Litvyak Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 So, for my second entry in this GB I'll be building a Royal Australian Air Force F-4E (which will be, at the same time, my first RAAF subject!) I got this boxing of the kit: I'll be using the Novascale decals I recently got, along with a set of SEA camo scheme stencils from Print Scale (these are still on the way to me, but they should be here by the time I need them!). Since I'll be using exclusively aftermarket decals, I'll only use the cockpit decals from the kit sheet, so if anyone wants the Indiana ANG decals just drop me a PM and I'll post them to you - better to give them to someone who'll use them, than to have them gathering dust! This will be my fourth 1/72 Hase Phantom (though only two previous ones were finished - the third was damaged beyond repair whilst under construction, thanks to a certain feline...), so I'm fairly confident that this build should be fairly smooth flying! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sentry30 Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 I've been trying to get my hands on one of these decal sheets for a while now, so I'm looking foreward to this build! Dunno how accurate you are willing to be, the Ausies F-4E's didn't have the LES installed. If you have more Phantom projects comming up, you might wanna consider taking a standard F-4EJ boxing!? Anyways, I think it's the first down under F-4 in this GB, happy modelling! Daniël Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Procopius Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 If you want to cheat, you can still make a LE-slatted RAAF F-4E -- sort of. "69-7208" in the RAAF Museum is actually an ex-USAAF F-4E (67-0237) with the leading-edge slats in RAAF markings. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Litvyak Posted March 29, 2013 Author Share Posted March 29, 2013 Daniel, thanks for mentioning that! I do have one more Phantom project in the pipeline (RN FG.1), but beyond that the only other one I have on my long-term planning list is an RAF F.3/F-4J(UK). Down the road, one never knows, but I've been getting eager to build this since I ordered the decals! And this may be considered heresy by a lot of you, but that seems to me to be too minor of a difference to get really worked up about. (Well, and years down the road if I'm still building and my skills actually improve somewhat, I'll have an excuse to redo it! :D ) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
EX_Birdgunner Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Looking good! I never knew that the RAAF had F-4s. Man this jet was more prolific than I thought! Denis Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Litvyak Posted March 30, 2013 Author Share Posted March 30, 2013 Denis: per my understanding the RAAF leased a bunch of F-4Es as a stopgap measure until they could take delivery of the F-111. I just wish the RCAF had got F-4s instead of F-5s... I'm picturing Phantoms in all the various CF-5 schemes and I'm thinking, wow, each one of those would look fab! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Procopius Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Looking good! I never knew that the RAAF had F-4s. Man this jet was more prolific than I thought! Denis Only two dozen, leased as Litvyak said, from 14 September 1970-4 October 1972. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Litvyak Posted March 31, 2013 Author Share Posted March 31, 2013 The one part of any Hasegawa F-4 build that annoys me is the assembly of the seats; after that's done, everything else is as easy as licking the icing out of the bowl. I did get more work done after taking this picture - got as far as getting the wings on, so things are flowing nicely. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Litvyak Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 So, some more progress - finished main assembly of the fuselage and got some paint onto it: I now realise the tan I used is way, way off, but I think the greens aren't too bad. I also learned some more about masking... namely, that I suck at it. Will defs have to try something else next time, like blue tack or somesuch. However, I'm pleased that the shape of the coloured blotches more or less matches up to the drawing that came with the decal sheet, what with having cut the tape for masking by eye. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bashace Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 She's looking good in that SEA skin. If you don't like a particular color hue, you can always tint it a little with a wash to bring it closer to your liking. V/r Ron Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bashace Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 Check the "All about the raffles" thread, you are one of this months winners. V/r Ron Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Litvyak Posted April 9, 2013 Author Share Posted April 9, 2013 So these Print Scale stencil decals I got are really, really hard to use! Wet them for 5 seconds, as soon as you get them off the backing paper they either stick to my finger/tool/brush/anything-but-the-model and/or fold over onto themselves. I've never had this much trouble with decals as with these. Anyone used them before? I think I'm going to try and track down a set of SEA scheme stencils from another source that would be easier to use... say Hasegawa kit decals? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pete Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 I used them recently on a IRIAF F-4D, and I agree, they are veeery thin and not easy to work with. After I tried one or two, I gave the sheet a coat of Microscale liquid decal film. This helped a bit, but I still had to be very careful. I just placed the piece of paper with the decal still on it on the model, and tried to drag the decal carefully onto the model. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Litvyak Posted May 13, 2013 Author Share Posted May 13, 2013 This is still on hold, pending location of a set of stencils for the SEA scheme! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Litvyak Posted May 27, 2013 Author Share Posted May 27, 2013 Well, I've given up on trying to find stencil decals, so rummaging through the piles of leftovers, I've pulled a bunch together... including (old!) Fujimi decals (yes, that's how much I don't like those Print Scale decals - I'd rather use old Fujimi ones!). So, using the Print Scale sheet as a reference, I started slowly applying stencils and such - correct ones (or more or less so) from the Fujimi sheet and from the kit sheet (though not a lot of that is usable, since it's for a grey low-vis scheme), along with other stencils that just 'look close enough' from a Leading Edge Sabre sheet... not too thrilled about this solution, but I'll deal. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bashace Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 She's starting to look the part, great work so far! V/r Ron Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike J. Idacavage Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 Great effort in working around the decal problem! I think this Phantom will look mighty fine when you finish. I have one or two decal sheets from Print Scale in my stash, so I appreciate the warning. Have fun modeling! Mike :cheers:/> Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Litvyak Posted May 27, 2013 Author Share Posted May 27, 2013 Thanks for the compliments! I'm hoping it'll look presentable, yeah... I can't afford to really give up on kits (especially at Hasegawa prices...) As far as the Print Scale decals go, they may well work better for someone who's more skilled than I am, but that said, I was a bit underwhelmed by the quality of the printing, so I don't feel like I'm missing out on too much. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Litvyak Posted June 13, 2013 Author Share Posted June 13, 2013 This is progressing, but slowly - finally got the decalling finished today, and I'm feeling quite relieved. This was not a fun process! And, too, I had to use the Print Scale decals for the "Danger Arresting Hook" panel, one worked, the other destroyed itself... so I will need to find one of those at some point, but I'll deal with that later, going to finish this build and get it out of the way, and then put "RAAF F-4E" back on my List of Things to Build. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Litvyak Posted June 15, 2013 Author Share Posted June 15, 2013 I managed to force myself through getting this stencilled up... this was not a fun process! But finally it's finished... This is now on the shelf with the others, but I will at some point in the future build another RAAF F-4E to replace this one (with correct wings, too!) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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