F-4G USAF 52nd TFW 1/72eme

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

Hello! After the F, the last Phantom of my collection closed by the Hasegawa kit. 

The Hasegawa Wild Weasel version is well known, but not far from being perfect: This is what I did (almost) to put this kit my "personal acceptable standard":

- inner part of both air intakes reshaped. Hasegawa completely forgot this portion of the kit:

- Underside additional louvres opened: at rest, these hatches are down with a RBF tag attached to them;

- Wheel wells changed by aftermarket resin kits (AIRES if I remember well);

- Resin wheels;

- Airbrakes lowered;

- flaps lowered;

- AIRES cockpit set.

- Taurus canopy;

- Wing slats cut-off and re-glued;

- resin exhausts; 

- I added some extra plates to the rear fuselage "hot area" which is too simplistic on the original kit;

...and most important, adding the belly straps underside, retrofitted to all WW Phantoms and some "E" . Strange that Hasegawa has omitted this detail but I think that this is for money saving, as all Hasegawa kits are molded similarly. 

These modifications are time consuming and not easy but add to the model another realistic touch. 

Missiles are aftermarket (Brassin, Hasegawa doesn't offer any weapon load) they are absolutely stunning and the ECM pod (AN/ALQ 101) is homemade, the Hasegawa one sold separately in a set in very difficult to find now. 

I decided to go for a classic European 1 wraparound scheme, colors are faded to reflect the scale effect. On the aircraft I chose, some extra patches of paints (OD???) were added on top of the basic camouflage in the nose/right air intake. 

Decals come partially from the MILSPEC 72-007 sheet, which is really disappointing (e.g. the white shadowing on the "SP" letters are wrongly oriented, etc...). I kept only some stencils, squadron emblem and national roundels, the rest is home made.

 

Here are  the pix:

The real thing:

 

My interpretation:

 

 

Critics most welcome, enjoy! 

 

 

 

 

[72modeler]

My goodness, that's a beautiful WW Rhino! You must really love the suckers to have done all of the work you listed to improve the kit! To me, the G is the prettiest of the F-4's, next to the FGR's. Of course, you realize that now that you've done all of this incredible modeling, FineMolds will release a new-tool WW! (We will have you to thank for it!) 

Mike

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

2 hours ago, 72modeler said:

My goodness, that's a beautiful WW Rhino! You must really love the suckers to have done all of the work you listed to improve the kit! To me, the G is the prettiest of the F-4's, next to the FGR's. Of course, you realize that now that you've done all of this incredible modeling, FineMolds will release a new-tool WW! (We will have you to thank for it!) 

Mike

Thank you much! next to come is the "E" I made from the Fujimi kit... another pain in the a...

[Lord Riot]

That’s a stunner! Brilliant finish and looks very realistic. My favourite period of USAF aviation, there was so much to see at East Anglian bases in the 80s. 

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

Thank you! Ah, the good ol' days... next time I will post also an F-4D based at Lakenheath based on the old Monogram kit (1/72eme)

[Vultures1]

Excellent job! The modifications you have made to your Wild Weasel Phantom really make a difference and the Euro 1 camouflage is superb. Well done

[SPang]

Hi,

 

Very nice F-4 G.

 

Great paint on Euro 1 camo.

 

SPang

[billn53]

That’s lovely, and I especially like the camo scheme. 

[binbrook87]

Fantastic! Absolutely love the Euro 1 camo... especially on the SP F-4s, and you've pulled it off. Cracking build 👍👍

[alt-92]

That's one for the books, certainly. Nice work!

 

 

10 hours ago, PATRICK FROM THE SANDS said:

and the ECM pod (AN/ALQ 101) is homemade, the Hasegawa one sold separately in a set in very difficult to find now. 

should you need any in the future:  FineMolds'  new 60s/70s weapons set FP44 includes ALQ87, ALQ101 and ALQ119 pods as well, so if the X72-4 Hasegawa set is not available that may serve as well.

 

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

Just now, alt-92 said:

That's one for the books, certainly. Nice work!

 

 

should you need any in the future:  FineMolds'  new 60s/70s weapons set FP44 includes ALQ87, ALQ101 and ALQ119 pods as well, so if the X72-4 Hasegawa set is not available that may serve as well.

 

Hello! Thank you much for the info, I certainly need more stuff to put under all the kits I in my stock! 

[busnproplinerfan]

I like the paint and subtle weathering, not overdone or huge panel lines, it looks like the photos of the actual planes I saw. Nicely done.

[Chrisj2003]

Phabulous, a lot of work there and it’s payed off. 

 

Chris

[SAT69]

Great work! The open drag chute door is a nice touch and I don't recall ever seeing a Phantom model where that was done.

[F-32]

Mu favourite mark of Phantom, great job, really nicely done

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

16 hours ago, SAT69 said:

Great work! The open drag chute door is a nice touch and I don't recall ever seeing a Phantom model where that was done.

Thank you, good eyesight! ... there is another one, in the little dio, the famous Hasegawa female mechanic with a Dolly Parton-size fatigue connecting a wire in the aircraft belly😜

[Billy54]

Very nice, very very nice, you certainly put a lot into that kit and it really shows. Thank you for sharing your work.

[cardiff guy]

nicely done,  good work.

[SAT69]

8 hours ago, PATRICK FROM THE SANDS said:

Thank you, good eyesight! ... there is another one, in the little dio, the famous Hasegawa female mechanic with a Dolly Parton-size fatigue connecting a wire in the aircraft belly😜

I can barely see her. More pictures, please? 

[Filler]

That's a beautiful model and you've nailed the Euro1 scheme. I think that it's quite difficult to get that scheme right, but you certainly have. And well spotted with the mistake in the decals. I've got those decals in 48th and obviously the same error is there. Pretty galling having paid ten quid for them and finding out the most prominent of all the decals is wrong.

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

1 hour ago, Filler said:

That's a beautiful model and you've nailed the Euro1 scheme. I think that it's quite difficult to get that scheme right, but you certainly have. And well spotted with the mistake in the decals. I've got those decals in 48th and obviously the same error is there. Pretty galling having paid ten quid for them and finding out the most prominent of all the decals is wrong.

Thank you much! yes you are right with the decals, not the first time its happen to me: I modeled recently the famous "Really George" colorful  F-104C (Italeri 1/72eme) with both the Zolt and the Microscale decal sheets but I ended to do the whole decoration by myself as they were all wrong... (I will post this soon). Appalling...

[Ian]

Truly superb build, exactly as I remember them at so many mid-eighties airshows. Thanks for posting / sharing.

 

 

Ian.

[giemme]

Excellent job, with a lot of attention to details!   

 

Apologies for nitpicking, but:

On 16/01/2022 at 06:53, PATRICK FROM THE SANDS said:

flaps lowered;

what you lowered are actually the ailerons, which is entirely correct BTW , because at rest the air pressure would bleed off the system, resulting in the typical ailerons droop. The flaps would instead remain neutral.

 

Ciao

[RidgeRunner]

Very nice, Patrick

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

31 minutes ago, giemme said:

Excellent job, with a lot of attention to details!   

 

Apologies for nitpicking, but:

what you lowered are actually the ailerons, which is entirely correct BTW , because at rest the air pressure would bleed off the system, resulting in the typical ailerons droop. The flaps would instead remain neutral.

 

Ciao

Yes you are completely, absolutly  correct! My enthusiasm to post my humble work and my thoughtlessness resulted to this stupid mistake...Apologize!