Milky's Hasegawa 1/48 F-4J "Showtime 100"

[Milky]

Okey! First ever GB and buildthread here on ISM for me, So let's get to it!

The subject at hand will be Hasegawa's F-4J Showtime 100 with a couple of extras from Aires and Eduard.



A bit of history
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor aircraft/fighter-bomber originally developed for the United States Navy by McDonnell Aircraft. It first entered service in 1960 with the U.S. Navy. Proving highly adaptable, it was also adopted by the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Air Force, and by the mid-1960s had become a major part of their respective air wings.

The Phantom is a large fighter with a top speed of over Mach 2.2. It can carry more than 18,000 pounds (8,400 kg) of weapons on nine external hardpoints, including air-to-air missiles, air-to-ground missiles, and various bombs. The F-4, like other interceptors of its time, was designed without an internal cannon. Later models incorporated an M61 Vulcan rotary cannon. Beginning in 1959, it set 15 world records for in-flight performance, including an absolute speed record, and an absolute altitude record.

During the Vietnam War, the F-4 was used extensively; it served as the principal air superiority fighter for both the Navy and Air Force, and became important in the ground-attack and aerial reconnaissance roles late in the war. The Phantom has the distinction of being the last U.S. fighter flown to attain ace status in the 20th century. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Air Force had one pilot and two weapon systems officers (WSOs) and the US Navy had one pilot and one radar intercept officer (RIO) become aces by achieving five aerial kills against enemy fighter aircraft. The F-4 continued to form a major part of U.S. military air power throughout the 1970s and 1980s, being gradually replaced by more modern aircraft such as the F-15 Eagle and F-16 in the U.S. Air Force, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat in the U.S. Navy, and the F/A-18 Hornet in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps.

The F-4 Phantom II remained in use by the U.S. in the reconnaissance and Wild Weasel (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses) roles in the 1991 Gulf War, finally leaving service in 1996. It was also the only aircraft used by both U.S. flight demonstration teams: the USAF Thunderbirds (F-4E) and the US Navy Blue Angels (F-4J). The F-4 was also operated by the armed forces of 11 other nations. Israeli Phantoms saw extensive combat in several Arab–Israeli conflicts, while Iran used its large fleet of Phantoms in the Iran–Iraq War. Phantoms remain in front line service with seven countries, and in use as a target drone in the U.S. Air Force.[11] Phantom production ran from 1958 to 1981, with a total of 5,195 built, making it the most numerous American supersonic military aircraft.

By the time of the Tonkin Gulf incident, 13 of 31 deployable navy squadrons were armed with the type. F-4Bs from Constellation made the first Phantom combat sortie of the Vietnam War on 5 August 1964, flying bomber escort in Operation Pierce Arrow. The first Phantom air-to-air victory of the war took place on 9 April 1965 when an F-4B from VF-96 "Fighting Falcons" piloted by Lieutenant (junior grade) Terence M. Murphy and his RIO, Ensign Ronald Fegan, shot down a Chinese MiG-17 "Fresco". The Phantom was then shot down, probably by an AIM-7 Sparrow from one of its wingmen. There continues to be controversy over whether the Phantom was shot down by MiG guns or, as enemy reports later indicated, an AIM-7 Sparrow III from one of Murphy's and Fegan's wingmen. On 17 June 1965, an F-4B from VF-21 "Freelancers" piloted by Commander Louis Page and Lieutenant John C. Smith shot down the first North Vietnamese MiG of the war.


And the aircraft I'm going to try and do my best of!

On 10 May 1972, Lieutenant Randy "Duke" Cunningham and Lieutenant (junior grade) William P. Driscoll flying an F-4J, call sign "Showtime 100", shot down three MiG-17s to become the first American flying aces of the war. Their fifth victory was believed at the time to be over a mysterious North Vietnamese ace, Colonel Nguyen Toon, now considered mythical. On the return flight, the Phantom was damaged by an enemy surface-to-air missile. To avoid being captured, Cunningham and Driscoll flew their burning aircraft using only the rudder and afterburner (the damage to the aircraft rendered conventional control nearly impossible), until they could eject over water.




Enclosed in the box you will find 7 sprues of grey styren and 2 sprues with clear plastic of wich one is the one-piece canopy you can choose to install.





















Okiedokie, that's it for now. Moar pics to come soon!

[TommyKillander]

Wohoo!

Great intro, thanks!

Good luck with the build, it's gonna be aswesome!


Tommy

[Boxster]

Looks like a cool build, will be watching.

[Milky]

Okey, time for an update!

I've managed to dryfit the Aires cockpit, with the usual sanding, hacking and wacking , and this is the result so far. Might need some fine-tuning but I'll sort that out later.





After dryfitting I primed the whole thing with Ultimate Black and put the basecoat down with some Mr Hobby Aqueus. Glosscoated it and put a light oilwash over it before it was time for a flatcoat.







After the flatcoat I did some drybrushing with (50? ) shades of grey. And this is were it stands today. Need to do some more detailpainting before it's time to seal it up and move on.







Okey, that's it for now!

