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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

Tamiya F-4E Phantom II: Sharks Mouth 388th TFW, Korat, Vietnam 1968-69: DONE!


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23 minutes ago, CANicoll said:

Thanks Peter!  In this pic, all of the gray belts are Quinta - I laid them over the resin belts on the seat back, but for the seat bottom, I cut off the resin belts, used the Quinta seat cushion to cover, then added the Quinta belts.  Then added the various placards and the ejection seat handles. 

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Thanks Chirs, I pretty much thought so and do that as well - the results look fantastic.

:construction:

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Chris

Test fitting is looking mighty good. There are some very good 3D printed missiles, especially from ResKit which look brilliant. I haven't used them yet but from I've seen, they are the real deal. Eduard also has a great range of resin missiles that also looks excellent.

:construction:

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Peter, thanks for your comments - Funny you mention Reskit.  I had barely heard of them but did a bit of online research so ordered the Reskit missiles (Sidewinders and Sparrows) and the inboard pylons as well (why not if I'm going this far!) from BNA and they shipped in a matter of hours!!  Wow.  Got a few other bits I'll add on here when they arrive.  Still looking for bulged tyres, however.

Here are the Speed Hunter stencils.  WTH did I get myself into?   These pages are just the relevant pages for MY build.  There are other pages I omitted but will put into a review write-up I'll do.  The good news is the instruction pages are incredibly well broken down into sections.  I guess you could say that it also breaks down a HUGE task into more manageable bites?  Yeah, wishful thinking!!

The sheet has both white and black markings, indicating which to use over the various camo colors on the aircraft.  I may need a month just to get the stencils onto the aircraft - especially considering the gloss coat, letting it fully cure, then the sealing coat, and the washes... Oh my...

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This will be the most-stenciled aircraft I've ever done.....(Astute observation of the obvious...)

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Chris

Glad you decided to buy the ResKit AM as they look so good. I've purchased a number of times from BNA and as you found out, their service from Oz is spectacular.  

I'm completely blown away by Speed Hunters stencil set and your plan on using all of them is going to surely be monumental. No question, you will easily pass my Tomcat stencil record by a mile. What I wanted to avoid at all costs was any silvering from the stencils and when I finished up, I was lucky and not a single bit of silvering. I just made sure I glossed the Tomcat to the smoothest finish I could, even rubbed out the gloss which I normally do not do, used the Micro Set and Sol on every stencil, then sealed all the decals with another few coats of clear gloss and then my final finish clear coat. Lots of work but it did the trick. Looking at the incredible stencil sheets and instructions, all the placement work is presented perfectly. I know you're right - a lot of work and time will be required but the final results will be incredible. With all that stencil data, I'm hoping you won't be covering any of it up under weathering.

BTW, my Tomcat crossed the finish line earlier tonight and an update is coming. 

:construction:

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Nice work on the seats and cockpit, Chris. The stenciling seems to be pure madness, I still have nightmares from my 1/48 Kai Phantom build. Hopefully the quality of the stencil decals is good and you have no silvering problems. Thorough prep work, like Peter mentioned is the key.

Cheers Rob

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14 hours ago, CANicoll said:

Peter, thanks for your comments - Funny you mention Reskit.  I had barely heard of them but did a bit of online research so ordered the Reskit missiles (Sidewinders and Sparrows) and the inboard pylons as well (why not if I'm going this far!) from BNA and they shipped in a matter of hours!!  Wow.  Got a few other bits I'll add on here when they arrive.  Still looking for bulged tyres, however.

Here are the Speed Hunter stencils.  WTH did I get myself into?   These pages are just the relevant pages for MY build.  There are other pages I omitted but will put into a review write-up I'll do.  The good news is the instruction pages are incredibly well broken down into sections.  I guess you could say that it also breaks down a HUGE task into more manageable bites?  Yeah, wishful thinking!!

The sheet has both white and black markings, indicating which to use over the various camo colors on the aircraft.  I may need a month just to get the stencils onto the aircraft - especially considering the gloss coat, letting it fully cure, then the sealing coat, and the washes... Oh my...

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This will be the most-stenciled aircraft I've ever done.....(Astute observation of the obvious...)

Tedious, yes, but it still looks like fun on one of my favorite aircraft.

 

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Some great progress there Chris.

The Reskit missiles will be a great improvement over the kit ones when they arrive. 

As for the decals, those would probably break me. I'll have to keep in mind Peter's suggestion of polishing the clear before I put them on. 

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Well, seams are the bane of my existence on this build.  The landing gear are the latest culprits.  Especially the nose gear which is half styrene and half metal.

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Made more progress on the seats and cockpit.

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The bottom cushion on the right-hand seat skewed a bit, but very hard to notice from the top, when it's in the cockpit.

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Dry fitted here.

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The refueling panel, with just a little putty, fits better than it looks here.

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Some nice progress Chris. 

The gear legs were a bit of a pain with the mixed media approach Tamiya took. Aerocraft makes replacement ones in brass but then you have a seam line in brass to deal with so pick your poison. 

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Carl, I hear you.  No perfect solution, but once the seams are dealt with, I know I put some work into it.

Thanks Martin!  They came out better than I expected laying the Quinta belts over the resin ones cast into the seat.

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Chris

Some mighty nice work on the ejection seats but the nose gear, what a mess. Just hard to believe that's how Tamiya did things back then. Surely is going to be a lot of work to square the gear away - just go slow and take your time, as I have no doubt when you are done reworking the nose gear, it will look perfect. :construction:

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Thanks Peter for the vote of confidence.  Patience is definitely the watch-word for this build.  I'm trying to mix making progress on other parts, as I deal with the various seams issues.

On the bright side, the 3D missiles are on their way from AUS.  Yay!

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Chris

Perfect POA on dealing with all the seams, so you won't get bogged down, keeping the juices flowing and also making nice build progress. The 3D missiles will be gems and a terrific replacement for the kit supplies ones and no cleanup 👍

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The package from BNA arrived today and I'm very impressed.  Both with the quality of their packing and quality of the ResKit and Master Model bits.

The Model Master metal probes are both finely finished and TINY!!!  It will be a huge chore not to lose the tiny probe. oh boy...

I'll post an un-boxing of the ResKit parts, but I am very impressed with the quality of both the 3D Printed and resin parts.  The 3D Printed parts look daunting to remove, but I'm sure it will be pretty straight forward.  Each set comes with very clear instructions including paint options, as well as decals and stencils (yay, great, more stencils...).  Painting the Sparrow missiles will be incredibly easy with the missile body one color and the separate fins another.  VERY easy to paint before assembling so this should be fun.

The inboard pylons are 3D printed and the detail is simply amazing.  Can't wait to dive into these new parts and see how they turn out.

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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.  PXL_20240512_004701487.thumb.jpg.7a55d28b6878b751538ff9fd34952a30.jpg

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.

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Definitely needs to be much darker!

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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?

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Thanks Guys!

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I am anything than a Phantom expert, but yes, AFAIK, the slats of the stabs are « inverted » compared to what we are used to.

Hubert

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1 hour ago, CANicoll said:

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

They are fixed, btw, and make just a very narrow slot …

Hubert

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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.

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