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1/48 - McDD F-4J + (UK) & S Phantom II by Zoukei-Mura - released - Quinta Studio cockpit set


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£69....... ??? 

 

I take it for the price, Z.M has made a typing error and the F-4 they are shipping is indeed a 1/32 kit....

 

If not, and no matter how good, sweet, cousy this model may be, there is no reason whatsoever to look beyond the Academy kit. Hell you can make the Hasegawa kit a totall knocker with a.m parts for way less than £69,,

 

The price policy at Z.M is totally ridiculous.... I will continue  placing my cash in South Korea...

 

And Showtime 100 again.... The creativity of choosing scheme(s) sure was not on any priority list..

 

// Matt

Edited by Matt Kaeck
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3 hours ago, Matt Kaeck said:

£69....... ??? 

 

I take it for the price, Z.M has made a typing error and the F-4 they are shipping is indeed a 1/32 kit....

 

If not, and no matter how good, sweet, cousy this model may be, there is no reason whatsoever to look beyond the Academy kit. Hell you can make the Hasegawa kit a totall knocker with a.m parts for way less than £69,,

 

The price policy at Z.M is totally ridiculous.... I will continue  placing my cash in South Korea...

 

And Showtime 100 again.... The creativity of choosing scheme(s) sure was not on any priority list..

 

// Matt

 

While I agree with your views (and having a good few Hasegawa and Academy spooks in the stash), obviously there is a market for a high end 1/48 Phantom, hence why they sold all the ones they brought to Telford. I'm sure Tamiya are having no problems shifting their F-14 for the same price point either despite there being plenty of existing options. 

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On ‎12‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 3:55 PM, ZK302 said:

Well, what do people who bought the kit today at Telford  think of it ?

 

Does it live up to the hype...

 

(waits impatiently at home) before going to the show on Sunday.

 

regards 

paul

I popped over to Telford today and managed to bag one while I was there. I've just been doing a cursory comparison with my Academy F-4J and a few pictures I have of the real thing. From what I can see so far, there is more detail on the Academy kit though some of the details on the ZM kit appear to be more accurate. I've never been one who hankers after extreme accuracy. If the kit looks the part and has nice enough details then that's usually good enough for me and I've felt positively spoilt with the Hasegawa, Tamiya and the new Academy kits. The ZM kit is very nice and will build into a great model but I certainly don't think it is worth a price double that of the Academy. Same price? I might go the ZM, but only just. And I'm glad I didn't pay the £35 extra now for the UK decals and metal gear struts. Just my tuppence on this one. Cheers for now!

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Shape wise, I think this is certainly the best Phantom kit in 1:48, it could even be a contender for being the best Phantom kit outright. Academy's one-piece fuselage and detail earned them oohs and aahs, but there are just too many glaring shape and detail errors. That's why the Academy kit ranks behind the Hasegawa and even the R/M kits on my personal list. But it's the only decent B model out there...I'll eventually build my B's but wait if ZM will come out with a C/D at some point.

The ZM kit has exceptionally nice shapes, some clever design ideas and a few details moulded correctly for the first time. There is room for improvement and I can understand that 69 quid is a lot, especially on the grounds that Phantom builders will want to buy and build lots of them, but any stuff Made in Japan is expensive and ZM have ploughed a lot of time and effort into this, this is clearly a labour-of-love effort, not a rush-to-market. Perhaps the price will drop a little over time as well.

Jeffrey

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I very nearly pre-ordered one, but I knew I wouldn't be able to get to Telford to collect one. I'm sure I'll pick one up, but as Jeffrey says I might just wait and see how the prices settle down. ZM certainly seem to have captured the subtlety of the Phantom's curves a little better than some other kits.

 

I'm wondering if any UK model shops real or virtual intend to stock them, as the drop in value of the pound has certainly made it less cost effective to buy in single kits from overseas, as a example I pre-ordered a Tamiya F-14 from Hobby Search back in June, at the time of ordering it looked like it was going to cost me less than £60.00 delivered, but unfortunately by the time they got their stock the pound has slumped and it's now probably costing me more than if I'd bought here in Blighty and I've yet to receive it whereas its been available in the UK for a few weeks now.

