✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

Today marks the 100th tweet of my F-4J build logs, thank you for following along with me.

I started this project back in May 2022, let's see if I can finish it within a year 😇

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

All wheels are on!

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 94 - The gear doors are installed

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 93 - The front landing gear door

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 92 - Front landing gear is installed

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 91 - Landing gear is assembled and ready to installed

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 90 (1/2) - Landing gear in progress

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 89 (2/2) - Main strut and wheels are installed

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 89 (1/2) - Installed the wheels

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 88 - Building the main strut

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 86 - Start working on the front landing gear

Many parts are not included in the kit, have to scratch build them...

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 85 Main landing gear parts are fully integrated

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 84 Air brake installed

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 83 Preparing the air break

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 82 Installed the landing gear door part 2

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 81 Preparing the landing gear door part 2

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 80 2/2 - First try standing with the landing gear, and the legos ... (get inspiration from @PanczykLE 😃)

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 80 1/2 Landing gear doors part 1 is attached

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 79 - Preparing the main landing gear doors part 1

Adding cardboard inside made the assembling easier. Gonna use this trick more in the future.

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 78 - Main wheels are installed

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 77 - Strengthen the part connecting the wheel and the strut, hopefully it's strong enough.

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 76 - Preparing the parts supporting wheels

The highlighted part will be the support between the strut and wheel, it's certainly not strong enough to hold the weight ...

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 75 - The wheels

To save time, use the resin wheels, colored with acrylic paint.

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 74 - Struts of both sides

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 73 - Main landing gears strut installed

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 72 - Main landing gears strut and support

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 71 - The tail flaps are installed

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 70 - Preparing the flaps

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 69 - Vertical stabilizer installed

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 68 - Preparing the vertical stabilizer

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📅 Day 67 - Assembled the wings

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📅 Day 66 - Wing flaps for outer wing tips

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📅 Day 65 - Installed wing flaps

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📅 Day 64 - Main wings glued to the fuselage, not able to fix the gaps completely, but at least make them less noticeable 😌

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 62 - Outer wing tips are ready

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 61 - Preparing the outer wing tips

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Dry fitting doesn't go well. The gaps are quite noticeable. Have to do some trimmings ... 🙁

✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 60 - Installed the wing hinge wires, and the main wings are ready

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 59 - Right wing assembled

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 58 - Landing gear and airbreak recesses of the right wing

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 57 - Assemble the left wing

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 56 - Cutting the folding wings.

Just noticed the construction notes of the hinge, need to add patches to the main wing ...

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 55 - Glued the recesses to the wing

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 54 - Cutting the wing to place the recesses for landing gear and airbrake

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 53 - Landing gear recess

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 52 - Preparing the landing gear recesses

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 51 - Start working on the wings

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 50 - The fuselage is done!

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 49 - Lower fuselage is done

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 48 - Preparing parts for the lower fuselage

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 47 - The tailhook

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 46 - Rear fuselage sections are completed

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✈ F-4J Phantom II 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 45 - Fuselage sections part #21

I need to practice more on this kind of shape...

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✈ F-4J Phantom 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 44 - Fuselage sections part #19

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📅 Day 43 - Fuselage sections part #17

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✈ F-4J Phantom 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 42 - Start working on the rear fuselage sections - part #16

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✈ F-4J Phantom 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 41 - The engine nozzles are installed.

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✈ F-4J Phantom 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 40 - The engine nozzles will be installed soon.

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✈ F-4J Phantom 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 39 - The engine nozzles are ready to install

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✈ F-4J Phantom 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 38 - The engine nozzels

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✈ F-4J Phantom 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 37 - Fuselage segment #14

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 36 - Fuselage segment #12

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 35 - Fuselage segment #11

The length already goes beyond the A4 cutting pad

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 34 - Fuselage segment #10

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 33 - Forward fuselage belly and missile recesses

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 32 - Fuselage segment #9

It's so big 😅

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 31 - Fuselage air intakes segment installed

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 30 - Fuselage air intakes segment

The inner side of the air intakes is has no color, decided to add a black cover. One more day to get them assembled 😅

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 29 - Shaping the fuselage air intakes segment

Spent lots of time to shape the parts, hope the assembling will be smooth.

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 28 - The air intakes

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 27 - Preparing the fuselage part 8

After completing the A-4F, I'm back to the work of F-4J

F-4 in 1:33 v.s. A-4 1:144

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 26 - Put cabin inside the fuselage

Quite challenge to fit it in. I think I have glued the rear cockpit to the wrong position which is too high, need to fix it before the next step...

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 25 - Getting the front fuselage ready

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 24 - Back to the fuselage

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📅 Day 23 - Preparing the front landing gear recess flap

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 22 - Some interior details of the front landing gear recess

Lego bricks are the perfect tools for shaping and gluing the cube corners 😁

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 21 - Preparing the front landing gear recess

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 20 Both front and rear cockpit are assembled and connected.

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 19 The font cockpit is assembled.

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 18-2 The control sticks

Made control sticks from the clay

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 18-1 The control sticks

No corresponding parts from the paper sheets, but a simple diagram...

Decided to make them from the clay

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 17 - The rear cockpit instrument panel

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 16 - The rear cockpit parts.

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 15 - The front cockpit parts.

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 14 - Working on the front cockpit.

To make the edge sharper, I tried cutting the folding line slightly, then did some color retouching on the white edge.

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 13 - Ejection handles are installed, the seats are complete now.

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 12 - The ejection handles - painting is done

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 11 - The ejection handles - continue...

Not much experience on painting... covered the surface with surface primer before painting the actual color

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 10 - The ejection handles.

The instruction is not detail enough, took some photos as reference, not sure if it's the exact model though. Will do some painting works afterwards

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 9 - Both seats are done.

Next will work on the ejection handles.

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 8 - The rear pilot seat is in progress

Added frame support to make the assemble easier.

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 7 - The front pilot seat is almost done

Will add the ejection handle after the second seat is done.

🖼️ build logs -

✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 6 - The front pilot seat

Not much progress yesterday, just did some edge touching up, shaping and dry assembling.

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 5 - Start working on the pilot seat, it's a very much simplified version😂

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 4 - Nose cone is done

The edge of each parts are still visible, but I'm happy with the result.

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 3 - Nose cone part 3

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 3 - Nose cone part 2

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 2 - Nose cone part 1

According to the instruction, each segment to be glued individually before connect together. I'm taking a different approach and hoping it can make the connection smoother.

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✈ F-4J 1:33 - GPM

📅 Day 1 - Cutting the nose cone.

I'm a bit concerning the black border around the edge, so tried to get rid of it using sandpaper. Will it work? Let's see after the assemble.

Thanks for the suggestion, decision is made. Will be working on this GPM F-4J paper model in coming months. 🛩️