Usually for the tires, I'd freehand everything and it doesn't come out too well. I decided to do something different this time. First, the wheel was painted white, then I masked it with a glob of blutack. Black is then brushed on. Turned out to be quite OK after I removed the blutack, just had to do some minor fixing up. Then I superglued the tire to the landing gear and gave it a light wash of black grey.

Took a look at the ejection handles again and thought I can do better. So base coat white, then quick brush of yellow, then carefully did the black section again. Much better now.

The process is simple enough.

1. Cover the old panel line with superglue
2. Immediately sprinkle talcum powder onto the superglue
3. Sand immmediately

Some observations after it was done:

• I'll have to use a toothpick to apply the superglue to reduce the amount needed to be sanded off
• The combination dries almost instantaneously unlike regular putty
• When it dries, it dries very tough
• It takes a lot more effort to sand than normal putty but scribing is easier
• Dry sanding is much better than wet sanding
• It's much easier to scribe with a sewing needle attached to a pin vise

I then used the needle to scribe over all the major panel lines on the kit. This will prevent additional primer from obliterating the lines.

The next major area that needs fixing are the 5 circles on the spine which were sanded away. So what I did was:

1. Used a circle template to draw a circle on a piece of masking tape
2. Used a sewing needle to lightly scribe the circle
3. Then carefully went around a couple of times
4. Repeat 4 more times
5. Lightly sand away the residue
6. Primer to check end result.

Whew! Did it in one shot. Lucky it turned out OK.

Lastly, I re-puttied and re-scribed the panel lines for the flare doors that I removed from the tail.

Just needs some additional careful scribing and we're all set.

Then disaster struck. Again.

So I primered the kit with Krylon white from the spraycan. And look how it turned out. Dusty and pebbly. Sigh...

I ended up having to sand down the whole kit again. To make things worse, some of the panel lines are now even more shallow because of the primer.

I also realized that I had forgotten to first paint the canopy parts black so when everything is finished, the insides of the canopy will appear black.

I foresee a long weekend...

Tomorrow, I'll have to sand the putty smooth and redo the panel lines.

Next up, to prepare for the first primer coat, it's time to seal up the cockpit area. First up, attach the HUD with white glue, then paint the cockpit area dark grey (I never use black), then attach the ejection seats, and lastly attach the canopy parts with white glue.

The fit for the 4 part canopy is a bit fiddly and white glue takes time to dry. So I ended up using ore masking tape to keep the pressure on.

If it all goes well, tomorrow I will spray primer on this thing to find all the areas I will need to fix.

Anyhow, I just had to complete the fuselage of the new kit and use the parts prepped for the old fuselage. Saves time methinks. First up, the cockpit, which was given a hand-painting of grey and kit decals for all the control surfaces.

Unlike the previous one, this time I consciously put in more effort to do the fuselage properly. So I took my time to fit the parts together. Should save some time in the puttying stage.

I added empty outside pylons during the period of the Vietnam War, Navy Phantoms never flew with outboard fuel tanks. So it was either empty pylons or ordnances. This particular F-4J I'm depicting flew with empty outboard pylons during its last mission. The kit didn't come with these pylons. These are generously provided by a friend Maxwinamp, who took them from his Fujimi Phantom kit.

The damage to the kit are as follows...

1. The control stick went missing although if I shook the kit, it's rattling somewhere inside.
2. The right wing broke off and a whole chunk of the flap went missing. Going to be hard to scratchbuild due to the teardrop shape of the flaps.
3. The most damage was to the tailfin where an antennae has almost broken off and the whole triangular extension behind the tailfin went missing.

Bugger! Bugger! Now what do I do? Replace the whole kit or try to fix the problems? I'm leaning towards the former but man... this sucks big time!

After letting the canopy dry for 24 hours, it's time to start masking. Most people, when they mask, they tend to put tape all over the parts then use a sharp knife to cut out the canopy frames. I did that before with disastrous results. So I do it the long way. With tiny cut pieces of masking tape and slowly masking just the clear parts. The work is rougher and more time consuming but at least I won't have to put a knife onto the clear parts.

The fit of the intakes however, is something else. In this case, I think Hasegawa over-engineered this part so they could crank out as many different versions of the aircraft with just one mold design. Along with the bottom/wing assembly, you'd have to adjust and re-adjust the intakes a fair bit to get the best fit. This was the best I could do. Basically, the right intake is more or less fine, but the left intake will take some puttying to fix. Oh well.

Another part that makes me scratch my head are panels on both sides of the tail which as far as I can tell, don't even exist in the real pictures of Phantoms that I've seen. The panels need to be cemented which causes some gaps no matter how I adjusted them. And I still haven't figured out what purpose these panels serve.

Following the instructions, all the necessary holes were opened to fit the antennae blades seen on the F-4J. However, I only realized I missed one after I glued the fuselage sides together. Bummer.

The F-4J I'm modeling will be Bu No. 155800 from VF-96 'Fighting Falcons', AKA 'Showtime 100'. Pilot Randall 'Duke' Cunningham and RIO Willie Driscoll would score a triple kill on this aircraft to become the only US Navy aviators to achieve 'ace' status in the Vietnam War. However, 'Showtime 100' would be shot down by a SAM after getting its third kill on that day.

This is a prominent aircraft in the history of the Phantom so I decided I needed one in my collection. Some research was done on 'Showtime 100' to make it as accurate as possible to how it appeared on that fateful day. To that end, this is what I did:

• Got a hold of Yellowhammer's (YHD72-02) Showtime 100 decal sheet. Touted as the most accurate markings of the particular aircraft in the market
  
  
• From the Hasegawa weapons sets, I got a hold of 4 x AIM-9 Sidewinders, 2 x AIM-7 Sparrows and 4x Mk.20 Rockeye cluster bombs. This was the loadout carried by 'Showtime 100' on that day
  
  
• During the war, Navy Phantoms only carried the centerline fuel tank so I left out the wing tanks and replaced them with empty bomb pylons that a good friend Maxwinamp passed to me from his Fujimi Phantom kit
  
  
• Left out the intake ECM blisters that only appeared in late F-4J variants

Lastly, I cut out all the landing gear and prep them for painting too so I can just paint everything in one shot. So now I'm all done! Next is a coat of primer and seam fixing begins! Yay...

With aircraft kits, it always begins with the cockpit. Typical of Hasegawa, the control surfaces are all decals. Many people don't like this but for this scale, I think it's perfectly fine. Cockpit grey colors were handbrushed on and the decals quickly put on. The seats are quite detailed, made up of 5 parts. The only downside is the lack of any seatbelts. I made them by carefully cutting Tamiya masking tape and painting the resulting straps in grey. Placement was based on a picture of the actual Martin Baker Mark H-7 ejection seat I saw in The Ejection Site. I left out the waist belt since with the cockpit in the fuselage, that lack of detail can't be seen by anyone anyway. The ejection handles were carefully handpainted in alternate black and yellow colors. Not accurate by any means (the bands are too thick) but I they are really tiny.

In the process of placing the control panel details, I lost the left one. That's what I get for not working in a well lit room. Anyway, I decided to leave it as is, figuring that that again, with the cockpit, this missing detail won't be visible.

And I was right! Closing up the two fuselage halves, most of the missing detials can't be seen. Heh. And with my planned closed canopy configuration, they will be even more hidden.

The rest of the cockpit area was quickly painted up. Now I just need to attached the HUD and I can close up the cockpit. Never to see it again until I'm finished with the project.