This
is my first attempt after 15 years to build an aircraft and what better to
start with than an F-4E of the Hellenic Air Force, painted in the all
dirty and weathered Aegean Blue camouflage.
From
the beginning I decided to open a few panels to show some of the internal
detail of the aircraft. I also decided against aftermarket products and to
do all the detail from scratch. The only aftermarket product that I used
was the decals from Icarus Decals for the F-4E. As the project was moving
on I opened more and more panels…..until I finally said enough is
enough.
The
panels I opened are: Radar, Gun, Fuel pipe lines, Right hand side A/C
unit, Engine bays, Parachute, Hydraulics. Also detail was added on both
sides of the cockpit as Hasegawa’s was poorly. The kit has an excellent
fit, which made my life easier. I used Lifecolor and Tamiya acrylics for
the camouflage and oils for washes and weathering. The decals came from
Icarus Decals and took me about 3 nights to put them on using Micro Set
and Sol.
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Hasegawa
gives an excellent starting point for someone that needs to build an OOB
model, but also gives the opportunity to someone to build things from
scratch.
For
all the detailing work Evergreen plastic sheets and rods as well as brass
sheets and wires of different thick nesses were used. For all the sub
assemblies several acrylic colors were used mainly from the Tamiya range.
As
it was my first aircraft after 15 years I thought why not use an airbrush…
that’s what I did. I bought and airbrush and borrowed a compressor.
Armed with
the airbrush, I used the pre-shading technique to show the different panel
colors. After the paint was dry, lighter shades of the basic colour were used
to indicate highlights and wear of the paint.
Periklis
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