nspreitler

First coats of paint, which revealed a few small seams to cleanup. The VF-92 aircraft had a variety of colors for the nose, white, black, and radome tan. I’ll probably go with tan just to add some color variation.

There are only two places in the US. Spruebrothers and Hobbyworld USA. Hobbyworld used to be good, but in the past few years has developed a very poor reputation for not sending items. I buy them from Spruebrothers, and place an order at least monthly and have always had good service.

Slow but steady progress on Tamiya’s F-4B. The pylons and TERs are painted and decals applied. I’ll do some weathering on them, but I want to get further into the build before doing that since I’ve not decided how dirty this will be yet. The Eduard TERs are really nice and with some care just click into the pylons, the one in the photo is not glued to the pylon. I put the Bullseye decals on the tail, and they applied beautifully. I only used Microset and they settled down into every rivet very well. They are Cartograph so I expected they would work well. I painted u

I agree, what we have today is far better than what was available 10 years ago. The number and quality of new releases is just astounding. I’m building Tamiya’s F-4B now, with a Quinta cockpit, 3D printed Sidewinder rails from Flying Leathernecks, decals from Bullseye and Eduard, and Mk82s that I printed from a file that was available for free. It’s a fantastic kit but Tamiya then exceeded it with the F-35. I also picked up the Kotare Spitfire which is a stunning kit. The new HK A-20 looks amazing too. Great Wall has released incredible stuff like the

The Eduard Triple Ejector Racks are a drop fit onto the kit pylons.

Mk82s painted (plus a spare). The cruise book provides some great references for the ordnance. The main assembly is done with just a little black CA to eliminate seams.

I agree, the lack of common colors has always kept me from getting many Tamiya paints. I do use some, the LP metallics are fantastic for example.

I found a better solution for Mk 82s. I found a set of Mk82 files on Cults3D and printed them on my Anycubic Photon Mono 4K. The tail easily slots into the bomb body, and dimensionally they are more accurate. The Eduard ones are too short by a few millimeters.

To avoid the temptation to rush the ordnance at the end of the build up of Tamiya’s F-4B I started working on it now. I have Eduard’s F-4 weapons set which has 4 each AIM-9s, AIM-7s, and 18 Mk 82s. I also considered using the Mk 82s in AMKs very nice ordnance set, but opted for the Eduard ones. These are a bit of a challenge with the butt joint between the body and tail, getting them flush without sanding too much off takes some care. I cut closely with a razor saw and used a glass file to get a flat surface. I am sure I’ll mess up a couple of them but fortunately only need six of t

I am using the Quinta 3D cockpit decals, and while it is nice the color is not Dark Gull Gray. I found MRP 405 Ukraine AF Blue-Gray to be a very close match to the color on the Quinta parts.

First steps on Tamiya’s beautiful F-4B. I knew it would be a great kit, but I am still impressed on how good it is. Planning on doing an aircraft from VF-92 from the USS Enterprise’s 1968 WESTPAC cruise.

Done

I’m sure I did when I was a kid starting out, but as soon as you start painting them following build sequence goes out the window.

I’m sure I did when I was a kid starting out, but as soon as you start painting them following build sequence goes out the window.

10+ years ago I bought a case of 24 bagged Amtech P-40s with fuselages to build either the E of F for maybe $50. I’ve built about half a dozen of them, and they are my go to slammer build.