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Done - F-4EJ Kai Phantom - The Last of it's Kind ZM 1/48


DocRob

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4 hours ago, GusMac said:

Can you buy Microsol in gallon drums, Rob?

My Micro Sol lastet, but my Micro Set is empty :D. Today I decaled the external tanks, which proved very tricky, to get the decals fitted correctly. There is no margin of error and the placement of the large decals has to be made in one go. I'm looking forward to the after decaling stages and my soon planned Tamiya Tomcat build has been rescheduled to an indefinite future, miraculously ;).

Cheers Rob

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Phew, stenciling is nearly done, only some decals and stencils on the tail section last. This was truly a tour de force and I will not buy another Kai Phantom, but have an Eduard boxing in stash.

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The drop tanks are not easy to handle for decaling, where you have to apply all the decals floating at the same time, to adjust the placement. To make it easier, I attached them to holes in a styrofoam block, which somehow reacted with the black lacquer paint. There was no pressure applied or twisting involved.

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I freehand resprayed the tail parts, as I wanted no masking border in the shine. The picture shows the tanks before respraying. The decals settled well, with some tiny creases on one tank, which I hope to get away with some mor Micro Sol. The sprayed blue is a great match to the decals blue section.

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Cheers Rob

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Rob

The joys of Phantom modeling ... stencils unlimited and seem never ending. So glad you are taking your time and going the full route. When I stenciled my Tamiya F4B, I knew right from the start I wasn't going to even attempted to apply half of them, as I would most likely still be adding them one at a time at a snails pace. Just don't have it in me to do that type of work any more. After seeing how brilliant your Kai Phantom looks, it's the right way to go.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

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On 2/2/2022 at 11:42 PM, Peterpools said:

The joys of Phantom modeling ... stencils unlimited and seem never ending. So glad you are taking your time and going the full route. When I stenciled my Tamiya F4B, I knew right from the start I wasn't going to even attempted to apply half of them, as I would most likely still be adding them one at a time at a snails pace. Just don't have it in me to do that type of work any more. After seeing how brilliant your Kai Phantom looks, it's the right way to go.

Thanks Peter, I despise stenciling and thought about leaving some out at times, but I want a newish high contrast paint- and decal job and therefore decided to go full in. The other question is, which stencils to leave out, specially with the Kai's decals, where some markings have multiple stencils included, which would lead to a spotty appearance.

In fact, I haven't been to healthy the last weeks, with a thumping heart and don't know the reason. The stenciling Zen-ned my restless soul a bit and helped to calm down. You have to look for the benefits in every trade ;).

Cheers Rob

On 2/3/2022 at 6:18 AM, GazzaS said:

impressive work, Rob!

Thank you Gaz, coming together, with decaling nearly done now.

Cheers Rob

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4 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Amazing, there looks even more than are on the “standard “ F4…….. home straight Rob…..

It seems like, Phil, always liked a manual better, but here it's is printed seemingly complete ponto the plane.

Meanwhile, I gloss coated the Kai, to seal the decals and prepare for panel liner. Again  had lots of trouble with GX100 from Mr. Hobby. I have no idea why the probs (fogging and cotton candy) occur, maybe because of the humidity (80%). I used GX100 before and had good results, but similar problems on other occasions.
I finished the work with Tamiya lacquer clear which worked very well.

Cheers Rob

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Nearing the finish line with the Phantom. I tried different washes and panel liners on the plane and decided to use Flory's dark grime clay wash. I liked the sharp contrast of the black Tamiya panel liner better, but have always issues with removing the residues, without cleaning out the panel lines.
I added the tail wings and landing hook and painted the navigation lights with a Molotow marker and clear blue / red.
Now I have to build and paint the undercarriage and hope for an unfogged canopy with evenly masked seal lines to finish the build.

Cheers Rob

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10 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Brilliant .. simply brilliant work. Gotta love all those stencils - close to a record. 

I guess you are right Peter, at least to me it's a new record with stencil density, followed by my Mig-31 build. With the Kai, you have to be especially careful, as most stencils are obviously written in Japanese and it's easy to add them wrong orientated.

8 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Lots of very prominent stencils, Rob.

Indeed Gaz, when looking closer, there are even more. Sometimes  thought, if I would leave out the base paint, nobody will notice :D.

