Review of a Similar (Hasegawa F-4J) Phantom Build

As this F-4G is my first aircraft build, I wanted to get an idea for what I should expect in terms of techniques, tools, and products. Scale Hangar 182 posted a time-lapse video of his build of the Hasegawa kit for the F-4J Phantom II.

This post describes the major sections of work (with pictures) to get from opening the box to a finished kit.

General build workflow

1) Cockpit and controls; this particular build uses some photo-etched parts in lieu of decals

2) Seat assemblies. Note: Cool use of a toothpick and putty on the bottom for easy manipulation during painting

3) Panel line accent for the cockpit as you can’t get to these after the fuselage halves are glued

4) Fuselage

5) The whole body with air intakes and exhaust nozzles is assembled; prime the main body for painting. Note: neat trick to use foam inside the cockpit, as that’s already painted

6) His paint scheme calls for some olive drab paint around the cockpit

7) Prep some of the underside equipment (e.g., panel doors, landing gear, armament) for painting by using a drill so you can insert a toothpick later for manipulation

8) Paint the underside

9) Paint the primary color on the topside; note the masked off areas that were already painted in an accent color or will be painted later

10) Paint the radome and wing tips

11) Paint the underside of the tail and exhaust area in aluminum

12) Paint other nearby areas in dark aluminum; note some of the masked off areas were painted in the previous step

13) Removing masking

14) Apply clear coat; this is what the decals will adhere to instead of the paint

15) Add weathering to the exhaust area

16) Add panel line accent on the exhaust nozzles

17) Apply decals on the topside

18) Use the airbrush to help dry the placed decals; this is where having a dual-action airbrush is handy (i.e., one action is air flow, the other is paint flow)

19) Apply decals on the bottom

20) Paint some of the underside panels; Neat tip: adhere small parts to masking tape and paint there

21) Finish painting and applying panel line accent on the underside parts

22) Add panel line accent; this took a while as there are lots of panel lines all over the aircraft. Note: This can be done even though the decals are already applied

23) Apply weathering (MIG oilbrusher) on the topside of the wings, then dry-brush to complete the application

24) Apply weathering to the underside

25) Apply additional underside weathering (MIG streaking grime)

26) Apply weathering to underside compartments

27) With all weathering completed, apply a semigloss coat over the entire aircraft

28) Assemble parts for the underside

29) Configure and assemble the cockpit canopy; most kits I’ve seen have multiple configurations — e.g., canopy open, as shown here

30) Finish up some of the details (e.g., position lights). In this kit, he painted the lights with aluminum first, and then applied transparent green on top. My kit has the lights as clear plastic, so I won’t need the aluminum.

31) Apply smoke shading underneath and along some of the panel lines


Summary

It seems the general order for this build is…

  1. Cockpit
  2. Priming and painting
  3. Clear coat
  4. Decals
  5. Weathering
  6. Semi-gloss coat
  7. Underside stuff
  8. Remaining fine details

I’ve already peeked at the instructions for my kit and I can already see instances where the build order doesn’t match the sequence above. I have another to-do item later to take a closer look at the instructions to see where I can deviate to make painting easier.

Next up

There’s a 20-minute video I found on YouTube that shows how to make the cockpit look really impressive. (The video also involves a slightly different kit — Zoukei-mura SWS 1/48 F-4C Phantom II — but I should be able to apply what I learn.) I also found a blog post about the cockpit for my specific kit, so I’ll combine what I learn from those sources into my next post.