Subject: Re: Silly Week Submission - Imai 1/100 Gerwalk Phantom
From: "Submissions for ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: "Benjamin Taggart" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2008 20:59:06 -0800

Hi,
I just wanted to let you know your article went on ARC today.  Thanks again for sending it in.

Steve Bamford
Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com

Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Work like you don't need the money.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Benjamin Taggart 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 10:51 AM
  Subject: Silly Week Submission - Imai 1/100 Gerwalk Phantom

  1/100 Imai Gerwalk Phantom/YVF-4 "Specter"?

  by Ben Taggart
  --------------------

        Steve Bamford will insert full sized version of photo 01.jpg here

  This atmospheric/space fighter comes from the Macross saga. After the alien space?defense?fortress?one (SDF-1) came to earth, Boeing submitted this design to use the new technology for a warcraft based on the venerable F-4 Phantom. Only two squadrons of the design were build, as the competing Grumman YVF-14 proved much superior. Both squadrons were on hand to fight the Zentraedi invasion of 2011. The squadron in Seattle was wiped out on the ground, but the one in Minneapolis was able to get airborne and fight, losing three of it's number. The remaining seven were mothballed, brought out during the Second Robotech War, where the type was?completely?outclassed. None survived the Invid invasion.

  I bought this kit on a whim back in '85 or so on a trip to Salem, Massachusetts. Upon opening the box I was disappointed to find that instead of a clear canopy, the opaque windshield was molded with the fuselage halves, and there was no canopy over the basic cockpit tub and pilot figure. A year or two later I assembled the kit and began to prime it, then I shelved it. Cue 20 years later (2007) and I brought this out as a skill-building product as part of my return to modeling. I filled the cockpit with Apoxie Sculpt and shaped something looking like a Phantom canopy. It may have been my ham-fistedness during disassembly and rebuilding, but the seams never seemed to want to go away, and the . I re-scribed some of the panel lines with a pin, my first attempt at doing this. One of the 20mm ROV-19 laser cannon broke off during assembly; I replaced it with a piece of stretched sprue. Green putty, Mr. Surfacer, and a lot of sandpaper later, I decided it was good enough to begin painting.?Testors gloss gull gray provided the base, Tamiya acrylics make up the rest of the colors. Decals were still acceptable after all this time, and settled down with Solvaset.?I went for a toy-like appearance on this kit, keeping a glossy finish with the top coat and no weathering. The idea was to make it look a little like the cartoon it came from.?

  Descriptions from the box: "Megaro Zamac 1/100 scale plastic model kit. Super real type." Darned if I know what any of this means!

  Background information from robotresearch.com.

        Steve Bamford will insert full sized version of photo 02.jpg here

  Photos and text ? by Ben Taggart