With the completion of the cockpit, next up was the nose gear bay. Like the cockpit, the gear bay was really lacking detail and not up to a modern standard. There was also the fact that there were several prominent sink marks that were unfixable without removing the molded detail. As such, I broke the chisel out and completely removed it all. I can’t lie, this was fairly nerve wracking as I wasn’t sure if I could pull off scratchbuilding something as complex as a gear bay. After a trip to my LHS, I was well armed with small pieces of styrene and got to work replacing the detail that I had hacked away.
I started with replacing the substantial bracing structures with styrene replacements along with a brass tube to depict an actuator arm. After getting these initial pieces into place I was pretty confident that the end result would look acceptable and was pretty happy with these initial results. I was however, confronted with another problem that needed to be solved; the main gear strut. With the way I wanted to attach the brass actuator arm, it would require being fed through the main gear strut. The problem? The arm would then block the strut from being put in place later on in the build. I wanted to keep the strut off the built until later on in the painting and weathering phase as it being glued in place would interfere with the masking and painting of the gear bay. To solve this problem, I opted to cut the strut after gluing the lower section in place. I was sure to add a metal rod to help with the alignment down the line.
Next up was the camera bay. With this being a RF-4E variant, I wanted to do the extra work and open up the camera bay so that all the cameras would be visible. This required some additional scratchbuilding as the kit does not allow the bay to be opened out of the box. I started by adding some structural bracing to the interior of the bay along with the various computers that are stored in the nose. I also did some work to the cameras themselves and hollowed out the lenses to depict a more concave shape that you would see in an actual camera lens.
With the bay being posed open I really wanted the camera equipment to be well detailed. To make sure they were, I utilized lots of placard decals to make them look the part. I was particularly happy with how the lenses turned out as I used circular decals to depict different components of the lens. I also added some clear green and clear blue as it was clear from reference photos that the lenses had colour coatings when they hit the light right. With the completion of the camera bay it was time to seal up the fuselage!
Hello all! I have to admit that it’s been a while since my last post here. For those who are checking in regularly, rest assured that the year will be closed out with regular updates and new projects into the new year. Here’s how the JASDF RF-4E has progressed!
When I left off on this project, work on the cockpit was in full swing. After applying a gloss coat I was able to add the decals for the side consoles and instrument panels. I find that this step is the first that really adds life to the model and although time consuming, is really worth it. The specific decals added here are from two companies, Anyz and Jira-Gio, both of which I am a huge fan of. I will have to make my remaining sheets from Jira-Gio last however as the owner has recently stepped away from the business and it’s not clear if anyone will be stepping in to take over that role.
After completing the majority of work to do on the cockpit tub, I turned my attention to the instrument panels. As detailed in the previous section, I opted to completely remove the detail from the panels and replace it with my own custom made instruments. While it was a bit nerve wracking to take knife to plastic I was pleasantly surprised with how these turned out.
I built these instruments out with thin styrene sheet, instrument dial decals, and photo etched instrument bezels from Airscale. My typical workflow for creating them is as follows:
Apply instrument decal to thin styrene sheet
remove and paint instrument bezel separately
glue painted bezel in position on top of decal
add drop of clear varnish to simulate instrument glass
cut out completed assembly and apply to model
The workflow for the scopes were slightly different and I utilized photography film along with holographic film to create a highly reflective surface, mimicking a screen. To do this I cut out a section of photo film and applied the holographic film from amazon over top of it. I then painted over everything with Tamiya clear paint (I made separate pieces for red, green, and blue tinting). I added the photo-etched instrument parts from Airscale as per the previous instructions which completed the assembly. I really think they turned out amazing and look fantastic when the light hits them just right.
With the cockpit more or less complete, I then started work on the ejection seats. While I always leave the seats out until the end of the build, I always like building and painting them up before the cockpit is cemented into the fuselage. For this project I tried out Master Craft Collection’s fantastic 3d printed ejection seats for the F-4.
After removing them from their supports, I applied a primer coat of Mr. Surfacer 1500 black as a base for further work. These seats were a real test of my brush painting ability as they almost entirely had to be brush painted. One downside of these 3d printed seats is that there’s no opportunity to paint the various parts of the seat separately, everything is attached in one part. After priming, I got to work painting the various seat sections and cabling. From my reference photos I could tell that the seat padding was primarily green/brown colours and that the upper section was typically grey. I finished off the belt buckles in silver and applied a gloss coat for decals, of which there were several that needed to be applied. With the decals in place, I then sprayed a matte coat over the completed work in preparation for the next stage of weathering, oils. I chose to avoid relying on an oil wash as my primary method of weathering for the seats. While I did still apply a light pinwash in select areas (namely the belts), this was done to support the more general oil effects I applied to depict the discolouration and staining of the seats and fabric materials.
