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1/32 F-4E Chico the Gunfighter


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Thx for the comments and discussion. Yeah, I will definitely not be going with walkways.

Marcel this is some stunning work so far. I am planning on doing a Chico within my next two builds, possibly as my next build, and this build article has proven to be a great reference. Really love the work you did on the weapons. I have the AMS SUU-23's and the Mk.20's. Great looking stuff, I have to figure out a way to do the markings. If MAV decides to print some more of those out I would defiantly by a couple of sheets. Keep up the great work! Will be watching with interest!!

Brandon

Thx Brandon. Hope those Mk.20's work out for you. BTW the join of the rear fins to the body will need a little cleaning up, noticed that when I assembled mine, apologies for that.

I haven't been making much progress with the build, there's been a bunch of work travel but last weekend I took a few additional days off and we drove down to Italy. This is Cinque Terre on the north west coast... incredibly pretty and Italian food never disappoints.

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This is me and my girls in the village of Corniglia, which is one of the five villages that make up the Cinque Terre series.

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Hopefully its back to business with the next update.

:cheers:/>

Marcel

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Lovely looking Family, and a beautiful spot for a vacation!! Do not mind cleaning up the fins at all. It is just part of model making. The end result is a great looking load out. Have a great vacation, and I look forward to the build posts when you return.

Brandon

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Thx for the kind comments!

Now it's back to modelling. I thought I'd show how I approach paint weathering/discoloration. Two things to note:

1. Generally, I don't believe in pre-shading, esp. not the usual pre-shading alon panel lines thing. The result of that approach is usually a uniformly darker shade of the overlying color along panel lines. I don't see that happening on the real thing.

2. Beware of lightening up colors with white. Lightening colors this way is often done for reasons of scale effect, paint fade and to compensate for the fact that the model will turn darker with coats of clear and washing. I think lightening up with white works well with grays, but if you do this with colors the end-result looks like the aircraft just flew through a can of bleach. Vietnam Phantoms, based on what I have seen, are sometimes very weathered, they are blotchy, dirty, touched up all over the place, but they don't look like they have been standing in the Arizone sun for 10 years. In fact, the Phantom I am building at the period depicted was only four years old, and this is in '72.

So here is what I did so far with the tan color. First off, the Gunze H310 is supposed to be a match for the tan but I found it slightly too dark. Instead of lightening it with white, I mixed about 1/3 of Tamiya XF-59 Desert Yellow with the H310 and used that as a base tan. I then started adding discolorations, sometime around panel lines, sometimes not, with the unmixed H310. I also added some lighter blotches using the XF-59 with a small bit of H310 added to that. Finally, I added more dark blotches using Tamiya Flat Earth XF-52. I usually thin the mixture I use for blotching very extensively so that I can control the effect with various passes.

So here is where I am:

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The overall effect is pretty subtle at this point (and will become even more subtle once I wash the model) but I think is appropriate for Chico.

:cheers:/>

Marcel

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hey welcome back! really good start on the camo. i COMPLETELY agree with you on lighting w/ white. it makes everything look powdery. a rule of thumb i always go by is what colors mix to make other colors. use more of the lighter to lighten , use more of the darker to darken. i don't even use white for grays , i just use lighter grays. haha. this guy is looking really good, and i think its going to end up being your best yet!

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Hey Buddy, great shot of your beautiful girls. You're a lucky man!

The Tan color looks great and the slightly mottled effect looks the part, but I'm wondering about too many coats of paint filling up all that great looking detail- ie: Primer + Tan + Light Green + Dark Green. Maybe Chico has more Tan than most SEA camo schemes?

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Thanks guys!

use more of the lighter to lighten , use more of the darker to darken. i don't even use white for grays , i just use lighter grays.
This is really good advice. I generally also do just as you do on the grays, I also try to use slightly different hues of grays to introduce more variation.
The Tan color looks great and the slightly mottled effect looks the part, but I'm wondering about too many coats of paint filling up all that great looking detail- ie: Primer + Tan + Light Green + Dark Green. Maybe Chico has more Tan than most SEA camo schemes?
Chuck, I spary these acrylics (Gunze and Tamiya) on very thin so absolutely no chance of filling up the panel lines. Chico has a pretty standard SEA scheme from what I have seen.

:cheers:

Marcel

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Great start on the camo Marcel! I'm really looking forward to see how you go about shooting the camo colors :thumbsup:/> Something I have yet to attempt dry.gif Those are some great shots, at a glance it looks as though the buildings could tip over at any moment :unsure:/> And like others have said, congrats on a happy, healthy family. Cheers.

