Academy 1/48 F-4C

Graham T · July 26, 2019

First impression on opening the box? Why?! Why have Academy moulded this in three colours like a 70s Matchbox effort? There’s absolutely no logical reason that I can see, it makes a nice kit look toy-like & is a total PIA when it comes to painting! Anyway, enough of that. Second impression: Academy have massively over-engineered this kit, probably in an effort to get as much use as possible out of the same moulds for different marks of F-4 & I foresaw issues as can often be the case when this happens, however, my concerns were misfounded as it goes together very well with care. I built a lot of Hasegawa F-4s “back in the day” & use this as a yard-stick for comparison. The early Hasegawa F-4s of course had raised panel lines whereas here they’re recessed as you expect from a modern kit. The full intake trunking & one-piece fuselage are an improvement. The cockpit is no real improvement & the seats are actually inferior to the old Hasegawa seats (if using the crew figures this is not an issue of course). I replaced mine with resin aftermarket items. A lot of ordnance is provided including MERs & TERs rather than just the AIM-9s & 7s supplied by Hasegawa. Finally you get a far stronger tailplane attachment here than the ridiculous small, single pin from Hasegawa. The build is quite smooth, just watch the instructions to ensure you’re using the right parts for the version you’re building.

I intended to build an ADC F-4 using an Experts Choice sheet I found so painted the entire airframe in Xtracolour ADC grey. Sadly, the decals simply disintegrated in the water & were utterly useless. Nothing for it but a complete respray in the three tone Vietnam scheme & to use the kit decals for a machine flown by Robin Olds, which happily behaved well. Aside from the decal issues (not of course the kit’s fault!), all went together pretty well & I’m pleased with the way it turned out - eventually!