F-4C Black Stripes

Konrad -
Hi Donald I've take seat. Watching your Danag Bird too looks very cool. Building currently the same. Have fun cheers 🙂

Donald Dickson II
Thank you Konrad. It will be a couple weeks before I get on this one. Looking forward to it as the Monogram kit is fairly simple.

Donald Dickson II
So, while I am between things on the Bone, I have started this one. I had to hack up the cock pit tub as it has a molded in seat bottom. Decent detail, but not as good as the Eduard Brassin offering I have. A lot carving and sanding. I will have to get a pic before I put the seats in. In reference pics I noticed that the radar (I am presuming its radar or the like) screens in the pics all are an orange red, NOT green. So i went that way with them.

Konrad -
Looks good so far. Which marking have you chosen for this one? The one on pic. 1?

Donald Dickson II
Konrad, that is correct. I have seen people do the red stripes many times. Figured I would go the other route.

i am also going to do her right out of the paint shop. Absolutely minimal weathering. No fading.

Martin Oostrom
Two Phantom or not to Phantom? That's no question!
Where are Patrick and Spanjaard?

Donald Dickson II
LOL I am sure they will meander around soon.😉

Spanjaard
ha ha ha, here i am. mine is close to completion and i must say, that although i love it, after two in a row and about 8 months each, I will be happy to do something else than phantoms 🙂
well, i still have a finished cockpit that does not have a Phantom to be added to 😛

Eugen P.
Looks very good!

Donald Dickson II
Spanjaard, I knew you would be around. LOL And you do have a good chunk of work already done having done dueling cock pits. Grab another out of your stash (because I just KNOW you have have at leas tas many as I do sitting on the shelf) and do it as a side project ot your other. 😄

Eugen, thank you.

Spanjaard
ha ha ha, nice idea Donald, but, sorry to dissapoint you, the only F-4 sitting in stash today, almost fit inside of that cockpit! Trumpeter 1/350! so no Phantom in sight to place that finished cockpit.
I have a pretty old monogram back at my parents, that could use a restoration job, and a new cockpit. But i will spare myself the pain of removing the paint out of it... you can see it in my "hall of shame" album.
I need to seriously reduce my stash before i even think about any more F-4s (although that ZM is a veeeeery tempting one!)

Konrad -
Yeah Donald absolutely great choice. This one will be very nice one. Are the decals included in the kit already or are they aftermarket? I cant find them🙂.

Tim Heimer
I didn't know phantoms had invasion stripes!? LOL You do get tired of seeing only the red.

Donald Dickson II
Spanjaard, I have like 5 or 6 sitting on the shelf. From the 1/32 Tamiya to a couple 1/72 Hasegawas. 😄

Konrad, in the kit. The newest reboxing of the old Monogram kit.

Timothy, that was kind of my thought! LOL A Phantom with invasion stripes. LOL

Donald Dickson II
So in between putty and sand sessions with the bone, a little more cockpit work done. Like I said, I had to gouge out a large portion to remove the molded in seat bottom. The Eduard stuff fits. Tightly.

Konrad -
Thank you! Keep on going looks great so far

David Thor
Very cool subject, taking a seat.

Donald Dickson II
Did some more work on the bang seats between Bone intake sessions. Was making good progress when I spilled a bottle of CA accelerator all over everything. After cleaning up I had to walk away from the bench. I was a tad pissed AND I hate the smell of that stuff.

Spanjaard, I posted a pic of my Phantoms. Are you sure you dont have a stash of them?😉 LOL

And no, the 15 and 86 are NOT my other two favorite planes. Not at all. 😄

Spanjaard
ha ha ha, thank god they are not your favorites, you only have 5 of each 🙂. no, i will not get more F-4s for the time being (i hope not to see Z-M in Utrech next saturday). Pity for that cockpit, but it will not be used, for a veeeeeeery long time (besides, the Z-M probably does not need it, so i would be back int he same situation). since i can not reduce my stash by building faster, at least, i have to try not to increase it. Well .....the Ohka i got yesterday...... does not count....eeer, it is too small 😛 😄

Donald Dickson II
Got the back seat done. Working on the pilots seat now.

Donald Dickson II
Got the cockpit finished and the fuselage and wings together. Time do some seam work.

Spanjaard
very nice pit, but... are the remove before flight not a bit too big?

Donald Dickson II
They are 1/48. They do seem large though. Maybe some 1/72 would be better for the cockpit

David Thor
The cockpit looks awesome. But as Spanjaard said, the rbf things look to big.

Donald Dickson II
You ever do something and then look at it saying to yourself, it looks good, but something is wrong? yeah, that was me until you guys pointed this out. The RBF tags I have are the ones for the missiles and what not, NOT the cockpit ones, which are indeed smaller. Thanks for pointing that out guys. I found a couple in a cockpit set for an RAF Phantom that I will scavenge.

