Eduard F-4B Good morning Da Nang! 1/48

[Apple]

Hey guys.
A new build started.
As i always liked the F-4 Phantom II and allready have a bigger one laying around, i picked this one up, to sort of make a dio together with it's largest rival, the Mig-21.
Both will be Vietnam war birds.

This topic is about the Phantom.

F-4 Introduction:

The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II started as the prototype McDonnell XF4H-1, which made its first flight on May 27, 1958, with crack test pilot Robert Little at the controls. After five years of strenuous effort, a happy combination of brains, determination, timing and luck enabled the McDonnell Corporation to deliver an aircraft that leapfrogged a generation of fighter aircraft in development.
Unlike most fighters, the XF4H-1 looked "all wrong," and over time it would acquire the nickname "Double Ugly." It had a drooped snoot, cranked wings, sagging anhedral tail surfaces and semisubmerged missiles. The cavernous slab-sided holes flanking the cockpit looked more like air brakes than air intakes for the huge General Electric J79 engines.
Despite the plane's ungainly looks, McDonnell hoped that it might sell as many as 376 fighters to the Navy. Twenty-three years later, the last of 5195 F-4s rolled off the production line, the last built under license by Mitsubishi. In numbers and in effect, the Phantom was the most important Western fighter of the Cold War, with 11 countries beside the United States relying on it.
The Phantom II, as it was named by company founder James S. McDonnell, soon set such a galaxy of records that every air force in the world realized that a new and potent player was on the scene. In its first few years, the McDonnell Phantom set eight new aviation records, among them altitude (98,557 feet), speed (1,390 mph), and time to climb (9,000 feet in 34.5 seconds).
This was a breathtaking performance for any plane. It was phenomenal for a big two-seater originally intended to be a missile-equipped fleet-defense fighter for the Navy, but soon was tasked to do every mission in the book.
The performance of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II was so exemplary that the United States Air Force selected it to be its front-line fighter. Many other countries soon clamored for a place on the production line. Still, there was some internal opposition to the Phantom within the USAF, for the craft was a two-seat airplane and did not carry a gun. Opposition quickly evaporated in the face of the F-4's (as it was redesignated) blistering Mach 2 speed and its ability to carry huge loads of ordnance.
The Phantom gathered a number of nicknames during its career. Some of these names included "Snoopy", "Rhino", "Double Ugly", "Old Smokey", the "Flying Anvil", "Flying Footlocker", "Flying Brick", "Lead Sled", the "Big Iron Sled" and the "St. Louis Slugger".
In recognition of its record of downing large numbers of Soviet-built MiGs, it was called the "World's Leading Distributor of MiG Parts"

The kit's box art:



What is in the box:



Started with the cockpit offcourse.
First time for me to use photo etch, and i really like it.
Bit fiddly and nerve wrecking, but that's all cool

The parts that need to be painted are all folded and some glued.
Now it's on with the paint and after that the colored PE parts can go on, and everything can be put together.

The progress so far:

[portlandjoe]

Sweet,I love the Phantom and seems to be allot of parts for 1/48 scale.

[1001kjk]

Look forward to watching this build I have it in my stash and have put it back till I can do it justice

[UKguyInUSA]

Wow, what an awesome looking kit....that's a lot of plastic, plus it comes with PE parts, too! Love the Phantom....will watch this one closely with interest!

[Apple]

And i think i will call it a day..

[Willem]

Hey Apple.

I've also got this one stashed away. Good luck with the build mate.

[Rob]

What a kit! Good start

[Daimyo]

I plan to buy this kit, so I will try to follow your build, good luck with it

[MarkVerploeg]

Nice start Apple
This kit will be my entry in the Vietnam sig later this year
Now i have somewhere to get some info for this build
Good luck with this kit

[Apple]

If I can give info, I won't hesitate to do so. This community gave more than I can ever pay in return.
My vietnam gb entry will also be the F-4. But a 1/32 Tamiya one.

