Tamiya F-4E of the Egyptian Air Force in 1/32 scale

     So here we are in December of 2021, and another year (arguably a terrible one) is nearly gone .  First, I want to wish Happy Holidays to everyone that may have intentionally or not, found my blog.  I've been really busy this last year building models and doing retired life things and thankfully still staying healthy (vertical anyway).  The down side is that I'd not taken the time to update here.  Usually, I post in my Facebook groups (many, many groups) as the interaction between members is more immediate and discussions can be almost in real-time. Like the old model club meetings that most of us modelers attended (in-person) years ago.  As you might have noticed from my previous posts here, I'd become a (Oh Nooo !!) "Phantom Phanatic" . Many of my builds in the last few years have been a recurrent theme of Israeli air force F-4s and most variants thereof.   Well, I was challenged to build something different which was actually welcome for me.  Not that there is anything wrong with becoming a self-styled 'expert' in one thing but more for sanity sake it's good to occasionally mix it up so it doesn't get boring. So still a Phantom, but not the usual.  This time an interesting Egyptian version.  These photos prove that I could do it.  I enjoyed this build and hope you like it as well.  First, some photos of the actual aircraft which I always attempt to build a model from good reference photos.  In this case there were quite a few taken by USAF personnel that participated in a joint exercise with Egypt in 1981 known as "Operation Bright Star".

F-4E #7813 Egyptian Air Force

 THE MODEL

  Here are some views of the cockpit before I attached the canopies.  The interior, sidewalls and ejection seats were resin replacements by Aires,  The instrument panels are "Zoom Color" by Eduard.  Some fancy brushwork in this area and I  was done in no time....

The model was first blackbased with Mr. Surfacer flat black #1500 from a spray can.  After I had a good fine basecoat overall the other colors (Testors Modelmaster enamel paints) were applied panel by panel to achieve a mildly disruptive grey finish on all the upper surfaces.  This technique works well over the black color and can be modulated to give as weathered an appearance as desired.  I prefer to keep this effect light because following this I apply clear gloss coating and decals.  Finally, a thinned oil wash on all the panel and rivet lines to bring out the surface details.  So that was that and I hope you like how it turned out.  See you next year and if you are following groups in Facebook check out my other group: "1/32 scale Aviation Modeling".  

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