/Jesse

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Here is an update on where I am with the camo. I am almost done, but there are still some touch-ups to do here and there. Plus I just had another look at a Chico pic and noticed I have too much tan on the port side of the vertical stabilizer, so I will rectify that.

I continued the "early weathering" theme similar to what was done on the tan. Scott Wilson posted some great pics on Chuck's F-4E build that inspired much of the discoloration I have introduced on the wings and beyond (link see bottom of page).

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Notice how the area ahead of the spoilers has a worked-on look--this seems to be somewhat typical for Phantoms. I did this by dry-brushing the touch-up with dark gray, and then lightl sprayed over that with the surrounding green color. This gives this discoloration a more hard-edge look, which is what the effect looks like on the real deal.

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Also notice the "worked on" look of the area behind the intake... another typical "weathering" area on Phantoms.

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:cheers:/>/>

Marcel

Edited by Marcel111
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Really nice build! the paint job is going great! but nothing beats you family! you're a lucky guy indeed!

Don't you thing after the clear cotes the fading is going to fade away? or you're planning on doing it more strong?

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Thanks guys!

Don't you thing after the clear cotes the fading is going to fade away? or you're planning on doing it more strong?

The clear coats don't diminish the effect of the different color shades but the model will look somewhat less patchy after clear coating since as it is right now some colors are more satin while others are flat (Tamiya flat vs. Gunze satin). Washing will also make things flow together more. So in summary yes, the patchyness will likely look just a little diminished but that will be fine with me. Keep in mind that other effects like dry brushing paint-chipped areas and oil stain streaks are yet to come, so the Phantom will look appropriately weathered when complete.

Wow, Nice!!! do you have any tutorials or progress pics of the camo painting? I've been itching to try the same camo.

were u using blue tac?

I still use the technique I first learnt to introduce a soft-edge camo. The blue-tac method is probably simpler but I stick to the below method since I am used to it and can get more or less the exact result I want.

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Cut the camo mask from firm paper and suspend about 1/4 to 1/8" above the surface to be sprayed, then airbrush (suspend with blue tac or rolled Tamiya tape, the latter works better). Make sure the airbrush is spraying away from the mask. Beware of right angles such as fuselarge/wing joins. When doing these, I mask off one of the panels and just paint one of the surfaces. The most important tip is to take your time, do only a few sections at a time.

:cheers:

Marcel

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  • 4 weeks later...

Keep in mind that other effects like dry brushing paint-chipped areas and oil stain streaks are yet to come, so the Phantom will look appropriately weathered when complete.

Marcel

Hi Marcel, looking real good. I am eagerly awaiting to see the results.

Regards

John

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Guy, John, always good to get encouragement from the greats!

I have been travelling in the U.S. for about a month (two weeks work followed by two weeks vacation), hence no progress. I am heading for home today, so things should resume... and with a vengeance, since my familay is only catching up in 2.5 weeks. So the next 2.5 weeks should see some major modelling intensity.

:cheers:

Marcel

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thanks for that lesson on camo painting, will give it a go. i recently bought the tamiya 1/32 scale f4e. I will use this build thread to improve on mine.

thanks again

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Also notice the "worked on" look of the area behind the intake... another typical "weathering" area on Phantoms.

DSC_0637_zpsbca2744c.jpg

DSC_0645_zps3a5dc2ae.jpg

:cheers:/>/>/>/>/>

Marcel

I looked closely but can't figure out what "worked on area behind the intake" you mean. It all looks like normal paint to me. What you may want to do is add the worn paint on top of the left vari-ramp and intake, worn from the boots of maintenance people and air crew getting on and in the airplane from the left side. This was common on USAF Phantoms that hadn't been repainted in awhile and it seems no one ever models it even after I tell them about it. You could be one of the first! A really weathered Phantom without this little detail just isn't right, imho.

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Edited by Scott R Wilson
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F-4Etop150dpi_zps66efbf16.jpg

Anyone else noted the incorrectly colored WSO rear view mirror fairings? That would add a unique touch to a model! Great pictures Scott, thanks for posting these (and all the others).

Marcel, your work is amazing. Fantastic job on the painting.

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Guys, thanks for the encouragement and Scott, those pics are REALLY useful!

Scott, here is what I am talking about with respect to the surface behind the intake... seems to me there is often times substantial touch-up going on here:

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:cheers:/>

Marcel

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