Subject: Re: VMFA-333 F-4S article
From: "Steve Bamford" <[email-masked]>
To: "Erin and Selby Kewin" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2003 11:12:34 -0800

----- Original Message -----
From: "Erin and Selby Kewin" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 9:13 PM
Subject: VMFA-333 F-4S article

Mr. Bamford,

Here is an article for you. I have enclosed more pictures than I have
spelled out in my article - do with them as you please. I a MAC guy so
the Word document is a translation, I have included the text in this
email as a back up. Thanks, I love you site check it every day! Keep up
the good work.

Erin Kewin

[email-masked]

(RightSide1.jpg)

This is my latest effort, actually it has been an on again off again
project that I have finally finished. This F-4S was inspired by a
similar model built by Mr. Joe Amaral, which appeared in the March 1987
issue of Scale Modeler. The article focused making an F-4S from the
Hasegawa F-4E and F-4J, where the E wings were grafted onto the J
fuselage. I however, got my hands on the Hasegawa Collectors Hi-Grade
series F-4S (Kit No. CH010 : 4500) when it was released in 1989. (What
year is this now? - I told you it was an on again off again project.)

(Cockpit1.jpg)

The tooling on this Hasegawa F-4 provides a “correct” cockpit, which is
to say, not an Air Force cockpit. The cockpit was a good start but I
felt I could do better. I originally began to scratch build a cockpit,
until the KMC F-4J cockpit came along. The KMC cockpit is well detailed
and certainly easier to do than a scratch cockpit. However, the KMC
cockpit took quite a bit of sanding shaping and test fitting to make it
fit properly. Once I got all the parts to fit together a little paint
was all it took to make it ready for installation. Once painted whole
cockpit was sealed with Future and then a light oil paint wash was
applied to add depth. I normally use a mix of burnt sienna and black ,
and mix that with about 10 parts Japan dryer. At this stage I made the
opening for the refueling probe. I simply cut the opening and boxed in
the inside with plastic. Because of the cockpit, I was careful not to
build the probe well too deep.

(Cockpit3.jpg)

The seats were painted but not yet installed, that would wait until the
end of the project. The seat frames are black with appropriate greens
and tans for the seat cushions and belts, these were sealed and washed
as well. Face curtain handles were made from thin wire. To paint them I
began with yellow overall, then with a very fine brush and black oil
paint, I carefully painted the stripes. I have found oil paint to be an
excellent choice for painting those really small details. For the
stripes on the face curtain a 10/0 brush will come to a needle point due
to the “stickiness” of the oil paint. That fine tip combined with oil
paint’s slow dry time means you can paint very fine consistent lines
without the point getting gooey. The catch of the slow drying is that
sometimes the stuff never really dries and often smudges. Once again
Future to the rescue, by dipping the part, it can now be handled as if
it were painted the with normal model paint.

(Front.jpg)

I used Seamless Suckers intake trunks (the old two or three piece
intakes) for my F-4S. While the result does look good, the work to get
it there was, I think, not worth it. If I were to do it again I would
just make a set of intake covers. However, I am going to try a set of
newer intakes by Seamless Suckers, the single piece version, on my next
Phantom.

(Top1.jpg)

The frustration of those intakes put this project on the shelf until
this year. I finally got the intakes smoothed out to my satisfaction.
Initially I had a poor result when I tried to airbrush the paint so I
chose to brush paint. I brushed on several coats of white until achieved
a consistent color and smooth surface. The engine faces were carefully
painted and then added. At last I was ready to glue the fuselage halves
together. I then turned my attention to the wings. Over the years while
the unfinished model was collecting dust; I collected the KMC flaps set,
the Paragon leading edge slat set and the Aires F-4 wheel well set.

(Flaps.jpg)

The wings received the most modification. I wanted to a little action to
break up the gray paint. So I broke up the wing lines by dropping the
flaps and leading edge slats. The KMC set looked awesome in the bag,
getting it to fit and look right was another story. On the real F-4 the
flaps are hinged from the bottom, so as they deploy they leave a gap on
the top. A curved extension on top of the flap maintains the aerodynamic
shape. The KMC flap extensions are not nearly long enough so guess
what?...SURPRISE...a big gap. Having just recently fixed the problem in
1/32 scale on another project, I have discovered an easy solution. I
simply glued the flaps on at the hinge and filled the gap Miliput epoxy
putty. Before the putty cured I sculpted the approximate shape. With a
little patience, I achieved a convincing shape that needed only a light
touch of sandpaper to finish. I raised the spoilers on both sides. I’m
not sure if this is correct, but I think it looks good. The Paragon
slats went on per the instructions with no problems at all.

(Bottom.jpg)

The Aires wheel wells went in next. They do not fit! I’m not sure what
the manufacturer’s intent was with this set. To get them to fit I had to
sand the top of the resin parts and the upper wing half almost paper
thin. The kit wheel well has to be removed (Obvious right?), but not
just removed, the lower wing also needs to be thinned. With a Dremel
tool I carved a trough for the new wheel well to fit in. It was quite a
bit of work however, I realized that by thinning down the opening to get
the Aires part to fit I had created a very scale looking opening.
Despite the extra work, I was quite satisfied with the result. I will be
using these parts again.

