Stock Clearance #5. Phantom F-4J (UK)

[Properjob56]

This is the ESCI kit built OOB from, according to Scalemates, 1986, a rebox of a 1982 mould. Slightly odd as it's labelled an F-4S with the F-4J as an option. I'm not a Phantom expert so I'll take ESCI's word that they're interchangeable. Certainly there are optional tail pipes and rear tail planes on the sprues but no mention of which goes with which variant in the Instructions. So I guessed. 

I was fortunate to have another kit in the series because 1.The carpet monster ate the original nose cone when I dropped it and 2. When almost complete the model fell off the table and the undercarriage legs broke. With another kit it would have meant a one way trip to the Shelf of Doom, or the bin, but because I had a donor kit I was able to do like-for-like swaps.

The moulds weren't great with depressions and mould lines. I scraped and filled as necessary with limited success. Fit was OK but the bane of Phantom modellers namely the join from the intakes to the fuselage was very apparent and despite 3 rounds of sanding and filling is still there. Next time maybe I'll try 6 rounds. 

Researching the differences between standard F-4J's and the U.K. ones and acknowledging inputs on ancient threads from @Silverkite, @XV571, @Sundowner14, in summary they appear to be: 

1. The catapult spools on the underside of the wings need to go. (Done. Filled and sanded),

2. The aerial fit was different especially on the underside of the nose (Checked model to photos. All seems correct),

3. Formation lights on the U.K. a/c (Provided for by decals),

4. Small antennae on port side of nose ( Done using tip of a needle)

5. Wing reinforcement stripes (Not on early delivery a/c, as mine is, obvs... which also means the US seat can be used, or at least ESCI's interpretation thereof)

6. Cockpit instrumentation (Ignored as this is OOB and I have neither the skills nor  patience nor inclination to scratch build them in this scale...and the canopy will be closed) 

7. Stencils. (Ignored as minimal on U.K. machines)

8. The front nose wheel door as kitted bears little resemblance to the real thing ( Changed to comply with photos)

The kit decals after 30 years disintegrated but fortunately I had Modeldecal set 76 which included an F-4J from 74 Tiger Squadron. You can model any aircraft from the Squadron with the set so I went with 'H' for the rather perverse reason I hadn't seen photos of it in real life nor as a completed kit. I also eschewed the common practise of modelling a black tail for aircraft of this Squadron to try and make mine unique.

 It's odd isn't it how the memory can play tricks. I remember thinking years ago of ModelDecal as the best decal manufacturer but with this set there were no stencils, not even such prominent markings as the wing walkway lines, the font for the registration number looked wrong and some just looked fictional such as the warning circles on the nose. They went on OK but there was a misregistration with some, meaning a white underlayer was visible. I therefore retrieved  the kit decals, brushed on some decal film and used them as appropriate to fill gaps. 

Although the finish was the standard at the time of Barley Grey/Medium Sea Grey/Light Aircraft Grey these were painted in the US and, suffice to say, were found to be a not very good approximation of the British colours. The correct shades were substituted when the aircraft went in for servicing so mine will depict an early arrival yet to go to the maintenance hangar. Photos show distinct blueish and greenish hues. There has been much debate online as to how to depict these colours. There is no consensus so each to their own. Accordingly, for topside Barley Grey I mixed into Humbrol 165 an equal amount of Humbrol 248 and for the nosecone a ratio of 5:3 of the same paint to make the slightly different shade seen in real life. For the Medium Sea Grey I mixed Humbrol 167 with Humbrol 90 as I wanted a greenish tint. I started with a ratio of 10:1 but the green overwhelmed the Grey so I settled on 20:1 For the underside I just used Xtracrylix LAG as I could not see any marked change to the shade on the photos I had. I'll leave it to others to decide if my colours get anywhere near how these aircraft appeared (with thanks to @keefr22 for confirming there's no one correct answer) . A kit painted in unadulterated colours would be helpful for a comparison but I don't have one to hand. In due course perhaps. 

Finally, thanks to @Selwyn for pointing out that Skyflash disc markings show dummy rounds and they are blue not black with the bands also blue, an error that both ESCI and Modeldecal made.

The kit, and it's donor at the top, are at the end.

All comments and criticisms welcome.

[swralph]

Very nice build.😀

[Harold55]

I am no expert on Phantoms either but it looks like a Phantom and in fact it looks really good!  You are going to find that nose cone in the carpet at some point and I think it will hurt.

[RMCS]

Niiiice 

[Team Aer Lingus]

Nicely done looks every inch a Phantom 

 

thanks for sharing

 

regards

 

Eamonn

[rodenlee]

Looks great- never enough Phantoms!!

 

Cheers

Shaun

[F-32]

Very smart, quality build