F-4F Hasegawa 1/72

[baldwin8]

I was consumed with a few projects that were draining and drawn out, so I've taken on a few favourites to sharpen my painting skills. The F-4 has been one of my favourites, building a number of the old Monogram and Hasegawa quarter scale kits. This time I will focus on 1/72 with a few modifications trying not to get caught up in superdetailing. That I will leave to many others who can do it so well.

My subject is a kit of a F-4EJ that was sent to me as a gift a number of years ago and sat. The problem is to do a F-4F I need add the slatted wings. An error on my part, I ordered an old version Hasegawa. So the kitbash begins. Turns out not so dramatic, but I will concentrate on giving it a paint of top form.

 

My modelling subject of choice due to the nice feathered edges which will lend itself to airbrushing. Thank you for Friedrich Becker for use of his photo

 

Main kit used for build and donor kit (cheap)

 

Decals by Hahen, very nicely printed and easy to arrange serial numbers for build.

 

Photoshopped colour chart from RAL color website.

 

Truedetails seats, fit perfectly and crisp details.

 

Donor  outer wings already cut from old wing. Scribing still required.

 

I will hope there is something for you to find of interest.

[billn53]

Most definitely interested!

[baldwin8]

I should have included these in my opening post. Although a seat from a North Dakota jet but basically the same type as used by the F-4F, I'll add the leg restraining straps with flattened soldering wire. The wing slat fence is way too thick on the kit part so another will be made from plastic card. I find the worst in 1/72 is the over thickened parts like landing doors, etc.. 

 

 

Outer wing slat fence.

 

 

Still deciding on choice of paint. Most of the colours will require mixing as I am using acrylics Tamiya or Vallejo Model Air. To me many of the Tamiya grey paints are tending to lean towards the cool side while the tones needs are a warmer grey, which means mixing of browns and greens into the grey. 

[Gene K]

Nice job on modding the "donor kit (cheap)". In that regard, I have a garage full of donor kits, so let me know if you need any additional parts! 😉

 

Seats look really good so far.

 

Gene K

[giemme]

Following ...  I'm interested in Phantoms, can you tell?  

 

Nice start with the seats  

 

Ciao

[bbudde]

22 hours ago, baldwin8 said:

Still deciding on choice of paint. Most of the colours will require mixing as I am using acrylics Tamiya or Vallejo Model Air.

What about the Revell colours? They are based on the RAL system and have all 3 greys in their range. Just a thought.

I like that scheme, so I will look at this one. Cheers

[baldwin8]

2 hours ago, Gene K said:

Nice job on modding the "donor kit (cheap)".

 

A nice surprise in my donor kit box was this, I can use for my luggage pod, just need to glue and take a hammer to it!!!

 

 

 

2 hours ago, giemme said:

Following ...  I'm interested in Phantoms, can you tell?  

 

Always loved those bent winged birds. Early in my first tour in our Air Force, we had this nice visit to our transient ramp before our squadron of CF-101's  retired. A little bit of flying and a lot of talk went on. I was very happy.

 

 

2 hours ago, bbudde said:

What about the Revell colours? They are based on the RAL system and have all 3 greys in their range.

 

Hobby paints in Canada are limited, I will check to see who carries them. I prefer seeing the colours in person as I've been disappointed with some on my online paint picks. I do appreciate the suggestion and will look into it.

 

Thank you for everyone's great comments.

[baldwin8]

Not often I've used photo etch cockpit sets, but the decals for the original kit were moisture damaged. Eduard's F-4F set were ordered, but they do seem a bit generic to me. A cockpit sidewall insulation fabric detail was added first, made from milliput. Template cut from paper card stock used to help align the new pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see the grey used by Eduard was quite blue and the overall printing leaves it with a sheen. I used my cockpit grey to the touch up the blue-greys on the photo etch then a matt coat to dull it down.

 

 

Throttles added and seats will be dropped in after painting. The forward fuselage parts glued but the heavy rubber band was needed while it dried. As well a toothpick also helped keep parts aligned during assembly, I hate the using putty to the point I will only use it  as a last resort when parts will not align. It usually means a lot of trimming and removing alignment pins to get the surfaces even.

 

 

 

Thank you for checking in.

 

Craig

[giemme]

Well done on repainting the PE, way to go.  I used a very similar set for my F-4J, and the grey was definitely too blue-ish. 

