Search the Community

Hi all, Here's my Phantom FGR.2 that I finished this weekend. It's the Revell rebox of the Hasegawa kit (the original one, not the recent one), which we are all pretty familiar with. Not a bad kit, but I did replace some bits of it with aftermarket. The wheels are Aires, the seats are Quickboost, the pylons are from Aerobonus. I was planning to just use the old Airdoc RAF Germany Phantom decals, but they turned out to be not so good. Not in register, undersized, and some colours were a bit off to me. So I also got some from a Model Alliance set, stencils from Xtradecal, and a few from the kit sheet. Painted with Mr. Color. I went for 31 Squadron markings, mainly because you don't see those often. Thanks for looking, Pete

Hi, I seem to recall that someone here on BM produced those modified wingtank photoflash thingies for RAF Phantom FGR.2's. I am aware of the Aircraft in Miniature product, but I wanted to try here first. Does somebody know who it was? Thanks in advance, Pete

Finally got round to taking a few pictures of this one after finishing it back in April! Modern jets and RAF are not my normal thing but this was an itch that needed to be scratched. I also wanted to build a machine from either 43 or 111 Squadrons, these being the ones I remember being wowed by at so many Leuchars' airshows. The kit is Revell's boxing of the 1/48 scale Hasegawa moulding which, despite its age, is still a good build. The model was built straight from the box, the only addition being a set of Sidewinders. Just for a change I also decided to add the two crew figures to give a little "life". XV416 did not have a long service life, being lost in May 1975 shortly before the Squadron moved to Leuchers. Fortunately the crew ejected safely. Despite this there are quite a few photo's of the aircraft available on the internet and I was able to use these to help with the painting and weathering, especially the underside which was particularly stained. Enough waffle here are the pictures and I hope you like. As I said, this is not my normal subject so any tips and hints are welcome and thanks for looking!

Made in 17 days, was a fun build. Thank you to the people in this thread that helped me get correct positions for flaps, airbrakes etc. Anyway, here it is: Here she is with my RN FG.1 And with my other RAF camo birds Thanks for looking!

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid035DVhVCpjGqVej8C3zZahR8Vt1GmvFm2LjLrtJVrmoT83GFRjCGANYoPQqxCdDkbEl&id=100091816387706&post_id=100091816387706_pfbid035DVhVCpjGqVej8C3zZahR8Vt1GmvFm2LjLrtJVrmoT83GFRjCGANYoPQqxCdDkbEl For the non Facebookers... As mentioned in the FB post, it seemed 'inspired' by a well known F-14 pic. Then stuff started jumping out at me.... Nose proportion and shape Colour scheme Intakes Bellytank Roostertail spacing Gun housing But most of all, the nose and the proportions.....I reckon the 'artist' modified an F-14 pic into an F-4! 🤣

Finished another 23rd Tactical Fighter Squadron aircraft. This is number 13 in the set, from the P-36 of 1939 to a Desert Storm F-16C. I still need to finish an F-105, an F-4E (my jet), and a Block 50 F-16C at squadron stand down in 2010. I left the squadron in 1987 and mostly everyone else had transferred out before DS. The weasel guys mostly ended up at George AFB, California and I saw some of them on CNN day one of the war. I relied on the internet for researching this build. I found some photos of this jet after the return to Spangdahlem with an impressive set of mission tally markings on the intake ramp. I wanted to do this model as it may have looked on its first sortie of the war. I think 69-7209 was assigned to the 81st TFS while at Spangdahlem but was loaned to the 23rd for the Incirlik deployment. At least that's what I saw on the interweb, so it must be true. I think the first sortie was day 2 since the Turkish government only approved operations from Incirlik on the day of Jan 17, 1991. The Saudi-based units started flying the night of Jan 16/17. This is the older Hasegawa 1/48th kit. I have 2 in the stash with aftermarket, so I wasn't that interested in the new Meng or ZM kits. I used some Eduard pre-colored PE in the front cockpit, but used the kit rear panel, Quickboost seats. External stores were kit tanks and AIM-7s, Tamiya AGM-88 Harms, Hasegawa ALQ-131 ECM pod from a Weapons Set. I also used the excellent Speed Hunter Graphics Combat Weasels decal sheet. I also used a paper "belly strap", copied from the G Factor vinyl set that I bought a couple of years ago. They look fine to me under paint. Paint is Model Master enamels, lightened with Testors small bottle flat white. A light dusting of Tamiya smoke on the alligator skin on the tails since these jets all used the "smokeless engines". Weathering with very thin oil paints.

