F-4J VF-84 Jolly rogers Academy

Philippe Cano
All the VF-84's decoration and national insignias have been realized with masks of my own, except the pilots names. The stencils are wet transfers from HGW. The Grey is a mix of Tamiya XF with a lot of gloss varnish. My goal was to have a result in-between glossy and satin.

Ed Froix
Very nice

Spanjaard
it looks simply fantastic! i have this one to be started when i finish my current build. do you have more picture of the WIP? I would certainly like to know more about, and specially what problems did you have. you have replaced the biggest decals with fantastic skill, impressed with that! i was thinking on maybe going for transfers from hobbydecal instead of the kit decals. but i am not sure if want to go through the 900+ stencils that I applied to my last built....
i have very similar after market sets than you used on this one. I am really interested in hearing about the aires wheel bay set. I had quite a lot of trouble to use an aires set in my previous F-4 build (Hasegawa), how did it go for you with the Academy one?

Michael Phillips
Beautiful! VERY well done Philippe! Of course I love the markings... 😉

Philippe Cano
Thank you for your encouragements! I appreciate.

The worst problems with this kit are with the air intakes, the main wheel bays, and the refueling probe door.
The external fit of the air intakes is ok but you need to be very precise with the assembly. The concern is if you want to have smooth air ducts, you need to change the assembly order. You must assemble the ducts with the air intakes first, and create a tool able to sand inside the duct.

The original main wheel bay is poor in details, with an horrible fit. You must locate and mark the place where the landing gear is, using the original kit part, and then you must trim the plastic so as to place the bay at the right place. It's better to glue the inside of the airbrake to rigidify the lower part of the wing, before the trimming process…

If you want to represent your Rhino with the refueling probe retracted, it better to use the part for the USAF model, and then to engrave the door. The fit between the door and the fuselage is maybe the worst I ever seen for years on a modern kit!

The inconstancy of engraving is also a problem. In particular, riveting. I spent several hours to accentuate it.

The Eduard cockpit integration is a dream, and it gives enough room for the Aires wheel bay.

soheil moghisi
really nice.

Michael Hickey
Very well done.👍.

Spanjaard
thanks a lot Philippe, really appreciated!! how about the decals?

Burkhard D
If you can afford zooming into an ejection seat that much, it's a clear sign that you have a super clean build. 🙂
Great job on the camo and the insignia/markings, too. Beautiful. 👍👍👍

Dale Marston
Good Looking F-4J I have the same in my stash. 👍

Hubert Kendziorek
Superb! All those stencils must have taken hours of work and lot of patience. By the way, lots of Phantoms here these days, maybe time to start my 'Good Morning, Da Nang"? Best regards, Hubert

Philippe Cano
There are only 6 decals from the box, the pilots names and the tiny serials numbers located on the fuselage in front of the elevators. I try to paint the maximum with masks that I draw with Adobe Illustrator and cut with a Cameo Silhouette. There is a picture in the album labeled "only paint" where you can see what have been done like that.
The HGW decals are spread on the sheet, so that one whole area can be glued at a time. If it worked well for the intrados, this was not the case for the extrados and the fuselage.
This job took me approximately 5 hours. But It's worth the price because with HGW there are no films. The Silvering effect is impossible.
HGW recommend to use Mr Mark Setter, wich work fine, but must be store in the dark, if you don't want it to turn yellow. The best solution, is to paint a good layer of black surfacer on the bottle !

Spanjaard
thanks once more Philippe!, getting a Cameo machine is starting to be quite a temptation at the moment😉 may I ask which model are you using, and what are you using to make the masks?
I did not know about those HGW decals. but i think i will give them a try for my Academy F-4J. i use the dry transfer from HobbyDecal in my other F-4J, but it took me ages to get them all. HGW seem to look as good, and certainly a lot easier and faster to apply!

Philippe Cano
I use the original "Cameo silhouette" model. The first model which appeared few years ago. You can find a picture of it in my GPA project album.
My masks are in vinyl. Almost the same material as the one used by Montex. When surfaces are too irregular, I use Tamiya kabuki sheets, but it's more difficult to handle, especially with large masks.
HGW transfers are less precise than the ones from hobbydecal's, but you're right, easier to apply 🙂

Gary Brantley
Beautiful Phantom Philippe! What technique did you use on the insides of the exhausts if I may ask?

Bryn Crandell
Great looking Phantom.

Spanjaard
thanks again Philippe 🙂

DuperScale
Nice clean build, i like that you put so much effort into the details. 👍

Villiers de Vos
Very nice work.