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Gallery
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Michael
Phillips
F-4E
This
is my latest effort, the Revell-Monogram 1/32 Mig Killer kit. This kit has
been on the market for several years now. This it the third one I've built,
and I've enjoyed them all! As I've built each one, I've noticed the age that
the molds are seeing, but it's still a great kit. My model is finished as F-4E
serial number 69-0291 of the 68th TFS/347th TFW from Moody AFB in 1985. A good
friend of mine was the assistant Crew Chief on this plane. As for a little
history for this jet, on August 19th, 1972, Capts. Sam White and Frank Bettine
shot down a Mig-21 while flying MigCAP with the 4th TFS/366th TFW. Later in
it's career, it was converted to an F-4G Wild Weasel, and was assigned to the
90th TFS/3rd TFW at Clark AFB until 1991.Aeromaster did a sheet of this jet as
a G in 1/48 scale. It also spent
some time with the 52nd as a G model. One frustrating thing about this project
was researching it. I have about a dozen pictures of serial #'s -0290 and
0292, but finding pics of 0291 was nearly impossible! I was able to find ONE.
  
The
kit was pretty heavily modified. For the cockpit, I only used the tub, sticks,
and side panels. For the front panel, I used the Eduard detal set and some
plastic sheet. The lower rear panel is a leftover from the Tamiya kit, and the
top piece is again from Eduard. the back of the upper panel is another Tamiya
leftover, cause the backs of the instruments looked really nice. I also used
some very small diameter rod for cableing behind the panel. The Eduard set was
also used for canopy details. The seats are from CAM.
I
decided to position the gun access door open, so I used some parts from the
Hase. 1/32 F-16A kit for the gun
details, and did some scratchbuilding. You cant really see it, but it was fun
to build. The kit had some fit issues that called for alot of putty and
sanding, so I ended up rescribing the plane, which was something new to me.
  
I
was going to use the Eduard exhaust pieces by themselves but managed to mangle
one of them in the process of construction, so I ended up putting them IN the
kit parts instead of replacing them. Actually, the look better this way IMO.
  
Paints
are Model Master Acryl shot straight from the bottle. For the metal areas I
sprayed aluminium, and then drybrushed some titanium, and orange and blue for
a little burnt look. These colors were a mix of MM Acryl and Tamiya Acrylics.
For weathering, I used the "sludge technique", which works pretty
well for me. Decals are custom made by Mike Grant. His decals are the best.
Extremely thin, and no silvering at all. Stencils came from the Aeromaster
sheet, and some kit decals.
I
had a couple of disasters while working on this kit. While I was painting it,
I sat a glass of orange juice on the same shelf as my compressor. After about
5 minutes, the glass came crashing down on me and the half painted model, and
my desk. It was full of course. OJ will strip acrylic paint pretty well. After
cleaning the mess up and starting over, I painted the entire kit in the
wraparound camo scheme, and then noticed that my greens were reversed. So I
had to do them over. I also dropped it when it was almost finished and broke
some small peices off of it.
The
loadout was suggested by my friend who was the crew chief on this plane, Wayne
Williams. The Mavericks came from the Trum
peter
A-10,
but the Pave Spike pod had to be made. For the body, I used a couple of
sparrow missle bodies without the fins. For the seeker head, I held a piece of
clear sprue over a candle til it made a little ball. The rest of the pod is
just plastic rod and sheet, cut to make the seeker head and the mounting
bracket. It's not perfect, but it looks really close. The ladder came from the
Tamiya kit, and the FOD guards are from Eduard.
  
I
probably spent more time on this model than any other, but I feel like its the
best one I've ever built. I know its the one I'm most proud of!
 
F-4J
This is my
1/32 scale Tamiya F-4J, modeled as flown by VMFA-334 in the Vietnam War. Of
all the models I have built over the years, I must say this one is my
favorite! I really like the way it was engineered, with the single piece
fuselage, and the separate tail and exhaust areas. Seamless Suckers were used
in place of the kit intakes. I had never used these before, and the seam lines
were somewhat hard to blend.
    
This is the
first kit I have ever attemped to do any weathering on. I tried about three
method before I found one that worked for me.
I mixed a wash with some black paint, water, and dish liquid in a ratio
of about 2/5/3, and applied it to the panel lines
with a small brush. I used a Q-tip and wiped the excess away, rolling
the swab as I worked. I then took a wet swab and wiped away the excess,
leaving the panel line filled, but cleaning off most of the area around it.
This seemed to give the panels a dirty look.
About 100 or so Q-tips later, the weathering was done.
  
Decals are
from CAM, and they snuggled right up to the kit. The bombs and racks are from
the Tamiya F-4D kit. The model is painted with Model Master Acryls.
I also had some extra seat belts and harnesses from an old Eduard set
that I used on the seats. I figure I spent about 150 hours on this model.
This was a great kit! I'm currently converting the D model kit I have
to a B model with the CAM conversion set.
Mike Phillips |
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