1/72 Hasegawa IRIAF RF-4E

 by sentry30

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When Diego from HI-DECAL LINE sent me his new RF-4 Phantom decals, the choice of which one to make was an easy one!  I started off with a standard Hasegawa RF-4E kit, which normally allows you to build a German or Japanese recce bird.  To put some details in to the kit, I got a really nice Photo Etched set from Eduard (# 73265), which was actually meant for the RF-4C.  This PE did not only allow me to do a really nice cockpit for my RF-4, but also added some truely nice details to the rest of the kit!  As said, the decals are from HI-LINE DECALS and allow you to do not only 3 different Iranian RF-4E's, but also Spanish RF-4C's and a USAF Kentucky RF-4C.  Phinally we now have some hard needed Phoreign Phantom decals!  To finish the kit I put some True Details wheels on it. 

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The initial built went pretty smooth, as shown in the pics, the Eduard PE makes a really nice cockpit.  As I do more often, the ailerons and rudder were cut out, and put back under a different angle.  Where needed I used putty and did the required sanding.  "A bit of pre-shading" was done using Humbrol 21 gloss black, and from here on I made a little mistake.  I twisted the colors (Humbrol 47 Sea Blue & 129 Satin US Gull Grey), assuming the buttom of the RF-4 was supposed to be grey instead of blue!  I found this out after airbrushing the whole model, but before applying the decals!   So I had to strip the whole model, re do the pre-shading and painting(!) from here on things went smooth again!

After applying the decals, the model got a wash and some weathering was done using Tamiya X19 Smoke.  After that, the model was sprayed flat using Model Master Dullcote. The ALQ87 comes from a Hasegawa weapons box and was modified a bit.  Since I scaled down the paint with 15% white paint, the paint color does not exactly match the color of the decals (something I'll have to keep in mind for next time..).

Greetings,

sentry30

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Photos and text © by sentry30