Thanks, Louis (@lgardner). If the part was flat rather than curved I would probably give scratchbuilding a try. I also thought about casting it, but the cost of getting some new resin (mine was so old it was solid) would start to rival the price of a new kit. I know there are other things you can use as a casting agent, but I have never had much success with anything else. My long range plan is to steal the part from the other Airfix Mk X I have, then see if I can find a resin engine, and build the next kit with the cowling off. As a side note, I went back to the Airfix website and found a forum where people can go to talk about missing parts. I think I was lucky. There were people who had no engines, one had one wheel missing, one was missing an elevator assembly...you get the idea. All were bemoaning the fact that Airfix doesn't replace missing parts. Another side note: I completely cleaned and straightened my building area for a radius of 6 or 7 feet. So, unless the cat carried it off to her treasure trove of shiny objects, then I am positive the part was never in my zip code. Stay safe!

Sad story with Airfix and the missing service. Could be down to most production being in another country than their headoffice, I do not know.

In the past I have experienced faulty parts in Eduard and Special Hobby kits. Eduard sent me cutoffs from a sprue, great service! On another occasion I had damaged a PE part and asked if I might buy a replacement - a new PE arrived without charge!

A while back I inspected a Special Hobby kit and found a part was not fully cast, asked for a replacement but told them that there was no rush. I forgot all about it, and the other day a parcel arrived with some new kits I had ordered - and in that parcel was a new sprue with the part I had asked for (and forgotten about)

Great service.

Sorry, it got a bit long - hope you are able to replace your missing part somehow, but at least you got the build area cleaned in the process 🙂

It would also speak volumes for customer support. Things like this can influence my decision on if I am going to purchase a model or not. Sadly customer service is a thing of the past with most companies... It sounds like both Special Hobby and Eduard are doing the right thing with this, and that should earn them a larger fan base, and increase their sales.

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten), Erik (@airbum), John (@JohnB), and Louis (@lgardner). You are right. I suspect Airfix doesn't offer parts because their offices and the model factory are in two different places. I know the Airfix offices are in England, and I think the models are manufactured in China. You would think that having offices and manufacturing in two different places is not an insurmountable problem that would prevent supplying missing parts. Atlantis Models (the guys that release many of the old Revell kits) also replace parts. I got one of the old B-25s that sit on the old pylon with a "globe" base, and the main canopy was missing. I contacted their customer service and had a replacement in a couple of weeks.

I am with you, Greg (@gkittinger). I had to think long and hard about stealing one part from a brand new kit. As for the F-4 pylons, it seems like you could get the Navy F-4 pylons in resin in the 1970s. Have you looked around for any from the online stores and companies? I have also found some reasonable parts and conversions on Ebay, which I have only recently started using. I was worried about the payment part on Ebay, but I use Paypal and it all goes fine. I also didn't want to bid on something, but there are many sellers who allow you to buy immediately. I did a quick search on Ebay for "1/48 resin F-4b weapons pylons" and found several different sets of pylons. I don't know if they are the right one, but it might be worth a check. The Hasegawa weapons sets also had pylons in them, but I don't know if they are the correct ones for your F-4B.

Looking good George !

Looking great indeed, George @gblair!
I love the resin exhausts!

Things seem to be rolling now.

The first thing I did today was to get all of the intakes on the wings in place, and then finished my work on the nacelles. From there, it was on to the main landing gear. When I first looked at the gear, it seemed they were overly complex. Each landing gear was made up of 4 plastic pieces. Although they looked like an accident ready to happen when I first checked out the instructions, they actually went together very smoothly. After both main landing gears were assembled, I let them sit and solidify for 12 hours or so.

Also did a little work on the tires and the props. The tires are made up of the kit tires and a more detailed resin hub. They went together well and look pretty good. The props were painted yellow, and then the tips were masked. The blades were painted black. This plane had large spinners over over the prop hubs. I wasn't sure what color they should be, but all of the photos I found on google were black, so that is good enough for me.

The last thing I wanted to tackle today was the tail section. There were three parts to add to the tail: the two vertical stabilizers and a new tail cone. The tail cone fit perfectly on to the existing fuselage plastic. I was surprised by the fit of the vertical stabilizers. The vertical stabilizers were easily added to the horizontal stabilizers with a firm fit that held everything in place while the super glue dried.

Not much left to do before we go to the paint shop. I am starting to see the end of the road here (hopefully I didn't just jinx myself).

Cheers.

Well done George. Looking like an old friend one haven't seen in a while. Everything looks familiar. . . but hey . . . wait a minute . . . something HAS changed . . .

Very nice conversion, and great progress after the minor setback with the nacelle. Hope your friend will be able to 3D a spare for you!