 

Ciao

[phantom61]

I would say good start ...
I have a preference for English Phantoms ... but this interests me so much ...
I follow you...

 

ciao 

Silvano

[baldwin8]

My regular job has long hours but I am still managing to have a kick at the can everyday and happy with the fitting so far. The aux air doors will be displayed open and they are removed on the kit, a simple mod.

 

 

The book has some great line drawings for reference. The kit has the "hard" wing panel lines engraved so I will need to adjust them for a slatted wing version. Ailerons have been removed and will be modified to show some droop and a more relaxed look to the model.

Stretched sprue set with lacquer thinner to fill panel lines.

 

 

 

This part on the Hasegawa kit needs to be trimmed and subtlety blended in, it is a bit too long. @giemme covered this item on his Phantom build.

 

 

The LAU rails for the inboard wing pylons are the wrong type so I may scratch them, plans are to only have the centerline tank and inboard pylons installed.

[giemme]

Nice progress, baldwin8

 

Ciao

[Harry Callahan]

Hello

I will follow your build report, because i am a big fan of F-4F Phantom, nice start indeed

 

 

Cheers

Werner

[baldwin8]

The flu bug seems to be getting around, slow but steady progress. I love this kit and the usual minor fit problems, typical Hasegawa. The wing/lower fuselage to fuselage too wide in spots, others not wide enough. My efforts go always to using a little of filler as possible. Spreading parts sometimes, using sprue to adjust fit before gluing. 

 

 

 

Wing slats actuator fairings not called in the instructions but provided on the parts trees. 

 

 

The LAU rails I have either modify to correct or re-manufacture new parts.

 

 

Thank you for everyone's comments and pushing to get to the paint booth.

[Nikolay Polyakov]

I love these old school kits! Nice progress, Mr. Baldwin 👍

 

Back in the days I built the Hasegawa’s F-4E, but can’t remember about the panel lines: that was the raised or the scribed ones?

 

The seats are painted amazingly well.

 

Cheers! 😎

[baldwin8]

3 hours ago, Nikolay Polyakov said:

Back in the days I built the Hasegawa’s F-4E, but can’t remember about the panel lines: that was the raised or the scribed ones?

 

Thank you for support Nikolay, these are scribed lines on the kit but beware when purchasing. Hasegawa are offering some of their older generation kits re-boxed and of course the details are not near as delicate and raised lines.

[Nikolay Polyakov]

1 hour ago, baldwin8 said:

Hasegawa are offering some of their older generation kits re-boxed and of course the details are not near as delicate and raised lines.

Thanks! So I look at the Revell’s one in 1/72 or just wait for the ZM’s «E» or «G» will be released.

 

Cheers! 🙃

[baldwin8]

Slow but steady progress. My last couple of months have been taken up by a special research project for submission to IPMS Canada for their publication. Still going through research material and of great interest to me, F/Lt Phillip Archer's Spitfire Vb. Hopefully I will have some interesting posts with that in the future.

 

 

Still I manage to advance with my F-4F. I do not remember having a big issue with the 1/48 big cousin of this kit fitting the intakes. Attaching them is one of compromises for me. To get the panel lines to match, left me with a lot of styrene  to sand, I mean a LOT. A very coarse sanding stick and holding the tongue just right. The rear fuselage aft of the wing flaps required filler and sheet styrene. And in the end the panel lines were sanded through to get the mating surfaces to match.

 

 

 

 

Thank you for the support, a small update and I just wanted to leave a reminder the work continues.

 

Craig

[giemme]

5 minutes ago, baldwin8 said:

To get the panel lines to match, left me with a lot of styrene  to sand, I mean a LOT.

That, as @Gene K can confirm, is the real issue with this kit; I think you made the right choice by lining up the panel lines and sanding off the exceeding plastic. The vice-versa would have taken a lot of (very complicated) rescribing. good job!  

 

Ciao

[jean]

Great work so far! Agree with you re minimum putty. Unfortunately not always an option...

I am a big fan of the Norm 76, but I will make an effort (a rather small one!) to enjoy your Norm 81!

Keep up having fun!!!

