1/48 Hasegawa F-4E Phantom II

ISRAELI AIR FORCE  201st Sqn.

by Busolini Massimo

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The kit that I have for you is a F-4E Phantom II with the Israel Air Force, in 1/48 scale from Hasegawa.  It would be useless of me to dwell on the quality of the moldings, because it is known very well, absolutely excellent!!!!

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I added the AIRES resin  cockpit set n.° 4126, absolutely fantastic, and the motors set n.°4118, very well represented.  After having built a filled the model, we are ready to start the painting: I usually start by entirely painting the model in flat black, and then I start with the darkest color of the camouflage.  As she is seen by the photos, once the flat black is dry, I start with the brown FS30219 a single panel after the other to leave the panel lines in negative.  I masked off the brown areas with Tamiya tape and again did the same process with the Green FS34227, and finally with the Yellow FS33531.

In the end I have color the underside of the model in Blue FS35622, and once dry I applied the black panel line wash that I then remove with a damp cloth to the whole model.  From there I apply a clear gloss coat for a base for the decals.  Naturally this whole procedure is effective also for the various subsets as the reservoirs, the armament etc. Every time that I apply the decals I make use Mr. Mark Softer from Gunze to help soften the decals, which helps the decals to perfectly stick to the surface of the model.  At this point I give the model another clear gloss coat to avoid the effect very hated by us model makers.... Silvering!!!  I then applied in an irregular way the dull clear coat and applied various series of weathering both with the black temper and with the Tamiya powders.  The refueling probe was already present in the kit, and I added only the armament from a Hasegawa weapons set.  I hope that you like the finished model....

Busolini

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Photos and text © by Busolini Massimo