Luftwaffe RF-4F Phantom coming up!

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Don't want to blow up the Phantom thread with these pics...

Just some pre-release test flight with my upcoming repaint of the Alphasim/Virtavia (now freeware!) RF-4F in Norm 72 colours of AG 52 "Panther".

Climbing out of Eggebek:

Air intake textures received a colour gradient to becomer 'darker' inwards:

The german Phantoms (also called "Luftwaffendiesel" or "Eisenschwein") did bear some bilingual stencils:

Low level reconnaissance, just some 1000 ft above the North Sea:

Back to Westerland/Sylt:

Just some final fiddling needed...

Cheers,
Markus.

 

[Sascha66]

I do believe I had that same plane as a 1:12 scale plastic kit in the 70's!

 

[Sascha66]

I do believe I had that same plane as a 1:12 scale plastic kit in the 70's!

Must have been 1:18 or so I think.

 

[Sunny9850]

As I mentioned in the main F4 thread.....Thank you very much in advance Markus for bringing the Luftwaffe paints to us in such splendid fashion. Looks stunning as all your work.

The hangar has been swept and space for the thrill of my youth has been made. I can still remember the house shaking on it's foundation when they came by what seemed just over the top of our chimney, starting my fascination with aviation and really annoying everyone else
:ernae:

Stefan

 

[nazca_steve]

Really, really nice work there, Markus. Super-fine detail, rivets, stencils, some panel line lightening. Lovely stuff.

 

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Thanks (again) for your kind replies, folks!

...Super-fine detail, rivets, stencils, some panel line lightening.

Well, some parts of this praise must be addressed to the creator of the paint kit, as layered rivets, panel lines, shading and most stencils are already included with this set!
I just had to add a seperate "speed dirt" layer and some custom stencils and decals...

Cheers,
Markus.

 

[Trans_23]

Thanks (again) for your kind replies, folks!


Well, some parts of this praise must be addressed to the creator of the paint kit, as layered rivets, panel lines, shading and most stencils are already included with this set!
I just had to add a seperate "speed dirt" layer and some custom stencils and decals...

Cheers,
Markus.

Gotta love those types of paint kits. :ernae:

 

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Gotta love those types of paint kits.

Yep.
Just like Steve's Canberra kits. Making a painter's live much easier...

 

[Duckie]

Thanks (again) for your kind replies, folks!


... stencils are already included with this set!...

Cheers,
Markus.

Hey Markus, help me out here. For the life of me I cannot find the stencils you referenced already being in the set. I've looked in all the versions and all layers of all textures and don't see them. Got a clue you can post to help me locate them?

Thanks,

Steve

 

[Wild Bill Kelso]

No prob, Steve!

In this case, it's
Phantom set 3 Paint Kit > RF Version > left wing_T.psp > "stencils" layer (third from bottom)
The Set 1 masters (different mapping) obviously aren't this elaborated...

Cheers,
Markus.

 

[Duckie]

No prob, Steve!

In this case, it's
Phantom set 3 Paint Kit > RF Version > left wing_T.psp > "stencils" layer (third from bottom)
The Set 1 masters (different mapping) obviously aren't this elaborated...

Cheers,
Markus.

Well, DUH! Obviously I didn't look at everything I thought I had! Thanks a million Markus. :salute:

Later,

 

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Glad I could help!

 

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Just a little more teasin'...

After fiddling on stencils, placards, decals and ejection marks for hours and hours (high-resolution repaints sometimes can be a curse!), I was in the mood to heat up the nozzles for a quick (M 1.6!) ride along the North Sea shores.

Taxiing at Ian Elliot's great Wittmund (home of JG 71 "Richthofen", note F-4Fs in the background)
(http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?action=jump&catid=109&id=2255)

Note: The crew's apparel is orange red now as it should. They aren't escaping prisoners...

Just turnin' some fuel into noise:

 

[ian elliot]

Hi Marcus, im really looking forward to this repaint, the RF model is the only part of the Alpha pack im intrested in, looks loverly.
As for Wittmund, i think your missing some objects, if you have the MAIW French Mirage packs installed they should show up,
once again, can't wait cheers ian

 

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Thanks for pointing me to it, Ian.
And thanks for creating this nice playground for my Rhino! :salute:

But I think I'd better leave the objects as they are to keep framerates high...

Cheers,
Markus.

 

[thunder100]

hallo Markus

Did the Marine boys also have RF-4's

Liebe Grüße

Roland/Wien

 

[Wild Bill Kelso]

As far as I know, the "Marineflieger" didn't operate RF-4Fs.
They had some F-104G used for reconnaissance (and the Breguet "Atlantic" of course).
The Starfighters got replaced by MRCA Recce Tornados.

But the grey "Marine" scheme would have looked nice on the Rhino...

Cheers,
Markus.

 

[bully707]

Hallo Markus!

Fantasic repaint! As always I might add...:salute:
Flying this beauty would really make my day.

Keep up the great work!

JG71 "R" FSM (Reserve)

 

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Hallo, Bernd!

Lieben Dank! :salute:
As I've just seen in the Warbird's Archive, you've already done some dances with this lady (Cloud9 version) before...
No Norm 72 included?

Some very good news:
Mediated by Carlo at vgaf.net, I've received permission to make use of the painstakingly accurate stencils made by a very nice guy named Volker Prauss, originally created for a StrikeFighters RF-4F paint. They just needed some resizing and re-adjusting.

The left wing is already fitted with those typical bilingual stencils and maintenance markings:

Note the difference to the right wing's english-only stencils included with the paint kit!
Same goes for the underwing and belly letterings:

Now for the starboard side...

Cheers,
Markus.

 

[Sunny9850]

I had a nice long conversation with a USAF F4 driver this past weekend at McClellan who was based in Germany for a while. A bunch of very neat details came to light, such as that the compartment behind the rear cockpit that normally houses some equipment to locate the aerial tanker can hold 59 1l bottles of wine for transport back to the USA

More useful numbers are that it took 18 minutes to go from full tanks to bingo fuel in stage 4 of the afterburner. With the original smooth nose models that was good enough for MACH 2.5 at or around FL320.
At Max Military power it topped out at MACH .97 or so.
Full Ferry fuel was about 3100 gal and that was good for a three hour flight with some reserves.

Another interesting bit of info was that the gun installed in the Phantom did not throw it's spent shells overboard...they were basically rolled back up and stayed with the airplane.
One reason was obvious....the shells could have possibly gone into the air intakes of the engines. The other was that throwing them overboard also would have shifted the CG aft.

Ok...now that I rambled on a bit....did you finish the paint yet Markus
I have not flown the F4 yet.....it's still sitting in the hangar under a tarp waiting for this striking paint job.
:ernae:

Stefan