[MarkVerploeg]

So a really big plane for you
I think this kit will a big enough challenge with this kit
I only made some planes this year (and 6 years back) so it will be a hand full
I will have to make sure all other gb entries are finished when the vietnam build starts
The extra stuff in this kit is great though (had a look in the box)
So this should make a great model

[Apple]

Oh yeah. The resin stuff is sweet indeed. And there's a decent amount of PE to make it a nice model.

[Apple]

Rear cockpit mostly done. Just 2 more tiny dials on the right panel and some paint touch ups. Let's go to the front office after that.

[FishBowlMan]

There's a lot of sprues there, mate. Did you have to stand on a ladder to get them all in the photo?

Cockpit's looking great.

[Apple]

Don't tell anyone, but the *what's in the box' picture is from the interweb :p

[ncf]

So many parts! :O It might take a while to put together, huh?

Cockpit looking great man!
Cheers!

[Apple]

Cockpit is done. Not perfect, but I think it's ok for a first time using pe.
I know have a feeling how hard living with parkinson must be..
I thought i didn't shiver, but with these fiddly things it felt like i was M J Fox.





Next up: Front wheel bay, yay
Not much to do here, no PE and stuff, just paint it white and... well that's it.

[Apple]

Front lower fuselage and wing section are married. Did strengthen the parts wit 2 sprue pieces and a sprue alphabet tag

[Paul]

Great work dude

[Apple]

Thanks mate.
Did a fast dry fit of the lower and upper fuselage. Fits together like a dream. Only very tiny gaps.
Going to do all the canopy surface and fuselage pe tomorrow. Will also paint the resin exhausts so the fuselage can be closed.
This kit is going together really nice. (Except for the wheelbays and cockpit fit to the lower fuselage. There is plenty of room for errors there.)

[Apple]

Not doing all that much on the Phantom today.

i installed the fuel probe door and filled the very small seams.



And i installed some PE bits on the rear canopy mount.



Now i'll bag it all up again in the box, and continue with the D-Day Mustang.
Got some supplies coming later today that i needed for that one (Washes, Set & Sol, etc..)

[Spook]

Good luck on this one fella I've one in the stash waiting until I'm brave enough to attempt it so I'll be keeping an eye on your thread

[Daimyo]

I bought this kit yesterday, could not resist... Well now I need to wait until it arrives and I will start build it too

[Apple]

I sprayed the exhausts and air guide in alclad Jet Exhaust.
Will do some work on it in different alclads and some dry brushing for the details.
Could not resist a test fit.
Seems ok.
The gap left of the exhaust is because I am not holding it on to eachother.

[Apple]

Masking of the tail section according to pictures i found.





So, the dark part is done and masked..
Now i will try to do differend shades of aluminium on the rest.

[UKguyInUSA]

Great start mate, look forward to the next update!

[Apple]

What does one do when one cannot sleep? One tries some alcladding..

[Willem]

Alcladding in the early hours! with no sleep and blurry eyed! Extreme modelling Mr Apple!

Looks great. Thanks for putting the reference pictures of the cans up.

[Apple]

Did a bit of drybrush.
The cans are obiously completely different from that picture.
Think it looks pretty nice.

[Apple]

And i did some weathering on the underside tail section. (Still cannot sleep)

[Apple]

Glued her shut. Not the best fit at the front, but thats more to me than to the kit. Rest is seamless.





Now it's on to a lot of sanding and masking and all that

[Apple]

Nose an tail are on. Intakes are on. It's starting to look like a Phantom.

[Goose]

Nice work so far,

just a idea, won't you try a "harder" drybrush on your back metallic parts to make them a little bit more shiny and with a nice black and greasy wash it would be wonderful.

My two cents...

Goose

[Apple]

They actually are quite shiny.
It's bad photography on a phone in a darkish room that dulls it down.

[Willem]

Looking good Apple mate. Keep it coming.

[grover]

Wow that is looking phenomenal Apple. Love the tail section.

[UKguyInUSA]

Great start mate...KUTGW!

[vyper1]

I'd love to try photo etch but not confident enough at the moment. Looking good so far and the paint you've done on the tail section looks spot on