McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II, Hasegawa 1/72 (JS-085)

[paul-muc]

This is  a "vintage" kit of the seventies, very simple. I have built an Italeri and a Revell Phantom II and I think that the Revell was the best so far. My kit has two identical decal sheets, one a bit yellowed, the other one looking as if new. Three versions are possible, a US fighter in SEA camo scheme, a Thunderbird with only a few decals and an Israeli version. I will build the Vietnam type as an exercise in masking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JOCKNEY]

Great choice Paul

The Phantom is proving very popular in this GB, and this will look the business when it's done.

Good luck

Cheers Pat 

 

[paul-muc]

I had a good start.
The easiest part were the wings after painting the wheel wells.

 

Then painting the areas between fuselage and air intake, because I don't know if I get there with airbrush. I had to sand down the area at the fuselage, because there was a step between air intake and fuselage.Preparing the wheelbay, the canopy and the seats.

 

I will use the figures of pilot and navigator, otherwise the cockpit would be very empty. The seats got emergency handles. To close the cockpit behind the seat I've made a bulkhead. The parts of undercarriage with wheels and doors were painted. I needed several coats of white.

 

And then it came to the completion of fuselage and wings. As you can see, there is an enormous step where the wings will be glued to the fuselage.

 

I sanded down that parts of the fuselage and the wings until the surface was in line. The two halves of the fuselage were a bit warped. I glued the tail and nose first, let it dry thoroughly and then I glued the back, applying cement from the inside.

 

So far so good.

 

But I will need a lot of filler for the join of fuselage and wings on the upper side.

 

[paul-muc]

I have completed the fuselage. The crew is seated and ready to take off. I have sanded the edges of the canopy to avoid reflections on the finished model and painted them in same colour as the interior (dark grey). For cementing the canopy in place I have used matt varnish and filled any gap along the edges with paint (dark grey or black).

 

 

I will use the same ordnance as shown on the title, that is 4 AIM-4 Falcon air to air missiles on the inner pylons, 4 sidewinders on the underseide and the three tanks.

 

 

Next stop will be the paint shop and that will take a while.

[paul-muc]

To get the scrambled effect of the camouflage borders I have used masks cut out of stiff paper. They were fixed on the surfaces on small pieces of UHU patafix (like blue tac) so I got a distance of about 2 mm between surface and paper mask. More than one attempt were necessary and the result may not show exactly what the painting instructions say, but I think that all in all I've got the right impression.

 

The colours are Humbrol 116, 117, 118. The underside is a mix of white and light grey (about 20:3). The yellow stripes on the sidewinders are decals. The vertical stripe on the left intake is repaired.

 

 

 

 

[Jinxman]

The red fins on those AIM-4s really stand out against the camo - nice job.

[paul-muc]

When decalling, anything went well, but with the last decal I got this result.

I don't know what had gone wrong, but I removed both, cut some stripes of another decal (spares box) and replaced them. The red is not the same and the the words 'walk way' are missing, but I thought it's better than nothing. The decals were painted with matt varnish (not the complete model) to take off the gloss.

Then I added the small parts, used a bit of black weathering pigments and finally she was finished.

 

 

 

 

[JeroenS]

The joy of decals! Too bad that last one wouldn't cooperate. Good result though!

[AdrianMF]

Great result!

 

I am surprised at how similar it is in (lack of) fit to the Old Airfix one - I'd have thought the Hasegawa one would be much better.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Grandboof]

Great camo finish . Outstanding model overall 

Martin H

[Hook]

On 3/24/2023 at 12:24 AM, AdrianMF said:

I'd have thought the Hasegawa one would be much better.

Not on a tool that's almost as old as I am.  

 

@paul-muc: scrubbing up rather well! Indidentally, your larger missiles are AIM-7 Sparrows, not AIM-9 Sidewinders.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Peter Lloyd]

You got the soft edges on the camo just right.  Lovely Phantom.

[JOCKNEY]

Absolutely stunning congratulations 

 

Cheers Pat 

[bianfuxia]

Great build, well done! I learned a few good lessons for my F-4 build (coming up soon).

 

Congrats!