Hellenic Airforce F-4E Phantom II (AUP)

After about six months, I've finally completed my 1/48 scale Hasegawa F-4G Phantom "Wild Weasel". The kit itself was fine (other than the mysterious missing RWR), but I had primer related problems, or masking tape problems, or paint problems. Either way, I spent far more time scraping and reapplying paint than I'd have liked to. I wanted to do a Spangdahlem bird with shark-mouth, so decals came from Milspec (sheet 48-007), paints were Hataka (first time using them), a few bits came from my Eduard/Academy F-4, and I splashed out on a more correct AN/ALQ-131 from Eduard to replace the AN/ALQ-119 supplied in the kit. @Mark V provided some good information about colour schemes and likely load-outs - hence it's carrying a single dummy HARM missile (admittedly with fins), drop tanks, and an empty TER on the starboard inner pylon. Thanks also to @bar side, who was tackling the same aircraft at the same time and provided a lot of inspiration/information. Over-all, I'm mostly happy how it turned out. There are a few issues - the cockpit glazing's a bit wonky (could have done with the one-part canopy version), I messed up the starboard shark-mouth, and the tyres could be sanded/flattened so that both nose-wheels touch the ground. There are a few places where you can see I've had paint issues. However, the Hasegawa kit has held up well for its age and I'd happily build another one. Build Thread Here The photos are taken in my new light box, using a Sony A5100 with a 55mm prime lens. Still getting the hang of this serious-photography-with-an-actual-camera lark...

