1/48 Hasegawa F-4S Vandy 75

Gallery Article by Burt Gustafson on Jan 21 2016

 

      

For your viewing pleasure here are some photos of my 1/48 Scale Hasegawa F-4S Phantom II Vandy 75.

On January 18, 1911, the first successful aircraft landing on a ship occurred when pilot Eugene Ely landed his plane onto the USS Pennsylvania (ACR-4). In 1986, the Navy Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Four (VX-4) celebrated the 75th anniversary of this historic event by adding a special "Vandy 75" insignia to select F-4S Phantom IIs. The model here depicts an F-4S with Vandy 75 painting and markings.

Construction
Construction began with the cockpit. The two ejection seats went together nicely as did the cockpit assembly. For the instrument panels I used the decals that came with the kit. The finished cockpit module fit nicely into the right fuselage half. For weapons, I used the AIM-7 and AIM-9 air-to-air missiles provided by the kit. The kit's part fit overall was good except when installing the fuselage to the main wing assembly. There were some serious gaps that required putty and sanding. The rest of the build went together without any major issues. Although the instructions don't mention it, I added a lead weight in the nose to ensure my model would not be a tail sitter.

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Painting
Painting the F-4S Vanity 75 was fairly simple. The overall model was airbrushed with MM Blue Angel Blue. The exhaust cans and the underside of the rear fuselage were airbrushed with MM Burnt Metal. The remaining sections of the rear fuselage were airbrushed with Floquil Bright Silver. The horizontal stabs were airbrushed with Burnt Metal, Bright Silver, and Blue Angle Blue. The landing gears and the wheel wells were painted MM Flat White. The insides of the landing gear doors were also painted Flat White. The edges of each door was painted with Floquil Signal Red. Last but not least, the air-to-air missiles were painted Flat White.

Decals
Since this is a limited edition kit, only one small decal sheet was provided. The decal sheet provided just the marking decals for the Vandy 75 F-4S, no stencil decals were included. Hasegawa decals are typically thick, and the decals for this kit were no different. The decals performed well when applied to a flat surface. But, when a decal had to be placed on a rounded surface, for example the top of tail, it required many applications of Solvset to soften the decal so it would conform to the model surface.

Comments
To sum up, this was a good build, although a lengthy one. The parts fit is good and the external detail is also good. The only negative part of the build was the decals. I am pleased with the finished model and it is big.

Burt Gustafson

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Photos and text © by Burt Gustafson