CANicoll

The camo masks worked very well, but seem sized for a different aircraft than the Tamiya 1/32 F-4 EJ. Most obvious is the mask sheet shows a short-nosed F-4, not the long-nosed F-4E however several other masks also seem short. This is not meant to be a complaint or a criticism of the Top Notch Masks - more a heads up for others. The masks worked extremely well with no bleed anywhere I used them. First example are masks 4 and 5. 4 is on the tail and 5 on the fuselage as shown in the second photo below. Mask 4 on the tail should reach almost to the front. Mask 5 on the fuselage should be nearly to the front of the tail. (I smoothed out the masks after these pictures...) Same with Masks 11 and 12. Mask 11 should have reached nearly to the front of the tail as well (test fitted here) while mask 12 should have matched up to mask 11. I cut some addl mask material from the sheet, taking advantage of the curves left from other mask cutouts to extend mask 11 to fit the tail. (Sorry, hard to see below). The purple tape is my go-to for large masking jobs - 3M painters tape. Works great and is economical. Similar issues are up front. This was a test fit of the front mask which did not want to sit down on the fuselage when it was positioned as expected. Eventually this is the masking for the dark green using lots of the pink tape to fill in as well as some pieces from the remaining mask sheet. Those curves are very handy to extend the masks. Prior to the masking, this was the first spray of the light green. This is a better view of the early paint mottling. So again, the masks worked great, just that they seemed to be for a different aircraft model. They adhered beautifully and I had no seepage under the mask anywhere despite the curves. I was careful to keep pressing down the masks over anything protruding so that helped. They were easy to apply and easy to remove and reposition as needed. They seemed to stretch a bit but then went back to the original shape. Just wish they fit the aircraft better. Now on to the stencils...attaching the wing extensions to the correct angle....and the canopy....and the missiles... and the ALQ-87..... Praying for an extension to the GB end date!

A guy I know put the sound deadening in his car, another Subaru but a Forrester - a big square metal box. Even just on the doors it made a HUGE difference. Then the floor pan. I may have to do mine now...

I bet that feels A LOT better shifting...

Camo mostly complete. There is a story there but I will have to post that later. The masks were good, but the fit was definitely off in many places. I will detail that in a separate post after dinner. The masks did work admirably well with NO bleed under at all so that led to having a very minimal amount of touch-up, all caused by me missing masking somewhere, Small pieces to fix so I'm very happy with the result. The brown in the pictures does not appear as mottled as it is, and some of the dark green is darker than I would like but it had to cover the brown underneath. The light green came out lighter in the pictures than on the aircraft. I'll have to work on the photography, or maybe take a second look to make sure the depth is where I want it on the plane. This looks too light to me. The MRP Paints were amazing. Masked after two hours, NO lift-off at all and coverage was very good. I really like my Grex for this kind of painting. Here is the masking sheet. WHEW. I MIGHT actually make the GB deadline. I was thinking if it was July 2025 I'd have a real shot at it...

Wait till we get to the aircraft! As you know...

Jeff, I'm late jumping in but to add my 5 cents worth, go for it. Peter just posted his work on a HO scale building with Hydrocast walls which I have never seen before - his work there is very interesting and for me, awe inspiring. BTW - 'Not good enough to be displayed here'? Please. Build what you like, please share what you've done so we can appreciate what you've worked on. And I agree with the others, this is a modeling site, not an aviation site. Post what you build. I'm very interested in how people build, detail, paint, weather and display their work. I usually pick up tips along the way so please do share. Cheers!!

Got the pylons (mostly) successfully stenciled (one minor hiccup). These decals are (as you would hope) super thin but I did not tear a single one (of the 46!) applied. I did accidentally fold one and thought I got it un-folded, then didn't. In the end I ended up just taking it off since it will be under the missile rail anyway. Have not applied the clear topcoat yet, but VERY hard to see any carrier film. These Reskit decals are terrific. And I didn't break a single stabilizer in the process. I did break one when I initially removed all the 3D Printing stuff, and need to do a bit of a trim on a few of the pads, but otherwise the strategy of keeping the pylons on a Post-It note pad while working paid off. Now it's time to dive into the camo scheme. Wish me luck! Back later with updates...

Just arrived! Nice shirt, thanks Tim!

Peter, that looks absolutely amazing!!! the detail work on the bricks is just perfect - looks JUST like the real thing! I keep going back and looking at those photos. Wow, super impressive - you are a man of MANY talents!

And a big vehicle just to transport the boxes home!!

"Only" $712 from BNA!!

More bits for the F-4. BNA comes through again!

