with Eduard photo-etched detail set
VF-151 ‘Vigilantes’, US Navy, USS Midway 1985
For Christmas 1995 my brother gave me the Italeri 1/48 F-S Phantom II kit. On opening the box I realised that it was not a great kit — poor detailing, raised panel lines, poor fit, etc. So I bought the Hasegawa F-4J ‘Showtime 100’ kit and used it as a basis for making this F-4S. This was my first conversion and I added an Eduard photo-etch detail set and True Details resin seats. I built the F-4J for the most part as per the instructions. I used the Aerospace book ‘F-4 Phantom: Spirit in the Skies’ as my primary reference for the necessary additions and corrections to convert the F-4J into an F-4S. The main differences are in the wings. I removed the wings from the F-4J outboard of the wingfolds and added those from the F-4S kit. They were a perfect match, but I didn’t rescribe the new wing tips, so they look a bit odd. The slats and slat actuators were also added from the Italeri kit. The Eduard set was very nice, and I used the kit decals, which were not great. The finish was Gunze Sangyo acrylics followed by an oil wash, and leaves a lot to be desired.
Year bought: 1995 (Beatties & Model Zone, Guildford)
Year built: 1996 (Send Marsh, Surrey, UK)
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