DocRob

The cockpit is looking great, Kai. You will add some pilots, nice. Cheers Rob

Next on my build are the engines, which I will substitute with Reskit burner cans. The kit parts are not bad, but the resin detail is far superior and thinner which represents the real thing better. There was some cast block cutting necessary, which was simple with most of the parts, except with the cage like parts on the lower right side, which proved to present a little challenge. Due to bad packaging, the spider like right PE parts were broken and I won't use them. The Reskit burner cans protrude into the fuselage, so it is necessary to leave the supplied jet engines out and perform some advanced test fitting to see, if everything lines up. The diameter of the Reskit nozzles is maybe a millimeter to large, It's a close fit, but maybe, I have to remove some material. By the way, I checked the wing fuselage alignment and how the air intakes fit. I have to say, I'm amazed about the tight fit, with a submillimeter wiggle room to close small gaps, that's the way, I like it. The front edge of the air intakes is also thin enough for my liking. The Kai Phantom takes shape with the help of some tape. Cheers and a very happy Christmas Rob

Thanks Phil, it's a fun build with good engineering and fit until now. You are right about the manual though, it's a bit overdone for my liking, showing every little detail from tree different angles at least. Color would help with color, if ZM had printed their manual in color, it would have been a breather, so it's a bit confusing. Cheers Rob

Damn Peter, that's bad, but are you sure there is no way to use some blue tack and stick the backside of the fans to a long rod and insert them through the engine openings? The pit looks perfect though. Cheers Rob

How cool, I could do another P-47 in Portuguese markings. Cheers Rob

Finally, I glued the fuselage halves together, after checking the fit of the cockpit. No problems here, the fit is very good. There is a spine insert for the back of the fuselage, which is very clever, as there is no seamline to be dealt with. I added the nosecone and some intakes and fairings, most of them specially designed for the Kai Phantom, therefore to be found on an extra sprue for this edition. ... and some decent shots of the cockpit from a tripod with is a necessity at least in these smaller scales. Cheers Rob

Thanks Gus, I was actually lying, when I answered Martin, that this was my first pit decal job. My Mig-31 turned out ok with the supplied decals, but the Cartograph decals of the ZM Phantom are superior. They are great to work with and are robust enough for the treatment. The only difficulty is placement. You slide the flat decal onto a well protruding surface and then you have to shrink it in place. It's hard to foresee the correct positioning, before shrinking the decal into place with heat and solutions. One or two of mine are slightly off, but it's barely noticeable. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, nothing against these iconic two seaters. I'm not much of a jet guy, except some of the very early ones, but a F4 or F14 keep me tempted, along with some grubby Russian heavy metal like the Mig-31 I built some years ago. I don't know, if the ZM kit is holding up to Tamiya's standards, but to me it looks pretty good and well worth to be build. Cheers Rob

Very nice scratch job on that back plate, looks pretty convincing. Cheers Rob

This engine is looking absolutely fantastic, Mark. Cheers Rob

Thanks Martin, it's my first go at decaling cockpits, but given the great quality of the decals, there is no real need for AM here. Cheers Rob

The next step was sealing the decals with a matte coat, adding and painting levers and control sticks, along with some detail painting. I used a sharpened toothpick for the first time for painting of knobs like the red ones on the control sticks and various knobs on a side panel. Sorry for the lousy picture quality. I promise to use a tripod for detail shots more often. I reviewed the pics, when it was too late and the fuselage was closed. Cheers Rob

First, I cleaned all the cockpit parts, which are very well detailed, with lots of raised detail. I glued the tub with the side panels, but left the instrument panels off for easier painting and decaling. Most cockpit parts were sprayed with Tamiya's dark sea gray and then gloss coated for decaling the consoles and IP's with the supplied decals. The decals worked superb with the help of Micro Set and Sol and a hairdryer. They conformed to the raised details and look at least as good, as colores PE. With the added levers and bits, I prefer the representation to flat PE. Here the decals are still unsealed and glossy, after application. Cheers Rob

