1/48 Hasegawa F-4B Phantom II

Gallery Article by David Mielke on July 15 2015

 

      

No need to go into the history of this aircraft as it's been done a few times before. I built this kit after seeing "Phantom's" Phantom done up in this very scheme. I'd been debating between a VF-111 bird or a VF-51 version... and seeing as I was turning 51 that year, I figured I should finally get this one done as it had been sitting in the stash for quite some time. This is the original kit release (raised panel lines) with its incorrect pit etcetera however with the Academy F-4B finally out I built this "as is" except for some minor alterations. I'll do the VF-111 markings from the Academy kit later... probably much later judging by the size of my current stash.

Click on images below to see larger images

I did some subtle weathering of the paint on this one (as it is the CAG's aircraft) using a salt method which I had used to good effect in the past however, I failed to realize that the Humbrol paint I had selected was semi-gloss and ...well you really need to use a flat paint with this weathering technique... live and learn (sometimes the hard way). 

As I was too impatient to track down, order and wait for the proper markings for this kit I did this the (slightly) hard way by modifying the old Hasegawa kit decals. This involved changing the serial number (as 3009 is not the MiG killer) and changing the order of the bottom 3 feathers of the CAG bird (as these were depicted in the wrong order for 0456). I never did get a reference photo with the 4 MiG kills on the front intake plate however it looked more memorable with them there (and the new decal sheet had them so...)

Now I can't even come close to competing with Phantom's machine like production schedule so this only makes for my tenth Phantom and my 165th kit built and on the shelf... but 165 kits in 1/48th scale does take up some serious shelf space!

One more for my museum and it certainly won't be the last Phantom I build, what with the variety of markings for this aircraft type. Not quite a masterpiece, although it looks good on the shelf so I'm happy with it. 

Keep on building,

David Mielke

Photos and text © by David Mielke