Hasewaga RF-4B Phantom II VMFP-3 Special (Ltd Edition) 1:48

[dupes]

Ohhhh, I'm sure I can let something go your way CHEAP!

[bbd468]

Looks sweet WR! Seems like it were a fun build. The rear view of the Phantom looks killer....THATS RIGHT...i said it! F-4 has a sweet A$$!

Gary

[Whiterook]

Mar 27, 2013 12:10:34 GMT -5 bbd468 said:

The rear view of the Phantom looks killer....THATS RIGHT...i said it! F-4 has a sweet A$$!

Gary

Better than several girls I dated back in my young buck days!!! 

[Whiterook]

Okie Dokie! So if you remember, I needed to custom outfit this puppy with specific craft designation to match the actual plane my friend flew back in his Marine days. luckily, after some hunting, I found these....Eagle Strike "Eyes in the Sky's" and man are they beautiful! The bottom bird on the following pic is the basic design, though my friend said the lanes of his time didn't have white bottoms to them, so that's actually less I have to deal with, LOL!





This is what the sheet looks like.....




The bottom shot shown here came with the set, and the first thing I noticed were some huge rondels in the pack.....I'm glad I got the Eagle Strike in the end, as they look so much better!

[Whiterook]

Next up came some seam filling, done with Squadron White Putty, and this time I used an artists trowel, which made a huge difference in more precise application. When fully cured, I used different grit sand paper and it brought it down to just the right level.

[Whiterook]

Here are some of the cockpit pics, with the flight panels completely painted. I used an LCD light to try and get a better glimpse.....

[Whiterook]

Next up was the camera bays, and assembling the canopies and camera. I assembled the cameras and mounts, glued the camera rigs with some new Clear Plastic glue I had bought, which worked the charm; and then painted the inside of the canopy glass, and glued the bits up....









They needed a little polishing up but came out great in the end.

[Whiterook]

This was when the 'hammer fell", as the cockpit flight-deck was sitting way too low!!! The next pic shows the 'H' shaped piece that clued me into that!



And now sitting flush as it should be!





This really could have gone south badly, so I was thankful it came out so well.

[Whiterook]

So a mild disaster was averted...





Next, fixing the damage to the cockpit with the tools of the trade.....

[Whiterook]

I first detached the Guy In Back (GIB) flight console from the back of the broken cross-member between the crew compartments; then glued the cross-member back together. After all cured, I puttied it back up again, and then re-secured the console. Everything 'sat' much better too, including the GIB!









And a quick sneek peek at the bird with it's first light coats of paint! I hand mixed Tamiya Acrylics Sky Gray with some flat white to the proper color. My Iwata Eclipse airbrush laid the paint on very nice...I was still getting used to it. This is a LOT of birdie to cover!



From here before that spray, however, I had to next start on the underside
of the bird, with landing gear and components; as well as the drop tank construction. I'd then spray the rest of the gray top coat and then
clear and decal.

[Leon]

Nice progress WR.Looking sweet.

[dupes]

Is it possible to have a fetish for aftermarket decals?

If yes, then I've got one. Those look great!

[Whiterook]

Thanks guys! dupes....I gotta tell 'ya, those were the BEST decals I have ever used. In a word...AMAZING. Was worth the extra cost, especially in this case of customizing the bird specifically to the exact aircraft my buddy flew in.

[Whiterook]

I assembled the front landing gear, which went together like a charm. Beautifully sculpted and just a little flash and sinkholes, all fixable. After drying a bit while working with the front landing gear bay, I glued the landing gear in, along with it's hydraulics, and went to put the bay cover on only to discover another problem with the model: When I had to 're-adjust' the front landing gear bay in order to get that big 'H' part to fit in, two halves of a guide hole for the landing gear bay
cover were misaligned! Not off by much, but noticeable; and the cover didn't sit low enough.

So I took out my trusty pin vice and drilled out the area a bit, slapped the cover on and hooked it up to the hydraulics. It all worked out in the end, but it would call for a dab of putty in the area of those hinges to fill in "the hole that shouldn't be there". No biggie....it looked a treat when done and only I (and whomever is nuts
enough to read my stuff here) will know it's there. I look at it as "Charm of the Bird". No really....I think fixed defects, especially when you didn't even know about it in the first place makes a kit that much more special; show's the kit had 'history'.



It brought a new motto to the surface: " There are millions of modellers that can do a kit perfect; it takes a special modeller to f*@k it up good!"

This is what the "holes that shouldn't be there" looked like.....



Squadron putty......



Done.....



