CANicoll

Making some progress with the variation of metal tones. The new paints showed up, but ironically, I used an MRP Fine Silver Primer which looked lighter than the Alclad I shot before. Also picked up the clear blue - want to know what you think... Too heavy, too light, just wrong? Thought please. How about the metal shading on the sides? And the Stabilizers... Please don't ask about my painting order of operation. I have an idea how I'm planning on doing the painting/camo but I can't really explain or defend it. I just take it a step at a time!! What do you think of the metal shading? The Lighter is actually Alclad White Aluminum, and the 'Darker' is MRP Fine Silver Primer. Part of the shading difference is how the light hits the paint. This is the underside, with the AF grey. AND I just noticed that the stiffing plates should be ONE color . The top side has the start of the camo colors Thanks!

Here is the comparison of the kit pylon to the 3D printed Reskit one: And a close up of the front of the pylon: And a not great picture of the actual pylon. The Reskit does have the rivet pattern but it might be a bit overdone.

You are welcome, Martin!

Super nice and clean work John!

Carl, I agree with you. It will be a lot of work, but makes a lot more sense to cut at the attachment lug. I'm looking forward to freeing up the pylons too.

Hi folks, For my Twins Group build of the Tamiya F-4 Phantom II I ordered some Reskit parts to spruce up the build. This is the unboxing of those bits. More will be posted in the WIP thread here. I ordered three of the Reskit bits for my build: The 3D Printed USAF Inboard Pylons for the F-4, RS-320446, AIM-9L Sidewinder Missiles, RS-2-0236, and the AIM-7E Sparrow III Missles. Pylons are two to a box and the Missiles are four to a box. All three came in very sturdy Cardboard boxes: packed tightly with foam inside: The Sparrows are so long they barely fit in the box - I can't close the box again after I opened it. AIM-7E Sparrow III Missiles Each Missile is 9 resin parts (missile body, 8 separate fins) along with a PE fret for the missile rocket opening. In a nice touch the PE fret has an extra missile end. Two different paint options are provided - all white, and white and grey. 23 stencils and color bands on EACH MISSILE!?! Also included is a decal sheet for the stencils as well as the colored bands. Interestingly, the writing of the missile type is skewed, but the rest of the decals look fine. The clear film seems a little thick. The resin parts are finely cast and the fins are razor thin. LOTS of work to be had separating all of these pieces from the bases. The missile bodies have nicely molded recessed places for the fins with clear differences in the mounting points to prevent errors. Should also keep alignment straight. The noses of the Sparrow missiles are very sharp, too much so and will need to be trimmed back a little bit - but it shows the high level of detail possible. AIM-9L Sidewinder Missiles Each Missile is 9 resin parts (missile body, 8 separate fins), with two separate resin nose options - a clear lens and a protective (?) cap, along with a PE fret for the missile rocket opening, no extras this time, but with PE tabs for the rear fin. And a decal sheet with stencils as well as color bands. The missile bodies again showing where the fins are placed. Alignment should not be an issue. Showing how thin the fins really are. They are also somewhat translucent they are so thin. I forgot to take a picture of the front fins, sorry! Clear lens option as well as protective caps? Those metal tabs are going to be a chore to get attached the side of the rear fins. USAF Inboard Pylons - 3D Printed Each pylon is 3d Printed, but still comes with two options for with or without the AN/ALE-40. The challenge will be to separate the parts from the 3D Printing bases. Fortunately, Reskit has a video on YouTube to show you how! And here is the ubiquitous stencil sheet, with a penny for size. I'm going to go blind with all these stencils... These look to be printed differently from the missile decals - I don't see any clear film on this decal sheet. Incredible detail! The removal of all the 3D Printing supports looks to be daunting, but the video shows it is pretty easy, just take your time and be VERY sure what you are cutting. I wonder how well the pieces will sand. Next I'll get the kit styrene parts to put next to the 3D printed parts to compare the detail and we will see if they are worth the time, effort and cost. They look pretty good though!! Comments are welcomed!

Thanks Peter! Still trying to figure out which aircraft I'm going to do - I have that Zotz sheet. SO. MANY. OPTIONS!.

