Hasegawa 1/48 F-4J Phantom Build Notes

Source: http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal7/6401-6500/gal6412-F-4-Nanagas/00.shtm

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Use plastic card to fill the void behind the panel located aft of the intake splitter plate as this is visible when viewed from the top (I didn't want to use putty for fear that it may shrink or crack). Ejection seat pull handles are made by painting the handles yellow and wrapping 0.7 Micron line tape around it. The real things are not bands of yellow and black, but it appears to be a spiral.

Source: http://www.rollmodels.net/nreviews/airplanes/48hasef4ohare/blackmike.php

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Hasegawa are known for decent, though not spectacular cockpit detail, and this kit is no exception. It looks good OOB - particularly the tub itself, though the five-part seats are nice too. Scratch building on the sidewalls. These, as with most models, are the weakest part of the kit's cockpit. They have some raised detail, but it's very faint, undersized and unspectacular. At the very least, some ribbing can be added with strip styrene. I went a bit further, adding details with sheet and rod styrene, essentially just trying to duplicate (more or less) the basic shapes using the sidewalls from a Black Box F-4E cockpit as a sort of 3-D, scale reference. Also added a simple attempt at a throttle - the corners were rounded over on a section of strip styrene and a line scribed to give the impression of two halves, it was then painted, lopped off the strip and glued in place. The intakes themselves are a little disappointing - there's no intake trunk, just a simple bulkhead an inch and a half back on the fuselage halves. And the bulkheads themselves aren't flat, nor do they cover the whole of the intake - the model is see-through along the bottom of the intake. Seamless Suckers have resin intake trunks available for those who want to look back to the fan and there's also a number of aftermarket options to do US-style FOD guards. First, in preparation for a coat of Alclad II, the exhaust area was primed with Gunze's Mr. Base White 1000, basically just a white version of Mr. Surfacer 1000, a very tough lacquer-based sandable primer. Its biggest benefit is the fact that it buffs to a high gloss, which means it's the perfect smooth, shiny base for metallics. It's also an excellent choice for any gloss white - a brisk buffing will give it a good shine, and a bit of Tamiya polishing compound will bring out a mirror-like finish. With the primer coat down, the Alclad could be painted. The aluminium sections are, surprisingly enough, aluminium, but with a hint of steel added to take the edge off. I then sprayed lightly along the panel lines with a slightly darker version of the base shade (more steel added). For the burnt metal portions, the process was reversed - steel with a touch of aluminium to lighten, and a slightly lighter version sprayed down the centres of the panels. The exhausts were painted with a base coat of aluminium, and detail painting done with a variety of shades and techniques - the "feathers" are Model Master Metalizer gunmetal on the inside, titanium on the outside, while the darkest band around the exhaust itself is Metalizer magnesium. The lighter band is Humbrol matte coat. It's interesting to note that the Metalizers seem to stick very

well to the Alclad underneath. With the natural metal portions taken care of, they were masked over and attention turned to the rest of the aircraft.
Source: http://hyperscale.com/features/2002/f4jid_1.htm

1. I do not know if the mouldings now begin to show their age whether it is another reason, but some of the engraved panel lines, especially on the aircrafts spine were hardly visible. Fortunately this is a sanding area anyway and so there had to be some rescribing. 2. To produce a correct Navy J version, the moulded-on formation lights had to be removed. As well the reinforcing triangles on the horizontal stabilizers. All three spine-mounted antennas are shown in the construction leaflet, but only one is on the model. So the other two had to be scratchbuilt 3. He wished to show the Phantom as exactly as possible the way it must have looked prior to takeoff from Constellation four Sidewinders, two Sparrows, six Rockeyes and the 600gal. centerline fuel tank. Except for the Mk20 Rockeyes and the TERs, coming from Hasegawas Weapon Set A, everything is provided in the kit.
Source: http://hsfeatures.com/features04/f4jdeathangelsdwa_1.htm

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I scratch-built the wiring details between and behind the cockpits. I scratch-built various instrumentation on the top of the front instrument hood. I added the pitots inside the engine intakes. I replaced the tail pitots with brass wire and styrene stock. I wanted this Phantom to be armed to the teeth, so I incorporated lots of weapons from the various Hasegawa Weapons Sets. The original plan had six LAU-10 rocket pods, but over the years, two of the pods were outsourced and used on an OV-10A model, so only four were left for the Phantom. I also had orinally planned twelve 500lb bombs to be mounted on the outboard weapons pylons with Multiple Ejector Racks (MERs), but over the years, six of these were used with their accompanying MER on a Skyhawk model, so I changed to a centerline mount of the remaining six bombs. This change then effected the fuel loading from a single 600 gallon centerline tank to two 370 gallon wing tanks. The final weapons selection includes the following. a. Four AIM-7E Sparrow Missiles b. Four AIM-9D Sidewinder Missiles c. Six Mk 82 500lb High Drag "Snakeye" bombs mounted on a centerline MER d. Four LAU-10 Zuni rocket pods mounted on two Triple Ejector Racks (TERs) e. Two wing fuel tanks as provided in the basic kit

The large bumps in the centers of the upper wing are reinforcing plates applied to Navy aircraft to strengthen the landing gear so the legs would not get driven up through the wing on a hard landing. They are not correctly shaped, though, and needed to be refined. I gently Dremeled them down to a more correct outline, then sanded them smooth with sand paper. The images below show the bulges before and after modification.

Kit Provided Mid-Wing Reinforcing Plate and Corrected Mid-Wing Reinforcing Plate

While all the bumps on the wings are Naval options, the slats on the leading edges are the Air Force versions with the smaller cord slat panels and the short-span wing fences at the wing fold line. The kit does provide alternate wing fences that represent the long-span fences found on the Naval slatted F-4 wing. I had to carve off the molded short-span fences, then attach the alternate long-span fences. I did not revise the slat panels, themselves, to be the longer cord Naval style, instead keeping the kit provided Air Force style. Only a true Phantom-ologist will note this variation, and the customer I was building this model for wanted to control the costs. With the fuselage and wings now assembled, I joined the two sub-assemblies together to form the basic airframe. The model was starting to look more like a Phantom. A few more items were attached to the airframe like the tail tip and engine engine intakes, and I was nearly ready for painting.