[Milky]

Looks like a cool build, will be watching.

Wohoo!

Great intro, thanks!

Good luck with the build, it's gonna be aswesome!


Tommy

Thanks guys!

[Vleugelmoer]

Milky and to the Phantom Freak SIG. Nice kit and top work done so far, what a way to start . The office is making me this is going to be an awesome build.

As always happy modeling and keep sticking styrene.

Paul (The Other One)

[Milky]

Milky and to the Phantom Freak SIG. Nice kit and top work done so far, what a way to start . The office is making me this is going to be an awesome build.

As always happy modeling and keep sticking styrene.

Paul (The Other One)

Thank you for those kind words Paul!

[Milky]

Time for another update!

Have put some more paint in the tub. Now I just need to sort the IP's out and glue everything together before I can move on with the build

[SkyPainter303]

Very nice cockpit! It is much better than the one in my Monogram kit.

[Lysus]

That is one beautiful job on that cockpit. A+ work

[GuyMac]

Very nice work. Love it

[Milky]

Very nice cockpit! It is much better than the one in my Monogram kit.

That is one beautiful job on that cockpit. A+ work

Very nice work. Love it

Cheers guys! Glad you like it!

[Milky]

Okiedokie, time for a small update

Not much time in the mancave today, but I started fiddling with the Eduard radar since the cockpit is pretty much done for now.

Took me about 2 mins before the first photo-etch part with a distinct "piiing" left my workspace and went in to orbit around the earth or something seeing as it was nowhere to be found afterwards. Hence the odd number of "radar-thingys" on the radar dish .



The ones on the back got there without any more fuzz atleast


And then these babies arrived with the postman today! Soon to be found inside the body of a F-4J

[Milky]

Okey, time for an update! Not been much benchtime lately but here's what I've managed so far

Got the resin exhaust in place after a bit of cutting and sanding.


And after that it was time to close the fuselage up and glue the back and front together and at the same time I glued the wings on





Which left me with a few gaps and seams that needed some care. The Aires cockpit did make a bigger mess then I had anticipated wich unfortunatly resulted in some lost details on the underside but I hope it will turn out pretty okey in the end any way.







Got the intakes on



And moved on to sorting out a bit of gap caused by me trying to fit the cockpit in...





Now I just need to mask the canopies and she's ready for priming

[Spook]

That's a nice looking office

[Milky]

That's a nice looking office

Thank you!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Good looking plane so far, lots of awesome goodies to add, some definite modelling skills what a great thread
You've been flying in under my radar, but I finally picked you up

[Milky]

Good looking plane so far, lots of awesome goodies to add, some definite modelling skills what a great thread
You've been flying in under my radar, but I finally picked you up

Wow, thank you for those kind words! Let's hope I'm not gonna disappoint you in the future then

[Milky]

Okey, a bit more done on the rhino!

Primed her in Ultimate black primer



And then I started with the underside first, marblecoat done



And this is after maybe 6 or 7 think coats of paint on top of that!





And managed to spray the topside too Still need to do some touch-ups here and there but soon it's on to painting the metallics at the aft.

[wellzy]

The office is looking very nice, good work

[wellzy]

Just got all your build and very good , but whats this with the black primer?

Les

[chops1sc]

What is a "marble coat"? Looks awesome so far! I have always loved the F4's

[Spook]

Love the effects that the marble coat gives

[Milky]

The office is looking very nice, good work

Thank you so much!

Just got all your build and very good , but whats this with the black primer?

Les

Thank you The black priming is part of a technique called "Black basing" which basically means that instead of doing a normal pre-shading, you prime it in black and put down a so-called marblecoat (mottling,pretty much..) and then cover that coat with thin layers of your prefered color Look up a dude called Doog (Doog's Models) he has a very good guide for it if you wanna know more

What is a "marble coat"? Looks awesome so far! I have always loved the F4's

Thank you As I said above it's kind of a mottling you do over the black primer to get more tonal variations then with normal pre-shading

Love the effects that the marble coat gives

Yeah, it's awesome isn't it I've messed it up a bit but still looks okey I think

[Milky]

Okey, a little bit of an update!

Glosscoat on and I've started to put down the decals I really love the way the model comes to life when decals are put on

here's the pics!





Next up is more decals, putting the stabilizers on and then start the weathering

[Twokidsnosleep]

Absolutely stunning...the decals really do add to this model
Some great work here

[TommyKillander]

Great work!


Tommy

[Milky]

Absolutely stunning...the decals really do add to this model
Some great work here

Thank you! Yeah, they really bring it to the next level

Great work!


Tommy

Thank you my friend!

[GuyMac]

Moi likes this Spook

[Milky]

Moi likes this Spook

Thank you!

[Milky]

Not much done lately, thank god for the delayed deadline

Almost done with the decals, so took a slight brake and put the radar on






Need to do some touch ups on it and some detailpainting but I think it turned out quite alright

[TommyKillander]

It looks awesome!


Tommy

[Milky]

It looks awesome!


Tommy

Thank you Tommy!

[Milky]

http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtop ... 44&t=21029

Done!