Hey all, Happy New Year and hope everyone had a good holiday What should have been my last completion of 2022 is instead my first completion of 2023 . After my F-15C, I started work on Tamiyas excellent F-4B. A lot has been said about the design and engineering of this kit and how they've built on all their recent 1/48 releases and it's all true - this kit is as close to perfect in terms of fit and any issues were entirely on me. That's not to say it's all perfect - I am not a big fan of Tamiya decals because they tend to be on the thicker side so instead I used a couple of AM sheets: Furball Aero Decals 1/48 US Navy Phantoms of the Vietnam War: https://www.furballaero-design.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=48-076 AOA Decals 1/48 Phantom Airframe Data (Stencil type): https://www.aoadecals.com/48013/home.htm From the Furball sheet, I chose to build the CAG bird from VF-84s 1965 deployment on USS Independence. AG200 originally had a grey and white tail with a white on black Jolly Roger and yellow fuselage stripe, but seems to have been repainted at some point in 1965 with an all black tail with white markings and a yellow on black stripe. It was a struggle finding images of AG200 in this scheme - most of the images I could find were of the VF-84 F-4Js, or of the previous scheme. I found this image on Wikimedia of a lot of the VF-84 birds in the right scheme: I also found this photo of AG200, though judging by the Phantom in the back I think the livery is the older one: And finally I found this image of AG200 in the right livery: So armed with this wealth of references of my intended aircraft, I set about getting a few AM sets: 1/48 Eduard Brassin F-4B early tail caps 1/48 Flying Leathernecks AIM-9B rails 1/48 Eduard Brassin Triple Ejector Racks 1/48 ResKit MK.82 thermally protected bombs with MK.15 Snakeye fins 1/48 Quinta Studios F-4B Interior 3D decals Now for the photos! The main upper fuselage colour is MRP-098 Light Gull Grey with various MRP colours used for pre/post shading. The underside colour is MRP-004 white with post shading with MRP-257 Clear Doped Linen. The black nose and tail are MRP-005 and the yellow is MRP-142. Various other MRP, GSI and Tamiya shades were used here and there for colour variation, post shading. The weathering was done with with AK enamel panel line washes, Abt 502 oils and water colour pencils. I don't have any evidence that AG200 ever got this dirty and as the CAG bird for the squadron it was probably taken care of more than other jets, but given they were deployed for a lot of time in the Tonkin Gulf on board Independence it's not hard to imagine it getting dirty. I kept weathering to a minimum on the top side concentrating on staining in the walkway are wing root areas, some panel fading due to the sun and modest streaking. The Furball decals turned out great in the end, but I had trouble getting them to conform at first and they shrugged off my usual decal solutions (Mr Softer/Setter Neo) so I used the nuclear option of the Tamiya Mark Fit Super Strong which definitely got them to settle but was pretty much a one shot approach so I had to get the position right first time. The main markings came from the Furball sheet and all the tiny stencils were from the AOA sheet - it was really tedious doing these, but a Phantom isn't complete without them The "shield" behind the Star and Bar on the intake is for the Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club - a nickname for the US 7th fleet which spent a lot of time from 1961 onwards in the region The characteristic metal work at the rear was again done with MRP metallics over an LP-1 base. I used a variety of their metallic colours to give some panel variation and then used various clear tones (blue, brown & smoke) for the heat staining on the stabilators and the main fuselage. Finally I applied thin coats of exhaust soot over the fuselage. Final weathering was done with oils. While I try to dip my canopies for clarity/protection - I couldn't get the Future/Pledge to dry correctly and stay on the canopy like it did with the F-15C - I think that something about the shape was causing surface tension issues and causing the Future to bead up and run. So this one has been polished with Novus 3 step plastic polishing compounds and the shine/clarity is still pretty good. I've left the canopy loose to allow access to view the interior which is very detailed due to the Quinta set, but mostly invisible with the canopy in place A closer look at the upper surface heat staining - I wanted to get that burnt metal without flooding the area with colour so I dilute the MRP paints with Mr Color Rapid Thinner The staining on the walkways and the panel fading was done with oils stippled on neat and blended with a soft wide brush. On top of this, darker, more localised weathering was also applied The Quinta cockpit set is remarkably detailed - certainly better than I could have painted The underside weathering was inspired by that first image - mostly streaking with some light staining around the fuel tanks and engines. A closer look at the ordnance - the ResKit and Eduard TERs lined up pretty well and with some brass pins they fit well - the bomb weathering has been kept pretty minimal since unlike 'Nam based Phantoms which had large outdoor weapons storage, carrier ordnance was stored internally. The characteristic heat staining pattern on Phantom rear fuselages was replicated with 0.7mm Aizu tape over the bare metal before the heat staining colours were applied. Once done and the tape removed, all the panels received the same soot/smoke treatment. This was a really enjoyable build and the Tamiya kit is great. I'm also happy with the final result so I'd say 2023 is off to a good start! Thanks for looking

Finally finished, after a hiatus and a couple of other kits since starting this I felt like cracking on with it again. This is the 1/48 Italeri RF-4E kit; I used different tailplanes (unslotted for the RF-4C) and cut and filed down the jetpipes. Everything else I needed was included in the kit, certainly as far as I could tell anyway, though I may try and find some more accurate inner pylons. Strangely, two canopy windscreens are included but neither seem to fit properly! Again I’ll see if I can get another, otherwise I might fill the join. Apart from that I’m fairly happy with it. Paint was Tamiya spray cans, AS-13, AS-14 (greens) and AS-15 (tan). I used aftermarket decals to depict the Phantom as it was at Alconbury in the early 80s, still in Vietnam-style camo but wrap around. I scratch built the canopy mirrors and fuselage aerials, plus a couple of extra cameras in the nose. All comments, suggestions, Alconbury memories and banter warmly welcomed!

