BillS

That’s a nice little pile to keep you going! You might chuck in a Hasegawa A-4 and a Wolfpack T-38 for more trouble free jet building!

Curt, You picked a great kit to make the leap. It is very accurate and the detail oob is rock solid. Even w/o aftrermarket goodies you’d crank out a dang nice replica. Other nice building jets to sample would be the Tamiya F-14 and ZM F-4 just for starters. I mention these because they are recent additions to my own portfolio.

I’ve built both manufacturers two holers.. here’s my very condensed summary. For more surface detail, landing gear, gear wells and extras like ordnance, then Kinetic. For a slightly better, cleaner fit and ease of assembly, then Hasegawa.

Ive got the full factory drawings for this scheme. I could take a pic and send them to your email if you like...i think.

Where can I find letters and numbers in 1/48?

After watching the blog post, I’m getting it. I’ve built 3 Js, a C and a D. I have the S and one each of another C and the last J in Ghoastriders markings. My first E is 2/3 finished and it is a gem. I’ve experienced better fit but am cross eyed after doing all those stencils! I’ve got to do a TBird next.

Kitlinx has Xtracolor here in the US. He just restocked.

Xtracolors versions of the Mirage 2000 grays are the cat’s pajamas.

I ve used Xtracolor for 20+ years and have loved the way it sprays, is durable and has a wide range. Beware of two things though. Some of the grays yellow (cellulose?) and I ‘ve noticed some batches are way off the mark. In particular, the ghost grays as of late are not even close, RLM 74 and 75 rather dark and muddy and RAF Dark Green looks brownish. I bought a whole load of Mr Color and like it but it’s the whole flat thing that bugs me. For now I’ll be using both Xtracolor from Kitlinx and Mr color. I always thought MM was good stuff albeit to grainy. Their Gloss Gull Gray, ADC Gray, Gloss

A little more detail for your Phantom trivia repository

Rich, Yes, the doors operated with hydraulic pressure. If fingers or hands were inside the door they’d have been crushed or severed if the door was actuated. Conversely, a “Phantom Bite” could occur if you came in contact with the sharp corners on that open door!

Here’s the aux air safety strut I described above

re: the aux air door comment Gene mentioned on my post, to install the safety struts, you had to pull the door open wider to install the strut over the piston on the actuator. There was a ball lock pin that held the strut in place. There were streamers on each strut. I dont remember sending jets out cross country with them but they were certainly used while deployed or at home station and were always installed with other downlocks etc. they were part of the individual aircraft “ dash 21 equipment“. It’s possible I guess that aircrew would not see them as all the downlocks would have been remov

I’m loving all the F-4 stuff too! Speaking of main gear compression during retraction, I’m puzzled that ZM omitted the “shrink links”. Academy included them. They are prominent enough in 48th and fortunately would be easy enough to cobble together. For those doing an F-4 In repose, aux air doors would only be slightly open without the safety struts installed. USAF crew chiefs always installed these when they buttoned the jet up. They extended the actuator making the door open widely. if you're in to RBF streamers, add one hanging out if each door.

The answer kind of depends on how pedantic you want to be. There are detail differences between USAF/USN seats. I too think Aires has the best shape and has accurate details on the main beam. The problem with Aires for a Navy subject is the lumbar pad is the USAF style. It has a slight cutout on the lower left where the the emergency o2 bottle was. Navy seats had this inside the survival kit evident by a small gauge In the seat cushion where the crew members left thigh would rest. The ZM kit seats have that. From about the mid to late 70s on, both branches had the rocket pack initiator moved