1/48th F-4C Phantom II Arkansas ANG (Hasegawa F-4J)

[Ghostbase]

I was just curious how much work it would take to convert the early 80's vintage 1/48th scale Hasegawa U.S. Navy F-4J Phantom  II to a U.S. Air Force F-4C using the contents of the spares box. The end result was this:-

 

20210620_171217 by Ghostbase, on Flickr

 

Now an F-4 Phantom expert will immediately spot some omissions however I think I managed to factor in the main differences. Most of the donor parts came from an Academy F-4B kit which contains a lot of parts for different versions. I started by taking the Hasegawa slotted tailplane and sanding it down to eradicate the slots and that worked well. Keeping with the rear end I also replaced the longer jet pipes of the F-4J with a set of shorter pipes from the Academy kit. I had to cut the Hasegawa jet pipes and graft the Academy burner cans onto them, to my eye they protrude just a little bit too much.

 

20210620_171416 by Ghostbase, on Flickr

 

Looking at the front of the Phantom I have removed the F-4J antenna from under the nose cone and have added the large IR sensor that applied to most F-4C and D models, again sourced from the Academy kit. From the same source, the nosewheel forward facing gear door. The sharp-eyed will spot that I forgot to remove the antenna from beneath the air intakes!

 

20210620_171233 by Ghostbase, on Flickr

 

Although not visible in this photo I replaced the F-4J main wheels with those from the Academy kit. The weapons pylons also had to be replaced with the 'rounded' USAF types, I think I had these left over from an old Italeri or ESCI kit and they look a little bit skinny. The Hasegawa missile rails didn't quite fit to them and I would have to do this better next time. Also note that my masking for the gloss black nose cone was just slightly off!

 

20210620_171449 by Ghostbase, on Flickr

 

In the cockpit I replaced the USN RIO's front panel with that from the Academy kit. That is one thing that I really like about the Hasegawa F-4 kits, the ejection seats look 'proper' chunky and they do fill the cockpit space nicely.

 

20210620_171509 by Ghostbase, on Flickr

 

I have had a nightmare the last year with learning how to apply acrylic paints by airbrush. for this build  I used paints from the Vallejo 'Air War Color Series' set 'USAF Colors "Gray Schemes" from 70's to Present' set and they went on really well; I got the mixing right, found the correct air pressure for my Harder and Steenbeck Ultra airbrush, used a retarder and I am really pleased with the result.

 

20210620_171353 by Ghostbase, on Flickr

 

Finally, the decals which depict F-4C 64-0748 which was a Vietnam era Mig Killer, operated in 1989 by the Arkansas ANG 188th TFG / 184th TFS and wearing special artwork by Don Spering. These were sourced from the Speed Hunter Graphics 'USAF Phantom MiG Killers - Part II' decal sheet.

 

20210620_171311 by Ghostbase, on Flickr

 

Overall I enjoyed this build, especially the research beforehand of differences between the F-4C and F-4J models, and it was nice for the painting and decalling stages to go well for once! The Hasegawa kit is very dated now but it still goes together well and I appreciate that. Not my best build, I know I can do better, however it has been a morale booster and just every now and then I need one of those 😊

 

Michael

[SAT69]

Very nice build. And for what it's worth, I suspect all of us need a morale booster build every now and again to get us energized for the next not-so-easy build.

[F-32]

That's superb, I do love the latter schemes the USAF used when the aircraft were coming to the end of their careers.

[Deano353]

Great looking Phantom there I've not seen that scheme before but it makes the plane appear modern enough to be in service today they'd probably still be effective to be fair. 

[exdraken]

I like it a lot!

Great model!

So rare in grey...