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Hi all, planning on building the Italeri 1/48 RF-4E in an Israeli scheme for this GB. This was the boxing released last year with new decals included. I'll be building this in the grey IAF scheme of The Bats squadron. Honestly depending on how this kit goes together I'm very tempted to get another as it comes with an additional IAF scheme, an IRIAF scheme, a Luftwaffe scheme and a Turkish scheme. Looking forward to this one!

I wasn’t going to do a WIP for this one as the plan is for a fairly simple out of the box build of an elderly kit. But after another thread discussing US recce phantoms, I thought it might be an idea to share the way that the Italeri kit goes together. This is my second build of this kit - the first was an Alconbury RF-4C in wraparound SEA camo and a chisel nose. Anyway, this is the box, with my current fleet of spooks in attendance It isn’t as nice as the more modern a Phantom kits like the Revell / Hasegawa FGR2 - more in line with the old ESCI kits. Quite brittle silver plastic but the finished kit will fit in fine with the fleet. The cockpit is a little narrow compared to the others. You can’t swap the canopies between the kits. So there is a limit to what after market designed for other kits would even fit. First big job is to rescribe the panel lines. This is still underway. And the raised lines need to be taken off. Rescribing is down to everyone’s personal preference. I never used to do it but have started to recently. This kit will need some filler & sanding so much of the surface detail would be lost anyway. The cockpit detail is far from the worst I have seen. I usually like a resin seat, but I will stick with the kit here & just paint and add seat straps. The side panels are raised on the kit and come with decals so will look ok. The rear cockpit bulkhead needs some scratch bits adding though. This is the Aires set And this is what you get in the kit So finish the rescribe & work on that pit. The plan is for a splinter camo Luftwaffe jet, with the kit decals. So 35+43. I know that is 35+77 but you get the idea

Hello All, My last finished product, a Platz 1/144 RF-4E in German guise. The platz kit is very nice and went together without too much grief OOB. Thanks for looking Ian

Italeri has just released a 1/48th McDD RF-4E Phantom II fully upgraded moulds kit - ref.2737 Source: http://www.italeri.com/scheda.asp?idProdotto=2386 V.P.

Hello all, First WIP on britmodeller and I begin with some phantom builds, maybe 4-5 by the end (If I stick with them all long enough ). Some will be in flight, some parked with possibly flaps down. I know they will not be up to some of the standards set here (unbelievable dedication to detail on this forums) but I hope to learn a lot in the thread and you guys enjoy as much as I do some of my builds. So first up, some of the decals. The airdoc sheets are excellent, especially the grouped stencils for the luftwaffe jets, some are unbelievably tiny! The model decal sheet is old but hopefully usable, I'll spray some micro decal film on them to make sure they do not brake apart when I eventually place them in water. The first along the line will be an F-4J from 74 Squadron, not sure exactly which one yet, but it will be a repainted jet in barley grey as I'm not too fond of the odd blue/green on the US painted jets. This is the Hasegawa kit which to me has captured the phantom shape the best out of any kit in 1/72. I fitted some resin intakes from goffy models and they did not fit very well at all. I bought a few sets a while back and since they seem OOP, maybe because they make steps to the lower fuselage/side fuselage of greater than 1.5mm! Certainly will not use them on any other phantom kits. I will use the slotted stabs from the fujimi kit. The load will be 4xaim-9L, 4xSkyflash from Hase F3, 2 wing tanks and a fujimi gun pod. Currently just finishing the seam work and will begin the rescribing. I read off the forums that the 3M blue tape is ideal for rescribing and I have found exactly that, far better than dymo tape, highly recommend it if you have not tried it yet. Here are some seats and pilots. 2 are fujimi and 2 are hasegawa, they still need details adding yet. Also two pilots for the F-4J, Revell nato crew I think, still need work but I have always been rubbish at painting figures . The second jet along the line is an FGR.2 from 2 squadron circa early seventies. Thinking of using full colour roundels on this and a final gloss finish. It is the Fujimi FG.1 Navy kit converted buy using a spare hasegawa fin tip, filled the catapult hooks and will use stabs from a revell/hase kit. I will go ahead and purchase the odds and ordinance phantom recce suite as I need the strike camera and E.M.I recce pod. I was thinking of buying another fujimi kit for these spares and build that into another FGR.2 but seeing a few go on eBay recently at £40-£50 , I'll get the OAO replacement set. Again the cockpit needs to be finished, atm just finishing the filling phase. Nice fitting kit but had a few sink marks in a few places. Thats all for now, probably a few days cleaning up the F-4j before primer. I will try and use xtracolor paints as much as possible but for the barley grey. I think humbrols hue is a better match, so I have a question. If I mix humbrol matt barley grey with their 'gloss cote' will it spray to a nice glossy finish like xtracolor and actually dry? Best regards, David.

I did my military service here in Sweden on SF/SH 37 Viggen and have some reconaissance planes from the same era in my stash. I prefer the darker color schemes like this one. So, here is my Revell RF-4E in norm 83 camoflage. I'm gonna build it OOB with the kit decals from AG51 Immelmann in Bremgarten 1988.

Hi, here is my Recce – Phantom from the german Luftwaffe. It was one of the aircrafts from “AG 52″ that took part in the NATO exercise ” Best Focus 82″ in Karup, Denmark. There is a special painting on the fin. The Revell kit suffer from flaws on it s outlines, canopy too low, nose too slim, intakes too wide, but they are cheap and go very well together, the Hasegawa kit is also not perfect and expensive ! If you look inside the intakes, there are the engines, the cockpit is great for this scale as well the wheel wells. The surfaces are deeper engraved than Hasegawa s, but petite ! The Phantom is one of my favorite Jet airfcraft and like most legendary aircrafts, their are a lot of nice and interesting schemes. The kit is Revell, the decals came from Airdoc ( markings and stencils seperate ), the colour is Xtra colours, but self mixed with others to match the camo shades better. It is not my best kit, but the photo session, outside, came out nice, i managed to damage the tailplane, it hangs in the false angle, you will notice it ! The aft canopy refuses still to sit in the same angle as the pilots one Some of the pics were edited, while playing with the Photo Bucket functions I hope you like it anyway Bernd

HI, Just picked up a Revell RF-4E 1/32 for £20 which I thought was a decent price. I'm quite ignorant (ok a lot), on F-4s even though I have several. I think even at this scale my eyes and fat fingers won't cope with too fine a detail in the pit. I see there is Eduard PE for the Tamiya F-4E, is that near enough for a blind man on a galloping horse to think OK? Cheers