Also of note on the seats was the yellow and black hatching on the various ejection handles. While the handle on the right of the seat was acomplished with Anyz black hatching decals, the work on the handles above the pilot’s head took a lot more work to “pull” off. After painting these separate parts yellow, I wrapped Anyz black line decals around the loops to create a convincing look. This took some practice to get right and I’m glad I did, the final result is much more realistic than painting black lines on these handles.
And with the completion of the seats, that was it for the cockpit on this Phantom! After spending quite a bit of time in this area, I was ready to move on to other areas of the build.
After completing the necessary work on the fuselage, I could turn my attention to the cockpit assembly. The OOB Hasegawa kit has very nice detail, however I would be replacing the majority of it with custom work.
To start, I began removing virtually all the molded on detail present so that I could drill out 0.4 mm holes for the Anyz switches and dials. I used these on my CF-18 Hornet I completed two years ago and was fairly happy with the result. Looking back now however, I felt that I didn’t commit enough to this strategy and did not drill enough holes to get a realistic cockpit.
I also opted to remove the molded on detail from two of the included cockpit panels. The kit includes a total of 4 instrument panels, 2 for the RF-4E and 2 for a different phantom variant. I opted to use the panels for the different variant as it would allow me to revert back to the other pair if this process didn’t work out. Removing the molded on details from the panel was fairly straightforward although some modification was necessary. For the front seat I needed to adjust the shape of the lower panel right behind the control stick. The styrene piece is very triangular and the correct shape is more square. From my reference photos I could also tell that that it is angled back slightly and to represent this I glued a small piece of styrene to get the correct angle. I liked the breaker panel detail so I opted to leave it intact.
Work on the rear seat panel was a bit more involved. To start, the part I wanted to use was not shaped correctly for a RF-4E (rightly I’ll add). It included cutouts above the pilot’s legs which would need to be filled. To do this, I cut out a piece of styrene sheet that would fill this space. I then used sprue goo to cement this piece in place on the back side of the panel. This created a very somewhat rough surface on the face of the panel. I then went back over the area with Tamiya putty to create a uniformly smooth surface, ready for detailing.
I then got to work making the various details for the cockpit. The idea was that I will paint the instrument panels in the appropriate gull grey while these additional details will be painted black, removing any need for masking during the painting process.
Next up was to move on to the cockpit tub and sidewalls. While the Hasegawa kit is fairly light on the details, this means it’s relatively easy to remove the existing plastic in preparation of adding custom work.
I started with the cockpit bulkheads. Reference photos showed that these areas were really quite busy with wiring and hoses and I wanted to replicate this madness. The first thing I added was some styrene sheet along with Anyz rivets as all subsequent wiring would rest over top these details.
For the rest of the added detail I used a mix of brass tubing, lead and copper wire along with Anyz 3d printed connectors. I think that I achieved my goal of having the area look busy why not being completely unwieldy during the painting and weathering phase.
Like the bulkheads, the cockpit sidewalls needed some serious work to be presentable. While 3 out of 4 of the sidewalls have at least a minimal amount of detail, the right side of the rear cockpit is missing any molded on detail at all. This does present a nice opportunity however to add whatever kind of features I wanted. To start I added some styrene rod bracing to bring out some structural elements.
Next, I wanted to try to add some padded insulation material to the cockpit to help depict some interesting textures. I did this with Tamiya epoxy putty which I rolled out into very thin slices before applying it to the model. After a few minutes I then started to sculpt the putty and added creases near the edges. This technique went surprisingly well and I can’t wait to get a wash on the painted cockpit.
Painting of the cockpit predictably started with Mr. Surfacer 1500 Black followed by Tamiya XF-19 Sky grey. While not an exact match to the interior colour of a F-4 Phantom, this shade is close enough and was what I had on hand.
After the grey base colour had cured, I masked off the side consoles to airbrush them black. From reference photos I could tell that some of the switches and dials were gloss black which I wanted to replicate, even at the cost of being less visually striking. To compensate I painted these side panels in a dark grey. When next to the light grey they will appear black, but the gloss black switches should stand out at bit more. I also took this time to paint up the various wires and cables present on the rear bulkheads, painting them in a variety of black, white, and metallic colours.