Peter, Excellent that you found another outlet for your awesome creative skills. The work so far looks amazing. I don't know how you work back and forth between plastic, wood and whatever Hydrocal is. I can see how the skills will translate, but for now, looking forward not just seeing your progress, but also you amazingly detailed write-ups about your process.

Sorry to hear Peter. I have to admit, looking at all that PE, railings especially, antennas, etc, keeps me from attempting. Good luck with the HO and O kits. HO is comparable to 1/48? Chris

Carl, Good to know I'm in good company. I've had more than one build attempt an early unauthorized flight test...Glad to see the damage was repairable.

I hear you on the procrastination part. One big motivation is the July 3rd GB end date. The fuselage - except for that intake gap - is ready for the next phase of camo. But just hit something of a hiccup as my mother wants to move into an Assisted Living facility this month so I'm probably losing a fair amount of the bench time that I was planning on. Oh well!

Gotta watch out for those Wingtrip sensors. Specialized pieces, those are!

Carl, I'm hoping this other AAA Hobby store will fill the order - I'm not clear of the relationship between Nautilus and AAA. I'll give it a week and I've reached out to AAA. Making some progress, but the intake seam is giving me some problems that will require some specific focus. In the meantime, focused on the Sparrows and repainting the underside parts. Quick view of most of the progress off-fuselage. By the drop tanks at the top of the picture are the correct G11 rails for the Sidewinders - still on the sprues. Repainted the landing gear with the MRP white which appears to me to be brighter than the Vallejo while. I have the Eduard Placards for the F-4 and they have some for the landing gear that it does not look like I have other decals for. The Sparrows were repainted MRP White as the Vallejo White was too close to the underside grey (at least to my eye). The MRP is also sooo much smoother than the Vallejo. Did a couple of coats of MRP Clear in prep for all of those missile decals/stencils. Ditto for the pylons. A couple of coats of MRP USAF Grey and then MRP Clear. Again, the pylons are soo smooth so looking forward to seeing how the stencils will go down. Will let this dry for a couple of days - so probably Wednesday for the decals. And a reminder of the stencils to be applied. What is interesting is that in the diagrams below there isn't that step at the front of the fuselage connection that I had to sand down on the part.

I'm sorry to report that the Owner of Nautilus Models, Jame Corley, apparently passed away suddenly in January. His widow, Debbie, is trying to shut down the company. The website is still up and taking orders (unfortunately...). The site primarily served ship builders with an extensive array of bits and bobs, but also some plane parts (like the much-needed F-4 Phantom Wing dihedral correction jig). Website: http://nautilusmodels.com Product listing: http://nautilusmodels.com/orderpage-USA.htm

Thanks Carl! Hey, I heard that Nautilus is shutting down. I had sent an email to the company, and the proprietor's wife said he suddenly passed in January and she's trying to shut down the company. Very sad. I'll post a message over in the appropriate forum. Chris

Making progress on the pylons thanks to Carl's excellent suggestion. Pretty close to where they need to be: The left pylon has been sanded to shape, the right (back) pylon is un-altered. That is a LOT Of material that needed to be removed. Two views of the pylon after sanding. It actually sits flatter than shown here. I'm still thinking of screwing it in from inside the wing. I don't think the Sidewinders will be very heavy, but the added tightness the screws would provide would help pull the pylon down to the wing. May try this out tomorrow.

You are FULL of great ideas!!! Wish I had thought about that sooner. Cheers!

Carl, Found the G11 pieces but took me a while as I had put all of those sprues away and forgot where they were. Thanks for the info. There is a bit of a fit problem with the Reskit pylons. The front of the wing connector sits very proud of the bottom of the wing. Been working on it and here is where this is at for now. Getting closer to having the 'wings' sit flusher with the wing surface. I was about to start putting the stencils on the pylon but now want to wait to see how difficult it will be to attach the pylon to the wing. I'm somewhat tempted to drill holes into the wing and pylon and use that to fasten the pylon to the wing... This arrived yesterday: Started on the painting. Have a bit of touch-up to do as well as painting the noses black. And here are the Sparrows, prior to the primer coat. I may need a smidgeon of filler on some of the fins and I need to clean up the nose points. However, my adhesive work was miserable! I need to do some touch-up work

Carl, Do you know if there is a resin/3D part to replace kit part P1 - the Sidewinder Launch rails? The kit parts seem too large, especially the mounting lugs to the pylons. I looked into the Reskit parts, and their website, but I don't see any launch rails. Thanks. PS ordered the Nautilus jig.

Carl, as usual you are a life-saver. I was probably within a weekend of closing up the wings and was about to clear coat the bottom wing to start on the stencils. Whew. Question about Nautilus - are they still in business? The website has apparently not been updated since 2022? I sent James and email.