Global Scale Modeller

hi guys and welcome to the build thread of my entry in this group build
for this build i have the Good morning Da Nang kit by eduard
as far as i can tell it is a Academy kit with all the eduard upgrade sets already in the box

but let's start with a bit of history shall we
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor fighter/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 over 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 a 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 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 USAF had one pilot and two weapon systems officers (WSOs), and the US Navy one pilot and one radar intercept officer (RIO), achieve five aerial kills against other enemy fighter aircraft and become aces in air-to-air combat. 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 an unmanned target in the U.S. Air Force. Phantom production ran from 1958 to 1981, with a total of 5,195 built, making it the most numerous American supersonic military aircraft.

Technical data
Role Interceptor fighter, fighter-bomber
National origin United States
Manufacturer McDonnell Aircraft /
McDonnell Douglas
First flight 27 May 1958
Introduction 30 December 1960
Retired 1996 (US combat use)
2002 (Spain)
30 June 2013 (Germany)
Status In service as of 2014
Primary users United States Air Force (target drone use)
United States Navy (former)
United States Marine Corps (former)
Turkish Air Force
Produced 1958–1981
Number built 5,195
Unit cost
New build F-4E in FY1965: US$2.4 million

source : wikipedia

and mow some eye candy of the Phanthom










not very clear but still looks cool
but what is it i am looking at ? because i think it looks like it is about to break the sound barrier
but i don't think they ever do that close to the ground



but after going over the 5 decal options i have chosen the box art option
that is 206 of VF-84 Jolly rogers
so here are some VF-84 Phantoms along with the squadron banner and helmet






banner


art work on the tail section although this is a F-14 tail
wich is the replacement of the F-4 for the US Navy fighter squadrons


the decorated pilot helmet as many (if not all) pilots of the Jolly rogers would have during service


the shoulder patch for the flight suit


and finally the kit


the box art


the pretty stuffed box


decals and seat belts
there are a huge amount of decals and stencils in here


PE cockpit parts


the very nice quality instruction book


the brassin upgrade parts
















all the styrene for this plane
so as you can see everything is still nicely wrapped and unstarted
i noticed that 1 weapons pylon snapped from the sprue but it looked undamaged

so i will get started as soon as i can and ofcourse i will keep you updated on the progress
untill next time
cheers Mark

I completly forgot about it
But Paul did a review of this kit a while back
It was 1 of the reasons thar i got it myself
http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtop ... =98&t=5458
i think both Paul and Lee are better at doing reviews so i didn't bother doing it myself
But it gives a better look at the kit then i can with my phones camera

really really looking forward to seeing this come together mate best of luck buddy.

Nice to see you take the plunge Mark

Nige201980 wrote:really really looking forward to seeing this come together mate best of luck buddy.

Thanks Nige

Lee wrote:Nice to see you take the plunge Mark

Yes it seems my last fuctioning brains cells died on me
But is looks like i enjoy the presure of a deadline
And i already paid for the kit so i just aswell might build and this gb is the best excuse to do so

This is going to be cool

Love the plane and the kit you chose to build, good choice

Good luck Mark

Twokidsnosleep wrote:This is going to be cool

Love the plane and the kit you chose to build, good choice

Thanks

Paul wrote:Good luck Mark

I will need it
I just finished reading the instructions
And oooh boy there are a lot of decals and stencils

This is one of my favourite "DogFights" episodes about the Phantom and how early on they thought that missiles and speed was all that was needed; it was found that dogfighting skills and guns were still necessary. Have a peek if you haven't seen it before, the Phantom starts at about 14 min in

Was wondering when someone would enter this kit to the GB and I can seeyou finally submitted to pressure! Good luck with this beast!

Thanks Ludvig
It was laying around in my room where i could see all the time
And that was why the pressure was rising
And it was the only kit i have that is allowed for the build
It does look like a great kit though
And i plan on getting the danger zone kit aswell so i have 2 jets from the same squadron
But that will be build next year as i want to clear the bench before i start it

Nice kit mark .
i hope it all goes together well for you .

Twokidsnosleep wrote:This is one of my favourite "DogFights" episodes about the Phantom and how early on they though the missiles and speed was all that was needed; it was found that dogfighting skills and guns were still necessary. Have a peek if you haven't seen it before

Thanks for sharing this vid
It was really intresting to watch

martin57 wrote:Nice kit mark .
i hope it all goes together well for you .

