Charlie Cheetah Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 (edited) Well I decided at the last minutre to join this GB. I am also building this to enter the Phantom 50th Anniversary special category the '08 CAMS show in Fredericton, nb on May 3rd. My kit is the dragon nose art edition of Hasegawa's 1/48 RF-4EJ. I will also be using True Details seats and intakes. I started off sunday evening with the cockpit. the sidewalls, tub and instrument panels are painted with MM dark gull grey, swtich panels and instruments with interior black. I then drybrushed with some flat white, and filled in the guages with either Tamiya clear or clear blue. Ipiked out a few swithches with red and yellow. When I fist opend the package with the intakes I noticed that the packager had gotten a little careless with the rasor saw removing the pour stub. There was a small section cut away on one side. Nothing a little filler cant fix. Today I decided it was time to fit the resin intakes to the fuselage halves. I normally get really worried when I have to cut or shave away small bits of kit parts to make room for afternmarket resin or pe. So hacking away large sections of the main fuselage had me really worried. I finished removing the needed plastic with all my fingers and no blood shed. Just a small nick on the side of the right fuselage spine. Once I thinned the sidewalls, the resin fit right in I also removed the hump on the upper wings, filled in the gouges I left behind and sanded away. I then assembled the wing sub assembly, external stores and a few of the camera bits got painted. I forgot to take pictures of that. They will show up eventually. I hope to get back to it on Saturday night. Edited March 13, 2008 by Charlie Cheetah Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Charlie Cheetah Posted March 13, 2008 Author Share Posted March 13, 2008 (edited) Finally a bit more progress to report. Got to try and catch up to Kelly Quirk. First off, the office. I wasnt happy with the kit cockpit, so I added a few wires behing the rear panel to add a little interest. This is the True Details resin seats. About 95% done, just a few touch ups to do on these. The ejection handles above the headrest are from the kit, the one in front of the seat cusion is copper wire, painted. True Details resin intakes atttached, seams filled... and sanded. This side has the intake that was gouged up. And tonights overall shot. I am always impressed with the size of the Phantom, even in scale, it dwarfes many of my other models. Edited March 13, 2008 by Charlie Cheetah Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kelly Quirk Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Hey that's looking good, I really like that seat and the extra details you added. Those intakes are pretty slick, aren't they? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Charlie Cheetah Posted March 13, 2008 Author Share Posted March 13, 2008 (edited) Yup, they are nice, but I love the seats even more. Oh yeah, And I want to credit Wayne "Quiddy" Beattie for the idea on how to make the throttles. Thanks Wayne! Edited March 13, 2008 by Charlie Cheetah Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Charlie Cheetah Posted March 14, 2008 Author Share Posted March 14, 2008 (edited) Got me some nice scans of the RF-4EJ Shark Mouths from ReccePhreak and Brutus. I am gonna paint one of the shark mouths. Now I just decde which style of sharkmouth to use. Edited March 22, 2008 by Charlie Cheetah Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Charlie Cheetah Posted March 22, 2008 Author Share Posted March 22, 2008 Today's update... Airframe is pretty well complete. I sprayed the white background for the sharkmouths and Japanese roundles. While I was at it I figured I'd paint the gearbays and the inner gearbay doors. I started using Model Master Flat Header White. I find it easier to use than the Insignia Whites. I also shot some white to cover the filler and check seams. Im happy with most except for the wing to fuselage join. I surprised myself too. The rear horizontal stabs on this kit had raised panel lines and the reinforcing triangle on the upper side. After I shaved off the tiangles and sanded the surface smooth, a lot of the raised lines were oblliterated. So I decided this was as good a time as any to try to rescribe the lines. I used an old drafting shield, taped to the part as a guide. A few passes with the back edge of an old #11 blade did the trick. A little sanding later and these look a lot better. I slipped a few times, but they shouldnt show to badly once painted. I liked the result so much, I did the undersides too. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Quiddy Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Looking good Charlie, keep it up and you might have it done for CAMS. Wayne Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Charlie Cheetah Posted April 7, 2008 Author Share Posted April 7, 2008 Well since I was pretty well inspired after yesterday's show at the CFB Shearwater Aviation Museum, it was time to get cracking on my Phantom. I had mixed a "stone" colour using Modelmaster equivalents to Humbrol, looked good in the botte but it was far to pale once it was on the aircraft. After digging thru my paint drawers, I found some ModelMaster "wood" colored paint. I mixed in a little of that and voila, a much better representation of the tan on the Japanese Phantoms and T-2s. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Charlie Cheetah Posted April 13, 2008 Author Share Posted April 13, 2008 Some quick progress with the paint. This is about 90% freehand. I still have to touch up some areas and do some pre-shading but overall I am very happy with the results. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Charlie Cheetah Posted April 17, 2008 Author Share Posted April 17, 2008 All the major painting is done. Now I have to decide if I want to do any more post shading before I seal it up in Future. Greens are from Humbrol, the tan is a custom mix of Model Master (sand, gull grey and wood), the underside grey is Model Master Camouflage Grey, and I used MM Metalizers for the metalic shades. The flash kinda washed out the contrast in the metal areas. I'll have to take some better shots. I may still darken the burnt metal area a bit. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rodney Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 Looking good. I think you did a good airbrush job. I'm still having trouble getting a decent freehand camo. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Charlie Cheetah Posted April 17, 2008 Author Share Posted April 17, 2008 Thanks Rodney. I impressed myself, I've never been able to do such a complicated scheme freehand before. Up until now it's been simple schemes like gull grey over white and WWII USN tri color schemes. I did have to do several touch ups, so it will look like the real thing. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Charlie Cheetah Posted May 1, 2008 Author Share Posted May 1, 2008 She's Phinished!!! More pics in the completed build section. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AnthonyWan Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 Great build Charlie! :) Love the way you got the neat feathered edges to the camouflage Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Timpus Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 Super build! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
speedlimit Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 Beautiful build there Charlie!!! Eric Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Charlie Cheetah Posted May 1, 2008 Author Share Posted May 1, 2008 Thank you very much guys... I am very happy with this one. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Julien (UK) Posted May 3, 2008 Share Posted May 3, 2008 Man that looks really great, you can never have enough phantom models and never enough recon phantoms. Good work. Julien Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jack-Swiss Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 Very nice build...I like it very much!!! Congrats Cheers Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.