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Well folks, the Academy 1/48 F-4B is out and I bet more than a few of us were visited by the fat man in the red suit! I will not review the kit, it has already been done by more knowledgeable people than me and in far greater depth than I could ever achieve, so I will concentrate of what I am doing differently and the improvements as I go along. I don't follow the assembly sequence as per the detsructions. There is nothing wrong with the instruction sequence per se, I just prefer to build the kit in a different order. The kit has a lot more fine detail than it's comparable rival, the venerable Hasegawa offering, and unlike the Hasegawa kit, the panel is fully recessed. I will build mine as a VF-111 MiG killer flown by Weigand/Freckleton on 6 Mar 1972. The kit includes the option of a deployed In-Flight Refuelling (IFR) probe, as well as very delicate and realistic undercarriage components.This is a pity as my kit will be depicted in-flight with the IFR probe deployed. Hopefully this will mean I can save some time as I can omit the landing gear and gear bay painting and assembly. Most Phantom variants featured a pair of auxiliary engine inlet doors (UK Spey powered F-4's were different) underneath the fuselage. These cycled with hydraulic power and were closed when in flight. As my kit would be wheels up, these doors had their locating arms sliced off and they were glued into place. The main gear door consist of three sections. These were glued together and then also fitted into the gear openings. In theory, kit u/c doors should fit their corresponding opening, however, in practice this is not always the reality. I am pleased to report that the gear doors fit pretty well, not perfect, but not far from it. I will use some Mr Surfacer to eliminate any remaining gaps once the parts have set. The nose gear bay also received the same treatment. Note that there is supposed to be a gap between the forward and main nose gear door. I assembled and installed the main gear bay walls in order to provide some rigidity to the wings during handling as I was afraid they would flex, however I have omitted building up the nose gear bay box structure. The cockpit tub is supposed to mount directly onto this (the tub underside is actually the nose gear bay roof), I will glue the tub directly to the upper fuselage cockpit opening instead. Academy supply the kit in several different shades of plastic (ahh, memories of Matchbox...), I am not a fan of this, some people insist that it will help with painting (applying white for example) or that it will appeal to the non painters (eh?), personally I think it is a gimmick. I also hate working with white or black plastic. The upper fuselage is one molding (not unlike the Tamiya 1/32 kits), however you still need to attach the tail boom section. There is a great potential here to create a multitude of ill fitting seams, however, again, Academy's engineering is first rate. I have attached the upper tail boom half to the upper fuselage, I also glued in the engine divider to the upper fuselage. The instructions would have you glue this in after the assembled engine exhausts are glued to the lower wing and this then also attaches to the lower wing. I didn't fancy trying to mask all that so I will just install the engines after the wing is offered up to the upper fuselage half. The burner cans will be installed after all the painting and weathering is completed Here is shot showing the lower tail section dry fitted to the other components Academy seemingly has plans to release other Phantom variants based on the plethora of different fin caps, nose antennas and various lumps and antennas included throughout the sprues. There is an opening on the upper fuselage which requires a blanking cover. On USAF variants, they used a receptacle type of IFR system as opposed to the 'probe and drogue' style favoured by the Navy types. the corresponding part fit reasonably well, however it did need a light application of filler to blend the part in. Likewise the IFR probe housing, The nose antenna fit very well, I just used a small bead of Mr Surfacer 500 to fair the part in to the radome. There has been some criticism of the radome/nose attachment position. Apparently, , Academy goofed and made the seam perpendicular relative to the lateral line (horizontal), whereas in reality the attachment should be canted forward approx 1 degree. This will involve attaching the radome, filling in the seam and re-scribing a perfect circle angled forward by about one degree. I will leave mine as is, I don't expect to lose any sleep over it but if anyone is keen...... The rear cockpits of USN/Marine F-4's did not have pilots, so there were no dual controls fitted. The curious item located on the floor of the rear cockpit should not be there, as it is a base for a rear joystick. I installed it as it will be hard to see wilt a figure installed and it meant I only had to fill one hole (for the joystick) rather than two for the component locating holes, On the subject of figures (ahem, 'scuze me while I get out my soapbox) Manufacturers -Please Note! Thank you for including realistic figures but can we have figures that: a. Actually touch the flight controls b. Fit within the cockpit t of the aircraft hey are supposed to fly c. Exhibit some sort of pose other than watching TV or giving the thumbs up! (Rant off) I had to shave a portion of the lower legs from the rear crewman (the left one in the pic below, although the figures are identical on the sprues as provided) so the rear instrument panel would fit. I also cut off the right wrist and re-attached it turned through 90 degrees as if he was about to press something (as opposed to giving a thumbs up), I will need to make an index finger though! The pilot figure's left wrist was also separated and re-attached at 90 degrees (horizontal) to appear as if he was manipulating the throttles (which are not included BTW!) I have cut off the joystick from its pedestal and it will be fitted to the pilots right hand as it does not reach without modification, Well, that is all for now, cheers, Pappy