My latest completion the Hasegawa 1/72 McDonnell Douglas RF-4B Phantom II, I used the Reskit 3D printed Engine Intakes on this, a bit of surgery is required for them but I think they are worth the effort, Aires engine exhausts an Eduard Etched brass in the cockpit. I used the kit decals and finished with MRP and Tamiya Lacquers 1/72 McDonnell Douglas RF-4B Phantom II by Phillip Wilmshurst, on Flickr 1/72 McDonnell Douglas RF-4B Phantom II by Phillip Wilmshurst, on Flickr 1/72 McDonnell Douglas RF-4B Phantom II by Phillip Wilmshurst, on Flickr 1/72 McDonnell Douglas RF-4B Phantom II by Phillip Wilmshurst, on Flickr 1/72 McDonnell Douglas RF-4B Phantom II by Phillip Wilmshurst, on Flickr

Phlipping Phantom Phinally Phinished!!! Tamiya Kit Aftermarket: Eduard Wheels Eduard Space RBF tags Quinta Belts Paints - SMS and Alclad for the metals over a Alclad mix of 70% grey and 30% black microprimer (less cover up than a straight black). Touch up paint patches with darker and lighter iterations of the base mixes sprayed through a stencil. Weathering - Abteilung oils and lighter fluid over a Mr Hobby gloss coat (thinned 3:1 levelling thinners to gloss with extra retarder added) Matt - Alclad Klear Kote Flat thinned with lacquer/cellulose thinners (really pleased with how well this stuff goes on and how flat it is) Decals: Impact 1:48 VMF(AW)-531/VMFA-531 Grey Ghosts Part . Very thin, had a habit of breaking and the original tail markings wrinkled under the gloss coat made a set of masks with a silhouette cutter and 3 attempts later still not right (the small stars are about as fine as you can get and tricky to not get bleed under) Furball Aero Design 48-077 USMC Phantoms came to the rescue. Different airframe but same markings First time trying focus stacking in Photoshop. Build Log is here

First completion in a while. Tamiya's superlative Phantom kit with FineMolds' Nano-Aviation seatbelts. Painted with Mr Hobby lacquers, panel wash with AK Interactive and Ammo by Mig enamels, and weathering with oils. Hope you enjoy the photos. Feedback is most welcome! Mark

New tool kit from Meng Model - ref. LS-015 - McDonnel Douglas F-4G Phantom II - WildWeasel Source: http://www.meng-model.com/en/contents/59/512.html Box art V.P.

this was another on-and-off project but one of my best if I do say so myself. Without further ado, here she is: I really enjoyed making this model in the end, there were sooooo many stencils though! I'm definitely taking this one to Scale Scotland 2022! (If I go)

The NMM (the Dutch National Military Museum) had organised a small event for photographers as a kickoff for their summeroffensive event this weekend on saturday and sunday! It was an enjoyable little event with some familiar planes,but still worth it! These aircraft are on static display standards only! cheers, Jan

Having finished a Revell FAA F4U (bloody over-complicated thing!) and my Sword Gannet, I took a few weeks off to contemplate what was next. Thought I'd take longer to think about it, but I went up to have a tidy of the 'bench' and whilst I was there had a look at the stash. Narrowed down to the following candidates.. I was very close to doing the lifeboat but the recent Top Gun hype has put me in a bit of a US Navy mood, so the Phantom won out in the end. That poor Lightning, it keeps getting so close to the top of the pile, only to be cruelly denied. Maybe next time.. Rather than the Sundowners on the front, I'm doing this as one of the alternative schemes, inspired by the lovely, well thumbed, volume Such a good book! Obligatory sprue shot (although I've hidden most of it!). I'd shied away from this for a while because I really didn't fancy painting the gloss white undersides. Now I have an airbrush I don't have that excuse. This will be a test, though, as I've so far struggled to get decent gloss finishes with the airbrush. Have tried pledge and Mr Color GX112 but I never get the high gloss (and smooth) finish that I really want. Always ends up closer to Satin and a little rough feeling. Any tips most welcome! Not much achieved so far, just a few bits painted. Since the white and grey is hard to brush I'm going to break with tradition and spray the cockpit, wheel wells, intakes, drop tanks etc. I don't normally get the airbrush out for small things as I spend more time cleaning it that actually painting, but I think its necessary this time.. Wish me luck! Al.