 

 

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On 11/13/2016 at 2:15 PM, Nocoolname said:

 I've never been one who hankers after extreme accuracy. If the kit looks the part and has nice enough details then that's usually good enough for me ... .

 

Thanks. Your confirmation that the ZM Phantom has "extreme accuracy"  makes me even more anxious to get several!

 

But then, how do/would you know? :o

 

Gene K

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4 hours ago, Gene K said:

 

Thanks. Your confirmation that the ZM Phantom has "extreme accuracy"  makes me even more anxious to get several!

 

But then, how do/would you know? :o

 

Gene K

At which point did I say "The ZM Phantom has extreme accuracy"? At which point did the suggestion of being broadly satisfied with a kit if it looks right imply that the ZM Phantom had "extreme accuracy"? And evidently my point about "...a cursory comparison with my Academy F4-J and a few pictures I have of the real thing..." was not implying a detailed and authoritative analysis of the accuracy of the kit.

 

The question being asked was 'what did those who bought the kit think of it'. That is all I provided, my thoughts of the kit that I bought. Please take it in the spirit it was meant :)

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On 13/11/2016 at 5:46 AM, Matt Kaeck said:

£69....... ??? 

 

I take it for the price, Z.M has made a typing error and the F-4 they are shipping is indeed a 1/32 kit....

 

If not, and no matter how good, sweet, cousy this model may be, there is no reason whatsoever to look beyond the Academy kit. Hell you can make the Hasegawa kit a totall knocker with a.m parts for way less than £69,,

 

The price policy at Z.M is totally ridiculous.... I will continue  placing my cash in South Korea...

 

And Showtime 100 again.... The creativity of choosing scheme(s) sure was not on any priority list..

 

// Matt

not when you consider Hasegawa's last release of an FGR2  recently, topped £75.00 for a repeatedly reboxed old kit..

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On 13/11/2016 at 3:33 PM, Jens said:

It appears they have not correctly portrayed the vents next to the nose gear bay on F-4J(UK) and F-4S.

 

Jens

If that is true, then more than likely Jeffrey may consider it as a future project...

On 15/11/2016 at 0:48 PM, AntPhillips said:

I very nearly pre-ordered one, but I knew I wouldn't be able to get to Telford to collect one. I'm sure I'll pick one up, but as Jeffrey says I might just wait and see how the prices settle down. ZM certainly seem to have captured the subtlety of the Phantom's curves a little better than some other kits.

 

I'm wondering if any UK model shops real or virtual intend to stock them, as the drop in value of the pound has certainly made it less cost effective to buy in single kits from overseas, as a example I pre-ordered a Tamiya F-14 from Hobby Search back in June, at the time of ordering it looked like it was going to cost me less than £60.00 delivered, but unfortunately by the time they got their stock the pound has slumped and it's now probably costing me more than if I'd bought here in Blighty and I've yet to receive it whereas its been available in the UK for a few weeks now.

 

 

There was a Kent based shop advertising it, with NO PRICE, but wanted at least a30% deposit, before they had even got/ ordered it...

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On 15/11/2016 at 8:20 AM, JeffreyK said:

Shape wise, I think this is certainly the best Phantom kit in 1:48, it could even be a contender for being the best Phantom kit outright. Academy's one-piece fuselage and detail earned them oohs and aahs, but there are just too many glaring shape and detail errors. That's why the Academy kit ranks behind the Hasegawa and even the R/M kits on my personal list. But it's the only decent B model out there...I'll eventually build my B's but wait if ZM will come out with a C/D at some point.

The ZM kit has exceptionally nice shapes, some clever design ideas and a few details moulded correctly for the first time. There is room for improvement and I can understand that 69 quid is a lot, especially on the grounds that Phantom builders will want to buy and build lots of them, but any stuff Made in Japan is expensive and ZM have ploughed a lot of time and effort into this, this is clearly a labour-of-love effort, not a rush-to-market. Perhaps the price will drop a little over time as well.

Jeffrey

they will , as stated in the Old Man Blog.....produce all short nosed, S, being the next.. then C/D and E,F,G...

Eventually, the Spey versions....

