F-4 Phantom Exhaust Nozzles USAF Late (for Tamiya)

[Mike]

F-4 Phantom Exhaust Nozzles USAF Late (for Tamiya)

1:32 Eduard Brassin

The Tamiya kit of the F-4 Phantom has been with us for a while and has attracted a lot of aftermarket goodies, these range from photo etch to seamless intakes and some conversions for versions that have not been catered for by Tamiya.

This set is all about the hot end of the engines, the good old General Electric J79-GE-17 which powered many of the Phantom variants. The set consists of several large resin castings, a small PE fret and a nice bonus item also cast in resin.

First look at the items in respect to quality, and they are superb. No flaws, no air bubbles whatsoever can be found on the resin, and as usual the PE fret is to the standard Eduard quality.

So what do we get in this rather nicely boxed package? Well, you get two new engine fan faces for the front intakes tunnels , which have a considerable amount of detail to recommend them over the kit parts , but will probably not be seen once fitted, sadly. The whole assembly is a multipart arrangement with the turbine fans separate from the front bullet fairing, to ensure maximum sharpness of the detail.

The next items are the main engine rear turbine faces, which again are very nicely cast showing the of all important fan blades and the flame holder mounts. The flame holder is etched incredibly finely in brass, and is included in the supplied PE fret.

Next up are the main engine exhaust tunnels, the detail must be seen to be believed on these little beauties. It some of the nicest work I have seen and is a vast improvement over the kit part where the modeller will have to eliminate the awkward seems These parts will save you literally hours in work which is always welcome!

The next two parts are the very end "petals" of the exhausts, and once again they are amazing in detail. The insides are full of very fine detail that’s missing from the Tamiya kit parts, and the petals have some very fine rivet detail on the outside, plus some neat actuator detail on the insides. They should paint up very well with Alclad's excellent metal colours.

The last item in the box is the Brassin Bonus item. On this set it’s a very nice resin tail hook consisting of 3 resin and 2 photo etched parts. Yet again a vast improvement over the kit parts and the main hook assembly has some very realistic rivet detail on the main body.

Full instructions can be found here.

Conclusion

I'd recommend this set to anyone thinking of building a late Tamiya Phantom. Eduard have really set the benchmark with this release, long may they continue releasing high quality products such as this.

Main review text by Dan (Dads203), and these will be used in his forthcoming mega-build of the Tamiya Phantom. We'll add a link to the Work In Progress (WIP) thread in due course.

Review sample courtesy of

[Shar2]

Thanks Dan for a nice review, oh and Mike for the photos. Looks like the wallet is going to get hit again