Zoukei-Mura F-4E Late

[denders]

Thanks, Carl!

All the painting for the aft engine area is done, except for the nozzles.

I feel like it will take a week to get all the masking off. 

[denders]

Well, it obviously didn't take me a week to remove the masking.

I kinda feel like some of the colors are a bit too dark. All the metallics are MRP. Nozzles are next and landing gear.

 

[BlrwestSiR]

That looks great Dave. I like the shading you did on the lower section between the afterburners. 

[denders]

Thanks, Carl! It was MRP 180 Exhaust Soot sprayed with a Creos 771 with the needle limiter set really tight and 10 psi air.

[denders]

Okay, working on the landing gear.

The light gray gear on the left is the kit gear. The gear on the right is the 3D printed AM gear. The kit gear aren't really too bad. There is some nice detail and could be made to look as good as the AM gear with a little bit of work. The AM gear has some extra levers and lines. Some of which I messed up cutting off the 3D printing supports. Some sort of picture with them highlighting what to keep would of course be helpful. I have the AM mains turned the opposite of the kit mains, so you can't see that the loops for tying down the aircraft aren't there. They were until my big thumb pressed on them and broke them off while test fitting the main gear in the aircraft wheel wells. I've already shaped some brass wire to replace them.

Next, the wheels.

The wheels on the left (light gray) are from the AM landing gear set. The wheels and tires in the middle are the kit wheels and the nose wheels and mains tires on the right are the Z-M AM "flattened" or perhaps "pre-loaded" set. Personally, I like the Z-M parts. It's up to you whether you like the pre-loaded type or not. The kit supplied parts are plastic and the AM stuff is resin, whether 3D printed or cast.

Now to do some research and decide which parts I'm going to use.

 

[denders]

Working on decals. The red fin-cap is painted.

[CANicoll]

Nice work!  What did you use for the formation light on the tail?  Is that a decal, Eduard PE or something else?  Thanks!

[denders]

Thanks, folks!

Chris, that is a decal from the Z-M sheet. 
 

[denders]

So, I'll get back to this on now. We spent last week at the NC shore with friends. 

[Peterpools]

Dave

Awesome progress and looking mighty good. Right with Carl on his exhaust painting comments, as the variations look so good. 

With the paint work finished, nice to see you're onto the decals. Are you planning on adding all the stencil Phantoms are famous for wearing? Chris went all out on his F4 with them and on my F-14, I also spent loads of time adding all the supplied stencils. They just look great and, in my book, well worth the loads of time they will require.

 

[denders]

Hi Peter, thanks for the comment. I wasn't going to get carried away with all the stencils on this one. But I agree, they make it look great.

[denders]

All the decals are on the main airframe. There are decals to go on the canopies and weapons.

I wasn't sure whether I was going to put the '30 years, etc.' and the big spook on it, but I did.

 

[CANicoll]

Dave,  Nice looking!  Very clean and sharp.  Really like that stand, too. Fancy!!

[BlrwestSiR]

Looks great there Dave. 

I like the full set of 30 Years markings. The last 1/48 F-4 I built was the Hasegawa F-4E with the same markings 30 years ago so I might biased. 

[denders]

Still working away. The last of the decals are on.

I've been fighting with panel lines. The usual panel line 'paint' has not been working to satisfaction on this one. Despite letting it dry for a couple of hours, it all wipes off when I try to clean up the excess.

 

[denders]

Not a whole lot of progress, with Christmas, New Years, and having Grandsons for several days. 

I was working on those tiny clear airplanes for another project, but I needed to clean up my workspace in case one of the boys wanted to work on something.

So, back to this, I decided that I need to get this finished. I made a mess of the clear blue on the windscreen. Oh well.

I'm not sure where the problem is, but the clear piece of the HUD interferes with the windscreen piece. I need to get some canopy glue under some of the windscreen so I can then paint it the dark gray to hide the gap.

This is the kit landing gear leg, not the oval shaped indent. There is a similar raised section on the gear door which helps greatly in properly positioning the gear door. The indent was not on the AM landing gear leg, therefore, I had to use a small chisel tool to remove the raised section on the gear door and had to eyeball the gear door position.

Also, it's about time that I start painting the aircrew. First time using oils.

 

[denders]

I'm going to call this one done.

You'll note that the aircrew is not installed. I can't get them without risking something inside the cockpit. There are hands that I can't get inside the cockpit sills and I'm not sure exactly where the feet are going. The overhead ejection handles are a risk too. The kit assembly instructions have you install the seats after quite a bit is closed up. Next one I'll put the seats in and the aircrew in place before closing up the fuselage.