Noseing closer to the goal line!
Double pun! NCAA Football today, AND today's update is a lot about the hard to fit nose of the Academy Phantoms! First, GO DUCKS BEAT THE HUSKIES. For those who need reference, maybe it's like England Playing France in the world cup, or something similar in the soccer world NCAA fans are just about as insane as soccer fans. Today The Ducks host said sniveling puppies in Eugene. Me I live in Seattle (home of the UW Huskies), and don't want another year of listening to them gloat. SO Huck the Fuskies. Ok, now on the the Phantom. The prescribed nose part on the F-4B kits at least on the two I have built are substantially to big. maybe 1-1.5mm, which creates quite a step. Included in the kit is another nose, maybe for the C? At any rate, I decided to see if it fit better, and it did, still a shade bigger, but nothing a few swipes of 600 grit did not fix. Problem is of course, there is no cut out for the IR pod under the nose, but there IS a small cut out for something else. Well, I filled the hole with card, super glued and then shaped. I cut off the part of the IR pod that wen into the old nose shaped it, a tad of Mr Surfacer 500 and poof! Nose job! Next step was adding the tail, scoops (undersized I know, but really can you tell unless you have another one next to it?) wing tips and then primer. This was the test of how my extra fitting and changing up assembly sequence went. Well, I think I did ok. I lost a tiny amount of detail in the tail area, but still have all the screw heads and such. The three biggest problem areas; The nose, intakes, and seam where the forward fuselage meets the rear all lost little to no detail by carefully fitting, sanding fitting sanding etc. Next weapons, bits and bobs and paint! I am thinking VF-143 Pukin' Dogs USS Constellation 1967, keeping with ships I have served on. I remember working on Connies flight deck in the 2000s and thinking about the amazing history and array of aircraft that had been there over the years. Ok, until next time GO DUCKS!
Nice catch Rob, making a note to self to make that fix or correction when I get to building this kit. With a couple of Hase F-4's under my belt I have this particular kit and hope to pick up ZM kit down the road as well. Thanks for sharing that.
Chuck
PS Fight on! SC
Looking really good and smooth there, Rob. Make a fortune a few miles down the road in LA with nose jobs like that. Good luck with the footbally thingy. Go Duckies!
Coming along great,Rob!
Great changes, Rob.
Also, since my Little Sister Cheri works for That Oregon School in Eugene, I'll say ... go Ducks! (Trivia Time! In keeping with the iMod @ the movies - [& I'll add TV,] I'll put in this: that's where Teal'c went to school)
"Huck the Fuskies" - I'm STILL chuckling about that one! LoL!
Gotta luv them Phantoms, Rob... 🙂
Thanks guys, I am still curious why one nose fit better than the other. Had it been a one off, as in my last one didn't fit but this one did or visa versa I would say expansion or shrinkage during the molding of the kit. But I as able to hold them back to back where they attached to the fuselage and the intended B nose was larger and a slightly different shape in circumference. Last build I lost a ton of detail in this area sanding the nose to fit. So obviously they are different molds, but whomever did the CNC milling of one mold the programming was off or the input was not quite the same? I'm not sure how all that works, but they are for sure different.
To the Ducks!
And “Huck the Fuskies!”
@robertandy
DUCKS WIN IN OVERTIME! WOOT WOOOT WOOOT!
Congratulations, Rob. Good day all round!
Nice work on the nose job, and other assemblies! Looking good! I just got 3 Navy Phantoms in the mail - a first for me...