(LeftSide2.jpg)

At this point only a few modifications were made before painting. A
rudder was part of the KMC set so I added it, offset a few degrees. The
intake at the base of the tail was replaced with sheet plastic to make
it look more to scale thickness. The arrowhead shaped plates on top of
the stabilators were removed. Also the inboard weapons pylons were
added. The little rhomboid shapes molded into the bottom of the wing are
supposed to be part of the weapons pylon. The best way to make the pylon
look right is to attach the pylon now so that any gaps can be filled
prior to painting. Keep this in mind if you are going to build a phantom
without these pylons, you should grind off the parts on the bottom of
the wing. Since I wasn’t going to mount missile rails the notches on the
bottom of the pylons were filled and small sway braces added.

(Decals.jpg, Tail.jpg)

Now for the paint. The natural metal areas around the exhaust area were
masked off for later painting. The canopy and windscreen were polished
and then dipped in Future. My technique for clear parts is to attach the
before I paint. The windscreen and the center section were attached and
seams filled with super glue. After filling the seams the parts were
polished using 600 sandpaper to start ending with 12000 grit Micro Mesh
polishing cloth. Finally, I flowed future over the glass. All the clear
parts were masked with Scotch Magic tape, except the center panel of the
windscreen which was masked with Cutting Edge Black Magic mask. Next I
temporarily fixed the canopies in the closed position with Fun Tak
sealing the cockpits. With the clear parts installed and masked, I
started the painting. The wheels wells were pained white and then masked
off with wet tissue, as were the engine intake openings. I used Testors
Model Master enamels throughout. Lower surfaces and stabilators were Lt
Ghost Gray FS 36320. The top camouflage pattern, on the spine and upper
wings, was Medium gray FS 35237 with a bit of white added. My references
said these were the right colors and they looked good until I got to the
decals. I had planned to use the Super Scale sheet 48-188, but as I put
on the first decal I put on, it almost disappeared into the paint.
Either the paint or the was too dark or the decals too light. Either way
the contrast was not high enough to match my reference photos! OK no
problem, I happen to have an ALPS printer so a made some new decals in
black, yes BLACK. Once the black decals were applied, and one white one
(VMFA-333) on the spine. I mixed up some Testors gloss cote with a few
drops of the background color say 8:1 (maybe more maybe less.) This mix
was heavily thinned, at least 1:1, and misted over the decals until the
right shade was gray was reached. Note that the BUNO and the radio call
numbers are a bit lighter than the rest of the dark gray markings. This
is what my references showed so that was purposely done.

(Burners.jpg)

The natural metal area was painted with SnJ Spray Metal, Aluminum and
bronze mixed with gloss black paint to create different shades. I then
used oil paint to create the leaks and streaks. Aires burner cans were
added, the were painted flat black.

(Top2.jpg)

I then used Future mixed with Tamiya flat base as a flat top coat. To
get that combination of faded and dirty paint I used mixes of chalk
pastels. I used a mix of black and brown for the dirt, and white and
blue for the fading gray. In addition, I used pencil to highlight a few
panel lines here and there. I am not a big fan of making all my panel
lines uniform. My references were invaluable at this point. The dirt
that appears on the real thing I try to put on the model. I avoid making
all my panel lines uniform, they aren’t on the real thing and they
shouldn’t be on models.

(RightSide3.jpg)

The finishing touches. The TACAN, Radar beacon and IFF antennae on the
nose and spine were added. A baggage pod was added for a bit of color,
the shamrocks are from a 1/72 decal sheet for a High-Vis VMFA-333 bird
(Super Scale 72-338).

(Fcockpit.jpg)

I used the photo-etched canopy parts included with the KMC kit. However,
I did add small balsa wedges to the canopy sills. The balsa was rough
cut, glued to the canopy sill and then gently sanded to shape. The
inside of the canopy was masked off to prevent it from being scratched
during the sanding process. Now, the photo etched parts were much easier
to add and look much better. A pocket checklist was made from plastic
sheet and placed, on the cockpit coaming. Wire was also added to the
back of aft instrument panel. Finally the seats, the canopies and the
refueling probe were added to complete the model. The refueling probe
was built from plastic tubing and some 0.005 inch sheet plastic.

(RightSide2.jpg)

Well there you have it 15 years in the making! Well, it's not like I
spent fifteen years on it - I would guess maybe 100 -150 hours max of
actual building time. It is not my greatest success, but I am pleased
with the result, I hope you enjoyed it and thank you for your interest.
Please feel free to email me with comments or suggestions.

Erin “Timmy!” Kewin

References

Just about every Phantom book on the market

Koku-Fan December 1987 - photos of the Jet I modeled.