Hello,
This is the 1/48
scale Hasegawa RF-4B modified into an RF-4C from the 155th TRG, Nebraska Air
National Guard. I joined the Nebraska Air Guard in 1992, just a couple of
years prior to the RF-4C being retired and replaced by the KC-135R. I've
always wanted to build one as I remember them, and when I saw the Hasegawa Recce
offering, I bought one. I had a small problem, because nobody made decals
specific for the Hill Grey scheme Nebraska Phantoms. After doing some
searching, I found a submission here on ARC by Tyler White, who
completed a Nebraska Air Guard Phantom in the Hill Grey scheme. After
sending Tyler an e-mail, he graciously provided me with the file he used to
print the decals, and even printed a sheet for me. He's been a great
resource and has become a friend, though we've never met.
As far as
aftermarket goes, I used Legend's resin ejection seats and portions of the True
Details resin F-4C cockpit kit. I also used parts of Eagle Strike's F-4G
Wild Weasel decals for the stars and bars, slime lights, and other generic
markings. Finally, I used Microscale's F-4 Phantom walkway decals for the
walkways.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Construction of the Phantom
was pretty straightforward and mostly OOB. The Legend ejection seats
are very well detailed and I think look great. I added the sidewalls
and front instrument panel cover from the True Details F-4C
cockpit set, painting and drybrushing as I thought looked good. With
the exception of the decals, everything else was done stock. I love
the camera bay, although I accidentally found the Aires RF-4 camera bay
detail set and now I severely want one of those for my next project.
Overall, I thought the kit went together well with some minor fit problems
around the intakes (as I've read, that's pretty common for a Hase F-4
kit). Painting was done with Model Master acrylics followed by a
coat of Future, then decals. I applied a light wash just for effect,
however, I think I found at least one skill I need work on....
I should mention
that this is my first major project back to model building after an almost ten
year hiatus. The finished project is certainly not perfect, and
I'm sure there's many Rhinophiles groaning out there right now, but overall I'm
happy with how it turned out. The project took just over a year to
complete (with family, work, etc., it's been a long road), and while it's
certainly no contest winner, I feel that it's a good effort to get me back into
model building and improve on the skills that I've acquired. It was a fun
project and I've already got my next RF-4C build lined up. The
next one will also be a Nebraska Air Guard RF-4C, but in the SEA scheme
using the old Microscale decal set. Lots of NEANG Phantoms on my
ramp....can't beat that!
Justin K. Miner
Click on
images below to see larger images
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