1/48 Academy F-4B Phantom

Gallery Article by Ashish Velankar on July 13 2020

 

      

This is my 2nd submission to ARC. I am a scale modeler from Bengaluru, India. I always wanted to build a Phantom and finally got this kit in late 2019. The Academy kit is one of the best 48 scale kit for the Phantom. Glad to present the F-4B Phantom of the US NAVY, VF-111 Sundowners squadron. This one served during the Vietnam war and wears the high visibility scheme. Have configured it as an air defense variant and replaced the center line fuel tank with the gun pod.

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Started with the traditional cockpit first approach including detailing on the instrument panels. The pilot helmets were painted in the Sundowners scheme which is yellow and red. The best part of the kit is it has the pilot marking for Cdr. Dan Pedersen, the founder of the 'Top gun' fighter school. So I guess, this model has history associated with it.

The overall fit and finish of the kit is top notch. There was minimal amount of filling and sanding required throughout the process. The challenging part was applying the palm size tail decals and the shark mouth decal on the nose cone. Took me around a month to complete this, mostly working on weekends.
Hope you like my work!

Ashish Velankar

Photos and text © by Ashish Velankar