Looks like it's coming along nicely.

Those drawings are great. Thanks, Ken!

Work progresses. Have been working on the rear part of the fuselage.Due to the thinness of the tail and elevators I opted to make them from maple to provide some additional strength.

I love the grain on the fuselage.

Louis

Great work!

Yes, the grain is striking. The wood was a pleasure to carve. It shaved very nicely with a chisel.

Progressing slowly. Fuselage has been mostly completed and sanded with the exception of the final shape of the nose. Have started assembling the parts to the fuselage. First part is the fuselage air deflector. It provides the stand off for the air intake deflector. I could have possibly carved it as part of the fuselage, but opted to have it as a separate part to obtain the appropriate fuselage and canopy shape in this area.

Note: I went to start the next steps a few hours after the fuselage deflectors were installed and discovered both pieces has warped badly due to the water content of the glue. Removed them, cut another two and installed the new ones using epoxy. Will show the results in the next posting.

Beautiful workmanship.

Louis

Wow! That is looking good! Keep the updates coming, please!

Getting there slowly. Thanks for the ongoing encouragement!

This is certainly the most complex model I have started. It's becoming somewhat of a simplified model kit with all the parts. Photo below shows all the completed parts for assembly. Not included are the air intakes and the fuselage air diverter as I installed these prior to thinking about taking a parts breakdown photo.

I abandoned using paper for parts of the nozzle as I was able to achieve the same effect but with stronger side walls using a forstner drill bit and the scroll saw. Will show the procedure for this in a subsequent posting.

I'll cut off the tang at the nose after all parts have been attached to the fuselage and final sanding / filling has been completed.

Excellent workmanship Ken

Louis

That looks great, Ken! The fuselage deflectors look really good. I'd like to see a closeup of them attached, if you can.

The new nozzles are really nice too. I look forward to your post where you explain that process.

Are both of your F-4s at this stage? Or do you carve one first to get an idea of how to do the second?

The second plane is not as far along as this one. I rough cut most of the parts for the two planes together, but perform the final shaping and assembly sequentially. This allows me to apply any learnings from the first plane to the second plane.

I'll post the photos you requested shortly.

-ken

I have captured below 2 methods to create a recessed exhaust nozzle. Both methods start off the same:

Common first steps:
1 - obtain a piece of wood which is the thickness of the nozzle from front to back. Note this is not the tapered length.
2 - Drill a series of through pilot holes to allow centring of an appropriate sized forstner bit to drill holes on both sides of the piece of wood. Anticipate some scrap pieces may occur, hence several pilot holes.
3 - Use a circle template to create the required outside diameter of the nozzle outlet and the required diameter for the nozzle attachment to the fuselage
4 - Drill the nozzle exhaust hole to the required depth using a forstner bit the size of the required inside diameter of the exhaust nozzle. Don't make the hole too deep since the nozzle sidewalls will be thin when fabrication is complete.
5 - Drill a shallow relief hole with the same forstner bit on the side of the nozzle which will be attached to the fuselage. The relief facilitates accommodating any surface irregularities when the nozzle is attached to the fuselage.

Note: The pilot hole should guide the forstner bit spur to a concentric location on both sides of the board.

If cutting using hand tools (file and sandpaper), first trim the nozzle to a rough hexagonal shape to minimize filing and sanding. Mounting surface (ie larger diameter facing up) After sawing, file and sand the nozzle until the required taper between the mounting surface and exhaust outlet is achieved.

If using a scroll saw, adjust the scroll saw table to the required angle. Position the wood to be cut with the nozzle backside on top (i.e. largest diameter on top) and cut out a circle. Recommend staying slightly outside the line to accommodate any irregularities. Sand the cut out to the final required taper. I used a pinless number 3 precision ground scroll saw blade when creating the nozzles in both  pine and maple.

The formula for setting the scroll saw table angle is "arctan[(D2-D1)/2 /thickness of wood]. There are several "actan" calculators on the internet as well as on most scientific calculators. Just ensure the results are in degrees and not radians.

Once sanding is complete, plug the pilot hole. I used a pilot hole the same size as a round tooth pick.

Details on the installation of the inlet air deflector are captured below.

The air intake deflector (photo 31) was cut from a piece of hardwood (maple) due to the thin leading edge. The shape was cut out on a scroll saw, but can be hand cut if required. The scroll saw blade used was a no. 3 pinless precision ground blade. The taper on the leading edge was obtained using a file.

The air intake was originally cut short on the fuselage to allow for the installation of the fuselage air deflector (See photo 22 above). After the fuselage air deflector was installed a notched block of wood to accommodate the intake air deflector was glued in place and shaped (photo 32)

Photo 33 shows the intake air filter dry fitted.

Excellent.

Louis

Thanks for the detailed responses and photos. I like your idea of tilting the table on the scroll saw. Great details! Keep the updates coming!