Incaroad

Don't forget 158360 F-4S Vandy 1... http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Navy/McDonnell-Douglas-F-4S/0654040/L/&sid=d365f3e76d792e95132d368be018d953 Cheers Larry McCarley 21045

Exactly what I was thinking Jennings. Slice right down the middle, mill down nice and flat, add just enough material right down the center, finish off the scoop face, then a matter of equalizing all areas, re-contour the oval shape a touch and viola, a nice scoop without the aftermarket $$$'s to go into this very nice kit. Couple more measurements to facilitate what I'm thinking from the airframe I have access too and we're in business. I'll post more when I get to that point... Right now I'm slicing out the Flaps and trying to figure out the best way to make that lower hinge... Should pr

A little more info about the ECS scoops on the side of the Academy 1/48th F-4B/N. I measured the scoops on the side of an F-4B and was surprised at what I found. The overall length of the Academy part is .001 to long but otherwise is correct. Where it gets it's funny to long (as some have eluded too) shape is from it's width. It's a scale 1.632 inches to narrow, that's .034 in 1/48th scale and that is pretty noticeable. Funny that something on the outside of a real airframe could escape proper measurements. Not that big a deal and certainly repairable but it does detract from that beautifu

Phantom II's... 1967 George AFB; I went to visit my Aunt and Uncle. He was a MSGT and took me to the flight line. I saw F-4's, don't remember which (most likely F-4C's though), but I saw F-4'S, lots of them. Then in 1969 my uncle took me to the Nellis flight line to see the Thunderbirds new F-4E's. I was hooked from that moment on. Saw them perform in them at Nellis but never again. What a spectacular visual for a 12 yr old kid! Never looked back and when my uncle took me to the PX between 69' and 72' sometime, I saw the Fujimi F-4E (although 1/50th scale;) took it home and in about 6 hour

LOL, good golly yeah, I must have been asleep when I looked at, sat in, took Kodachrome's (wish I still had them all) of, and not to mention looked in every manual and book that I have when it comes to the phantom. I'm not sure WHAT you have seen but I don't think there are any trim panels against or hiding what is on the bulkheads. But of course I HAVE to be wrong, why else are you asking if I've ever seen an actual Phantom...! I can't post any pictures from Jake Melampy's Modern Phantom Guide (pg 68&69) and of course it isn't a book on Navy Phantom's but I can surely see what is on th

Hey Ryan! I think you will find this F-4B/N to be very nice! I'm as happy as a puppy with two...well you get the idea. I'm very pleased with the kit and I don' think it's hard to tell that in my posts. My build progress will be as slow as molasses you can bet on that. VX-5 or China Lake F-4B with a few test items under it's belly...don't know which yet. I'm leaning towards VX-5 though cause I like that Kelly Green tail with the XE in it... If not then it will certainly be a QF-4N from China Lake for shore. Cheers good buddy! Larry McCarley 21045

My choice of words may have been wrong with respect to the seat "rails" but that seat didn't sit on the bulkhead no matter how you look at it. This photo shows that without a doubt. There is a boat load of stuff, behind, on the top, on the sides and all over the place. I think you missed the point about the pebbly surface. The Academy F-22A is smooth or at least a lot smoother than the F-4B. I know you can and I most certainly will polish the surface but I'd rather not HAVE to smooth it out before applying the 16440. I don't use primer over the entire surface so I have to sand down the sur

Was starting to see how these Intakes are gonna assemble and after that see how they were gonna look inside the fuselage. I noticed something funny looking about the surface. I think that something was a miss during the machining process. I know it's magnified a gazzilion times but I saw this as the light hit it just right with my naked eye's. It looks like a Herringbone pattern, doesn't it? Yes it will sand out easily and to make that seam disappear you have to sand it anyway but, I thought it was worth pointing out! I don't normally use the poor method to paint the inside of intakes and

Fare enough. I can almost agree that the fuselage bottoms would be "okay" to put the sprue attachments but on the Intakes? No sense in that. I can see that pebbly texture with my naked eye and I wear glasses for reading. The wings are less pebbly, why the inconsistency? And when I rub out the Gloss Gull Gray I don't want to rub through those kinds of high spots. That's what I'm concerned with. Yeah the parting lines are unavoidable no doubt but was it necessary to put them right next to panel lines and fastener detail? See, those compromises just keep on popping out... Cheers! Larry McC

part two to above 2. The lower front and rear fuselage is the same way!!! This a nice kit and will likely build into a very fine replica. I'm just getting started with the rest of the outline and details so stay tuned... Cheers Larry McCarley 21045

