denders

Hi Peter, thanks for the comment. I wasn't going to get carried away with all the stencils on this one. But I agree, they make it look great.

We spent last week at the NC shore. There is a nice hobby shop in Jacksonville, NC called Hobby Chest of Jacksonville. I bought this. I'll eventually be hunting information and decals for a Nimitz based aircraft. And the ladies wanted to go to Hobby Lobby. And Hobby Lobby was having 40% off boxed kits sale, so I bought this, it should be interesting.

So, I'll get back to this on now. We spent last week at the NC shore with friends.

Go to it, Carl. I’ll be watching.

Thanks, folks! Chris, that is a decal from the Z-M sheet.

Working on decals. The red fin-cap is painted.

Okay, working on the landing gear. The light gray gear on the left is the kit gear. The gear on the right is the 3D printed AM gear. The kit gear aren't really too bad. There is some nice detail and could be made to look as good as the AM gear with a little bit of work. The AM gear has some extra levers and lines. Some of which I messed up cutting off the 3D printing supports. Some sort of picture with them highlighting what to keep would of course be helpful. I have the AM mains turned the opposite of the kit mains, so you can't see that the loops for tying down the aircraft aren't there. They were until my big thumb pressed on them and broke them off while test fitting the main gear in the aircraft wheel wells. I've already shaped some brass wire to replace them. Next, the wheels. The wheels on the left (light gray) are from the AM landing gear set. The wheels and tires in the middle are the kit wheels and the nose wheels and mains tires on the right are the Z-M AM "flattened" or perhaps "pre-loaded" set. Personally, I like the Z-M parts. It's up to you whether you like the pre-loaded type or not. The kit supplied parts are plastic and the AM stuff is resin, whether 3D printed or cast. Now to do some research and decide which parts I'm going to use.

Thanks, Carl! It was MRP 180 Exhaust Soot sprayed with a Creos 771 with the needle limiter set really tight and 10 psi air.

Well, it obviously didn't take me a week to remove the masking. I kinda feel like some of the colors are a bit too dark. All the metallics are MRP. Nozzles are next and landing gear.

Thanks, Carl! All the painting for the aft engine area is done, except for the nozzles. I feel like it will take a week to get all the masking off.

My grandsons gifted me this kit last Christmas. I'm building it as a Hotrod Pickup. There are loads of hot rod parts in the kit. This is Tamiya Lacquer Mica Red paint. I'm not getting into detailing it because this will most likely end up as a long-term Christmas decoration.

Thanks, guys! Working on all the metallic colors at the aft end. Masking then more masking, then more masking.....................

So, finally got the flag decals, now I'll have to work on that on the Pharris. I'm planning on having the rearmost hangar bay doors of Nimitz open on each side. While I'm not going to light the hangar bay, I wanted to have aircraft there to see when peering through. So, I'm building aircraft now, so I have the aircraft to put in the hangar deck before I put the flight deck on. Lots more tiny pieces. I've only started on the F-14s. Then there are A-7Es, A-6Es/KA-6Ds, E-2Cs, EA-6Bs, SH-3Hs, S-3As, and EA-3Bs. Most of the F-14s with wings spread will probably not be used.

Okay, I masked it up last evening and sprayed the Medium Gunship Gray today. Still lots to do yet.

After some seam touchups, the second gray is on.

Thanks, Kevin! One more step done. Waiting for some flag decals. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to use them, but I want a flag flying. I showed the 4 1/2 yr. old grandson the previous photo and he said, "Cool". And then he said "Where's the helicopter?". I'm thinking on using a wire to have it flying. I've already drilled a hole in the bottom of the helicopter, just have to add it to the ship. But the additional rigging and the flag first.

Thanks, guys! And, yes Chris, I did paint behind the intake splitters before I attached them.

Thanks, guys! It's getting there. Either a flat or semi-flat clear coat. And some rigging which will include a U.S. Flag. Oh yeah, a helicopter too.

Sooooo, I decided to mix up the AK paint with thinner in a 2 oz bottle. That way I could use it like I use the MRP. Pour some into the airbrush and when I'm done, pour it back in the bottle. It's thinned with AK High Compatibility Thinner. 2 Parts thinner to 1 part paint. The pigment seems to drop out of suspension pretty quickly. If you look in the background of this photo, I haven't painted all of the underside of the aircraft yet. So, Light Ghost Gray on the underside of the Phantom. I should have left the stabilators off for painting.

Another step. I've looked through the instructions and decided that I would use the kit wing pylons and see how they look. There are a number of pieces to them. And I think the same for the landing gear too. I have several more 1/48 Phantoms, so all those parts will be usable. It's starting to look like a Phantom. If you're wondering why the last few photos have the nose hanging over the edge of the desk, it's because of the piece of the nose gear, I'm trying not to break it. I need to have a look at all the seams and then I'll start masking and painting. And, btw, I've used a little bit of the AK RC918, FS36270 Medium Gray paint. I've mixed it about 1/3 paint and 2/3 thinner. It seems to spray and cover well. It's a little hard to be sure that It's mixed well in the bottle, compared to the MRP paint. And I feel like I get some separation of the thinner/paint in the airbrush cup. That may be because of the very small quantities that I've mixed so far. 10 drops paint, 20 drops thinner. I've been using the AK High Compatibility Thinner. I mix it in a small disposable cup and pour it into the airbrush cup.

I'm still worried about sneezing and bending it. Working on decals, one side done. This particular ship is not one of the kit selections. Fortunately, I can 1094 out of what was provided, just 3 decal pieces each location, 10, 9, 4. The ship name isn't even close to getting letters from the provided decals, so, I purchased a separate decal sheet with letters. The good thing is that Pharris has two Rs side by side. They're aligned about as good as my hands will allow.

Thanks, Carl. Outer wings on, 12 degrees.

More steps. I've decided to not use the ResKit exhausts because of the pieces that duplicate the engine pieces in the Z-M kit that I've already installed. I'll save them for another F-4E build. Each intake is 5 pieces and everything fits very well. The piece in the yellow circle should be installed later. It protrudes and I've almost wacked it entirely off once. The area in the red circle, make sure there isn't a step when you install the upper fuselage to the lower fuselage/wings piece. The engine exhausts are assembled. I must decide whether I want them closed or open. But I've got time, they need to be painted first and I'm looking at waiting 'til the end to install them.

We had to make a trip to PA for a wedding. On the way up I81 through VA, we stopped in Staunton, VA and visited Frontline Models and Hobbies. Nice place, wish we had something like it in the Nashville area. Picked up a few things. The F/A-18 is for use with my grandsons. The catapult should make a nice display for the Arado when I build it.

Thanks, Peter! More progress. Need to fill ejector pin marks. They're in a position that won't be seen by a normal look. But, if you go looking for them, they can be found.