Hi all. This is the Hasegawa 1/48 F-4G Wild Weasel, my latest finished model. For this build I used an Aires cockpit set, ResKit engines, Master Pitot tube and Speed Hunter Graphics decals. A few underwing parts came from various Hasegawa weapons sets. The pylons were rescribed and detailed a bit as these still have raised panel lines. The same goes for the underwing fueltanks. The intake covers were scratchbuilt from plastic card and strip. The pull handles on the ejection seats were made from twisted yellow and black painted copper wire. As usual, I painted the model with MrHobby paints, in this case H305 and H306, over a black primer from Alclad. Weathering was done with Abteilung 502 oilpaints and Tamiya panelliner. Thanks for watching.

I love the Phantom. I think it's my second favourite military aircraft only beaten by the Avro Vulcan I remember seeing them at the airshows I went to as a child in the 70's, always giving a fantastic display. I love the whole look of the airframe, the way the tail planes slope down in position to the end of the wings kicking up, just brilliant. I've had this in the stash for a while. Last month I was watching some YouTube videos on the British Phantoms and I couldn't resist it any longer. I built it straight out of the box, no third party add on's, no third party decals. The kit was a pleasure to put together with all parts fitting together very well and needing little or no fill and sanding. I love the new style Airfix instructions, they are very easy to follow with lots of space for notes if you need to make them. Paint wise, I used a mix of mig and Vallejo model air with Alclad 2 for the metal finish abound the rear, all applied with an air brush. Between the paint and the decals I used a couple of coats of Pledge floor polish and after the mammoth decalling job I gave it a coat of Vallejo satin varnish. It was then finished off with some weathering and a Flory wash. I did quite a bit of research into the weathering before starting. I wanted it to look well used, without being over the top. Here's some pictures of the finished model. Thank you for looking and I hope you like my interpretation. I know the upper silver probe has bent up on the above image. It has since been back into the hanger for repairs.

Hello Happy Phantom Phanatics (and others!)! Here is my last Phantom from my USAF Phantom saga (for the time being🤔) : the Hasegawa RF-4C. Another Hasegawa classic, well known, built with the same amount of modifications to the base: Complete refurbished cockpit, resin wheel wells 🤬🤬🤬, belly louvres, airbrakes, ailerons, riveting, etc as already mentioned in my previous builds. routine... What was not routine was stuffing the camera bay accordingly to the version depending on the aircraft mission. To simulate the KY camera lenses, I used the tiny iPhone or mobile phone lenses, that gives a realistic effect, especially when you replace the too thick kit transparencies by thinner windows. For the markings and version I chose a Desert Storm warrior from the Alabama ANG, the "Boss Bird", thinking that the Carpena decal sheet will add more value than the Hasegawa one. I will come later on this subject 🤬; The choice was also made based on the good iconographie about that particular aircraft. Camouflage pattern is fairly simple, the Hill Grey, but "toned downed" to respect the scale effect. I weathered it quite a bit because of the harsh Middle East conditions. Decals: I started to use the Carpena sheet 7270 (desert storm part 2) but it turned to be disastrous: most of the decals started to break into small pieces when wet, some markings were not accurate (e.g. white shading of the Code Letters, shark mouth...), so finally I had to use a mix of self-made decals, paints and use some Hasegawa ones which are, unfortunately, too thick (well known default). No armament, the configuration is max range with an AN/ALQ 131 ECM pod (aftermarket), as seen on some pix. The result is that this beast is not on the top of my F-4 list, but i am too lazy to start another one. maybe one day...🤔 Here are the pix: The true flying camera: The fake one: ... and the little dio: I scratch built the ladder, the sound generator comes from the Hasegawa but, as the other pieces, is completely wrong so rebuilt: That's it for that saga, hope you enjoy the poor-quality photos, critics happily accepted, may be I will be tempted by the FM F-4 one day!

