SPOOK
Silver Kings
Alan Kelley shows you how to paint and detail
the 1:48 Eduard F-4J Phantom with Hataka
paintsA
cademy released their
1:48 F-4B in late 2012
and they have appeared
in various guises ever since,
following up with B, D/N
and J releases. Eduard have
also re-boxed these kits and
added several etch and resin
enhancements, in the form of
the ‘Good Morning Da Nang’,
‘Good Evening Da Nang’ and
this ‘Rockin’ Rhino’ kits. This
latter version comes with the
standard Eduard coloured
etch, Kabuki tape masks for
the canopies and wheels,
and features Brassin wheels,
seats, afterburner cans and
exhausts. I also decided to
use the VF-92 ‘Silver Kings’
markings, included with the
kit, as they were beautifully
designed by Furball and
printed by Cartograph.
This squadron saw service
throughout the duration
of the War, from 1965,
until being disestablished
in 1975. During this time,
they first saw service on
USS Enterprise from 1965
to 1969, using F-4Bs, then
transitioned to F-4Js during- The squadron deployed
to USS America in 1970,
before deploying to the USS
Constellation in 1971.
Construction began with
the cockpit, and being a typical
Eduard enhanced kit, all of the
moulded detail here needed
to be removed, and coloured
etch used in its place. So,
this detail was removed and
then the remaining structure
painted Light Grey. This paint
was faded by adding a touch
of White and going over the
centre of the panels. I then
used Warpigs Liquid Pigment
to add a touch of weathering
and wear and tear to the floor
and side consoles. I then glued
all the colour etch into place,
both front and rear cockpit
side consoles, as well as the
instrument panels. Neither
Academy, or Eduard have
included the pilot’s throttle
controls, so I scratch built
these from a leftover spare
control column. The seats
were left out as these would
be constructed, painted and
fitted much later in the project.
The front wheel well was
glued onto the bottom of the
cockpit and then fixed onto
the bottom fuselage. The
main gear bays were also to
be built at this stage. I wasn’t
comfortable adding the main
landing gear so early in the
project, but there would beno other way to get it into place
once the wings were glued onto
the top of the landing gear bays,
so I proceeded as instructed.
Also, the actuating arm for
the front undercarriage door
is exposed once glued in place
and is quite fragile. I made the
conscious decision to split this
in two, leaving the exposed area
off until later, when it would not
be damaged. The landing legs
were painted White, given a Black
wash to accentuate the dark areas
and shadows, before painting
the hydraulic struts Chrome.
The next area to be addressed
was the front intakes leading
back to the compressor face of the
engine. These were glued together
and I ran some Mr Surfacer
down the joints, before painting
these White. The compressors
faces were given an undercoat ofGloss Black, before having some
Alclad Steel misted over them
and left aside to dry. Once this
had cured I ran a Black wash
around the details adding a bit
of shadow to it. The next step
was to assemble the engines and
add them before the fuselage
could be joined up. The main
afterburner assemblies are in the
form of Eduard Brassin Resin.
These are beautifully detailed
and are a vast improvement over
the kit parts. These were again
given a coat of Gloss Black before
having Alclad Steel applied.
Once dry, I added the etched
ignition rings, and to simulate
the effect of the burnt metal I
used Alclad Hot Metal shades
in this area- a combination of
Blue, Red, Sepia and Violet tones.
The burner interiors were then
suitably weathered. I decided to“I CANNOT RECOMMEND HATAKA
PAINTS HIGHLY ENOUGH, AND
ONCE YOU GET THE HANG OF
SPRAYING THEM YOU WILL
NOT STOP USING THEM!”
The kits details were
removed and Eduard
etch addedSPONSORED FEATURE
88 • NOVEMBER 2017 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
F-4J ROCKIN RHINO
088-93-FEAT-Hataka-1117.indd 88 16/10/2017 15:58