Carl, thanks for your comments, very much appreciated. I think I will pull off the stickers from the top of the stabilizers. Cheers, Chris

Finally got a bit of bench time, as well as some very timely and helpful assistance from Gary at GT Resin since I am not well versed at F-4 Resin upgrades. Gary's resin parts are amazing - the fit is terrific, and the detail is amazing. Paint is starting to pull out some of that detail, but also, check out the thinness of the intake splitter - very nice to be able to thin that down to a sharp edge. Prepainting the intakes per some earlier advice. Here are the GT Resin engine cans and burners dry assembled. Now that I know how it all goes together (Thanks Gary!) I'll get on the detail painting. Toned down the shiny bits on the tail and am happier with the result. Realized I don't own any clear blue so have that on order. Did do some additional shading. Thoughts? I'm not sold on Tamiya sticker reinforcing plates for the stablizers. There is more detail in the photos vs the naked eye but I'm just not sold on the look. Can't really see these plates in my references, so soliciting advice - keep or ditch? The gray is actually painted with the underside color. But not happy with the look. Just seems too thick. And finally starting to work on the landing gear - applying some washes to pull out some detail. Still want to play with this and do a bit more clean up. Getting close to closing up the fuselage, finally! Still up is to work on the clear resin canopy pieces.

That is one beautiful finish, John. Perfectly smooth, wow. I've never used Xtracolor but am very impressed.

Martin, Looking really good, wow. Great work on the research and adjustments as well as the creativity in creating the bits you need. You must have a huge stash of styrene to pull from. My hats off to you!

Looks terrific and love the subject - that was a fun series.

I know I need to narrow this down a bit: I'm looking for a refill on my usual acrylic paint airbrush cleaner which was the Vallejo cleaner. I see Grex has their own, which has 'detergents' in it. Has anyone used the Grex airbrush cleaner? What are other preferred options? Thanks!

Cleaned off the tail with Carl's suggested Mr Color and that worked very well. Cheers! Tried a test shot using a clean pipette and I have come to the conclusion that I have contaminated the bottle somehow. Fortunately, am only wasting about 1/3 a bottle. I even tried thinning the Alclad with some MRColor and that didn't really have an effect. Oh well!!! If anyone wants a bottle of contaminated Alclad...... I have to tell you, the stringy effect is pretty cool. No problem with clogging the airbrush, either.

I have the same kit so looking forward to your work, especially with the decals. You've worked with them before to great effect. The scheme is definitely eye catching.

Excellent! Thanks!

I think it is contamination from the pipette. I never have to thin Alclad and no matter what pressure I shot it at, including 8PSI Itried. Hopefully this week I can run a test. Pissed that I was not more careful. But at least I don't think the damage is major.

Love the scheme and terrific start to the build, John. I do like the Eduard kits as well, but seems like Tamiya has the market cornered. The North African scheme is beautiful. Can't wait to follow along.

Pretty strange, huh?? Thanks for the suggestions, gents. Doc, I think you are on to something there - Carl, I did try it at various pressures down to 8 psi so you and I had similar thoughts. Peter - I believe you nailed it. I think I have narrowed the culprit down to a pipette I used to take the paint from the MRP bottle to my airbrush. I have a tendency to re-use stuff and in this case, there was a white residue inside the pipette that I neglected to pay attention to. I need to do another test, but I'm 95% certain that is the problem. FWIW I even tried it with a different airbrush and got the same result. So probably tomorrow I'll be able to do a test and am hopeful that will be the answer... It is always something, huh?

Quick update: Resprayed the lower exhaust area with Model Master Exhaust Metalizer. Darker is definitely the effect I was hoping for, now will tone down the highlighted seams and add some clear blue heat staining. Also did some shading of the arrestor hook using both Metalizer and Alclad.

Carl, Whew. Ok, thanks. Obviously, I'm NOT a jet guy!

Hubert, Thanks! Huge sense of relief... I have not found any pictures showing the slats deployed.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Having to take it slow, but want to make some progress this weekend. Also, am wondering if I screwed something up with the elevators. Started masking the exhaust area. The idea is to darken the panels, but I didn't choose a dark enough mix (Alclad Magnesium) so will have to do another shot today. Definitely needs to be much darker! The elevators represented another conundrum. The look like they are upside down to me with the leading edges. I've been back over the instructions many times, but I can't see where I messed up. Are the stabs correct?? I can't image the slats go UP? I just don't see how to have assembled the Stabs with the slats pointing down. SO what obvious thing did I mess up on? Thanks Guys!