Scale Aviation Modeller International — November 2017

and dried to give an excellent,

hard wearing finish which was

touch dry in only a matter of

seconds. It does take a few coats

to build-up the depth of colour,

and I found it is worth giving the

airbrush nozzle a clean every so

often to stop any build of paint.

I used a process of spraying

the centre of each panel first, in a

wavy pattern, building the colour

up in the centre moving outwards

toward the edge of each panel,

before giving the whole area a few

sweeping coats. The bottom of

the aircraft was painted in Hataka

Insignia White, following the same

method as on the top surface of the

aircraft. I also used some thinly cut

tape to mask the top section off and

give the demarcation lines along

the sides of the fuselage. As well

as the standard Grey over White

scheme the flaps, flaperons,

horizontal stabilisers,

rudder and nose

radome were painted White. I also

painted the undercarriage doors,

speed brakes and LAU-7 launch

rails for the aircraft’s weapons. The

edges of the undercarriage doors,

inner surfaces of the speed brakes

and inner edges of the flaps were

painted Red using Hataka Blue Line

Traffic Red, applied with a brush.

The vertical stabiliser, wing tips

and tips of the horizontal stabs

were painted Yellow, which was

Hataka HTK-A222 Lemon Yellow

thinned with HLT again. The

last area to be addressed was the

exhaust blast panels on the tail.

On the F-4 almost all these panels

were Titanium but would look and

weather differently depending on

whether it was in the direct path

of the exhaust or not. I masked

the area off and sprayed it Gloss

Black, thinned with HLT, before

adding a base metal coat of Alclad

Steel. I ran a base highlight coat of

Alclad Burnt Metal on some of the

raised points, before using there

Hot Metal shades to give the effect

of heat marking over the bottom

panels. I finally weathered it using

a Dirt and Grime wash, and a Black

panel line wash. The Brassin resin

burner cans were also undercoated

Gloss Black, followed by Alclad

Steel and Pale Burnt Metal. The

...which is such so

synonymous with the

Phantom

The finished effect

The rear metal

areas were first

painted Gloss Black

The missiles were given

a primer coat.....

Various Alclad shades

were used.....

...to achieve the desired effect.....

.....and painted Gloss White,

and their decals added

90 • NOVEMBER 2017 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

F-4J ROCKIN RHINO

088-93-FEAT-Hataka-1117.indd 90 16/10/2017 15:59