BlrwestSiR

Yup, intakes, wings and cockpits. More is forthcoming. I've started a build thread for the F-4s in the 1/48 section.

Duomaniac?

Thanks @PanzerWombleand @ScottsGT! It's the Hasegawa A-5 kit. I picked it up second hand from my LHS. @HubertB, we definitely all have different ideas of what tidy constitutes. Now if the kitchen looked like this I'd be going insane.

Oh and I spent a bit of time to do a quick tidy up.

ZM takes a somewhat different approach to the changes to the F-4 long nosed variants, especially around the wings. The early F-4E was built with a hard wing. This one didn't have the slats on the outer wings. During the production run, they found out that adding slats to the wings improved the plane's maneuverability significantly so they were added on. Many early planes were modified with slats as well. The Japanese ones never got the slatted wing and stuck with the hard wing. Most kit companies usually use the same inner wing section for both, simply adding the fairings for the slat actuators to the underside and a new outer wing with the slats. ZM has tooled up separate wings for both. You can see the differences below. The slatted wing is on the right, the hard wing on the left. The hard wing has a leading edge which can drop and ZM has done this in one so that it can be positioned up or down. One other difference is they have moulded the reinforcing belly strap into the slatted wing. The hard wing doesn't have it. The only issue with this is that not all the later planes had the belly strap. So that could be a bit of an issue.

I finally finished an FW190!

Me too!

First up is the cockpit. I painted the sidewalls and NLG bay sections before putting it together. Here it is with the RF cockpit tub which was done the same way. For the IPs, I used the kit decals applied over the kit parts. The decals are printed by Cartograf so the resolution on them is excellent. After they're dry, I used Tamiya X-20A thinner as a decal softener. This gets them to confirm to all the little bumps and panels. Then I did the main panels the same way. The G: The RF: Everything is given a coat of semi-gloss and a wash.

Having followed along with @denders F-4E late build, I wanted to start on one of the ZM kits I had in my stash. At this point I remembered that I had started one of the F-4EJ Kai kits but only as far as part of the cockpit. So I figured it would be easier to add that and just do both at the same time. Here's the F-4G box. One reason I wanted to get this started is that the kit box had been resting on the bare floor. This allowed it to wick moisture up and if dint want it to get worse. For the RF-4EJ, ZM doesn't make one but I found decals from DXM and the ZM Kai kit contains most of the parts for an early E/EJ so it's an easy backdate. I don't have the recon pod or the specific cockpit panels for it but close enough.

Gear legs are on the FW Getting closer to the finish line.

PW, I love having the company at my bench. Our last dog used to come down and stay with me when I was at my bench and our younger cat often joined in at the same time. Sunny loved being with Zoe more than the bench time. Fursnake started come down here as a respite from our current dog and has just decided to be a lap cat which she never was before.

Here she is in her happy spot: Note her box/perch to my immediate left.

Rob, what about a sanding stick? Use a finer grade one and gently sand the areas you want to wear away the paint. I used this approach on my F4U wing roots to simulate the wear I wanted.

Fursnake is in her happy spot. She's on a box of filament. I have a cat bed for her just out of view but she's not interested in it. The box gives her immediate access to my lap when I'm at the bench which is what she wants I suspect.

It's usually not this bad. Just been a culmination of things and well, just wanting to put stuff together. Like I said, once I get some of these done, I'll do a tidy up and start over.

It's usually not this bad. Just been a culmination of things and well, just wanting to put stuff together. Like I said, once I get some of these done, I'll do a tidy up and start over n

Wow, that part looks like it should be 1/48. Some serious shrinkage for sure.

Mottled and exhaust stains added.

Funny, my tools are all sorted and away in an organized manner. So the flipside.

I did try to warn you. Anyways, zooming in you can see I got the decals on the FW190 done.

Hope it's industrial sized. My work space is definitely the most crowded it's been. Scott, might be best to avert your eyes. Don't want o give you a coronary.... . . . . . .... I've just wanted to build something...so anything has been fair game. Like I said, I'll most likely clean up once I get a few of these projects done.

The XIV conversion and the Vosper are back in their respective boxes. As is the Stratos and Magach. So technically not on my bench.

Scott, are you doing a K or a plain E?

Actually the Sheridan is on the port wing of my Sea Fury. Godzilla got moved to the pile of open kit boxes. His tail kept getting in the way. For those keeping count (or trying to), here's everything on the bench: - ZM He219 - Academy CF-18 - Tamiya F4U1-A - Border Tiger 1 early - Minibase Su-33 - Special Hobby Whirlwind - Fisher Sea Fury - RFM Sheridan - ZM RF-4EJ - ZM F-4G - Hasegawa FW190A-5 Organized chaos..

Multitasking at its finest!