March 17, 2020

Revell F-4G Phantom II: Part 2

The second step in the build is the front fuselage. This step took 4 hr 13 mins.

I divided the work into sections: front fuselage and radome, nose gear well, combining the sub-assemblies, and APR 38 receiver and intakes. As per usual, I used isopropyl alcohol to clean up the parts first.

Front fuselage and radome

First up it’s time to prep the radome (radar + dome) for assembly.

Radome trimmed from the sprue
Radome after trimming and sanding

Here are all the parts for this step:

All parts for the front fuselage

A tip I picked up from other modeling videos is that part of the fuselage forms the interior of the cockpit. To have it blend in, you need to paint what’s visible to match the cockpit color. (I didn’t apply any primer before painting — just right onto the plastic.)

Tamiya neutral grey (XF-53)

Nose gear well

Here are all the pieces involved:

Nose gear well pieces trimmed and sanded

It’s time to assemble the pieces using some poster tack to keep the 90-degree joins aligned.

Starboard nose gear well glued with Tamiya Extra Thin Cement
Port nose gear well glued
Nose gear well top in place; Tamiya 6mm masking tape to assist

The picture in the instructions for the bulkhead didn’t make any sense, so I thought I’d be clever and go ahead and glue that in now.

Bulkhead in place with nose gear well

Combining sub-assemblies

Here’s where I combine the cockpit assembly from Step 1 with the front fuselage halves.

Front fuselage halves, cockpit assembly, nose gear well assembly

I didn’t need to glue the cockpit assembly in place, as there are small guides to align everything. Some Tamiya masking tape held the halves together while the glue did its magic.

Above view of the two halves glued
Below view of the two halves glued

Here you can see where the two halves don’t quite meet. (This will eventually be covered up with another piece later in the build.)

Small gap in between pilot and copilot sections

Once I tried to slide the bottom fuselage section in place, the bulkhead got in the way. So much for me being clever. I removed it and went in from the front to glue it in place.

Using a skewer and poster tack to hold the piece in place
Bulkhead is in place near the fore of the aircraft

To complete the unit, let’s get the radome in place.

Some Tamiya masking tape to hold things in place

APR 38 receiver and intakes

The APR 38 receiver is a radar-homing and warning receiver per the Wikipedia page for this aircraft. (After 10 minutes of Googling and looking at .mil websites, I still couldn’t determine what APR stands for!)

Again, some Tamiya tape to hold parts in place

Now we attach the small air intakes.

Parts ready for trimming and sanding
Starboard air intake ready for gluing
Port air intake assembled

Finishing touches

There are some gaps with the bottom fuselage section and the APR 38.

See the upper left and lower right for gaps

I’ve decided to leave the seams in front of the cockpit and around the radome alone to see how well the primer and paint cover things up later.

Glued seams

The APR 38 and fuselage bottom need some filling based on reference photos. I used Vallejo plastic putty and some cotton swabs.

Port side filled
Starboard side filled

Next step

The air inlets (turbines inside the main air intakes) and the other parts of the rear fuselage (including the rear stabilizers) get assembled.