Thanks Martin
There is not that much i can do at the moment as i only have 1 paintcolor that is needed
But they are ordered so the battle shall begin soon

Great kit! Enjoy the build!

felisbarcinonensis wrote:Great kit! Enjoy the build!

Thank you Felis
I plan on enjoying this build for every minute

Hey Mark,

I'm glad that you've taken the bull by the horns. Best of luck with your build bud.

Willem wrote:Hey Mark,

I'm glad that you've taken the bull by the horns. Best of luck with your build bud.

Thanks Will
I did make a small start and got the ordenance build and sanded
But i think i will do the process updates in the same order as the instructions so the first update will take some time
But not too long i hope as my paints should arrive this week
But i can do some construction untill then
Cheers Mark

Hi there jolly people of modelling land
so it is time for the first update of this build

after i had a good look through the instructions i had a feeling that i could be in over my head with this kit
but the quality is very good and the the instructions are very clear so it is not too dificult

so lets go to the progress
i will go through the build as per the instructions ,well i did build the ordenance but i will show them when i get to that step

i do have a small pointer though
these light red parts don't have a number in the instructions but i marked them as i think they have to be used but the details have to be sanded untill you get an smooth part

for those who like me never build a eduard kit the instruction don't go like most with a step 1 up to step 20 for instance
but it just goes from page to page

this will get your hopes up
it is a big start for a kit in my opinion


the donor kit part


the same part after trimming
this is not that hard to do but some care is needed to avoid breaking the part


the donor part with the build up photo etch parts
they look great in detail but again be careful not to damage them
i did damage one part by masking it and then i found out that the pe is covered with a printed foil layer wich i particially ripped of the part



the upper section of the RIO's instrument panel
still all before painting





the cockpit tubs with all the unprinted pe in place


the build up of the pilot's instrument panel
it looks like a bigger challenge then it really was as long as you take your time


not the cockpit but the front wheelbay
i glued it on to have a bit more grip when i start to paint the cockpit


the cockpit was primed with ammo for mig primer grey
it was then painted with mr hobby H213 grey
i also started masking of some parts as the backwall of each section has to be painted with H12 black


the tubs are painted


so after a bit of paint i ended up with these instrument panels



the cockpit as it sit now
the seats will go in much later when most of the extrerior work is done and the canopy will be installed
so they will have to wait for now

and that is all for now as i have held you up long enough
thanks for watching and ofcourse all comments are welcome
untill next time
cheers Mark

Nice work with the PE !

rwsmith14 wrote:Nice work with the PE !

Thank you
It is very easy to use when you have done a few builds with pe before
I have had pe that was much harder to use in the past
But this is great stuff to work with

Looking really good mate

Daishi12 wrote:Looking really good mate

Thank you very much

Ohhh, nice looking tub!

Thank you
I am very happy with how it came out
But on the other hand i was used to building 1:32 scale jets from revell
Well about 6 or 7 years ago when i was only building planes
But most of my planes where WWII era
So i am very impressed with the quality of this kit and the eduard pe in general
But now i am going back to my Phantom for some more building
Cheers Mark

that tub looks amazing mate great work on it.

Lovely work mate.

Looking good mate.

Thank you very much gentlemen
Your comments are much apreciated

nice one mark coming on great .

martin57 wrote:nice one mark coming on great .

Thanks Martin

Outstanding cockpit work!This thing will be a killer when you get her done!

Thanks Steve
And i certainly hope so
There is a ton of surface detail wich could use a wash and the decal sessions will be long i think
There are about 300 to 350 stencils atleast that is my guess when i look at the A4 size stencil sheet
But i should have a update soon as the basic construction is going fast with this kit
Up to the point of making the seats ,the resin ejection seats are little kits of their own and they look like they may take a while to make
And then get mostly hidden
But it has been a great kit to build with just a few little fitting issues wich could have been my own fault as far as i know but they where quick little fixes
Cheers Mark

I am amazed, how it looks. Phantom is sitting in my stash and waits to be build - also Good Morning Da Nang...

