[dmk0210]

I can't find a good picture of the USAF F-4 Walkways (or similar aircraft) with SEA camo. If anyone has a good pic they want to share, it would be much appreciated.

How do you guys do these? (1/48 scale)

Do they need to be a different color, or just textured under the camo? Do they get really worn? Really dirty (brown, gray)? What color is under the paint?

[Jennings]

I don't recall ever seeing walkways on an SEA camo bird. They might have had the little trapezoidal shaped ones on the wing roots, but not the big ones on the fuselage. And I don't specifically recall ever having seen textured paint on top of the intakes/fuselage in SEA.

[phantom]

Sometimes (not always) the walkways are little thin black lines. Like this.

[bugs3144]

Don't ever remember seeing them on the 100 or 105. Don't think they were used but then that was 47 years ago. The old mind forgets.

Frank
ATL

[Scott R Wilson]

Jennings, on 09 April 2012 - 10:09 PM, said:

I don't recall ever seeing walkways on an SEA camo bird. They might have had the little trapezoidal shaped ones on the wing roots, but not the big ones on the fuselage. And I don't specifically recall ever having seen textured paint on top of the intakes/fuselage in SEA.

Depends on the timeframe. I've seen photos of F-4s taken in the 1960s and early 70s with either no fuselage walkways, or just a small patch of anti-skid painted on top of the intake duct next to the rear cockpit. By the time I was working on F-4Cs and F-4Es, 1980 through 1986, they all had the long walkways on top of the intake duct and another one on the mid upper fuselage extending back to the tail, as well as the trapazoid shapes on the wings. The walkways were a rough anti-skid material mixed with the standard camouflage paint. The outside edge on the intake duct walkways and the sides and front of the upper fuselage (turtleback I've heard it called) walkways had a thin black stripe outlining the anti-skid. Here's a photo I took of one F-4E, which had the standard walkways at the time:




The same walkways were used with other paint schemes as well, all photos I took over the years:

This post has been edited by Scott R Wilson: 10 April 2012 - 01:19 AM

[dmk0210]

Thanks for those pics Scott. The first two are especially helpful.

So it looks like the top of Phantom in first picture just has an outline with no texture apparent on the walkway, but the second picture shows a different color in the wing walkway area. Is that wing area textured, or is the paint just darker from foot traffic?

It seems to me that these areas could be simulated on a 1/48 scale model by just making the walkway areas more matte than the surrounding areas and weathering them with a bit of random dark wash.

This post has been edited by dmk0210: 10 April 2012 - 03:00 PM

[Scott R Wilson]

dmk0210, on 10 April 2012 - 02:55 PM, said:

Thanks for those pics Scott. The first two are especially helpful.

So it looks like the top of Phantom in first picture just has an outline with no texture apparent on the walkway, but the second picture shows a different color in the wing walkway area. Is that wing area textured, or is the paint just darker from foot traffic?

It seems to me that these areas could be simulated on a 1/48 scale model by just making the walkway areas more matte than the surrounding areas and weathering them with a bit of random dark wash.

They had anti-skid texture mixed in the paint. Sometimes it didn't show up in the photos as well, but your idea of making the walkways more matte and using a bit of dark wash randomly sounds good. The walkways did often accumulate more dirt as you surmised. Here's a few more photos from the US DoD that might be useful to you:








And here's some F-4Ds photographed by Mark Jones (posted with permission):

[dmk0210]

Thanks again Scott. Those are nice pictures. I've been trying to find some aerial refueling pics.

That top picture of the F-4E on the flightline is too cool. A rarely seen angle.