Nikolaos Kouzinis
Nice job Donald

Spanjaard
glad to help 🙂

Clifford Keesler
Looking good Donald. I have a boatload of that kit, and of all the ones I have built I have never done the striped color scheme. LOL.

Donald Dickson II
So this one is trash now. The cockpit was in wrong and after taking it apart and 2 hours of trying to get it to fit correctly, it got slam dunked into the trash can.

Spanjaard
really sorry to hear that.

Clifford Keesler
Sorry to hear that Donald, but at 18.00 dollars not a major loss, at least it wasn't a 75.00 or 100.00 kit.

Konrad -
Sorry to hear that.

Donald Dickson II
Now here's the interesting part. I had another of this kit only a much earlier release. I grab that and it's the exact same cockpit but fits perfectly. So I don't know if the molds are just that out of whack this many years later or what. But I'm just going to go with the kit cockpit and ad some details to it and leave it at that. And use the decals from the newer kit.

Donald Dickson II
Clifford, if it had been that expensive of a kit and had these issues I would have been extremely ticked off.

Tim Heimer
Bummer Don! You gotta hate when it pushes you to that point! I still remember a car at the drag strip named ( TIME , Money and aggravation) Being a mechanic myself I had to laugh.

Donald Dickson II
LOL that is only the third time in like 40 years that has happened. I will get back on it with the older kit tomorrow probably.

Donald Dickson II
Alrighty then. So, I jumped back in the saddle here with the kit from the original run in 79, back when the molds were brand spanking new. The kit had been kept well all that time so nothing warped. And amazingly enough, the fit was much better! Still needed some putty, but not as much as the new boxing. I think they have gotten everything they really can out of those molds. Time for a new tool Revell.

Anyway, I went with a mostly OOB approach this time. Only a couple PE pieces on the seats. Also used a darker grey in the cockpit. It came out rather nicely I think. Once I sand off the little bit of excess putty, the canopies will be masked and tacked in place.

Spanjaard
well done Donald. it will be a very nice Phantom, i am sure about it.

Clifford Keesler
Looking very nice.

Donald Dickson II
Thanks guys. Now the pressure is on. Spanjaard, master of Phantoms, has said it will be good. So it must!😉

Martin Oostrom
You can use a bit of confidence. I say, Lady Luck smile on DD2!

Donald Dickson II
So, as we were talking about rescribing on Martins build thread, I figured I would take pics of how I do it. I lost some of the panel lines on the top of the fuselage. What I do is take Dymo tape (the stuff used in the old label makers), peel off the backing and stick it as a straight edge where the line needs to be done. You can then just run your scriber along the edge, and as long as you have it lined up right, you will have a straight panel line.

I find that I can get two, maybe three lines out of each piece of tape before the stickiness is not enough to hold it down. Obviously this pretty much only works where you have a straight line and you dont have to mess with too much of a curve.

Martin Oostrom
I can get a straight line. What I find annoying is that my scribed lines NEVER match the originals in shape, depth, angle etc...
Thanks for the tip anyway 👍

Donald Dickson II
Yes, that is definitely annoying. Another reason I dont like doing it. LOL

Clifford Keesler
I got the RF-4E all rescribed today and started the pit. I use dymo tape also, plus a straight edge, and I found a flexiable bendable thin ruler at hobby lobby, and I can lay it across panel lines like on the top of the fuselage, and it conforms to the cross section and I just run my scriber along it.

Donald Dickson II
Oooo, I will have to see if I can find that ruler as well.

Spanjaard
i have an old set from Verlinden,
scalemates.com/kits/188909-v..late-for-1-48-scale-projects
but there is quite a few very similar in the market
SCM Search: scribing
or simply
SCM Search: scribing template

Clifford Keesler
I need to get a metal scribing set. Mine are plastic.

Donald Dickson II
ooo, now that would be great for circles. Which I tend to not even try. LOL

Donald Dickson II
Finally got some work done on this baby. Underside painted, brown on and wing tips painted white.

Clifford Keesler
Looking good. My RF-4C is almost finished.

Donald Dickson II
I saw that Cliff. You got that done a lot faster than I am this one. LOL

Stephan Ryll
This bird is looking quite nice Donald 👍

Patrick Hagelstein
Darn! Even with those big black and white stripes on it, I seem to have missed this one... Looking really good Donald!

Donald Dickson II
Thanks Stephen. 🙂

Patrick, I have been lax on working on this one. Not many updates of late.

Patrick Hagelstein
I know the situation... I'm replying a lot over here but hardly ever find time to actually build something. My F-16 is covered in dust already...

Konrad -
Patrick you always can say it is a very special kind of weathering technics. 🙂 👍

Donald your build looks very nice so far can't wait to see it finished 👍

Donald Dickson II
Thank you Konrad. 🙂

Patrick Hagelstein
😉 I'll keep that in mind Konrad.

