1/48 Hasegawa F-4E TuAF SEA

[Janissary]

I decided to model a Turkish AF F-4E from the '80s. I got the Hasegawa 30th Anniversary kit. Wanted to start and finish (hopefully) before Academy F-4E is out! Here is roughly what I am going for:

Pic 1

Pic 2

This is only an inspiration, I am sure I will deviate quite a bit from reality to test new techniques, and to make the build appeasing to me :)/>

Aires cockpit was not too difficult to fit in. Aires instructions can be vague at times, don't forget to remove the canopy strut base for the back seater from the Hase kit!

Nozzles painted in various earth colors with brown and green most prominent.

Acetate film for the dials painted white rom the backside, then attached to the photo-etch using future. Quite a bit of dry-fitting and trimming is necessary.

Edited October 11, 2014 by Janissary

[nicholassagan]

Wow. Lotta detail.

[Janissary]

Cockpit painting order: Surfacer 1200 > Tamiya XF-19 + Tamiya gloss > Vallejo hand paint all details > Future bath > Oil washes. I will need to clean up the wash next. For the seats, I am trying to airbrush the seat cushions first (so paint does not get thick around the seat belts) and then later paint the black frame of the seats. We'll see…

I wanted to try chipping on the nozzles. Base painted MM silver. I will next hairspray it, paint it in a darker color, then start chipping.

Used UMM razor to make the tire treads. To widen the treads, I used both UMM scribers. The second one is finer (just bought it at the Nats this year), so should be fun using it when working on the panel lines.

Part cleaning… I recently bought a steel wire brush. It is pretty stiff. Useful for deburring plastic during the cleaning process. It can leave deep scratch marks on the plastic, so need to be gentle with it. One interesting by-product is that if used properly, it nicely dulls the surface! It can almost be used in lieu of a primer I am thinking!

[tobiK]

You invest a big effort in your rhino! I like that and so I will follow your thread with interest, not only because I m a Phantom Phan! ;-)

[Ichitoe]

Looking forward to another of your WIP!

Mike

[stalal]

Looking good so far. A Turkish Phantom in SEA camo is one of my goals :) :)

[a4s4eva]

Great cockpit

[Janissary]

Thank you very much all. I am almost done with the cockpit, so should be posting some pictures soon.

[Janissary]

A small update. I painted the exhausts in the order: MM Silver, hairspray, Humbrol 53, MM Graphite metal ve Tamiya XF-1. I was intending to do wet chipping but even a light rubbing of the final coat caused small chipping that I liked. I used a toothbrush, xacto knife and glass cleaning cloth to create the effect below:

After cleaning the wash: silver drybrushing, chipping with enamel umber and prisma color pencils, general weathering with graphite dust, painting the switches.

All the details will unfortunately be lost once it's all zippered up.

Edited October 12, 2014 by Janissary

[jgrease]

Great work so far.

[toniosky]

SEA scheme on a Turkish F-4E, you are a man of great taste. Beautiful work

I was looking for decals to do the same project but never found any. How are you going to do ?

[Janissary]

Thank you very much. I tried to cover up the gap behind the intake plates:

I tried to make the small air scoop in front of the windshield:

Touch-n-flow works really well for narrow gaps. When squeezed, the melted plastic oozes out beautifully (better then Tamiya extra thin) making it ready for sanding:

I made the little thingy behind the hook using Tamiya F-16's ejection seat pressure sensors:

Strengthening the spine joint with super glue and paper is necessary I think. Also, since I cut out the bottom plastic, it is useful to extend out the side fuselage surfaces. This helps eliminate the gap between the wing root and fuselage:

[Janissary]

I have a few question regarding Mk-82s and ECM pods on F-4Es. For the port side inner pylon, I am planning to have one Aim-9 and, one or two Mk-82's right underneath the Aim-9. Here is MBIQ models' excellent build:

Q1)

http://mbiqmodels.com/2014/08/04/tamiya-132-scale-mcdonnell-douglas-f-4d-phantom-ii-part-1/

and in there, this is what I roughly mean:

My question is, can I use only the regular triple ejection rack to attach the 82s? I don't have those racks in 48th. I see the following racks/pylons from the Hasegawa kit (parts J4, J5, J6, J7):

Is there any chance these can be used for 82s? I am guessing not, but thought I would get your input.

If this does not work, where can I find this TER? The options seem to be:

- Hasegawa weapons set.

- A few aftermarket sets.

How else can I find this? Are there kits like (Hase A-7) that might have this rack?

Q2) I would also like to mount an AN/ALQ-119 ECM. Again, it seems I can find this in the Hase weapons set, but is there any other place (comes in a kit and somebody may not be using it)? I only have the pod in Tamiya F-16CJ, but that won't work. Also, how would I mount this pod on the port side front sidewinder housing? Is there a specific rack I need to find for this?

Thank you very much in advance. I realize my questions may not be crisp, but I am open to any ideas you might have.

Edited October 31, 2014 by Janissary

[Pete]

On question 1:

Those parts are specific launchers for the AIM-4 missiles. They were not used for anything else. TER's can be found in the Hasegawa weapon sets and in some kits too. The Academy F-4 kits come with a set, for instance.