Cheers Rob

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The Kai Phantom is almost done. I added the undercarriage, the missile racks, the nozzles and the external tanks. After I left the tanks for some days, there where somehow scratches and some drops on the surface. I have no idea how that happened. The parts most affected were sprayed with Tamiya LP gloss black, which seems to be less chemical and mechanical resistent than other LP colors. There is no reasonable way to correct this given the different (self mixed) colors and decals, so be it.

After the UC is cured, another scary moment will occur, the removal of the canopy masks, which my luck, amigos.

Cheers Rob

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11 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

This is truly masterful work, hats off to you sir.

Thank you Martin, I'm blushing. This very good kit had other challenges than most kits, I built. My shortly acquired car/bike painting skills came in handy.

3 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Marvelous!

Thanks Gaz, it's as vivid as it gets for an old war plane.

Cheers Rob

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  • DocRob changed the title to Done - F-4EJ Kai Phantom - The Last of it's Kind ZM 1/48

Today I finished this great model of the last of the Kai Phantoms. Zoukei Moura has produced a gem with only very few shortcomings. The fit and engineering was very good and the detail of the plastic is exceptional. The numerous decals are printed by Cartograph and this has been a live saver with so many decals from huge graphics to tiny stencils. The kit is definitely recommended and there will be a yellow livery available in shot time.
The minor drawbacks were: no seatbelts were supplied, the molding of the clear canopy parts and the wheel struts were slightly less impressive than the rest of the kit. The manual tends to be a bit overdone. To much information, like you should rest the freshly glued undercarriage to rest and cure overnight. While recommendations are always welcome, finding a tiny detail in the manual fast, was tedious at times.
All in all, I enjoyed the build a lot and added only some AM. The wheels are from Brassin, the seat belts from Kits World, which I can't recommend for the lack of a manual and delicate handling of parts like the bang seat cover pulling rings. The masks from New Ware were perfect measured and a great help to paint the canopy with the seals included. The exhaust nozzles are from Res Kit and they are beautifully detailed and a joy to paint and weather.

I'm especially happy, that I was able to mix the right glitter blue color for the external tanks, not only concerning the hue, but also the refraction, which was an iterative process.
One final downturn was, like I feared, that there was a slight fogging on the center part of the canopy. I tried to polish it away from the outside to no avail. It must have been caused by paint, thinner or decal solution. I decided not to pry open the canopy, as decals run over the sills. 

Cheers Rob

Let the pics speak:

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Rob

I'm just blown away - what a build and to my old eyes, pure perfection. I'm starting to think that some of today's manufacturers have made some alterations in  the formulation for the clear plastic and/or the chemicals in the new finishing products aren't as compatible in years past.

Your completed Kai Phantom is a Show Stopper

Keep 'em comin

Peter

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17 hours ago, harv said:

What a gem ! Congrats Rob.....harv 🏆

 

13 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Absolutely blooming brilliant, stunning Rob you must be very pleased. This one is going to shine in the cabinet…….what’s next……….

 

9 hours ago, Peterpools said:

I'm just blown away - what a build and to my old eyes, pure perfection. I'm starting to think that some of today's manufacturers have made some alterations in  the formulation for the clear plastic and/or the chemicals in the new finishing products aren't as compatible in years past.

Your completed Kai Phantom is a Show Stopper

Muchas gracias amigos, when I saw the yellow version announced, I thought, it would be even more eye catching. In the end, I really like the glitter blue metallic, which alters the appearance in different light conditions, very appealing.

@Peterpools, I have no idea, what caused the fogging, clearly it is no masking glue residue, as it is from the inside. Next time, I will dip m canopy in Future, to see if it helps. This time, it was not possible, because of the way, I painted masked and polished the canopy. I believe the fogging is caused by hotter colors / thinner. This is my first plane build, where I used Tamiya lacquer paints with levelling thinner and Tamiya LP and Mr. Hobby GX100 clear coat.

@Bomber_County, what's next? Good question Phil, I'm not decided yet, maybe the F1 McLaren, but that's a lot of decaling with all the carbon and ads. At leas in F1, there are not many stencils, as the pit crews seem to know their manuals :D.
But first, I have to do some long overdue wood conservation on the ceiling of my cave, which means, I have to clean the bench first :wacko:.

Cheers Rob

 

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