF..check! Digital camo..interested! I'm in. Watching this one.
21 February 2019, 12:37
Patrick HagelsteinWelcome aboard Jos and Bryn! This will be the (lower detailed) side project while working my WTD 61 F-4F. But hey, at least there are some Phantoms on my table. 🙂
21 February 2019, 15:36