Sayonara F-4 EJ and welcome Señhores to a new WIP. The Phantom has been there all my life, at least it felt like. When I was a kid, we often spent our holidays in the north of Germany by the sea, where the land is flat and the Phantoms were flying very low, often with supersonic speed. You can imagine, I was deeply impressed. First there was this roaring sound becoming louder and louder, than one or two F-4's passed and than there was the bang, how cool, except for the people living there. I have an Eduard boxing of an F-4 in my stash, with a lot of goodies, but when I saw the ZM Kai Phantom with the farewell livery, I was immediately sold and felt the urge to build promptly. I love the disco glitter blue markings, which are well represented on the huge Cartograph made decal sheet. There is a second sheet with markings, stencils and fabulous Instrument panel decals. Now a few month later, the Kai sneaked onto my bench and I started to build. Browsing through the box is pure joy, everything is well packed and the grey plastic has very sharp details and no flaws of any kind. The manual is a bit over informative in places and shows every detail from various angles, but misses some tiny bits of information, but this is nitpicking. I preferred the color printed manuals of the 32 scale birds of ZM, but like the Phantom's plastic way more than the sometimes soft detailed sprues of my long ago built TA-152. What's really missing are seat belts, which I bought from Kits-World, canopy masks, which were purchased from New Ware and as an add on some Res-kit burner cans. Next up, cockpit and engines. Cheers Rob

Exactly like Peter says, the paintjob looks great and will really shine with decals and weathering. Cheers Rob

Beautiful looking hard edge camo and the white markings are contrasting great. Good to hear, that the fit is so excellent. Cheers Rob

Again nice work on the Stug. I just saw, that there is a figure set out from das Werk for their Stug. Interestingly they don't mention it on their website neither does Scalemates. The usually well connected shop of Modellbau König has them listed and available. I thought I let you know. StuG III Crew & Infantry Set 1/16 (modellbau-koenig.de) Cheers Rob

I don't like using liquid mask for canopy masking. Some react with Future dipped clear plastic over time. If there is a Kabuki set available, I will buy one but not the vinyl stuff, which shrinks and doesn't follow the contours good enough. If there are no Kabuki sets available or no money to buy, I cut masks with cutting templates, if the framing isn't protruding well, If it does, I cut Kabuki tape directly onto the canopy, very carefully with a sharp blade. You see, I'm Kabuki addicted, it's precise, no color is running under, when pressed on with a wooden toothpick and no side effects with Futurized canopies. Cheers Rob

Great progress, with the tracks out of the way, there is no braking now until the finish . Cheers Rob

Very nice start of a very interesting plane , Peter. Having just received my -D, I make myself comfortable in your WIP-zone. The pit is looking great with the Quinta detail sets. The 3D effect is just more realistic than flat PE. Cheers Rob

Supercool. Great detail, love it. Cheers Rob

You didn't miss a beat Peter, I only started the Kai Phantom yesterday. I'm not at my best in the moment and have a bit of a hard time to force me to the bench. So I haven't planned on a WIP and I don't think, a 48 scale Phantom would raise much interest. That is where I am at the moment. I painted the tub and gloss coated everything for the superb kit decals, which still look glossy, as they are not sealed and still drying. I like the look, no need for a Quinta set and once coated, looking better than flat PE . Cheers Rob

Thanks Peter and yes, I couldn't build only planes or armor all the time. I like to pick my personal cherries in the modelling world. I would love to see you wip the Tomcat build, naturally with my new kid in stash, no matter mine is a -D. The Nieuport looks great in the box and rigging is not too bad on these planes. Actually, I like rigging. I've considered starting my huge WNW AEG night bomber as a winter project, but not sooner as new year. In the moment I started with the cockpit of the ZM Kai Phantom. Cheers Rob

Nice Peter, The red front is balancing the yellow tail, that looks tres cool. Since you've solved the bright color issues, there should be no more obstacles in finishing the Mustang. Painting yellow can be a nightmare. I tend to prime a thin white coat under yellow, at least, if there are different colored underlayers, like with your bird. Tamiya X and XF-Yellow are very translucent and on my first try, I liked the AK RC color yellow better for opacity. Cheers Rob

Thanks Carl, I browsed through the kits and yes, the Belkits instructions seem to be a bit confusing. I used a hair dryer on decals before, but never used hot dampened cloth. I may try that, as it sounds completely reasonable. Luckily the decals are printed by Cartograph. Cheers Rob