1/72 Revell F-4F

[Plumbum]

Just curious about this kit from ROG. It is fairly new with engraved panel

lines. How hard is it to make this an F-4E or can't it be done. Wikepedia

says it's just a simplified version of the E for export. What's different?

Thanks---John

[tempestfan]

Mid 90s tooling with engraved surface detail. The F basically is a late E but has an unslotted stabilator and no Sparrow capability, which doesn't show externally. 

[Giorgio N]

The Revell F-4F could have been a great way to model any F-4E, more so as Revell also includes the original "hard wing" in the box from the RF-4E sprues, so making possible to build an earlier aircraft. But as said above, they didn't include the slotted stabilators, only the unslotted ones used on the Luftwaffe F-4F. If you can find a pair of slotted stabilators you are sorted.

At the same time the Revell F-4F is also a great missed opportunity: the kit is nicely moulded with very good surface detail and plenty of details in the cockpit and other areas. It's relatively cheap and very easily available and it could have become a 1/72 modeller first choice for a Phantom model... if only Revell had watched a few more pictures of a real Phantom or measured one ! The canopy area in particular is quite bad, with the clear parts too squashed giving the whole front fuselage a weird look. Posing the canopy open makes things a little better but the problem is still noticeable if you know it's there. The Hasegawa kit is less detailed, more expensive and harder to find but it looks much better. Of course accuracy is something not everyone is interested in, if you aren't then this is in any case a good modern kit

[Plumbum]

Thanks, accuracy is important to me, little details that aren't so noticeable not

so much but the basic shape like a "squashed canopy " shape bothers me and

turns me away. I was hoping when I saw the forward fuselage that maybe Revell

Germany would run with the ball like Hasegawa did and do several variants from

one mold. A different forward fuselage and stab and wing parts for each variant,

B, J,N, S, E, G. But it doesn't look like that's happening.---John

[Navy Bird]

Hi John,

 

Here is my Revell F-4F converted into a JASDF F-4EJ Kai, with that great anniversary scheme. I think you can get a sense of what the canopies look like on the finished model. The slotted stabilators came from an old ESCI F-4 kit.

 

 

 

Notice the gray paint on the windscreen frame, and also that there is no frame that runs along the bottom of the windscreen side panels. There isn't one on the real bird, at least not much of one, but a lot of modellers paint one there anyway. That contributes to a squashed look to the windscreen.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Scout712]

Another great problem with the RoG (R)F-4 kit are the intakes. They are wayyyyyy to squared. I'd prefer a Hase kit anytime.

Regards

Michael

[Duncan B]

If you are building a later F with the wing slats be aware that RoG got the numbering for the underwing slat actuators the wrong way round so if you follow the instructions you end up with them on the wrong wings (guess how I found out!).

 

Duncan B

[sroubos]

I've often read this comment on the 'slotted stabiliser', can anyone point out on a picture what it actually looks like? I'm not sure what to look for.

[ivand]

There's a very clear picture in this thread of a slotted stabilizer.

 

Here 's a picture of an unslotted one on an F-4F.