Jump to content

1/32 F-4E Chico the Gunfighter


Recommended Posts

Marcel, your work is inspirational! I can only dream of such skill. Like your theory about doing the fiddly bits first. I absolutely hate doing landing gear, so I'm doing that first is the kit permits from now on. That way i might show it some love and attention. Then weapons, pit etc. Thanks for the idea. Can't wait to see more!

Edited by Crazy Snap Captain
Link to post
Share on other sites

HEy Marcel, I really like what you have done here turning plain resin into something really special and unique. I am not surprised though, as it is what you are so good at doing and why you have been such an inspiration to me as I have returned to the hobby.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Nice looking gun pods Marcel, i don't know if you have seen these:

http://366th-tfw.net/bruce-hill_photos2.htm

scroll down about 1/3 of the way to see a photo of pod #687, i don't know what time frame those pics were taken, perhaps it was redone before or after Chico.

Jari

I'm sure Jari and most others probably already know this, but for those who don't know, the gun pods carried by Chico and any other airplanes for that matter would probably be changed out with replacement gun pods rather frequently. I recall the guns had to be torn down and inspected after firing a certain number of rounds. There is a rounds fired counter on the M61 gun.

The photos you see of course are literally a snapshot in time. The next day the jet might have been carrying one or two completely different pods. Parts were often mis-matched as well, it wouldn't surprise me one bit to see one serial number on the front and a different number on the back. That's why the paint doesn't match between the front and rear of one pod in the reference photos posted here. So if you're modeling Chico and want to use a bit of artistic license with your gun pods, why not? I've even seen a few SUU-23s with little sharkmouths painted on the front, both in photos from various units and one in person when I was in the Texas ANG working on F-4Cs. Sorry to say I didn't get a photo of that one. I don't know if Chico ever carried any pods with sharkmouths, but I'd be pretty certain you'd have to find someone from the weapons shop of the unit Chico flew with to prove you wrong if you chose to paint one gun pod that way.

Scott W.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm sure Jari and most others probably already know this, but for those who don't know, the gun pods carried by Chico and any other airplanes for that matter would probably be changed out with replacement gun pods rather frequently. I recall the guns had to be torn down and inspected after firing a certain number of rounds. There is a rounds fired counter on the M61 gun.

The photos you see of course are literally a snapshot in time. The next day the jet might have been carrying one or two completely different pods. Parts were often mis-matched as well, it wouldn't surprise me one bit to see one serial number on the front and a different number on the back. That's why the paint doesn't match between the front and rear of one pod in the reference photos posted here.

Scott W.

For the CF-104 we'd count the spent rounds as the fell out of the compartment into the empty ammo cans, normally the a/c would go up with 100rd belts so if all you had left was spent rounds then 100rds fired. 350rd belts made it a little harder but we were close enough. Here is a SUU-16 gun pod that shows the difference in colours they could have:

http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/6cafee02dba59242_large

however serial numbers would reflect the actual id of the pod, panels and covers wouldn't matter that much so if a new panel/cover was installed and it had a serial number on it, it would be painted over.

Jari

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

Roberto, thanks for the support. Jari, your insights are very much appreciated.

I have completed the Mk.7 dispensers. The resin replicas coming back from Harold were very nicely done and easy to assemble. The rear, fin assembly is molded seperate to the rest of the unit.

A quick, kinda obvious thing to do when assembling these and other similar resin parts is to drill out at least one of the mating surfaces to ensure a tight fit around the outside, perimeter of the parts:

DSC_0247_zpsdd0ff91c.jpg

Here are the finished parts. Painting takes a bit of effort, there is a bunch of masking involved. Some painting notes:

- I made the yellow bands a fairly orange shade of yellow, this coincides with the band color as seen on pics of Chico.

- I used some leftover, edited decals from the Tamiya F-15E kit. Bad idea, they seem to already be slightly yellowing.

- I used Alclad gun metal to color those dark channel sections. I think these sections are manufatured from Al, however they seem to usually be anodoized to that almost black appearance.

- I gave the units a wash with a light to medium gray (Promodeller "Light" wash with a few drops of black added)

- The final finish was done with a 4:1 mix of Gunze Clear/Gunze Flat varnish (the dark strips were masked)

DSC_0382_zps8a0fea0e.jpg

DSC_0386_zps57792470.jpg

DSC_0387_zps65c7164e.jpg

DSC_0385_zps13e854ca.jpg

DSC_0388_zpsb0b0ead2.jpg

Reminder that these units should be available from AMS at Sprue Bros very soon, if not already.

