Tamiya 1/48 F-4B (#121)

[blakeh1]

Excellent work. Love all the variations in the paint work

 

[Edbert]

Heh…you haven't gone to stencil hell yet. Good looking bird.

I've done many more, but yeah, realize I'm not yet halfway. These decals are definitely new for Tamiya, I'm liking it. But some of the ones here are quite large and I've torn a couple. One I did not tear, at least here, is the black section on the starboard side of the vertical stab. I might have torn it but could not find the missing part, so I decided to just paint it. You can sorta see the different texture on the back 5/8 inch or so.


I'm sure the dullcoat will conceal that.

There was no decal for the nose cone. Those of you who build jets (this is my 4th jet ever) might know why, I think the curve would be impossible to lay down, but that's a guess. So I was gonna have to mask and spray some gloss black anyway. My collection of Model Masters is really coming through for me.



I accidentally covered up the little gray square right in front of the windscreen, I'll have to touch that up and part of the frame got hit too. But pretty happy with the result.

 

[Edbert]

The stencils are substantial, but so are the deekalz needed just for ordinance.

 

[Richard55]

Amazing stuff.Am a big Phantom Fan.
Richard

 

[Jim62]

Looks great. You mentioned the Tamiya decals being new for Tamiya. I noticed that with their new Martlet/Wildcat FM-1. They are a welcomed improvement nice and thin, but they are delicate so care is required as you found out.

 

[Edbert]

I am at a point where this kit is sucking my "mojo". I'm not giving up, I never will. But I do keep adding more decals. This is all I have left.



Yeah it looks like a lot. I agree, but this is only 25-30% of what I had initially.

 

[Jakko]

Eh, jet aircraft kits and stencils … Airfix's 1:72 scale Lightning kind of put me off them because of this

 

[Edbert]

Okay, brought the Phantom out again, I've been neglecting it, partly sick of the decals, but also ruined one that is very prominent. You can see the damage I did above in the Oct 15th post. I had micro-sol on my fingers (I guess) and while working on the port side "NAVY" decal I fooked the starboard side one.

But a saint of a modeller I met online snail-mailed me an extra "NAVY" from Tamiya, he put aftermarket decals on his. So I fixed that mess and did another hour of decals before I threw in the towel. Just too much, I'll admit defeat and move on. Gave the entire girl a pair of matte coats (and learning from past mistakes) put it away again for 48 hours to fully cure.



In the foreground you can see a small pile of bits I need to add, as well as the stock ejection seats. The Canopy bit are just sitting there. Attaching them will be the final step.

I'm pretty disappointed in the seatbelts, decal versions look bad, but in the lighting here you can barely tell. Gunsight is missing, need to locate that too, but the end is near!