BrockyTaz

The following shows the difference between the original kit parts and my attempts at scratch building.

OK. Well it's been a long time. Hard to believe it's now July of 2013 and the the last time I worked on this was December of 2011. Man where did the time go? Got busy with a wayward daughter and grand child, work and oh yes a couple of other side projects on the the house, jeep and AR.... Any way I now have time to work on the Zona and I have gotten the 5/25s sorted out. As popular as this kit is, you'd think some one would have come up with some resin replacements in this scale... Got to wonder about that and how come no one has come up with some 5 inch mounts for Revel's Pine Island? A

And do not forget about the decals. The Marine version has all of the stencil decals. The Navy one only had rudimentary ones. I had to purchase a separate sheet of stencils (I think it was from CAM) to complete the cheaper one.

I’m actually looking at both "shelf sitters" right now as they sit on my shelf at the office. The F-4E is the later boxing (form the 1980’s not the 1990s MiG Killer retooled kit) with the slatted wings, inboard pylons, TERs, bombs, AIM-9s and drop tanks. The decals are supposedly for Capt. Steve Ritchie's Paula 03 loaner bird from the 33rd TFW. The MiG is the exact same 1970s kit right down to the decals as stated above. The markings are a Russian jet or a VPANF bird with the spurious marking option for Col. Tomb's A/C. The kits are old, but with a little work you can make them r

Not sure about the IP but the tub looks like it's from an older aircraft. I'm not sure because of the angle of the picture but it looks like both cockpits are fairly level so I'm going to guess Tango-33.

Don't forget about the total lack of details in the landing gear bays or the landing gear itself. Although dressed up you can use the nose gear as a replacement for the newer 1990+ F-4E, RF-4C/E kits anemic ones. The biggest pain in the neck for me was the way they molded the lower fuselage and wings as two separate pieces. Mine were warped and made getting a seamless bottom fuselage a long ordeal. And if you are thinking of using the weapons, be advised that the TERs are not even close to the actual ones used in Viet Nam or anywhere else for that matter.

Trumpeter does. 1/350 SOC Secgulls <-- Click on Link Most fo the online hobby shops have these or can get them. Not sure about the wood decks. I have never used them. Good luck and don't forget to post some picutres.

Larry, PM inbound.

Well being a flat broke modeler at the time, Paul Stoner (IIRC) showed me these: Did the gluing and filling in the morning and some sanding in the afternoon and it didn't take long to get from there to here: Hope this helps and good luck on the Phantom.

I have always wondered what that "valid" reason was. Aerodynamically and operationally speaking there doesn’t seem to be any reason. Could it have been some sort of budget/inventory issue? You know if you have F-4Bs without the Vulcan and F-4Js with it (if they had gone that way) on the same ship then you have more specialized spare parts and therefore less numbers of say nose cones, radar antennas etc.? Anyway, I've always admired the Phantom crews both AF and USN that flew against much more maneuverable advisories with only 8 (sometimes crappy) bullets max..

Great job! I take it this is the Dragon 1/700 kit?

Well the decks have been glued down and I've finally modified the stack and 1" gun tubs to her late 1941 fit. At this point I got out the Tom's Model Works PE set and managed to figure out most of it except these little triangular bracing pieces see parts circled in red in the attached picture. These are not mentioned in the instructions that came with the fret. Then again neither were the little sailors or .50 cal machine guns. I think they are for the undersides of the platforms on the fore and main masts but I was wondering if there is a second sheet to the instructions that shows

Finlay got somewhere with the 5"/51 caliber casement guns. I have been pondering on this for some time but I think I have it worked out. Gun bases and breaches waiting for barrels: Guns with barrels: Guns waiting for final paint. Note the hazards of using brass barrels. Due to the fact that the base parts I used (NIKO 1/400 15 cm Tbts KC/36s) only came in packs of 4 I decided to make 8 guns for the open casements and sort of fake two of the casements using canvas covers by replacing the barrels on the kit 5"/51 cal "turrets" and painting a white strip on them. See the first caseme

IIRC the 120-C had clipped fins to fit into the F-22 Raptor's internal missile bays. Otherwise it is pretty much identical to the -B.

