1/48 Hasegawa F-4G

Gallery Article by David Mielke (VMFA314Knights) on Sept 17 2009

 

This is my model of an F-4G 69-7232 of the 561st FS when it was based out of Dhahran AB in Saudi Arabia in 1994.  It was a participant in "Operation Southern Watch" (policing air activity over Iraq up to the 32nd parallel). This aircraft sports not only a scoreboard on the splitter plate but also the "Wild Weasel" mascot and abbreviation "YGBSM" (Politely  - You Got to be Kidding Me). attributed to a pilot’s reaction to the mission brief back in the early SEAD days over North Vietnam.

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This kit was a milestone, as it is my 100th model built (and still in inventory E.g. not “shot down” or given away) so I thought I should make it a significant aircraft.  I chose the venerable F-4... I don’t really have to explain why do I..?  Suffice to say the F-4 has seen action with many air forces and has a lot of history behind it.  This choice should make “Phantom” happy (BTW - I have to give him credit here for supplying the USAF insignia after I mistakenly damaged mine. – Thanks again and to all the great ARC members in the community – especially Steve for bringing us together and keeping us all inspired).  

Hasegawa makes a great F-4G kit however their decals do leave a lot to be desired (too thick and silver far too easily). 

The ‘hanger’ is my latest solution to ‘how can I photograph these replicas decently?”  I use to use a bristol board ‘sky’ backdrop, which looked nice, however I damaged mine and can’t find a replacement.  A little white foam-board and some plastic beams and I-beams later and I have a good start.  A few fellow ARC modelers (E.g. Armin Knes) have built quite sophisticated versions of hangers and I will most likely continue to enhance mine. – Happy Modeling.

David Mielke (VMFA314Knights)

Photos and text © by David Mielke (VMFA314Knights)