Zoukei Mura 1/48 F-4E Viper killer!

[Drew T.]

Thanks for the nice words guys! 

 

Time for another update. The decals for the tiger head shows the colors as orange and gray, but all the reference photos I have found seem to show the tiger head as orange and white, at least to my eye.  Since I like doing things the hard way, I decided to paint on my own tiger head using my Silhouette cutter. To do this, I imported an image of the decal of the tiger head into the cutter software and created a separate pattern for the white and orange sections, as well as the black stripes.  I then applied the stripe mask first and used a pen to ink out the location of the stripes.  I also traced around the outside edge of the head to help place the following masks.

 

 

I then applied the mask for the white section and painted the whole tiger head area white.  The white will help the orange paint cover the dark green camo.  I only used the mask for the front edge of the head, as my reference photos shows a soft demarcation on the back side of the pattern.  I sprayed this area by hand using the inked in stripes as a guide.

 

 

I then applied the stripe mask again to re-ink the stripes to use as a guide for the orange paint.

 

 

I applied the orange mask and painted, again spraying the back section by hand using the stripes as a guide.  I think tiger heads on the real jets were sprayed at least partly freehand, as each one looks slightly different from plane to plane.  I used a yellow marker to apply a small yellow dot for the tiger eye.

 

 

Next, I applied the stripe mask one more time, using black paint to paint the stripes and outline. 

 

 

The cutter is not precise enough to cut the lines around the eyes, so I had to draw these in by hand with a 0.03mm Copic marker.  This was probably the most tedious part of the process, but it’s easy to wipe off the ink if I make a mistake.  Small corrections can also be made with a sharp toothpick.

 

 

After all that was complete, I applied a coat of GX112 Mr Color clear gloss to protect the inks from smearing.

 

I then used masks I created to paint the tail codes and star and bar insignias.  Vallejo Ice Yellow was used to replicate the exposed primer from paint chipping on the wing leading edges.  Silver enamel was used for chipping around the intakes, windscreen, and refueling receptacle. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The walkways on the wings and fuselage seem to vary from plane to plane.  Some Phantoms don’t seem to have the walkway areas marked off, some have them marked off in a black anti-skid coating, and some have them marked off with a black border with the surface receiving a clear anti-skid coating that “tints” the underlying paint.  From what I could tell from my reference phots, the jet I’m depicting had the third style.  I masked off and painted the black border and used a highly thinned black paint mixture to replicate the darker paint of the walkway.  I didn’t bother to try to add a rough texture for the anti-skid surface, as I figured it would be almost imperceptible in scale. 

 

 

To replicate the worn off paint around the gun muzzle, I sprayed Alclad steel and used Tamiya rubbing compound to wear down the edges of the spray pattern of the Alclad.  I then followed up with picking along the edge of the Alclad with a sharpened toothpick to make the paint look chipped at the edges.

 

 

I’m getting close to the finish line now.  Next step is decaling and weathering.  Thanks for looking!

 

Drew

Edited September 19, 2024 by Drew T.

[RichB63]

Hard way perhaps, but you can’t argue the results! Looks great!

 

Rich

 

Edited September 22, 2024 by RichB63

[A-10 LOADER]

Wow Drew, fantastic update !! Looks awesome man. Now if you'll excuse me I'm gonna go throw all my modeling stuff in the trash, maybe I'll take up training flees ?

 

Steve

[Thadeus]

Wow. Very nice work. Love the paintjob. That tiger is quite impressive. And the chipping makes this darker scheme pop. Nice.

[Drew T.]

Thanks for the kind words guys!  

[my favs are F`s]

Yeah, this thing is almost mental! Amazing! 

[Scooby]

Wow, I’m speechless, what an awesome build. I don’t think I’ve seen a nicer build.

[Drew T.]

Again, thanks so much guys!

 

Time for a quick update.  I’ve spent the last week or two on decals.  With my previous builds, I would just apply the decals directly over the paint, without any underlying gloss coat.  Some people swear that a gloss coat is needed to prevent slivering, but I haven’t really noticed more slivering with or without a gloss coat.  However, what I have noticed is that some decal solvents, particularly Solvaset, can alter the color of certain colors of Mr. Color Lacquers.  Also, I have also noticed that the paint under the decal film can also take on a slightly different shade from the surrounding paint.  This can sometimes give the false appearance of the decal silvering.  A couple of Youtube videos have covered this topic and it seems like the general solution is to apply a clear coat before applying decals.  So for this model, I applied a coat of Gunze GX112 to help prevent these issues. 

 

[Drew T.]

 

 

 

 

 

[Drew T.]