Ok. I got the boot line on. Here is where she stands now. The decks have not been glued together I am still working on the 5"/51 secondary guns. I just sort or stacked it all together as an inspiration to keep moving, if and when life allows. And thanks Grey Ghost 531 for the boot line info and tips.

Thanks Ian and Grey Ghost. So it's a prim and proper thing? Having worked for the Navy these past 25 years I should have guessed that. Thanks for the tips, especially the one about the stern being wider. I was wondering how I was going to keep the stripe the same width, but now I don't have to....

Hi all, I am working on my first serious ship building project and I'm at the point where I need to shoot the boot line. I have already shot the anti-fouling red on the lower hull and dark gray on the upper hull and all of that is masked off. Is the boot line finish gloss, semi-gloss or flat? And just for GP what is a boot line for anyway besides making more work for the average modeler :)?

Whoo Hoo!!! I was able to get some dark gray on the hull today. I am waiting on it to dry for a couple of days to add the boot line. I hope to start the 5"/51 guns in the next few days. Once they are done I'll be able to glue all the decks together and get the superstructure on. Then it's off to the PE set for the cranes, masts, battle tops and catapults.....

Hi again. Hmmm :huh: Go away for a couple of weeks and everything changes. But it looks like good changes. Anyway life got hectic again. My dad had a full revision of his right hip replacement so I have been spending a lot of time at the nursing/therapy facility. I haven't had much time to work on the AZ but I did get started on the linoleum floors of the secondary 5"/51 caliber gun casements. And I got the "half floors" into the main turrets. This model will be on a shelf at eye level so I had to do something about the holes Revell left so the turrets can be rotated So this is

Thanks guys, Nothing all that elaborate. I have built mostly 1/32 scale fighters, Tamiya F-4J, Revell P-51B, P-40E, P-47D, F4F-4, F4U-1D, Typhoon Mk I, Hasegawa F6F-5, Spitfire Vb. All are OOB builds except the Tamiya F-4J which was my first use of PE. I was going to to the kit OOB, but when I began to look at other builds I went out and got the TMW PE set for the cranes, catapults and yard arms. I just couldn't see using the kits parts for these. Yeah I have a Hobby Boss 1/350 kit in the stash as well. That's kind of what prompted me to pick up the Revell one to use a primer tes

A little more progress Got the anti fouling paint on the hull bottom. Next will be the upper parts and then the boot line. Added the bottom Shields to four of the 5"/51 gun casements on each side: Added walls behind the gun casements. Not sure why I did this..... Any comments are welcome.

Hello, About 3 years ago, life stole my model area and I have recently aquired a new one. I started an old Revell USS Arizona because I wanted something simple to break back into modeling as the other project has gotten boged down (Revell 1/32 F-4E). Anyway I was cruising along on this project when I discovered that building the USS Arizona is not so simple in any scale..... First, there's that whole paint issue. Then I discovered that the 5"/51 cal gun mounts on the gun deck are actually open bay mountings and that Revell's little turret things were probably due to misinterpreting the

Since the resin parts look to be ARN-101 and TSIEO mods, you should be able to build almost any slated wing USAF bird. I wonder if they are considering selling the resin parts as a separate upgrade kit?

Well Osprey describes Maj. Phil Handley's and 1Lt. John Smallwood's MiG kill in F-4E-33-MC 67-0210 (A 4531 TFW Homestead based F-4E) on June 21 1972 as "His Homestead AFB Phantom II carried two AIM-7s in the rear wells, a pair of AIM-4 ('Hughes' Arrow in the Heart') outboard and an ALQ-87 pod in the forward left missile bay" (Osprey USAF F-4 PHANTOM II MiG KILLERS 1972-73, pp 36-37). So I guess it is a realistic load. Also the same book shows the plane carrying the AIM-4 in the color plate illustration on page 52. As for stenciling, the picture of the above jet in flight on Pg 38 seems t

The national insignia appears to be Angolan. Kind of hard to tell though from the angle but it is red & black with a bright yellow patch in the middle. See this link, the MiG 23 is the 4th profile down. http://www.cbrnp.com/profiles/quarter4/angola.htm