First off, this is a very nice kit! At a glance it looks much better than the competition but there are things that Academy SHOULD have done better! Personally I don't care about the amount of ordnance in the kit. The mk 82's don't look right to me but like I said I don't care about ordnance. Anyone want some miss-shaped Mk 82's? If you want qualification on the Mk 82's that will be later... 1. Overall outline: a. So far it looks like a Phantom II but that Radome attachment just kills me. Easy fix, not really. Glue, fill, rescribe, fill again, re-scribe, oh almost perfect let's do it aga

As far as the tail hook goes I've got a pretty good example with the dimensions I can provide... I have a few photo's that will follow of the things I've noticed so far... lots to look at though still. Cheers Larry

Academy drew the line in a LOT more places than just the seats I can assure you...although the seats look rather nice! The tail-hook is done very well too; Some dimension errors but it measures out pretty well. Got some photos' to show that might bring to light what I'm talking about... WHAT, no throttle quadrant? Tisk tisk tisk... Cheers -Larry McCarley

As promised; a new photo, although it was taken rather late in the day...here it is. A friend of mine with his DX4 and a 200mm-400mm lens let me take a picture with it. As requested by the resident expert(s) it was at the longest focal length, and as far away as I could get and still keep it in the field of view without backing into the local Shell station. The perspective should give, whomever wants to, a good side view photo to reference from. I'd love to give a bigger less re-sized by Photobucket example and I'm sure someone will say something about using something other than Photobucket, b

There HAS to be a "G" in there too. Better yet if Academy would release the E/F/G as one kit with all the parts to build at least one. But a hard wing "E" so at least the Thunderbirds jets would be easily made. Not to mention all the Vietnam "E's" that people are gonna want to make! This "G" looks okay (Testors kit) but I'd really like to do another... Cheers Larry McCarley 21045

This made perfect sense! I can't wait to get the kits too! Cheers all Larry McCarley 21045

I was trying to say something funny here about the Jennings writings but it didn't read funny after I posted it, so I deleted it. If anyone read it it was all meant in jest. So, I will gather my plumb bob and my helper up possibly tomorrow and go take another stab at getting an accurate measurement from the very end of the Radome to where is separates from the fuselage. That should give us/you a better place to start our measurements. I'll also try and put together enough material to go all the way around the not so round girth of the radome at it's largest spot. I think they may frown on me

Had the time today to take a few more shots of the radome of 151473 at the China Lake front gate. And I was able to take measurements from the Monogram kit and the Hasegawa "B/N" & "J/S." Here is the picture with the dimensions added. I measured this with a tailors measuring tape so it would lay down nice and tight and with my daughter holding it nice and taught. From the tip to the bottom of the windscreen is; 94.750". Change that to 48th scale and it measures... 1.9739333333333. Monogram C/D kit= 1.960 Hasegawa B/N kit= 1.960 Hasegawa J/S kit= 1.965 These are all so close to t

Actually; that windshield is accurate and is fared in correctly. The canopies are NSN issued as directed and are accurate as well, Sir! As for the greyed out portions, just to preserve what is underneath. So I am told...

Yes sir it is the gate guard but it isn't painted accurately. I tried to tell them but you know the drill...no money blah blah blah...

This YF-4J 151473 surely has the "trunnion covers." Cheers Larry McCarley

In my opinion NO aftermarket was good enough so I did all the mods myself. The seat that Cutting Edge said was an early C1 was not even close. They even had one to copy, so they said. I altered the kit seat to represent the early C1. The other mods were really not that big a deal... NACA inlet, fill the gun muzzle fairing and away I went. The funny thing about all this was; I had gotten a kit to start from that said it was a F-104C but in fact the Fuselage was a G... LOL, I didn't notice this until it was time to test fit the rudder and found the G tail there. I couldn't turn around now and ju

Thank you very much and you bet you can ask! Step 1- Applied White aluminum to the forward section of the fuselage Step 2- Using a scalpel and Tamiya tape I cut out the U.S. AIR FORCE Letters on by one. Step 3- After the letters were cut out I lined each individual letter up on the side of the fuselage. Step 4- Applied a second coat of White Aluminum with a touch of black to darken it slightly. Step 5- When the Alclad was dry (about 5 minutes later) I pulled the masking tape off. It looks sorta like the photo I had to work from, but I'm really not satisfied with the results. Step 6- I

Never again, you are right! No primer on this one with Alclad all over it! What primer that was used was to find flaws then sanded completly off, polished, then Alclad applied to reveal what you see. Cheers Larry McCarley 21045

Exactly. If you need to primer an entire model, what are you trying to cover up? Cheers Larry McCarley 21045