ZM F-4J Phantom II SWS48-08

All exterior painting done, gloss coat applied, ready for decals and weathering. 

Almost ready for primer. 

Looking back, I should have not installed rear stabilizers/elevators and control ailerons until after painting so that I could have painted them separately and installed after. Would have saved a lot of masking and easier to maneuver while painting. 

Instruction book and ZM addendum booklet. Very helpful. 

Average effort. No aftermarket accessories. Stock out of the box. I like the pull handles. Painted by hand. Not a great job on side yellow handle. 

Messed up and didn't close up the seam in the interior air intake. I thought that applying putty to the interior would make it impossible to sand. But if I used an acrylic putty, I could have smoothed it out with water and a cotton bud. Light sanding stick after. Missed opportunity. Also, painting once two halves were assembled would have been very difficult. What do you think? 

Engine exhaust with black primer, silver base and then a mixture of Tamiya Smoke, and Clear Orange. Then a little detail with clear blue. A lite spray of Nato Black to dirty up the exhaust. Finally applied Tamiya black ink wash. 

Firt coat of underside. I'm pretty happy with the outcome. There are some inadvertent dark areas, but it looks a little weathered. I'll work on post weathering with oils and powders and inks. 

Ready to paint wing tips and rudder. 

Rear stabilizer and wing tips finished in red. The red called out by ZM in their instructions was too bright red. I ran over it with MRP Red. Turned out better, not quite as burgundy red as in box art, but I like it a little brighter. 

Wing tips done. 

Landing gear, exhaust nozzles, etc. ready for install after full paint 

Laying down Alclad II Aluminum over Alclad Gloss Black. Masking was hardest part. Wasn't looking for high gloss, so I didn't bother polishing wither the black gloss coat or the aluminum. Result is pretty standard. 

Here I used Alclad Pale Burnt Metal as base and Jet Exhaust to faded into undercoat.  

Using this pen brush was a lifesaver. Can you imagine having to mask off all around this tiny stripe? I applied a very narrow tape guide and used the pen brush to fill in the stripe. Pigma Brush from Amazon.  

Black based tanks with marble coat and thin final coat. 

Missiles all completed. 

All decals applied and Alclad Aqua Gloss applied. Ready for panel lines and weathering. Really had some touch and go moments. I applied Solvaset to some decals that wouldn’t settle and practically ruined the whole model. I originally used the grey walkway decals. The Solvaset ate right through. I touched up with some paint, but when I tried to use a thinner coat to get rid of brush strokes, ate through decal. Had to completely remove decal and paint, sand smooth and install black walkway decal. Which of course meant replacing all the grey decals with black. I was able to place the black over the grey and line them up perfectly. Very happy and relieved with the outcome.  

Landing gear, air brakes and canopy ready for installation after model is weathered.  

Missiles completed and decaled. 

Punch list items to finalize project. There were many parts and steps that I skipped to do at the end so as not to destroy, break or mar during build and paint. I want to make sure I didn’t miss them before final.