SPA Modeler

And I also began work on the gizmology for the rear IP forward side.





And I created the APR-38 mid band receiver for the bottom of the nose fairing...






More in a few days...

I am just giddy. This is coming along very goodly.

Thanks Lyle... but I could really use a good photo or three of the bottom side of the nose fairing and the antennas there. Nearly every other area of the F-4G airframe is covered on one walk around or another. But there...

BTW, those last photos were done with my new phone. Taken, edited, uploaded, and posted. All I can say is that it takes real good close in shots...

More progress today... First thing I did was add some strip styrene for shims on the step where the lower front meets the right side



while the glue for that was drying I took a trip to the LHS for supplies. Mostly paints, but I knew that I could be using something to make the APR-38 low band antenna receivers. There are six on the nose, three per side, and one more on each side of the tail for a total of eight.



From the front each antenna has an inverted "T" profile. So I looked for some "T" shaped strip styrene there. No joy. But... They had some "I" or "H" beam stuff and I found some that looked the right size. So I bought a pack and picked up the other supplies and home I went. My original intent was to cut each proper length, file off what was needed from the "H" to make a "T" and then final shape the antennas. But once I cut the first length an idea popped in my head- cut across the length diagonally and I could get two antennas per section.

so here is how the first pair came out



And in the meantime, I sanded the strip styrene shims smooth then added some Mr Surfacer to blend that work in better...



that is drying now and I will get that sanded smooth tomorrow.

The Mr Surfacer dried more quickly than I thought it would... I sanded the stuff smooth a little while ago...

So my session today was more white work... As in white plastic improvisations. Building antennas. I could not find one clear photo of the forward lower APR-38 high band receiver antenna. But image searching turned up some other system high band receivers, so I based mine off those.

I started with some tube styrene with a base glued into place





then I began to add the low band APR-38 receivers to their positions around the nose



as well as the side chin scoop openings





then I sanded down the tube on the High Band Receiver for a more proper look





so now that is 18 antennas added to the nose on this kit... after all a Weasel needs to be able to sniff out its' prey...
and I made up two more Low Band Receivers that will go on the tail.

That nose section is coming along really nicely Stik - All of that added detail is going to really make it stand out when it's painted up.

Thank you Stuart. I have almost completed what I set out to do on the nose area...

More white work today. Added wiring to the bottom instruments, then I added the two upper rows of instrument housings and the glare shroud to the top of the rear IP.









That's all for now...

Ok, I now have this area properly wired up. It is about 70% accurate, and 30% inferred guess work...





all done back there except for paint...

Great work Stik - I've always liked that effect, there's a lot of detail on the backs of most ip's that gets missed too often - even when visable.

Well worth the effort!