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On 11/12/2016 at 0:59 PM, March said:

Only frustration is having to pay £20 for the RAF decal set for it, which seemed steep. However, there is a wide range of subjects for an RAF F-4J covered on the sheet, and given that it won't be easy to acquire in the UK, on balance the hole in my wallet is justified.

 

I did the art work for the F-4J(UK) sheet and the markings included will allow you to build any one of the 15 aircraft 74Sqn had from pre-delivery to retirement. The only exception might be the aircrew names, as I only provided those that could be confirmed by photos.

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Having previously 'traded in' all of my Hasegawa F-4Js and Cutting Edge F-4B/N conversion sets for the Academy kits over a number of years, I was initially reluctant to get over excited about the Z-M release. In fact, I would have much preferred them to focus on something that had either not been previously kitted or an aircraft not as prolific as the F-4 and, yes……before anyone provides the oft quoted statement "but other companies F-4 kits don't make money for Z-M…..yes, I know". I have been extremely happy with the new Academy kits, as I believe others are, so I was a little perturbed to read that some now consider them inaccurate in places. Is this so ?. Anyway, I digress a little. Back on topic, I decided to see what all the fuss was about and succumbed to one of the Z-M kits at Telford (I was second in the queue on Saturday morning). I have only managed to conduct a cursory inspection of the kit but, like other co-respondents, I was relieved to see that the parts count is down when compared to other Z-M offerings. The kit is very nice and has great detail but I personally would not describe it as 'spectacular' in this department (unlike the AMK MiG-31, for example). I do like some of the design features though and it is clear that Z-M have put a lot of time and effort into the final product. Is it worth £69 (or even more, since I understand this was a Telford SMW16 show price) ?….I'm not sure. If one shops around, particularly on one of the auction style websites, and gets lucky two Eduard boxings of the Academy F-4J kit, with all the extra resin, photo-etched parts and superb decals that come in those kits, could be purchased for close to the UK RRP for the Z-M kit and I know which option I would go for. In a play off against some other recent kits, such as the aforementioned AMK MiG-31, Kinetic Su-33 and others and taking into account overall originality, quality, detail and price the Z-M kit will have difficulty competing unless one if a dyed-in-the-wool F-4 fan.         

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One thing I never saw mentioned is that Z-M F-4 has the correct shape of the windshield frame, which is incorrect on all F-4 models except Tamiya 1/32 F-4.

 

Hasegawa has the frame nearly correct, but too thin and only the flat (inside) portion of the frame is engraved, but there is nothing on the curved (outside) sides. The frame cross section has a kink and covers both flat and curved portion.

 

Everyone else makes the frame as a continuous curve, while the original has two long straight almost parallel sections, two converging straight sections below (blending smoothly into the above straight sections), and a semi-circular section on top. There is another set of straight sections at the bottom on the metal bit below the centre glass panel, yet again blending into the above straight sections.

 

Making the entire frame a continuous curve makes it too wide in the middle (at the widest point) and usually too narrow at the bottom of the glass centre panel. Monogram is the worst offender here, with centre flat glass section actually having a little bit of the curved edge where it spills over the curved section.

 

If one looks at the F-4 windshield, it is quite obvious that the shape is not a simple curve, and the look is quite distinctive. So far, only Tamiya and Z-M did that correctly, and I am surprised that no after market manufacturers stepped in with replacement windshield that has correct framing.

 

This photo shows the shape of the windshield frame well:

McDonnell-Douglas-F-4-Phantom-II-182.pre

 

Another view:

 

c3c6bca24d03ae3cfc174131507775ca.jpg

 

On the Airfix stand I mentioned this to Airfix people, as their F-4 as displayed also has a continuous curve instead of the correct shape of the frame. I hope they will correct the shape of the frame, as it would not be complicated to do, and it would improve the look of the canopy.

Edited by Vladan Dugaric
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On 22/10/2016 at 4:53 AM, Calum said:

Looks really nice.

 

But pity it's a USN J and not a USAF E. IMHO the E has much more interesting sub variants than the USN J's 

In the blog #88, it states long nosers are planned...

 

I doubt they will have any difficulty shifting them, all their Telford orders and extras went....

 

They also have quite a number of orders for the J already made for delivery next month, via Volks USA/ Japan

 

Also, loads of others on other  sites already are wanting to dump the Academy in favour of ZM....

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