Donald Dickson II
OK, got the main painting done and went ahead and put the top side stripes on. Have to wait until tomorrow and let the decals settles in all the way from the solva set. Trim excess and the like then.

Michael Phillips
This is really looking good Donald! Those black and white stripes sure are not subtle. 🙂

Tim Heimer
Looking Good!

Stephan Ryll
very nice strips on that Spook Donald - i like it 👍

Clifford Keesler
Looking very nice. Revell finally didcontinued this kit. Wonder if we will get a new tool one from them or a new decal option of the old kit.

David Thor
Looking good!

Donald Dickson II
Thank you for the kind words gentlemen. 🙂

And yes, those stripes ARE pretty bold. As I said, I decided on the black ones as they resemble invasion stripes.Plus everyone does the red ones. LOL

Clifford, did they? This was the most current boxing of this kit. I sincerely hope they do a new tooling. I would be all over that in a heartbeat.

Clifford Keesler
Yea me too. But luckly I have a closet full of the old ones.

Clifford Keesler
If they can give us a new tool 1/32 P-51D for 23.00 dollars they should be able to give us a new tool 1/48 F-4 at a reasonable price. They have done a couple of new tool 1/72 F-4's I believe.

Soeren R.
Which is also over 20 years old now😉 Their "new" tool 1/72 F-4 is from '97.
And regarding the F-4, I think we already have some nice kits.
Sure all of them have their flaws, but that would be the same with Revell😉 (especially if I look at their upcoming F/A-18 )
The next company I can think of, which will upscale their F-4 is Airfix.

Clifford Keesler
That would be nice, as their FG2 looks very nice, so a 1/48 version of that would be very nice. I think the Academy F-4 is probally the second best on the market, the Zukeoi-Maura kit being the best. The Hasegawa ones are starting to become a little hard to find, except for the "G" and "J".

Donald Dickson II
I perused the ZM kit. It did not strike me as significantly better than the Academy.

Clifford Keesler
It sure is expensive, I will say that for it. I like the Academy kits, especially the one piece upper fuselage.

Donald Dickson II
It is and that's why I haven't bought one. I can get one of the Eduard Da Nang boxing's of the Academy for less. And the Tamiya 1/32 Phantom has that one piece upper as well. That needs to be like a standard no matter who makes it.

Patrick Hagelstein
True...

Clifford Keesler
I agree. The AMK F-14 looks like it is going to be nice, and much cheaper than the Tamiya or Hobby Boss.

Donald Dickson II
*LOOOOOOOONG sigh* OK, so the decal suck. I mean badly. The white stripes are virtually see through once dry. So I stripped them off, painted white in that area and put the red stripes on. Wellllll, they wrinkled up and would not settle out. I also discovered that the exhausts on this kit have NO detail at all inside. Just a blank tube. So I need to get some resin ones for the Hasegawa kit and see if they will work on this one. They should. If not, I do have at least one Hasegawa F-4 I can use them on.

So I am setting this aside for now. There is a big show here on the 21st of April. I am going to try to get my 1/32 F-18 done by then to show it. So I will be concentrating solely on that. I will get back to this frustrating bit of plastic after that.

Tim Heimer
Bummer on the F4! But It will be interesting, a F-18 1/32!

Clifford Keesler
I got a set of Resin flame holders from Spruebrothers for that kit. I can't remember who makes them, but I will find out and let you know. Good luck on the F-18.

Clifford Keesler
Donald, the flame holders are made by Steel Beach Accessories.

Donald Dickson II
That might be a better option. Thanks Clifford!

Donald Dickson II
Argh. OOP and off the site

Clifford Keesler
That is a bummer.

Patrick Hagelstein
What stripes are you talking about anyway? I mean the stripes across the back look really solid to me...

Donald Dickson II
I took that pic before they completely dried and set. You could clearly see the camo pattern a d colors through the white.

Stephan Ryll
Oh what a pitty Donald , may you can try to repaint the white areas 🤔

Patrick Hagelstein
Bummer....

Donald Dickson II
Stephen, I tried that. Then reapplied the red stripes. They would not smooth out. This just is one of those that I need to set aside and come back to. I have markings for another F-4 left over from the Good Evening Da Nang boxing. I will just do those.

Stephan Ryll
Keep calm, take your time 🙂 it will turn out good Donald, I'm shure 👍

Peter Hardy
Don, you say they are black stripes, I say they are white stripes. All a matter of perspective. I have enjoyed going back over this build this Saturday morning, waiting for Mrs Hardy to wake up. Might even spend a bit of time on your wall too. Thanks for displaying the build. Very enjoyable!

Donald Dickson II
Peter, good point! LOL Regardless, the white portion, be they stripes or no, is not much more than gauze when it comes to opacity. 🙁 And feel free to peruse away! 🙂

Clifford Keesler
Bummer.