:cheers:/>/>/>

Marcel

Edited by Marcel111
Link to post
Share on other sites

I sent a bunch to Gordon. I just checked and they are already out of stock...OMG!

I do have warn everyone, I may be a bit slow getting things to Gordon. ...

My oldest daughter had cancer surgery and is in recovery.The prognosis seems good though.

Unfortunately, just as she was coming out, my wife received a call from HER doctor saying that the mammogram she just had came back positive. She will go in on the 20th of next month. Hopefully it won't be cancerous.

My first wife, (my daughters mother) died of cancer when she was 37 years old. So, it is a bit unnerving to say the least.

My thoughts are with you with respect to your wife and daughter, hope all will turn out well.

Marcel

PS Glad that the CBU's are selling...

Edited by Marcel111
Link to post
Share on other sites

My thoughts are with you with respect to your wife and daughter, hope all will turn out well.

Marcel

PS Glad that the CBU's are selling...

Thanks Marcel.

I have to concentrate on getting work done while this is going on. I think I am the one that is going bonkers, my wife and kid at least act like everything is OK.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I sent a bunch to Gordon. I just checked and they are already out of stock...OMG!

I do have warn everyone, I may be a bit slow getting things to Gordon. ...

My oldest daughter had cancer surgery and is in recovery.The prognosis seems good though.

Unfortunately, just as she was coming out, my wife received a call from HER doctor saying that the mammogram she just had came back positive. She will go in on the 20th of next month. Hopefully it won't be cancerous.

My first wife, (my daughters mother) died of cancer when she was 37 years old. So, it is a bit unnerving to say the least.

Hang in there sir! I can't imagine the stress, but you appear to be handling it very well. Good Luck!!

To you and Marcel I can only say WOW! Those Mk 7 Dispensers are fantastic!

Edited by chuck540z3
Link to post
Share on other sites

Hang in there sir! I can't imagine the stress, but you appear to be handling it very well. Good Luck!!

To you and Marcel I can only say WOW! Those Mk 7 Dispensers are fantastic!

Thanks,

but Marcel did 99.99% of the REAL wok on them.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Incredible work Marcel! That resin looks to be top notch.... Guess I'll have to add a Phantom II to my stash as well />

/Jesse

Woah, Jesse, you don't have a Phantom in your stash!? I think it would be a great from Jesse to Jesse Christmas present.

Thanks,

but Marcel did 99.99% of the REAL wok on them.

Thanks Harold, but without your 0.001% this build would not be possible :thumbsup:/>

Here is how the TERs are coming along. I added cables and associated connectors. I also drilled holes into the sway braces so that I can fit little bolts into these. The bolts are from Scale Hardware and are little gems, they are threaded and just add that bit of extra to the whole affair. The little "feet" at the sway brace/CBU interface are tiny washers, also from Scale Hardware.

This will be the port TER. The Lock-On F-4E book has some nice TER pics. The cables seem to be of a different color on each TER, one TER has yellow cables, the next orange, and the MER shown has black cables. To spice things up, I thus made this particular TER have orange cables. I toned the orange down a little with light brown. I also added those little arrows towards the front of the TERs, they seem to have often been personalized.

DSC_02582_zpsfeaf99be.jpg

This is the starboard TER, with one M.7 already attached. The head-on view of Chico shown previously shows this TER to be yellow-tipped, so that is what I did here. In this case I kep the cables black. Also note that I made the yellow very slihtly greenish so that it doesn't end up being the same shade of yellow used elsewhere on the model.

DSC_02543_zpsa044c3e8.jpg

DSC_02612_zps319cf6e9.jpg

DSC_02602_zps91c3ecb5.jpg

:cheers:/>

Marcel

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks guys, your encouragement really is motivating!

Here is a minor update. Chico apparantly carried two back-mounted Sparrows. Pics show the 366TH to have used the AIM-7E2 during the time of Chico. Fortunately, Two Bobs makes a very nice decal sheet that enables replication of the E2 version (the black bars on the front wings).

Here is what my first Sparrow looks like. As with the Mk.7's, a light gray wash was used.

DSC_02622_zps0c18a71c.jpg

Thanks for looking,

Marcel

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...