1/48 Hasegawa F-4G

Gallery Article by Patrick Vossenberg on July 4 2018

United States of America Independence Day

 

      

A good old Hasegawa F-4G kit, to which I added / scratched a couple of things. Construction was pretty straightforward with only a few seams and gaps around the fuselage that needed some attention. Cockpit instrument panels are really quite nice, but the rest of the cockpit surroundings (sidewalls, instrument panel covers and cockpit edges) lack detail, so I scratchbuilt these by simple adding bits and pieces of styrene and wiring (see work in progress picture below). Two Verlinden resin seats were added, with the ejection handles taken from the kit's seats. The nose gear and wheel well were also improved with some details and wiring.

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The exhausts are taken from the Academy F-4C as these are much better than those in the Hasegawa kit. The Academy F-4C also provided the AIM-7 Sparrow missiles and outboard pylons with fuel tanks. I used True Details resin inboard pylons, since those in the kit have raised panel lines. The kit does include the correct F-15E-style centerline tank and an ALQ-119 ECM pod which I upgraded to ALQ-131 standard. HARM missiles and related LAU-118 launchers are taken from the Kinetic F-18C and complete the load-out. 

I finished the kit as an aircraft deployed during the final months of Operation Southern Watch in 1996, just before the last F-4Gs were retired from service. Decals are from Fox One, working out great. These were completed by a few data stencils from the kit; I masked the walkways and then airbrushed these on, rather than using decals. Camo paints are all Humbrol enamels. To create some subtle variations in the overall scheme, I started off with a bit of airbrush fading once the main colours were applied. Two different panel line washes were applied because of the large contrast between the prime colours: I mixed a mid gray for use on the lighter camo colour and a dark gray on the darker one. I also tried a dot oil filter for the first time using small dots of white, gray, burnt sienna and raw umber oil paint and then blending and streaking these in the direction of air flow (on the wings) and vertically (on the main body). Finally, some thinned oils were used in specific spots to complete the weathering. The exhaust area was finished using multiple shades of Alclad and subsequent weathering with oils.

Enjoy the pictures!

Patrick Vossenberg

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Photos and text © by Patrick Vossenberg