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The F-4F is only used by the Luftwaffe and is
normally quite drab since they changed to these greyish schemes, although I
added some light blue patches it still wasn't too bright and I wanted
something to stand out in a crowd which meant converting to an "E" variant, at
about this time a sheet of decals No CED32001 from Cutting Edge landed on my
desk which contains markings for a lot of Israeli F-4s including the one with
the red and white stripe along the fuselage, they claim that you can build
almost every Israeli Phantom and I believe them, this double sheet is also
available in 1/48th and 1/72nd scales. The decals are well printed and very
thin with lots of Hebrew markings included, they are well researched in Israel
and lots of information is included you only have to find a picture of the one
you want, this was what I was looking for so work
began.
All Israeli F-4s have
slotted tails this was a problem until I remembered the old Revell kit which
had them and I had one in the loft which soon donated it's parts for a good
cause, unfortunately they would not fit as was so using a razor saw I cut the
slots off from the top half right where the bottom half butts up to it, next I
removed just the leading edge of the newer tail and then cemented the slots in
their place taking care to line up the outer edges and top surfaces. When the
joins hardened I sanded the lower edge back until it matched the new tail
maintaining the curve, level off the inner edge and there you have it slotted
tails, don't worry if you haven't got the old kit as I am advised that one of
the resin parts makers has the idea in hand so watch the
ads'.
Phantoms that have been
standing for a while tend to loose hydraulic pressure and the outer flap
starts to droop I thought this would make a more interesting model so before
assembling the wing halves I cut around the outer flaps with a very sharp
knife until upper and lower surfaces were free, the wing halves were then
assembled and left to set mean while some bits of sprue were gathered for
packing out the gaps. The inner rear edges of the wing ,where the flap fits,
were scraped to a thinner profile and a piece of appropriate sized sprue glued
into the gaps. While this hardened the flap parts were cemented at the rear
edge and sprue that gave the depth to match the wing was fitted to the extreme
front edge this was then sanded to a rounded shape and a concave shape was
scraped into the rear of the wing with a round knife blade, Revell plasto was used to fill all the side surfaces and was sanded to a smooth
finish. The flaps were later taped in position while the top camouflage was
sprayed on and cemented as a final step.
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TISEO (Target
Identification System Electro Optical) is now carried by a lot of aircraft in service today and as no models
of this exist I had to make it from a length of TBFS 8 from the new Plastruct
fineline styrene range, take a 29mm piece trim out a rough shape of the wing
section then wrap a strip of medium garnet paper tight over the wing leading
edge now sand the tube in situ |
| keeping the tube parallel to the fuselage,
until you have 11mm of the tube left on the inner side, if you got it right
you should have 20mm left on the outer side (see Fig 3) build something that
looks like a TV lens from rod and place inside the tube, the "glass" front
cover I made from clear sheet using a leather punch which had the right size
cutter and two tiny strakes were added from spare 10thou card, this unit was
put aside while I corrected the panel lines representing the leading edge
slats on the inner wing, only the outer section works on slatted wings so fill
the unwanted lines with a small drop of superglue and sand smooth then
rescribe the central dividing line straight to the rear line of the flap (see
Fig 4) |
| Israeli phantoms
use a probe and drogue system for I.F.R. this makes a model look a bit
different so after the fuselage was assembled I took a length of 2mm
square rod appx 80mm long and heated one end over a candle until I could
bend it to shape, it's a bit hit and miss but I managed it at the third
try, the rod was then scraped to the section shown in Fig 5 placed in
position and cut to the required length, a hole to take Plastruct TB |
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was drilled before being cemented in position, later a nozzle was
fashioned from sprue and a similar hole made at the back of it, the
"pipe" was bent up and added to be fitted after painting. |
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The cockpit was
next and here I used the etched brass set by Pat Watson available from
Hannants, the first job was to widen the sills with 40thou strips stuck
flush with the very top edge this forms a good base for the brass sill
parts which needed just a little trimming to fit on the insides. Nearly
all the frames for the canopy were used, the exception being the rear of
each hood, in reality there is large chunk of metal there and I built them
up from 20thou card incorporating new hinges from 40thou card which were
to fit into corresponding slots cut into the bridge and rear fairing,
finally add the latches and mirrors. I had a bit of |
| good fortune
just then I came across some very fine resin seats made by Paragon and I
acquired a pair, notepair not two of the same, which only needed painting
and pull cords added from fine plastic coated wire. The seats needed
raising to the correct height also due to the low floor this was
accomplished using Blu-tack and pushing the seat down on it to suit. All
the mods I incorporated in the Luftwaffe model were repeated here and the
small triangular "shelf" on the starboard side of the spine was
removed plus strips of 10thou card were cut to size and cemented in place
ready to accept the light strips after painting. |
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Painting
I
have a certain procedure which I follow it works for me, perhaps you might like
to try it, firstly if the cockpit is to be open all the canopies are left off
and the cockpit area masked off with ordinary masking tape, the canopies only
are masked with Selotape, lay a strip on each window run around the frames with
a cocktail stick then carefully cut around with scalpel and remove all the
excess when all is done spray with Humbrol 85 black this gives the internal
colour, the nose cone can also be done now. I like to use Rub 'n' Buff for the
metal areas at the rear end but Humbrol polished steel works quite well also, To
seal this in use a couple of coats of Klear then mask the area and the nose cone
using Tamiya tape (the gentlest of them all) now wipe off any excess silver with
a drop of lighter fuel. For the main painting I fit wheelbay doors in position
with Blu-tack where possible, items like pylons are mounted on cocktail sticks
along with missiles and tanks etc. the camouflage is sprayed on using the
lightest colour first, all is done freehand, unless a sharp edge is needed when
Parafilm is used, keep all three colours in their jars for retouching if you
make a slip anywhere I normally paint only the top surface one day and the
underside the next this gives me somewhere to hold the model. When I am
satisfied a couple of coats of Klear are sprayed on and the very lightly rubbed
over with a well worn piece of 1200 wet or dry paper which gives a real silky
smooth finish exactly right for decalling which follows, a further couple of
coats of Klear to level everything off and then a light dusting of Revell's No 2
mat varnish to suit your requirements, go careful as it is very flat, then all
the masking can be removed. Now is the time to add all the remaining parts some
with cement some with superglue such as pylons put superglue on the part and
brush activator on the area to receive it, position with care and you have
instant stick.
The four colours for the camouflage are as follows
FS 33531, FS 34227,
FS 30219 for the topside and FS 35622 below, these are available from
Humbrol Nos. 121, 120, 119 and 122 as well as Xtracolor Nos. X105,
X148, X102 and X149 respectively, you will find the Humbrol paint Matt and
Xtracolor gloss.
One final job was to add the clear part lights which can be coloured with
Tamiya clear paints and add the nose pitot tube which I fashioned from the tube
on an empty Revell contacta glue dispenser, just shows, don't throw anything
away. I think the model looks fantastic and it gave me much pleasure I hope it
does the same for you.
Ted
Drop by Ted's
Website to see more of his models. Ted
Taylor's Modelworks
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