Next up was work on the sidewalls, and I was pretty happy with how my scratchbuilt work had turned out. The padded material looked quite realistic and after picking out the necessary details, this area of the build was looking particularly sharp. I also took the time to complete some chipping effects to depict wear and tear on the cockpit area as these were old birds and saw a lot of flight hours. That said I do think I could have been a bit more reserved with the weathering but I think that as long as the wash and oil work is more muted, the end result will look appropriate.
This is where I’ll leave it for this update, even though this kit has been pretty sparse on the detail in areas, I really feel that adding the detail in myself has added to the enjoyment and not decreased it. We’ll see if this sentiment still rings true in a few months!
For my next project I wanted to really sink my teeth into one of my most ambitious projects so far, a JASDF RF-4E Phantom II! This build was inspired by the beautiful sea blue phantoms flown by the JASDF up until 2020 when they were retired. For this build I picked the Hasegawa kit as it was the option that the DXM Decal set indicated as suitable.
The Hasegawa kit is lacking in a lot of areas and as such I knew that I wanted to incorporate a significant amount of aftermarket accessories in the build. Aftermarket only gets you so far however and considering that this kit was a 2003 release, it’s safe to say a lot of elbow grease was going to go into this build. Of particular note is the presence of very little riveting details in the Hasegawa plastic. Over 90% of the main surface parts do not have any rivet details, only panel lines. I was not happy with this at all and significant rivet work would be required for this build.
Before I could get started on any kind of assembly, some corrective work was required. There are various parts that need to be removed to depict an accurate RF-4E and several panel lines that need to be filled. The air to air refuelling probe door needs to be deleted along with several other panels molded into the plastic.
To fill in details I used sprue goo, primarily due to the fact that it would be likely that I’d be riveting or scribing over the filled lines. I’ve had bad experiences in the past with putty not taking rivets well and using sprue goo solves this issue, it’s a dream to add missing detail back into.
I then had to remove some other details, namely two large nubs on the upper surfaces of the wings. These were quite a bit of pain to remove as it was hard to remove them with a saw or clippers and quite a bit of material needed to be sanded away. I started out with 120 grit sandpaper and taped away perimeter to prevent loss of detail during the sanding process.
With the required lines patched and the additional details removed, I could now start the first main phase of the build, riveting. As I said before, the OOB kit came with virtually no rivet detail which for me just wouldn’t work. I knew out the gate that achieving a 1:1 representation of the Phantom’s rivets would be overly time consuming and probably not look great so I opted instead to simplify areas where the pattern was too complex.
I started work on the underside of the wing, namely because it would allow me to get in a groove while not being overly visible. Right off the bat, I needed a way to ensure that columns of rivets were the equal distance from one another while being perpendicular to the trailing edge of the flaps. To achieve this I would lay down a piece of 3mm Tamiya flexible tape as parallel as possible to the previous column of rivets. I then made two spacing dots with a pencil to ensure that the next row was the correct distance from the previous one.
After the spacing dots had been completed, I then used a small modelling T-Square to mark out the actual guide lines for the rivets. I was able to brace the upper part of the square against the edge of the model which created a nice 90 degree angle for the lower portion. This method ensured that the rivets were equal distance from one another and perpendicular to the trailing edge of the wing.
For the rest of the rivets, I largely worked on the lower and rear surfaces first and slowly worked my way further up and forward on the fuselage. A particularly time consuming section was the wing root of the upper fuselage. The Phantom has a LOT of access panels and rivets in this area and it was a bear to complete. In the end however, I’m very glad I did as the added detail looks like it’ll stand out quite nicely under a wash.
That’ll be all for now, next up work starts on the cockpit!
After completing the markings for the 109, the next phase of the build was the main weathering process. After sealing the model in a coat of GX100 gloss varnish, I got to work with a dark oil wash.
While the model was very glossy and smooth, I took the time to get some oil streaking effects done, again with oil paints. It had been some time since I had worked with oils and it was nice to return to the medium. I paid particular attention to the underside of the aircraft as this would where the heaviest streaking effects would concentrate.
After completing the oil streaks, I decided that I still wanted some further dirt and grime elements. I then sealed the model in a new product I’ve been trying out, Mr. Topcoat Premium Flat. This is an acrylic spray varnish and I’ve been really liking how nicely this entire line lays down on the model. After the Flat coat was applied, I could get to work on adding some various grime effects around the model.
With these darker grime shades completed, I then added some lighter dust effects on the lower surface of the model to simulate dirt being kicked up during landing and takeoff. With this effect complete I brought the various subassemblies together and completed the model!
Nomad Models 