USMC Douglas F4D-1 Skyray
What’s in the box: not that many good-looking parts. With the wings dominating the scene of course.
Snipping away to start sub-assembling
First subassemblies and first modification: cut loose the upper rudder to reinstall it at an angle.
Sprayed the cockpit dark gull gray
More surgery: cut out the slats and trimmers. Slats are fragile, trimmers will need some work to reinstall at an angle.
Sprayed the interior parts white, trimmer insides closed with plastic card to compensate for the cut and to provide rigidity. Installed cockpit decals.
An exercise in clamping a rather awkward fuselage and wing while drying …
Closing the slat well and continuing with modifying the trimmers while cleaning up the aft area of the fuselage.
Figured out the required nose weight and installed the cockpit
The kit’s ejection seat is an early type later replaced by MB seat. Looking at various pictures I figured I could get away with modifying the kit seat to resemble a MB Mk.5P.
Again I glued in a handle in the back end and we are ready for the spray booth! And
Primer coat on, came out slightly rough so sanded back a bit
Pre-shading and the first bits of white
First round of masking
Sprayed the upper sides Light Gull Gray
Second round of masking for the exhaust, radome and white upper airbrakes (spotted just in time on a reference pic of the subject I chose)
Followed by a gloss coat of HG51 to prepare for decaling
The decals needed a lot of softening up to conform, especially those around the intake lips. But I managed those without too much damage.
After decaling it was time for detail painting of the smaller bits
Followed by weathering. According to the reference pics I found Marine F4D’s where pretty dirty.
Upper side needs a little bit more grime…
Better! Also installed the landing gear.
On the home run now! Sticking on the final bits. Everything fits excellently, which is nice for a change.
Some final bits of plastic rod to add the canopy hold-open mechanism. Unfortunately, I goofed up and masked an upper canopy panel that was not transparent. Now I had to handpaint it with inevitable color differences. Duh..
And finished! Another nice addition to my collection!
Коментари
2 13 July, 09:03
Hans ZwetslootAnd the other "4" I mentioned a while ago is also finished! Really a nice kit, although it would have been nice if Tamiya had designed trimmers and slats as separate items. But that is about all there is to complain about for this kit. Well recommended.
13 July, 09:16
Thomas KolbBeautiful build and first class paintjob. The subtle weathering is impressing!
13 July, 09:34
