I
saw this aircraft in a book and just had to do one. The first one I built was in
1/48 scale by converting a Hasegawa F-4J kit. When Tamiya released their 1/32
F-4J I knew I had to do it again! With some great help from Jan Jacobs at
Smoke trails, who happily photo copied an out of print article of this very
plane, and sent it to me no charge (that's great spirit!). And some very
gracious help from a man I know only as Mike who sent me several slide photos of
VF-301 at the hangar, and again no charge (I think he is now curator at the
Hawaiian museum of aviation). Plus a ton of books on the Phantom, I think I have
about 10 or more, plus magazines.
I
had to make several modifications to this Tamiya kit. We all know how bad a job
Tamiya did with the intakes, so this was the first area to tackle. I found that by
removing the part of the intake fixed to the fuselage and gluing it to the
intake parts, I was able to smooth out the seems much easier. Then I
pre-positioned the intake back into the fuselage, taped the intake cover in place
and tacked the whole thing together. Now I was able to remove the tape and parts from
the body and putty the heck out of the join between the intake and the intake
cover. Lots of sanding, priming and more sanding!!!! Also the engine
exhausts are very undersized and just not well detailed. I chose the CAM
replacement for this and I'm quite pleased with the turn out. The cockpit
is good for this kit but, if I'm going to all this trouble of fixing this to
look right I just had to use the Blackbox F-4J kit. This kit is an absolute
jewel in itself!! I also needed to use Cutting
Edge F-4S conversion for the
outer wings and the inner slats. This was a bit of a chore to get to fit right
and next time I will use the simpler set from CAM. Decals are from CAM. And
last but not least, I used the Eduard photo etch set for the F-4J, they really
got the canopy sills bang on right!
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When the F-4J
started to rack up the flying hours the navy and marines decided to extend the
life of them just the same as they did with the F-4B. One of the things most
needed was to fix the wing, and so they added a strap to the bottom extending
from wing fold to wing fold. This zero timed the wings and also added some extra
weight. The radios and radar were also upgraded along with the wiring.
In most of the photos I've seen,
the Phantom is carrying a pod for luggage or aircraft logs maybe? I made mine
from an old fuel tank. On the other side of the wing usually there is a
sidewinder practice round, that's so the airforce guys can't jump you totally
defenceless!
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All and all this conversion went
very smoothly, redoing the avionics cooling vents under the nose, was kind
of fun, but sanding all the over thick plating was a drag. What was Tamiya
thinking? I love the paint scheme for this Phantom and I chose the Extra colours
from England to spray it with. I like the gloss finish you get with them. I
tried to give the colours a mottled look by adding some white or black to each
shade of grey. Plus I washed the panel lines a bit with some umber and black
oils. Not to much weathering was done to this one, it was stationed at Miramar
NAS and they don't get the same abuse as when they are at sea. With out a doubt
this is my phaforite Phantom of a long line of kits that I have built. My next
Phantom is going to be a F-4J with VMFA 333 markings, and all the extras like
this one. One a year is all I can afford!
Anthony
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