the sense of sizing. To my eyes they appear to
be slightly large compared to the real aircraft.
I only really noticed after I’d applied most of
them so obviously not a major issue but maybe
noteworthy for other modellers. Once applied
the decals were left overnight to fully
adhere before a light wash with warm
soapy water to remove any excess
decal glue prior to being sealed
in irstly with a Gloss coat
followed by a Matt coat
ready for weathering. I
predominantly use
oil colours forweathering with various mixes of lamp black,
raw umber and Paynes Grey. I started of with a
darker mixture for the panel lines went around
the entire aircraft until complete. After which
I’ll add more thinners to the mixture and add
a ilter wash. This, if done subtly, can provide
slight tonal variances in the paintwork and give
a weathered appearance. Less is more in this
instance. I spent a couple of nights on adding
ilters, washes and general weathering across
the airframe until I was happy with the
efect. I sealed the weathering in with a
very light mist coat of Matt.
The last section of the build, as with
many, is to add the undercarriage
legs, doors and canopy etc. Imentioned earlier that the instructions ask
you to add the legs halfway through the build
which I opted not to do hoping to ix these
at the end. This proved a little trickier than I
envisioned. The legs would just not it. In the
end, I had to cut and remove one of the base
supporting spars, add the main
leg and then glue the removed
piece afterwards. Nothing
major to behonest but it just goes to show that instructions
are usually written in a sequence for a reason!
The last item or items I had to complete were
the ejection seats. The sides of which were
sprayed Tamiya XF-85 Rubber Black with the
cushions picked out in two difering colours
of green/khaki. The kit seats are relatively well
detailed which pops out nicely with a suitable
wash. I opted to try Eduard’s Super Fabric
belts which turned out to be very fragile when
removing from the backing sheet. However,
once added and glued in place with some
PVA they look very good indeed. The
ordnance was added and glued in
place together with the handful of
aerials and lastly the front and rear
canopies and the model was
completed. MA(^22) F-4J PHANTOM WWW.MODELAIRCRAFTMAG.COM