 

All the decals went on great, with some taking one or two applications of Solvaset to get them to fully settle.   Once they were on, I decided to try another trick to make the decal film disappear.  Even if there is no decal silvering and it settles down into the underlying surface, the thickness of the film is still visible at the edges of the decal.  To make this disappear, I sprayed a clear gloss over the decal, spraying it especially thick around the edges of the decal film.  Then, I sanded down the clear coat at the edges of the decal with very fine grit sandpaper (2000 grit or higher), until the edge of the film disappears.  A final coat of clear is then sprayed to blend everything in.  This technique works well, but you must make sure there is a thick enough coat of clear over the decal, because if you sand through the clear, the decal can be instantly destroyed.  It’s also a time intensive process that is well worth it if the subject has a gloss finish, like a car or civilian plane, but I’m not sure if I’ll go through the trouble again if the final coat is dull, as most of my models have. 

 

Overall, this is the closest I have ever come to making the decals look painted on so I’m definitely happy with the result.  On to weathering and final assembly.  Thanks for looking! 

[A-10 LOADER]

She's looking awesome Drew.

Steve

[RichB63]

Looking great! Thanks for the decal tip too.

 

Rich

[Drew T.]

Thanks Steve and Rich!

[B-ONE27]

Drew,

You're doing a kick a#% job on your F-4E from my home state! I remember seeing these birds flying over my house back in the day. Can't wait to see her all finished up. I fancied to build a 141st TFW Phantom myself but I missed out on the first iteration of Speedhunter 'Gunfighters Phantoms' sheet your using and now it looks like the second promised "Gunfighters Phantoms' sheet from Speedhunter won't happen with the close, well, such is life.
 

[Drew T.]

Thanks B-ONE27!  I snagged my decal sheet from Ebay after it was out of print a few years ago.  It’s probably harder to find now, but it might pop up on Ebay again sometime.  Ultracast also has it if you want to pay $100 for it.

 

https://www.ultracast.ca/Speed-Hunter-48011-USAF-Gunfighter-Phantoms-p/shg_48011.htm

 

I thought I would post a few photos, since this will probably be my last update before I finish this one.   After spraying the clear gloss for the decals, I noticed that the Tamiya Smoke I had sprayed previously to simulate fluid leaks had diminished in appearance, so I decided to go back and respray the Smoke.  In the future, I’ll have to wait until just before spraying the final clear flat coat to spray the Smoke.  I used a panel line wash of Tamiya black enamel accent color over the gray areas and Ammo PLW Black Night wash over the green areas.  I used silver oil paint to pick out a few fasteners on the tops of the wings where the paint wears off the top of the fasteners.

 

 

 

 

 

Next, I used black oil paint for streaking on the bottom as well as dirtying up the bottom of the centerline drop tank.

 

 

 

 

 

Another bit of weathering I wanted to show are boot marks from ground personnel sliding off the edges of the intakes onto the wings.  I simulated this by using a small brush with black oil paint to make faint black marks.  I tried to keep this light, as it’s not visible in all reference photos.

 

 

With the weathering complete, I applied a coat of Gunze GX113 thinned with Rapid Thinner.   I should have this project finished for the last update.  Thanks for looking!

 

Drew

[A-10 LOADER]

Very, very nice work Drew, really looking forward to the final pics.

Steve

[B-ONE27]

...can't wait to see the final product!

[Mr.Happy]

So cool. It gets better and better every time I get your updates.

 

Amazing job.

 

Mr. Happy

 

[Dutch]

Drew, Wow!  Stunning work in painting the tiger head on the nose.  Just beautiful!  Kind regards, Dutch

[Drew T.]

Thanks guys!  Below is the link to the completed project post.

 

 

[Janissary]

This was a fabulous build, thank you for sharing the progress pics in this much detail. One question: What tool(s) do you use to carve out plastic around small areas? The A/C intakes and the fuel dump vents you deepened look especially tough to do. I'd guess you can't really 'scrape' any plastic with a blade, so I am thinking something like a drill bit but how do you keep that in the middle without having it slide to the edge and destroying the thin edge? 

 

On 6/3/2024 at 11:56 AM, Drew T. said:

I opened up the exhaust vents to add some realism in this area.

 

 

I enlarged the openings of the RAM air intakes on the sides of the nose.

 

 

I opened up the fuel tank vents at the trailing edges of the wings.

 

 

[Major Walt]

Beautiful work!

[Drew T.]

Thanks Janissary and Walt!  To answer your question Janissary, usually, the way I open up the areas you're talking about is to first drill out a couple of holes with a small drill bit.  But before I start drilling, I first use a sharp pin in my pin vice to make a starter hole.  That keeps the drill bit from wondering.  After I make 2 or 3 holes, I use a #11 exacto blade to carve out the rest of the material.  It's best to not use a fresh blade for this since the tip will probably break doing this kind of work.

 

Hope this helps and Merry Christmas!

 

Drew