Phantom F4-E Children's Toy

[Model Maker]

It's that time of the year again. Summer is over and time to start a Christmas gift for a child. 2019 hasn't been a very productive modelling year, so thought I had better start now in order to have it finished in time.

Scale is 1:48. But it looks large compared to the other children's toys I have made. Hopefully as I carve down the fuselage it will become lighter. This will be a bit of a challenge for me as it's not as straight fuselage. But I'll take my time and hopefully the end product will be a reasonable facsimile. I've beefed up the wing and stabilizer thicknesses to hopefully account for the stresses associate with being a toy.

I'll post the plans after I complete the model as I suspect I will be making some minor changes.

[lastvautour]

We already see it is a Phantom. I look forward to the next photos.

Lou

[Model Maker]

Horizontal and vertical stabilizers fitted to fuselage. As I fitted the stabilizers, I realized I should have beef up the rear section of the fuselage. I think the stabilizers will stand up to the stresses of being a toy. I would have liked a deeper penetration of the horizontal stabilizer. I've made some changes to the plans to account for this, so when the plans are posted, they will incorporate these learnings.

Since this is a toy, I opted to cut a dado where the wings meet so I can insert a hardwood shim to maximize the strength of the joint. The photo shows a trial shim. When I assemble, I will incorporate a pair of shims which span the complete width of the wing.

On to rough carving the fuselage profile next.

[buccfan]

Good progress Ken. Regards Paul J.

[lastvautour]

Coming along nicely.

Lou

[Boomerang]

Watching with interest.

Looks Good Ken.

Gordon

[Model Maker]

Christmas is fast approaching and I'm not sure I'll have this finished in time. But I should be able to make it in time for the New Year and the 2019 SMM poster.

Wasn't sure how to approach the rear fuselage as all the other models I have worked on had concave curves along the fuselage. The Phantom has several convex curves at the rear and I've never carved convex work before. I've used a couple of gouge chisels, taking light cuts along with frequent checks using the fuselage station templates as I didn't want to remove too much material. The bench hook vee block has been great to work against by providing an appropriate backstop. If you are interested in one, plans are in the Tools folder.

I struggled as well on  how to shape the engine exhaust nozzles. I finally decided to try the alternate use of a carving knife along the face of the nozzle and a gouge chisel taking light cuts to shape the fuselage. In the photo, one nozzle has been roughly shaped and the other is a work in progress. The approach seems to be working.

Anyways, there's an elf on the shelf telling me to get back to work!  So - Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's back to work I go!  (Oops, that's the wrong movie)

[Boomerang]

Always a pleasure to watch your progress.

Cheers

Gordon

[Gearup]

Nice work. The carving stop design is a good one.
Fraser

[lastvautour]

Looking great. Will it be done by Christmas?

[Model Maker]

Not sure if it will be complete for Christmas. But hopefully for year end.

The carving stop works great. Due to the Vee shape, it traps the carving and prevents it from moving around.

The engine nozzles and fuselage relief are mostly finished. Had to make a couple of special sanding fixtures to confirm to the geometry. The sanding disk attached to the drill to smooth the face of the nozzles worked great.

[RyanShort1]

That V does look handy! Nice looking work there.

[Model Maker]

Yes the vee block certainly comes in handy when carving fuselages. I'm not sure on the workmanship - I struggle to match the workmanship of others on this board.

Wasn't sure how to cut the mortise on the fuel tanks. I initially tried using a dowel, but stability was an issue as it had a tendency to rotate. So I grabbed a scrap piece of wood and created two mortises. The scrap piece was then cut to the the correct width. Final shaping was performed using a vee block assembly, plane, microplane, chisel and course sandpaper.

Fuselage shaping and dado cut out for wings completed using the carving clamp to hold the tang at the front of the fuselage. Once the final shaping and sanding is complete, I'll remove the tang and complete the shaping of the nose.

To provide strength to the wing I opted to insert a spline to connect the two wing sections. Rough rounding of leading and trailing edges of wings was performed using a micro plane. The more I use the micro plane the more impressed I am with their rate of material removal. Much faster than a file.

[Gearup]

I can really see the advantages of the holding device and tang for carving the fuselage. The square of the tang remains a good reference for various cuts and alignment of the model during carving.  Looking really nice!
Fraser

[lastvautour]

Beautiful Ken. The grain look fantastic.

Lou