1/72 Revell F-4 F Phantom II

by Jaime "JGV" Vinha

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Hello everybody!
As promised I'm here with my second submission on ARC.
 
First of all, I must take a few seconds to thank all of you who saw the first article and cared to contact me with words of appreciation and encouragement.  It's really great to have people with 25+ years of modelling under the belt supporting me and giving me motivation to better my modelling talents.  So again, I THANK EVERY AND EACH ONE OF YOU!
 
On to the model, this was my first Phantom and I choose a F-4 F from the German Air Force in quite striking colours, which commemorates 40 years of the "Richthofen" squadron and 25 years of Phantom service back at Wittmund in 1999 where it gave a solo performance.
 
As I opened the box, by the kit's fault or my own, I knew this would be a challenging build: over 100 pieces with rather complex sub-assemblies laid over 38 steps on the instruction sheet!
 
And right I was. As you can see in the photos the fit took much sanding and filling, mainly in the intakes, lower fuselage and front wheel bay. Note also that one of the fuselage halves was some millimeters longer than the other resulting in more hard work. The wings, on the other hand, fit very well.
 
After blending it all together, relieved the worse part was over, I was ready to go splash some paint!

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First I primed the model, and went to an enjoyable simple masking...I'm sorry, did I say enjoyable?  What about those little edges on the lower fuselage around the front wheel bay to get the right demarcation lines?  And those very aggressive looking intake split plates, Lovely aren't they?
 
After the Black/Red "camo" was done, I turned my attention to the metalized parts. I used gun metal and aluminium and tried a different approach in the exhaust nozzles.  This was not my idea, to each his own, I read it in "Model Aircraft Montlhy" in a very well done Israeli Phantom.  In order do capture that "bluish" burned texture, I painted the nozzles gloss black with a clear blue coat brushed over them followed by dry-brush in alluminium.  I think I over did the dry-brushing though, which cuts back the effect a little.
 
I used the Kit's decals and again faced a new "labour", I was starting to feel like Hercules by now: Both the nose decal an those white demarcation lines that separate black from red in the wings had to be cut in different peaces and then patched up together using Humbrol decalfix. The rest of them went on fine.
 
I passed up on weathering since this was a "one time show" flight in a supposedly fresh painted aircraft. 

 

 
In spite of all the hardships, I am reasonably satisfied with the result specially because it's a great looking aircraft in such a good looking paint scheme, but also because it gave me the opportunity to evolve my work.
 
Well, I'm moving on to the next build, and will report it to you in time. 
 
Best for everyone! 
 
JGV

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Photos and text © by Jaime "JGV" Vinha