 

JR

[Gene K]

1 hour ago, giemme said:

That, as @Gene K can confirm, is the real issue with this kit;

Yes, the intake fit (on both sides, the right being more severe than the left), as well as the other challenges you are overcoming, are all kit related since the first issue of the series.  Also, there are small gaps: on the bottom when fitting wing  to  fuselage; around inserted catapult hook pieces;  around fitted flare doors; around top and bottom fuselage pieces at rear; and there's a depression on the plastic fairing that butts up to the rear canopy. Further,  there are steps between the fin tip and vertical stab, as well as between the top and bottom wing pieces at the bottom of the flaps. All these "challenge" are very easy to fix if anticipated. 

 

Some items that can enhance these Phantom kits include opening and adding the Aux Air Doors and  the speed brakes, as well as adding seamless intakes and drooping the ailerons. 

 

Having said all that, I love the Hasegawa series of Phantoms, consider them the best in 1/72 at this time ... and I have a garage full, started and waiting. 

 

Gene K

[ArmouredSprue]

On 28/02/2019 at 03:44, baldwin8 said:

Slow but steady progress. My last couple of months have been taken up by a special research project for submission to IPMS Canada for their publication. Still going through research material and of great interest to me, F/Lt Phillip Archer's Spitfire Vb. Hopefully I will have some interesting posts with that in the future.

 

 

 

Still I manage to advance with my F-4F. I do not remember having a big issue with the 1/48 big cousin of this kit fitting the intakes. Attaching them is one of compromises for me. To get the panel lines to match, left me with a lot of styrene  to sand, I mean a LOT. A very coarse sanding stick and holding the tongue just right. The rear fuselage aft of the wing flaps required filler and sheet styrene. And in the end the panel lines were sanded through to get the mating surfaces to match.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for the support, a small update and I just wanted to leave a reminder the work continues.

 

Craig

Very serious modelling craftsmanship here.

 

Just a question. Wouldn't be easier to fit the intake part correctly and than remove the panel lines and re-scribe them? Just thinking about all that sanding, you need to re-scribe than regardless.

Cheers

[giemme]

9 hours ago, ArmouredSprue said:

Just a question. Wouldn't be easier to fit the intake part correctly and than remove the panel lines and re-scribe them? Just thinking about all that sanding, you need to re-scribe than regardless.

Not really, Paulo. With careful sanding of the top of the air intake, the rescribing is very limited, if needed at all. If you choose to align the top of the intake to the fuselage, you'll have to obliterate all the panel lines on the intake (including the riveting) and rescribe them shifted down to match the fuselage panel lines. Plus, you'd get a step along the bottom of the fuselage. Look at this pic from my F-4C build:

 

HTH

 

Ciao

[baldwin8]

18 hours ago, Gene K said:

Yes, the intake fit (on both sides, the right being more severe than the left), as well as the other challenges you are overcoming, are all kit related since the first issue of the series.  Also, there are small gaps: on the bottom when fitting wing  to  fuselage; around inserted catapult hook pieces;  around fitted flare doors; around top and bottom fuselage pieces at rear; and there's a depression on the plastic fairing that butts up to the rear canopy. Further,  there are steps between the fin tip and vertical stab, as well as between the top and bottom wing pieces at the bottom of the flaps. All these "challenge" are very easy to fix if anticipated. 

 

Serious planning required, areas around the flare doors sunk a bit more for me as well as catapult hook inserts, a bit of an annoyance compared to the intakes.

I'm only going with the saggy ailerons and engine aux doors to prevent it enlisting in the almost ready for paint collection.     ☹️

 

15 hours ago, ArmouredSprue said:

Just a question. Wouldn't be easier to fit the intake part correctly and than remove the panel lines and re-scribe them? Just thinking about all that sanding, you need to re-scribe than regardless.

 

@giemme covered it well, a fit of compromises. I wanted to keep the panel lines as true to the kit and aircraft as possible and a peeve for me is panel lines looking not right and they are so prominent at that point of the Phantom. I've scribed many Monogram series aircraft starting in the '80s so I don't mind though. @Gene K is correct, the right intake is more out of whacks vs left.

 

Appreciating this kit is to build it, I love that it has fine panel lines and not overdone with the divot/fasteners that has become the trend.

 

[Jonners]

On 1/28/2019 at 4:43 PM, baldwin8 said:

 I'll add the leg restraining straps with flattened soldering wire.

Well, I think I'll be adding that one to my list of 'why-didn't-I-think-of-that?' top tips. Thanks!

 

It looks like you're going to produce a very nice result from a basic kit. Watching with interest.

 

Jon