On question 2:

To mount an ECM pod such as the AN/ALQ-119 into the Sparrow (not Sidewinder) missile bay, you need a Missile Well Adapter. These can be found in a Hasegawa weapons set and also in the Academy F-4's. ALQ-119's can be found in various kits such as the Hobbyboss A-10, Hasegawa F-4G, Academy F-4, etc. I can send you one with a MWA, if you want.

[Janissary]

Pete, thank you very much for the info! Makes it all clear. I will send you a PM re the ECM pod.

[Joel_W]

Your detailing and painting of the Aires cockpit looks fantastic. Will have to do some research on that Touch and Flow. It sounds like it has some real possibilities.

Joel

[Janissary]

I have been busy with surface prep. I want to rivet this model to spice it up a little bit. So a lot of scribing, riveting, finding mistakes and fixing them is taking time.

Using various products to clean up the canopy:

After future dip:

Dulling down the surfaces by wet sanding using a piece of steel wool. I like the final surfaces that come out of this. It takes away the glossiness of the plastic, and allows a better control of the riveting and scribing tools.

Scribing/riveting: As usual, while prone to tons of mistakes, and in general, looking unrealistic/overdone, I tend to like this kind of detailing. I will try to be subtle. This requires quite a bit of sanding, but the in the following pictures I have not done that yet to reveal the work. Before priming, I plan to tone down the effect.

Edited December 5, 2014 by Janissary

[Janissary]

Our ARC member Pete was so generous sending me several Mk.82s, the ECM pod, and their decals. I am now working on their assembly. I am so excited about seeing how the loadout turns out.

Detailing the launchers with thin styrene strips:

Edited December 5, 2014 by Janissary

[agelos2005]

Great work mate

Love the riveting and scribing work so far

Is the ECM pod a little bit bended?

[rom]

Hi,

very nice work, pleasant to follow.

keep it up!! :D

[Janissary]

Thank you guys. I think the pod looks bent due to the fisheye distortion of the scene (see the grid lines on the mat). I think I forgot to mention that I am using various resources for the rivets. I have collected tons of pictures, but other than that I am using Zigi's build (http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=231901&st=40), some drawings I had, a few images Honza sent me, and other 1/32 scale builds like Chucks build (http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=224033). I am not shooting for 100% accuracy, but I follow these references to get something that is roughly interesting.

Also, I am experimenting now with what I see as "discontinuous" riveting. After laying down a strip dymo tape, I run the riveter along the lines in fragments. I want to think it creates that barely visible sets of rivets, which do not run continuously. Here is what I mean:

Photo credit: Darren Mottram.

More of his pics:

http://motty.hobbyvista.com/JAPKOR-TRIP-07/OSAN/Static/ROKAF-F-4E/Details/index.htm

Anyway, here is an example around the slat area:

I am not sure how this will turn out. One concern is that at the end, it will look like poorly done panel lines, where the wash only sits in part of the panel line and not the whole thing. That to me is a frequent eyesore, and I fear the same might happen with this discontinuous riveting. Perhaps if I sand these out well, they will appear subtle enough that it won't be an issue.

On a different note, when I talk about riveting, there is the idea of panel screws versus actual rivets on the sheet metal. Clearly, the former set is the more obvious one. But that changes depending on the actual aircraft, the paint on it etc. So, I am really not distinguishing between the two, though I would very much appreciate if somebody had a diagram showing these differences.

[Pete]

Looking good so far! :)

[Janissary]

Thank you Pete. A few progress pics. Scribing all panel lines is a must I think. There is no ideal tool for this, depending on the situation I use a scriber, pin in a pin vise, or a razor saw. I mark the rescribed lines so that I don't have to go over them again:

I am using parts from a HB Tomcat engine to spruce up the aux. inlet area. MM silver followed by Tamiya smoke wash:

For those who might build this kit, using support pieces under the wing roots (see arrows) really helps. It eliminates the flex on the upper wing during rescribing and riveting, and also helps eliminate the potential gap at the fuselage-wing junction:

[Janissary]

I have spent a lot - I mean a lot! - of time on the rivets. After using the rivet maker, I sanded down the surface and found that the rivets were way too subtle (some almost lost). So, I took the plunge and started further deepening each rivet with a pin! This took quite some time, there must be on the order of a few thousand tiny holes! Part of the work was done at Starbucks. I caught a few curious eyes, and some asked what I was doing.

Here how it looks after deepening:

Edited January 3, 2015 by Janissary

[Janissary]

And once finished, I wet sanded the model using 1800 micromesh sanding sheets. I think this gives me what I am looking for. There are still a few rivets that need to be sanded further down as I see in the pics:

The joints were not too bad, but careful dry fitting and adjustments make life much easier. I ended up using mostly super glue / baking soda combo and vallejo plastic putty. I have found plastic putty to be excellent. It can be swiped clean with a wet q-tip, and does not shrink:

Edited January 3, 2015 by Janissary