1/48 Hasegawa F-4E Phantom  

by Alan Williamson

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  ANZAC Day 2006 

 

The Kit
 
Hasegawa 1/48 F-4E Phantom II 09361
 
Additions 
  • Aires F-4E/F Phantom II cockpit set 4126
  • Aires F-4 Phantom II Exhaust Nozzles 4118
  • True Detail F-4 Wheel Set 48043
  • True Detail Martin Baker MK-7 Ejection Seat
  • Cam Decals Phantoms forever 48-102
  • Hasegawa 1/48 Weapon Set C
 
The Start of the build
 
At the time I brought this kit back in 2002 it was the only Phantom available at my local hobby store.  I knew by the look of the box that I would need to purchase some decals.  When I got the kit home and opened it up I found that the instructions were for that of a Japanese Air force Phantom with weapons and decals, however none of the weapons or decals were supplied in this kit.  A second decal instruction sheet for the Bicentennial decals was supplied instead. So I knew I had to get some decals after giving the kit and instructions the once over I decided that I would also have to get an after market cockpit. With that in mind I sent Craig at Aeroworks an E-mail and put and order in for some decals, an Aires Phantom cockpit set and the Aires Phantom exhaust nozzles.  When my order of goodies arrived I set to work, starting with the cockpit. Aires have supplied a well detailed cockpit  with lots of fiddley parts, the only problem I seem to find with the Aires cockpit are there ejection seat belts I just couldn't seem to get the seatbelts to fit right and whilst trying I made a mess of one of the ejection seats. So I sent another E-mail to Craig to place an order for True Detail Phantom ejection seats and while I was at it I ordered the True detail Phantom wheel set. When they arrived I was back in business and continued assembling the cockpit. The Aires cockpit detail is exceptional and with the colours added it looks magic. Once the cockpit was assembled and painted it was time to get the fit right in the fuselage, I had to sand the fuselage wall of the kit quite thin to get the cockpit to sit into place, this took some time and there was a fair bit of plastic that had to be removed from the inside wall of the kit. Once completed I placed the two fuselage halves around the cockpit and glued the halves together, With the cockpit in place and the glue now dry on the fuselage it was time to fill any gaps. First gaps were the one's on the side wall of the fuselage which once the putty was dry I used the old nail polish remover on a Q-tips another trick I pick up from the tools n tip section to thin the putty out and remove any unwanted putty from the cockpit. The rest of the kit build was straight from the instruction sheet, little putty was required in the remainder of the build. I mentioned that I had got a set of Aires exhaust nozzles for this kit, well I made a mess of them I could not seem to get the fit right so they were scraped and the kit one's were used instead.
 
Painting

I used Model Master paints for the camo scheme and that of Humbrol light grey for the belly. Since I'm still a novice with my airbrushing and that I have not had the best of luck with camo schemes in the past I decide to try out a few technics, such as using blu-tac to get the shape of the camo. I've been known to avoid painting camo schemes on aircraft if I have the chose of another two tone scheme, but in this case camo was the only option. So placed out the blue-tac for the first colour and airbrushed it on, once it was dry I added more blue- tac for the second colour and covered the first colour applied with masking tape. I found it to be a little messy but it seemed to work for me but, if any body has a better way of achieving this than I'm opened to suggestions. Once the colours were applied it was time for a gloss clear cote.

Click on image below to see larger image

 

Click on images below to see larger images

Finishing touches

With the colour now applied it was time for the decals, I found these decals of Cam to be quite strange in the way they applied themself to the kit.The decals needed quite a lot of decal solution to get them to fall into the panel lines, but the decals did not seem to be that thick unlike Taymia deacls. Once the decals were set and dry another clear cote was applied to the kit followed with the pastel wash to high light the panel lines, with the finishing cote of dull clear to give the kit that matt look. After the paint was dry I attached the landing gear & wheels with the doors and that of the weapons, the only weapon added was the AGM-45's. Then it was a matter of placing the ejection seats and cockpit window to the kit and hay presto the kit was complete. This F-4E Phantom represents  the 469th TFS, 388th TFW Korat RTAFB, Thailand 1970.  

Click on images below to see larger images

Thanks

 Thanks to Craig at Aeroworks for supplying the add on's for this kit. Craig can contacted on this  E-mail  aeroworks@iprimus.com.au if any body wants any additional parts, decals, paints etc.

Alan

Photos and text © by Alan Williamson