CANicoll

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.

I think you can also try putting it in hot water (no pun intended) and then straightening it out. Maybe tape it to a straight bar, pen or something while it cools?

Love the ASAT idea!!

Fran, Thanks for this review - you do amazing reviews, very much appreciated. I would not have looked twice at this kit, but for your review I may have to take a look. I have never done a P-47 but I do like the 1/48 scale.

Gus, I had exactly the same experience with the twist of some fins. And one of the Sparrow bodies seems to be a bit warped, but not quite a badly as the one on the left in your picture. What did you use to attach the fins? I used a gel CA.

Yep, beautiful job John. I built the same kit so can really appreciate the fine work you've done. Looks terrific and really nice job on the camo. Your airbrush work is super.

Carl, Thanks! I'll be working on the missiles and paint/camo for a few weeks so let me know what you find on the location of the wing tanks, and how to reduce the angle of outer wing panels. Your help is invaluable, and very much appreciated! The Reskit missiles are terrific, but a chore to remove from the pour blocks. Got the Sparrow parts separated. The Reskit resin is interesting - easy to sand (carefully!) and saw. The resin is a bit more flexible than styrene, but also seems to be softer. One down! I wish I had a jig to make sure the fins are straight and aligned... Left the pour block on to use as a base while the fins are attached.

Whoa! Quite the departure but glad to see you are looking forward to the build. I don't have any ships in the stash, just the huge Revell Type IXC Submarine that is longer than my dining room table. Looking forward to your work with the PE and Brass. Those are amazing detail kits, for sure.

So the challenge with the Sidewinders and the ALQ has taken another turn. Thanks to good old Facebook and someone posting family pics, from Korat no less, I have a confirmation and an 'aw crap' to report. Not even 24 hours after I ordered the new Sidewinders and the ALQ from BNA, I took a look at these pictures. The tail number is right in the range of the Zotz decal sheet, this aircraft is 276 while the decals span 268-380. What luck! Nice glossy nose but that is something of an aberration - as you will see in other pictures. Notice the sidewinders, however. More on that in a minute. Also, the skewed paint line on the nose of the right fuel tank. Never seen that before. Really nice shot of the ALQ. Thanks Carl for the suggestion. Also what looks to be a soft demarcation line on the camo. At scale, would it look like a hard line? It kind of does in the picture above. Here, the intake splitter is smooth, not perforated like I've seen before. Hmmm.. Really clear shot of the ALQ and the Sidewinders. I guess I didn't need to get different ones after all... Also, I don't see a lot of stenciling on this aircraft. And back to the nose cone... So will probably just keep going with the Sidewinders I have and wait on the ALQ and Resin tires.

I really liked the Eduard kit so if the Hase kit is better then I need to get one!

Tempting! The nose BB's are certainly a novel way of ensuring this is not a tail sitter... I wonder how it stacks up to the old Eduard P-39/P-400 kits?

Reskit has a resin engine for this kit. Looks amazing.

Chris is furiously checking the website of a local gaming store which sells a bunch of Gudam modeling stuff....

Then I'm in excellent company! The blade is so thin, but I like it. Thx on the ALQ-87. I just ordered from BNA. SB hasn't had the resin tires/wheels in stock for quite a while, but BNA has those, the Sidewinders and the ALQ in stock - and a few $$ US cheaper than SB so win, win. In the meantime, I can keep going on the build.

Definitely looks right to me.

Carl, Super detail on those side panel - nicely done! Toothpick? The IPs too terrific, too. Watching this build as I'm thinking about an F-15 in the future..

First, had to deal with some intake-seam stuff. On the right side the intake pulled away from the fuselage so had to re-attach that and add some filler to smooth out the joint. On the left side, I guess I missed that there was a slight gap. So had to spend some time on that. Moved on to starting to assemble the Sparrow missiles and this is going to be an exercise in patience. The front fins are easy to remove from the pour block. It is a simple cut across the base and a bit of sanding touch up. The rear fins are a totally different problem. They are smaller than the front fins but the attachment lug stands proud of the base of the fin. What is an easy removal of the front fin becomes at least a five-step process to remove the rear fin from the base. The larger front fin is on the left, and the smaller rear fin is on the right. The fit on the missile body seems pretty tight. f 16 down, 16 to go.. Ugh. Plus 32 more on the Sidewinders... This old razor knife is working wonders. Even with the broken blade, the two sides, fine and medium, make short work of the resin. Then comes priming, painting and decaling. (And I do have other blades for the razor knife, but this one keeps on working.)

Carl, Perfect. That is the one I found too and have in the SB shopping basket, along with the correct Sidewinders. I'm opting for the late model ALQ-87, just because.

Looking good, John! Takes me back to my build of this aircraft. You did a really nice job on the nacelles, Camo paint is looking terrific as well. It is a beast of a kit.

Carl, As always, thanks for your help. I found this on BritModeller to help with the answer of what type of ECM pod: F-4E ECM pods for Vietnam 1972 - Aircraft Cold War - Britmodeller.com. If I decide the AM route, I may just go ahead and order the correct Sidewinders along with the ECM pod. I know that will bug me every time I see look at the plane after it is done. When I get home will see which ECM came with the Tamiya kit and if I want to use that.

Worked on the paint, trying to tone down the mottled/faded effect, but still trying NOT to have it all monotone. The pictures do show a little variation so that's the goal. Tomorrow will see about getting the next color down - light green. Started working on the splitter supports, thinning them down. Wish I had seen this before attaching the intakes. Would have been MUCH easier then.... Tail is just sitting in place. While I was at it, primed the 3D Printed Reskit pylons and I think they came out very nicely. Might be TOO much detail, but this is what they look like after a coat of primer - no washes, no highlighting. Started researching the colors for the missiles - as both Sidewinders and Sparrows have multiple color options. A bit of distress, Vietnam-era F-4's did not have AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles (which are what the Reskit missiles are). Seems like the bulk of the Sidewinders were 9Js. Blast. Also decided to go with white bodies on the missiles. The Sidewinders starting from behind the front fins to the tip is a grey/gunmetal with the rest being white. There is a Light Gray option on the Sparrows, but from contemporary pictures of the Vietnam-theater F-4s the Sparrows seem to be all white. These look to be AIM-9J Sidewinders based on the front fins. I may just have to go with it. Four Sidewinders and Four Sparrows. And the missiles I SHOULD have ordered... f AIM-9L This represents the load-out I'm planning on using.

Thank you, Martin! I do try and learn about the subject I'm building, especially if it's a specific aircraft. Finding out about the pilots who flew specific WWII aircraft brought a new level of interest to me for the hobby. Looking to do the same here.