The stencils will be nightmare. There are tons of them. Fingers crossed with the build! Your work is fantastic!

thanks
the stencils sre something that you would just hve to start i think
there is a massive amount for sure but small decals are not so hard in my opinion
the big pieces are much harder to get down smooth
but i think the decals in this kit are cartograph decals and i have never had a problem with them
atleast not caused by the decal ,my own screwing up doesn't count

hi guys
so here is the new update for this build
it has been going rather fast as this kit allows for it and i pre painted a few parts to make it go faster aswell

but here is the progress so far


the next step after the cockpit was the main landing gear
they are easy to build and recuire only a little cleaning as there is a seamline from the molds


this is a point that i think is missing in the instructions
the 2 holes i marked on the part line up with the middle droptank and most likely (haven't checked) the long pylon for the free fall bombs
the instructions however don't mention that you have to drill them
i did as i want to use the droptank ,so my advice is to drill them while you are able to reach these holes


the landing gear sub assemblies and the inner parts for the speed breaks are placed


then it was time for both the engines and the intakes
these are the parts that ressemble the end of the turbines that will be seen from the exhaust pipes
they are painted with mr metal dark iron as per instruction
the left part is buffed and the right is the basic finish this paint gives


the tubes for the engines
they have a nice amount of detail


the finished engine parts
the cone shaped part is supossed to go on the end of the tubes


a look down the engine


the upper parts of the wings where glued on
they have a good fit and only need a light sanding on the leading edge to remove a barely visible seamline
i used the Ultimate sanding sponge for this and then used the Ultimate buffer to clean up any markings and scratches from the sanding


then it was time for the airintakes
they where primed with ammo grey primer and then painted with h316 white wich as you can see is a gloss
the fan was painted with with mr metal steel and then buffed
there is a now inpossible seam line visible but once the parts are instlled they will be out of sight


the intakes and engines are installed


then the build goes on with the fuselage
there are about 10 pe parts that need to be placed around the cockpit openings
i don't know if it was my own fault or that there is a small mistake made by eduard but i had a hard time getting the cockpit in for testfit
the instrument panel of the RIO was getting stuck inbetween the pe parts on the insides
it could be i placed them to far forward or that they are simply too long but i cut of a small bit from the parts and now it fits


then the fronts of the airintkes where made
altough it is not done here , they are also painted with H213 white just as the rest of the intakes


the refueling rod can be made either closed or extended
i have chosen for the extended postion as i like the look of the open parts
i will do the same with the cockpit canopy and the speed brakes later


another smaal thing i want to point out
this is how the instructions want you to join the front and back of the bottom
i think this is not the best way


this is how i did this
as you can see on the right the entire cockpit section is still missing
the maskintape is used to pull the wings up a bit this makes the seamline between the wing and the fuselage dissapear completly


around the engines the fit was not ideal but with a little force and some more maskingtape this was fixed and only a small seamline remains that can be sanded down with ease


then the cockpit part was placed aswell
the fit could have ben a little bit better as the pilots instruments panel is a little bit too high (less then 1 mm)
the cover for the instrument panel and the bow that are on top of the cockpit supossed to be added later but as i needed to paint the interior bit i decided i would add them before painting to save me from the effort of more masking


as you can see the fronts of the air intakes don't have the best fit
the gaps where filled with some ca glue and sanded smooth


the same problem can be found on the tailsection
but these gaps are a bit bigger and can be filled with some styrene sheet
i had to do that on the lower half of this section already and used the scraps to fill the other gaps


i used spruecutters , a knife and some sanding sticks to get a smooth finish on the tail section
there is a seamline where the bare metal lower half and the (later) grey upper half meet
if i sand this i would have to re scribe the entire part wich would be highly unpleassant
so i decided to leave it as is and i think the upper part should be a little bit wider then the lower half


the test fit of the refueling rod
it will be painted seperate again because of the masking
the nose cone will be added later because i am not sure if this will be a tailsitter or not
and now i can add weight if needed and then place the part

then the last wingsections had to be added
this is where the build is now so it is king of a gallary of the build so far





so this is where she is at
but i have another small point of attention

be careful when you place parts G16 and G17
these parts are angled but fit upside down aswell
if the wing tip doesn't fit right these parts are most likely upside down i know this because it happened to me own fault
but the glue was not set so i could recover from my booboo

and that marks the end of this update
i hop you guys like it and ofcourse all comments and questions are welcome
thanks for watching and untill next time
cheers Mark

Thanks for the updates. In the words of Paul "Superb!"

Thanks Grover
Glad you like it so far

Great update must get this kit or the other one at some point you make it look so easy. Looking forward to the next update.