Obviously, it would need a tad more work, but I slapped some paint on to see how the overall patch looked and it looked good. A little fine tuning after this point and it'd be where it needed to be.

[Whiterook]

Next came some work still on the underside, which included putting the wind landing gear together and mounted, along with it's hydraulics......





Other little bits, like these (I have no idea)......




And she's sat as such while the landing gear cured solid. I had a few small pieces of the landing gear bays to attach yet, but after that, it would be time for another spray.

[Whiterook]

Construction was pretty much done by this point.

Next up on the bird was the 600 Gallon Drop Tank. I had assembled the tank and tiddied the seams, and then a little disaster struck! Two stablizing fins go on the bottom of the tank, and these suckers are SMALL! Well, the first one attached no prob, but when I went to glue on the second one, in what I thought was a tight grip in my angle nosed tweezers....PLINK....it popped out and went to parts unknown! I looked everywhere, and I can't blame the Carpet Monster as there is no carpet in my basement workshop, so what can I say.



Solution?

The model came with some missiles for the non-Recce version, so scratchbuilding beckoned me! I clipped off one of the tips of a missile fin......





Then I filed it down and shaped it to the exact size.......



Worked like a charm!

[Whiterook]

This is what the finished drop tank looks like.....



Betch'ya can't tell which is the home made fin! I ain't tellin'!!!!
/
OK, then came time for paint again....a lighter shade of Tamiya Sky Gray, hand blended, was airbrushed on. I don't know if I mentioned this before but, the masking is a used rubber glove and carpenters tape! Anyway, the airbrush is a sweet way to paint a model, and I became hooked in the process of doing this kit. I had also just purchased and received a Pace spray booth, which was also a game changer. No runs or drips, and I felt much more confident with the airbrush....Iwata makes an outstanding product, which I can't recommend high enough!



After this came paint on the tail fins, with steel[b/] and aluminum colors, hand blended and brush painted. I used adhesive sheet masks for the demarkaton lines. I also painted the thrusters and associeted bits underneath.



I then painted a top gloss-coat of Future on top of the model.....this would prepare it for decaling.

[Whiterook]

Masking the recce camera and side nose port were a challenge. Some close ups of the tail......





And underside of the tail......



Is that not a thing of beauty!!!! I mean, that's just plain HOT!!!

A little closer.....



I'm such a tease!!!!

[Whiterook]

And the landing gear......





The landing gear were fiddly little bits to get on there, and the proper fits were a bit precarious, but they look awesome!



And with the drop tank.....

[Whiterook]

Future acrylic is awesome for laying decals over, and as a top coat over the decals afterwards. Really eliminated silvering, when done right. I spent a few hours putting on the decals. Man, was it worth the price for the after market decals....these Eagle Strike decals are BEAUTIFUL! They went on without too much hassle. A couple cracks that were rescued just fine. Method:

I dipped the decal in clean tap water for 10 seconds.

I then used MicroSet (which sits on top of the Future Acrylic Floor coat), put on with a clean flat brush, while the decal on the clipped sheet sat on a paper towel to wick away extra water. I would clip the decal off the sheet, then dunk it, and then place it on the paper towel while I put the Micro Set on.

I then placed the decal on with a another clean round tip brush, and adjusted into place with the brush.

I let dry while I moved onto the next decal. After all decals were in place, I took a 5 minute break to allow the last decal to fully set, then, I brushed on MicroSol with a clean filbert brush.

This is what the bird looks like, but this is only a sneak peak of how it stands at the moment.....

[Whiterook]

With the coat of Future on, and the aircraft decaled, I next tackled my first real attempt at a wash up to that point of my model building journey, opting to use a chalk wash. The chalks were ground myself.......



I mixed some black and brown artist pastel to twice it's volume in water, and a drop of dishwashoing liquid, mixed in a sealable container, mixing it with a tooth pick.....



Coming up next, my chalk wash. Stay tuned!!!

[Whiterook]

I used a fine round artist brush to apply the mixture to the seam lines, starting with the wings, and this is where a modeler's mettle is tested, 'cause it's a little unnerving to see that nice paint job all of a sudden look like hell! Of course, there is some wiggle room in having a coat of Future acrylic on the entire model, as most can be wiped off, but I noted it can be a little stubborn to remove if left to dry too long.

[Whiterook]

The trick with this method is to put a little on, and let it semi-dry. Then remove the wash from the surface while trying to leave the seam fairly undisturbed, which can be tricky and needs a little finesse. I used Q-Tips and rags to do the deed, making sure I used only dampened versions first, and then dry. I also wanted to remove some of the wash from portions of the seams so as not to look to uniform, and therefore, fake. Its a fine line, as I've read that many think putting a wash on to darken the seams to begin with is making it look fake; but I roll with the group that feel the illusion of depth far outweighs the 'reality factor'.

