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Tamiya 1/32nd F4J


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Hello all.

I thought that, after being a member for a quite few years, it's about time I posted something.

I've just finished this for a former 74 Sqn pilot and thought I'd like to share it with you all.

Tamiya kit, obviously (not as good as it's been bigged up to be, in my view); Avionix (formerly Black Box) cockpit; Aires jet pipes; Flightpath Sidewinders and Houchin; some American company's gun, who's name escapes me; scratchbuilt ladder, chocks and one or two other little bits.

Anyway, enough spiel, here are the pictures, if I can get it to work! Please feel free to criticise, as it's by no means perfect.

Thanks for looking.

Stew

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Edited by stew290
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Thanks for the comments guys. It turned out better than I expected, although I'm still not overjoyed with it - two months ago it was about to go ballistic with assistance from my left boot!

Andrew, it's ironic that you should ask if I had to make any changes to represent a Brit Toom. Aside from the bit I'll get to in a minute, all I did was move the white anti-collision light on the spine aft a couple of centimetres and scratchbuild the ladder, Brit style chocks and the intake blanks, which I forgot to mention earlier. I had a fair few issues with the kit, not least of which was the supposed method of construction. On the whole, I expected better from Tamiya (and for the price!), but nothing was insurmountable when I put a bit of thought into it.

Now, the bit I've really got the hump about is the rear fuselage, where the jet pipes fit. Every time I've seen this model finished I've been surprised to see a relatively large gap between the pipes and the fuselage, which shouldn't be there. No problem, I thought, the Aires pipes will rectify that. However, they didn't. At first, I thought that Aires had just based their pipes on the "inaccurate" Tamiya ones so, intrigued, I reached for the most accurate plans I have (FGR2) and overlaid the upper fuselage. Doing this, I have established that Tamiya and Aires have got the jet pipe diameter about right, but Tamiya seems to have got the rear fuselage wrong, as the width of this part of the fuselage is - wait for it - the same as a British Phantom. Oo-er, Missus.

The bad thing with that is that you either have to narrow the fuselage at that point, or alter the construction method to push the pipes outboard and hope that no-one notices (I chose the latter, easiest option!). I think I got away with it Pike.

The good news is that it makes my planned FGR2 conversion ALOT easier!!

Anyway; enough of my whingeing. It's finally finished and, for the most part, I'm fairly pleased with it. The REALLY good news is that, as it's going to a Phantom driver, he has no clue what the outside of his cab looked like, so he'll love it! And yes, I have already told him that. He just shrugged.

Thanks again for the kind comments chaps. They might encourage me to make more than one model every five years!!

Stew

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Khimbar.

The "refuelling thingy" (nice one - like it) is a Houchin Ground Power Unit, manufactured by Dave Parkins at Flightpath. You'll find it on his website www.djparkins.com. He does all sorts of stuff for Brit (and American) jets, from missiles to loads of different pieces of airfield support equipment.

All good stuff.

Stew

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Khimbar.

The "refuelling thingy" (nice one - like it) is a Houchin Ground Power Unit, manufactured by Dave Parkins at Flightpath. You'll find it on his website www.djparkins.com. He does all sorts of stuff for Brit (and American) jets, from missiles to loads of different pieces of airfield support equipment.

All good stuff.

Stew

I knew it had a proper name!

Thank you kindly :D

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So you're saying that the Tamiya F-4J is actually an FGR.2? That means Meteor Productions went under for nothing, and every Tamiya Phantom ever made is wrong?

How did the internet modelling fraternity ever let that one go? If it had been a Trumpeter kit it would have been rendered unbuildable.

Yeah, nice model anyway, shame about the black panel lines, but nobody's perfect eh? It's the base that makes it for me, the actual plane looks odd with the pink roundels and dodgy scratchbuilt ladder.

Hope you appreciate the constructive criticism, it'll help you when you get round to your next one. If I haven't grown too old by then :sleeping:

Al

:tease:

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Thanks Al, that was nearly funny. I used to like you.

Just because the Green Eyed Monster has been sitting on your shoulder since club night (when your F15 got thrashed, as I recall; can't think what thrashed it!), there's no need to use my lack of prolific-ness (is that a word?) against me.

All of the above should have humerous emoticons added by the way, as it's tongue-in-cheek, but I can't work out how to do it.

Seriously Al, I can see now why you like your "big grey jets" - they do look mighty impressive when finished. Just a shame I've got nowhere to put them, so I'll be sticking to 1/48th. And it'll save me a fortune in paint - won't need a 2.5 litre can of Dulux!

Ithengyaw

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