Japanese Phantom F-4EJ Kai

Nothing spectacular at the cockpit. Fine details whitch I considered sufficient with the canopies closed. Decals did the job at the panels. 

Quite a smart layout of the intakes. They were detailed with scratched pitot tubes (not yet done when the pic was taken) and painted on the inside before assembly. 

Everything fit like a glove - sometimes a bit on the tight side. I only bit my knuckles when I discovered that the left intake wasn't in perfect alignment with the fuselage after the glue had set. That made some avoidable sanding and rescribing in this area necessary. My fault. The kit was innocent.  

And suddenly I had a plane. And - I admit - you can get used to the shapes of the Phantom. 🙂 

The armoured glass at the front of the windshield was tinted clear blue. 

The canopy received its internal color (black) after masking and the cockpit was closed for good. I forgot to take a picture with the office complete. That will follow. 

I replaced the kits exhausts by aftermarket ones. Unfortunately I only realised that i would have had to swop the kits internal support structure against the aftermarket one before closing the fuselage. Now to tweak the resin exhausts in, some cnc was needed (cutting n cursing). But after maiming those parts accordingly I could finally start coloring them. 

For whatever reason I decided to start the paintjob with the heatstained metal part at the aft of the fuselage. 1st layer was gloss black... 

...shiny steel was next,... 

...followed by gun meal in some areas. 

I strived to reproduce the characteristic linear heat stains on that part. So some more masking,... 

...and steel again. 

Everything was then treated by a multitude of filters, washes, pigments, drybrushing and so on, until I decided: enough. Same with the nozzles.  

The area under the rudder had received the missing rivets and I replicated the polishing marks along the rivet lines with chrome pigments 

Actually I am quite happy with the result.  

So, let's protect it before the main paint job.
(Today I would do it the other way round and tackle the metal parts after the main paint job. 

The wheel wells were covered with masking fluid. A decision I was to regret and for which I payed with two hours of lifetime. So, here's my advise: don't! 

Realised too late. Translated too late. Got it too late. My advise: follow their advise. Don't prime. More on that later. 

Well. I did prime.
Hm. In black