Here are some shots of the final effect.....

[Whiterook]

Next was painting black acrylic on the nose....hand painted.



BTW....before painting the nose black and gluing the nose cone javellin thingy, I put more Future over the decals to seal them. Let set overnight. When I went back down to the workshop to look over what it looked like, I was so pleased! It really is the only way to go! I am hooked on the MicroSet and MicroSol combination method and Future before and after.....its just amazing how much better the decals look.

[Whiterook]

So the question I've always gotten at this point is the same....why a chalk wash?

The answer is simple really: Time, real birds, and controversy. OK, maybe not so simple

Time. With this build having a strict time-table to my friends departure from out place of employ, I looked at what I had left to do, and what techniques were available that would stand the best shot of my not screwing up what I'd already done. The honest point was that as of that juncture in the build, I now had more work than time. I had started very, VERY briefly exploring oil washes with the Marder III, and it has beautiful potential, but was (and still I am) far from comfortable, nor adept with it. I read about the chalk wash technique quite awhile ago and had saved one specific article on it. I am very familiar with working with pastels and inks, so I knew I had to re-look at that. I knew that this was a 'fast wash' in that I would not have to wait extended periods of time for oils to dry, especially if I had to go back in for second runs. I also knew I wanted feint lines and no sun-bleaching of panels. I also knew I wanted to of all the things, really highlight the rivets, as they were the most delicate (read: subtle) to see. The chalk wash was, in my opinion, made for this.

References. The next thing that influenced the choice was actual aircraft reference pictures.....modern aircraft didn't have as much fading to the paintjobs as WWII, for insstance. If you look on Google Images at RF 4B's, you will note that for the majority of the shots, the panel lines are very subtle; there aren't a lot of oil, grease, and smoke stains on them....but you do see the panel lines and rivets. I wanted that. An oil wash for instance, could have achieved much of what I probably got from the chalk version, but I'm not versed in the technique enough to know if....since I wasn't doing blending....it was this overkill? Especially when a chalk wash could do the job, and quicker.

Controversy. There is heated debate out there on the 'Net amongst aircraft builders of whether to highlight panels lines and rivets to bring out that 3-D look, or just leave them be with no darkening at all. I can see both sides of the coin really, but I side with the former group that feel that highlighting the panel lines and rivets brings the craft to life....especially the rivets.

As to the darkness....yeah, you know that concerned me as well. If you look at my 'soup' in the container in the earlier post, it is unbelieveable dark, and I thought it might be too dark. But then I knew that I wanted it to be a finish that was subtle and broken, so it made sense to stick with it as is. Luckily, it seemed to work out.

So there you have it....what went on in my noodle to get me where I'm at with the wash in these pictures. 

[Leon]

Awesome job there WR.Like what your doing with this.

[Whiterook]

The final stages of the RF-4B Phantom!

A little touch up went onto the black nose stripe, adding a bit more curve to it via hand painting. This was probably the hardest part of the painting process. Also added was a conical tip of black on the front of the nose, and then painting of the attached javelin thingy. Then, a black stepping pad-like thingy (yeah, these are the accurate technical terms!!!); and finally, the crew made it back into their respective cockpits.

BTW, on that black strip on the top of the nose, I was originally going to put it on; then I decided to leave it off, mostly 'cause I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle it properly (it's very intimidating to slap black paint on your perfect (or near) gray paint job!); and then, yup, decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it!!! Glad I did.....





Black painted on this thingy-knobby-thingamabob......



Tamiya Silver on the nubby thingy; and Tamiya Clear Red on this little patch.....

[Whiterook]

Mar 28, 2013 19:31:56 GMT -5 Leon said:

Awesome job there WR.Like what your doing with this.

Thanks, mate!!!

[Whiterook]

Landing gear bays were tackled, along with the gear and inner doors; all done in Folk Art Acrylics; and also, the camera bay 'glass' got as mixture of gray with Folk Art Acrylics (not sure I mentioned this already), and this would act more or less as a primer coat for a finished brush coat of the actual sky gray mixture of Tamiya Acrylics.....





And then the tires were painted, and unfortunately, the pics don't do them justice, as there is subtlties to the black and gray to give a nice 'used' look......

[Whiterook]

Some more shots, and with the Tamiya Sky Gray mixture on the camera bays.....







This last shot shows a good view of one of the Recce cameras.....