Thanks Nigel
I think i will do a new update when the building is done and all the little bits are ready for paint

Excellent progress,nice attention to detail on the gap filling

Thanks
It was the best way really
If i used putty it would have taken several tries to fill the gaps on the tail
And i would have run into the risk of filling in some of the details

I really like you kit and I am impressed with the prep involved on the engines. Looking forward to your masking techniques for overall painting of the Phantom

simply impressive work from your part. Thanks for the heads up with the drop tank, gotta go drill some holes before I mate the fuselage to the wings

Nice work mark. Looking good or should I say superb lol

Don't worry too much about the stencils, once you get in a rythem they will be done before you know it

AlkaSeltzer wrote:I really like you kit and I am impressed with the prep involved on the engines. Looking forward to your masking techniques for overall painting of the Phantom

The cockpit canopy has some masks in the kit
As for the rest , i haven't thought about really

TheWeasel wrote:simply impressive work from your part. Thanks for the heads up with the drop tank, gotta go drill some holes before I mate the fuselage to the wings

Thanks but there are some more holes to drill wich i didn't do
I will try to get that in the next update but i will pm you for the locations and part numbers just in case you get there before i make an update

Paul wrote:Nice work mark. Looking good or should I say superb lol

Don't worry too much about the stencils, once you get in a rythem they will be done before you know it

Thanks Paul
And i'm not really worried about them but i'm not looking forward to them either
Cheers Mark

hi guys
so it is time for a new update
i planned on a update for the remaining part of the build all rapped in one
but after looking at the instructions for the ejection seats today i thought it was best to do a seperate update on those as they look very detailed and labor intensive

also a small warning about this kit
-i showed the holes that needed to be drilled if you choose to use the center fuel tank
but i found out that there are 2 more places with 2 holes each that need drilling

they are placed in the marked places
they will be used to place parts K16 and K18 later on in the build
but this is another thing they forgot in the instructions
as for the 2 holes in the center , they only need drilling if you want the center fuel tank ,if you want the bomb rack they don't need drilling as the holes are way too far apart and the pylon for this bombrack lacks locatingpins

so now on to the build


the build goes on underneath the plane
first the small parts of the landing gear bay doors need to be installed aswell as 2 small hatches near the centerline hardpoint
i'm a bit unsure what they are used for but after seeing a vid where a Phantom drops flares they looked like they dropped from around this point
so they could be access hatches to the flare storage
anyway i leave them opened


the remaining parts of the landinggear baydoors where added aswell as the speedbrakes
wich will be in the opened position


then it was time for the nose gear
nothing bad to say
everything fits good


once the bottom was done it was time to start with the payload and the pylons
this is one of the double bombracks wich can hold a total of 6 bombs


the smaller brother for 3 bombs
but this will go under the pylon that already holds 2 AIM-9 sidewinders


another view of the large bombrack
i fitted the pylon for the center position


and the pylon for the outer wing position


the 2 droptanks that go on the outer wing positions
wich are the same places as the bombracks so you will have to choose wich payload you want


the big centerline droptank


a finished wing pylon with the sidewinder rails and small bombrack


the AIM-9 sidewinders
i don't know wich version of the sidewinder this is but there are about 5 different versions of the sidewinder in the kit
altough i asked around if i should drill out the back of missles i foud that these don't need that


the AIM-7 sparrow missles
these needed some drilling as the had a flat rear end unlike the somewhat nicer sidewinders


the old school bombs
back in time when guided bombs where a nice idea but not yet a reality
i am rethinking the use of these as not all the points are perfectly placed (my fault) but there are 6 long fuses in the kit
these where used in low altitude bombing runs as they took a little bit longer to detonate then the conventional fuses
so i may cut of the pointy fuses on 6 bombs and place the longer fuses


this is one of the options for the payload
the center fueltank is replaced by the large bombrack
not my choise for the payload


the version with the 2 large bombracks
the large bombracks eliminate the use of the smaller pylons so for me this option was dropped


this is the version i will make
this gives a large amount of weapons with 4 sparrows ,4 sidewinders and 6 of the blind bombs


oooh yeah i tried to see if this is a tailsitter but even with the wheels on it still stayed level but to make sure it would remain that way i placed about 20 grams of leadsheet from the anglingshop in the nose cone and glued that on the fuselage
and that is all i have for now
i hope you guys like it so far and untill next time
cheers Mark

looks great, Mark. I believe the correct version for the AIM-9 for that time period on Navy F-4Bs are Aim-9B . AIM-9D &, AIM-9G

Thank you
And thanks for the info
But the instructions don't show me wich type i have build
It could be the wrong type but after looking at some photo material i can say that i think they are correct as an early type sidewinder
Maybe i will build all the remaining missles to use on the base later on

Great progress! Nice idea showing the different loadouts.