F-4C Phantom Update Set & Masks (for Fine Molds Kit) 1:72 Eduard The new Fine Molds Phantoms are great kits and released onto a receptive market, however this has not stopped Eduard from releasing sets for them. As usual with Eduard's Photo-Etch (PE) and Mask sets, they arrive in a flat resealable package, with a white backing card protecting the contents and the instructions that are sandwiched between. Update set (73757) The set gives up tow sheets of nickel plated PE and one of brass. For the cockpit all the instrument panels including side panels are replaced along with the interior side walls of both pits. There are upgrades to the seats with new parts, firing handles and seat belts. A new HUD is provided with film for the glass. New frame hoops and rails are provided for inside the canopy parts. Leaving the cockpit there are parts for all wheels wells, landing gear legs and gear doors. Other external parts are the burner rings for inside the exhausts, new wing pylon covers, main fuel tanks rear connector, and a new intake mounted pitot tube. Masks (CX614) The set of masks in yellow tape provide for the canopies and the wheels. Review samples courtesy of

Next in the Zoukei Mura Phantom family (F-4C/D: thread, F-4J/S: thread, F-4E(J)/F/G: thread) are the 1/48th McDD RF-4B/C & E Recce Phantom II expected in 2023 Source: https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/92170-zm-unveils-148-rf-4bce-plans/ V.P.

Hello Everybody! Before the F and the G already showcased in the forum, now comes the "E"/Late. I built this Fujimi model I had it in my stock for quite a long time and I know that now far better kits of the beast have been released. However, I struggled finding at that time I started to "produce" USAF Phantoms (even the Hasegawa one was OOS), so I decided to go for only one I got (Fujimi), hoping I have good basis at hand to do a nice model. Alas! I spent so much time and efforts to improve it that, at the end of the day, I was completely disappointed by the result. Here is the list of what I did: - The fuselage is way too short at that scale, and the verdict of the 1/72eme drawings is there: it misses 4 mm. I put resin intakes (forgot the brand) to fill the empty original one and the adaptation was quite disastrous. I had to cut the fuselage aft and forward), added slices of evergreen to have the right dimension and fitting and then finally reshaped the whole stuff. This pix shows the resin intakes, the "plastic surgery" added at the rear portion of the cockpit ("pieces rajoutée" added part in English) For the rest, quite normal modifications for a F-4 kit of that era: - ailerons separated, flats modified, belly straps added, vent doors opened, airbrakes lowered, exhaust "hot area" modified, exhausts, cockpit, canopy, L/G wells and wheels aftermarket, etc... A lot of work! Translation: L/G wheel wells modified, "holes" after intake fitting filled-in, ailerons and slats removed For the marking my preference went to a Texas AFRES machine from the 924th TFG because they had a quite unique variation of the Hill Grey pattern, which I found very attractive: Not difficult to do. All decals are from extra stocks or home made and just little bit of weathering, these birds were kept in pretty nice conditions. I didn't put any armament, just a travel pod and a modified TER (from Hasegawa set but reshaped because they are wrong) and that it! Here are the pix: The real beast: My interpretation: A simple Dio: Definitively not my best Phantom, another good occasion to try the new ones! Enjoy!

So, having had my arm twisted by @Rabbit Leader (all I did was mention that I happened to have a Matchbox Phantom and then next thing I know, here I am… ), here’s the start of what will undoubtedly turn out to be a long drawn-out build (although not as long as a certain pair of Airfix Hawks have taken…). I originally purchased this kit from Beatties maybe 40 years ago – if you look closely at the box you’ll see I paid the princely sum of £4.50, reduced because the clear parts were missing.

What not first! Spunky VI early F-4E in Nam with an asymmetric load out as discussed in forum. FineMolds release from 2021. will add pictures tomorrow Chris