1/48 Hasegawa F-4 Phantom FGR Mk2

by Karl W Branson

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The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II was purchased by the British MoD after the government of the time cancelled the Hawker P1154 that would have replaced the Navy Sea Vixen’s and the RAF Hunters. The British Phantom F-4 K/M was to be a derivative of the Phantom F-4J, but modified to a new specification that would include a British built radar and rear fuselage; Rolls-Royce Spey engines were to replace the regular Pratt and Whitney J79’s. The F-4 Phantom was used by the Royal Navy until 1978, at which time the Carrier Ark Royal was assigned to the scrap yard. It also served with the RAF until 1992, being used to defend British air-space over and around the UK; and to Germany to protect the frontier during the Cold War.  Later they were also used to guard the Falkland Islands after the 1982 conflict; and saw service during the first Gulf War guarding the island of Cyprus.

This is the Hasegawa kit built straight out of the box with only a few scratch built modifications to the cockpit and the addition of four Sidewinder AIM-9D’s from Hasegawa’s weapons set ‘C’.

My build depicts a Phantom of No. 92 Squadron, based in Germany.

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Construction started as usual with the cockpit. The Tub and instrument panels are nicely detailed, the ejection seats only needed a bit more detail and the addition of some seatbelts made from foil and wire. The rear bulk heads were detailed with some brass wire to simulate cabling.  A couple of year ago I visited the RAF  Hendon Museum in London; I took lots of photographs of the Phantom FGR-2 that is on display there and I used these extensively during the painting and detailing of the cockpit.

The fuselage, wing and tail were all assembled next; this went together with little or no filler being required – the fit of the parts was very good indeed. Other details such as the fuel tanks, Sidewinder launch rails and external SUU-23 cannon pod were assembled ready for painting. 

The Phantom was given a coat of Grey Halfords primer; this was smoothened out using 1200 grit sand paper. The underside was sprayed with Humbrol #166 Light Aircraft Grey. The Disruptive pattern camouflage was then lightly marked out with a pencil and Humbrol #164 Dark Sea Grey and Humbrol #163 Dark Green applied. The whole model was then sprayed in Humbrol Gloss Cote for decaling and weathering. The bare metal areas were masked off and sprayed with Halfords ‘Nissan Silver’

The kit comes with a fairly comprehensive decal sheet; these were applied and presented no major problems. Weathering was done using a sludge wash of artist’s pastels, dish soap and water. After I was happy with the decals and weathering I sprayed a second coat of gloss cote to get an even surface, after this had dried I sprayed on a couple of coats of Humbrol Matt Cote to dull the finish.

The remaining parts such as the missiles and landing gear were then painted, detailed and attached. The canopies were dipped in Klear (Future) and the frames painted and flattened.

This was probably one of the easiest kits I’ve built. The level of detail in the cockpit is quite good; the fuselage has lightly engraved panel lines that are just a little too light – as the layers of paint build up and by the time I was ready to do the sludge wash, it was quite difficult to stop the wash from being rubbed out of the panel lines during the clean-up. There were also no fit problems of any great note.

This was a very satisfying build; I used a few new (to me, at least) techniques on this model that worked out quite well.

Enjoy!

Karl  

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Photos and text © by Karl W Branson