Finally some paint on!

White is Tamiya gloss acrylic, EDSG is Xtracrylix.





I'll spend tomorrow thinking over my choices of paint schemes, decalling starts tomorrow night!



Magnus

Another quick update! I decided on a scheme from Modeldecal sheet 44, one of two machines specially marked for the Queen's silver jubilee in 1977.

Modeldecal sheets always causes me concern before use: They look yellow and just plain "old" on the sheet but when soaking them the backing paper comes off easily and the decals are chrystal clear with nice colours! They actually work a lot better than the Fujimi decals from the kit.


Lower surfaces are finished, now I'm bogged down in the stencilling on the top surfaces! Well, I suppose that if I put them on one at a time in a steady pace I will be finished by Christmas...



Magnus

Magnus,

Great job on the wrap-around paint job. That much masking can really put one off of a paint job like that!

Michael

Thanks Michael! In the light of what I am working on now: that paint job is nothing compared to the hundreds of small stencils that inevitably follows it! It takes forever...


I'm more than half-way through now at least...

I have made another annoying mistake: The paint scheme I have decided upon has the huge RWR lump on top of the fin, my kit doesn't... When checking my pile of un-built British Phantoms I realise that I could have taken one of the kits that has the RWR. So much for not deciding upon a paint scheme when starting a project!

I will solve this by not using the Silver Jubilee specific decals, this will make the aircraft a bit more anonymous and it is not unlikely that the aircraft might have looked like this at some date before 1977. No disrespect meant to the Queen...



Magnus

Finally, all the decals are there! I have lost count of the hours spent on this rather boring task...



A coat of Tamiya clear will follow, then I will paint the radome and the bare metal areas around the exhaust. There is still a chance (albeit slim) that this one will be finished before the end of September!



Magnus

Magnus:
I have to admit that jets in general are not my favorite subject, but yours is looking great. The decals really catch the eye. I am looking forward to the completed machine.

Hi Yalým,

No, it is an F-4J/K/M. I'll post pics ASAP.

TTFN,

Fred

I'm glad you like it! I have never really been much of a jet guy myself until the last few years but some of these cold war machines are really cool!


The first gloss coat went on yesterday, I'll try and sand it lightly and put on another coat tonight in order to blend in the decals better. I am not entirely happy about using loads of small warning marks all over an airframe, they tend to stand out under the weathering. On the other hand, if done well they add a lot of interest to the model.


If I did a diorama, I suppose this is the kind of damage you could get while respotting the deck of the small RN carriers. Since I don't do a diorama, I'll have to fix this result of dropping the finished model into the sink while cleaning it before the clear coat. Well, it could have been a lot worse!



Magnus

Long time - no update!

I am glad to get this one moving again.

In another thread, LongKnife wondered how I paint wheels:


1) Paint the hub and mask it
2) Paint the whole wheel a suitable "tire-colour"
3) Add some white to the tire-colour and paint the thread pattern holding the airbrush as on the photo.
4) Voilá: The finished wheel!


Masking and painting the natural metal panels below the tail worried me a bit. Parafilm and a steady scalpel made the masking reasonably easy and my new favourite metal finish, Games Workshop acrylics thinned with Tamiya thinner made painting a breeze!

Games Workshop metal finishes come in three different hues:
Mithril Silver
Chainmail
Boltgun metal
As you might have guessed from the names, they are aimed at wargamers. They are intermixable and can also be mixed with any of the other colours in the range. An added advantage is that they brush paint excellently as well!




And this is what the Phantom looks like after weathering with the airbrush using progressively more black in the paint mix!



Magnus

Great Magnus. A pic always says more than 1000 words, and here you come with 7000 words. First tryout will be the Faber 190!

It looks as if I might actually get the Phantom finished before the end of 2008, bringing my finished total for this year up to the magnificent number of four!


It looks almost finished but there are still a few parts missing.




One of the more prominent missing items is the hook! From this angle you can clearly see my only after market investment in this build: a set of Aires Spey engines. Well worth the extra cost!

More tonight I hope!



Magnus

Hi Magnus,

Fantastic job on the Phantom, it looks superb.

I also like the games workshop paints. I often use the chainmail for chipped paint etc. Have you ever tried their washes. I used the black wash on some armour recently and it works well.

All the best,

Mike.

Thanks Mike!

No, I haven't tried any of Games Workshop´s other products yet. I have had plans to get their primers for some time now but I haven't found my way to the shop yet. I have added washes to the shopping list now, testing new products is part of the enjoyment of modelling!

On to the Phantom: I consider this one finished. I might find a few areas to touch up and do some more detail painting on but it is at least finished enough to be counted into this year´s total of four finished models!











Magnus

Nice build Magnus, I have this aircraft to add to my collection and I'll look to your build for insperation.

Luciano

If feels nice to be an inspiration for a fellow modeller!

There is one piece of information that I have forgotten to include above: If you decide to use a set of Aires engines, they can't be inserted after the fuselage is glued together! I didn't read the instructions so I ended up with modifying the engines using tubing from a pen in order to get them to fit...



Magnus