Ben Brown

Tommy has been a tremendous source of information! I’m looking forward to his upcoming F-4 book. Unfortunately, changing the Hasegawa fuselage to better represent the short nozzle version turned out to be a bit more involved than expected. You have to add ~2 mm to the aft fuselage, and it gets pretty thin, once you sand it to shape. The kit and aftermarket nozzles aren’t designed for this, so they have to be sanded to fit. I’m away from my computer right now but I can post a pic the next time I pass by my desk. Ben

The Tamiya 1/32 F-4 kits are great, but the intakes are a pain in the neck. It’s easier to just install some aftermarket ones than to try to fill the seams on the kit intakes. DMold and Rhino make some good ones. There are loads of aftermarket available so you can correct or add as much detail as you want. For the Hasegawa 1/48 RF-4 kits, note that the aft fuselage is the style used with the long J-79 afterburner nozzles, even thought they include the short nozzles, too. I guess because it was originally released as an RF-4EJ. Here is a great explanation of what I’m talking about, courtesy of Tommy Thomason: LINK Ben

Yup, the Academy kit is a true thin wing F-4B. The Hasegawa RF-4B depicts one of the 10 jets that were built with the F-4J’s thick wing. Ben

Academy makes the best F-4B in 1/48, although it has a few issues that can be fixed with aftermarket bits. Hasegawa’s is much older and has raised panel lines. Zoukei-Mura, Hasegawa, and Academy all make nice F-4Js. Personally, I’d go with Z-M or Hasegawa + aftermarket, due to cost. Once you spend the $$ on the Academy kit to bring it up to the same level of accuracy and detail as the Z-M kit, it’s as expensive as the Z-M kit. Do the same with the Hasegawa J, and you come out spending slightly less than the Z-M (based on my own admittedly shaky calculations 🤔 ). The F -4S was a post-Vietnam version that I don’t think ever flew in Gull Gray/White cameo (except for the one repainted for the NASM). USAF SEA camo, Hasegawa for the long nose versions, Z-M for the F-4C/D. Academy’s needs a lot of aftermarket and Monogram’s and Hasegawa’s have raised panel lines. Ben

Updated

All kit boxes have been opened, but all of the kits are intact. Everything is 1/48 unless otherwise noted: KITS Academy Hawker Hunter F.6 (kit was missing roundel decals when purchased second-hand) $20 (see below for aftermarket parts & decals) Kitty Hawk Mirage F.1CT/CR $25 PENDING Tamiya Spitfire Mk1 $20 Tamiya Spitfire Mk.Vc $20 Eduard Albatros DV with photo etch and white metal engine $20 PENDING USA Models O-1 Bird Dog $20 Fine Molds D4Y2 Judy $25 Classic Airframes Sea Hawk Royal Navy $20 Airfix Sea Harrier FRS.1 $10 Monogram P-40B $5 Revell Spitfire Mk.II Missing clear sprue but includes Squadron canopy. $5 Revell 1/144 F-19 $5 Trumpeter 1/144 YF-23 2 for $5 Trumpeter 1/144 Kawanishi H6K5 Mavis $15 Amodel 1/144 C-123B/K Provider $15 Scott Doepker 1/144 C-141B resin kit with laser-printed decals $20 Monogram 1/24 Ferrari 308 GTB $5 Revell 1/100 Apollo Command Module $5 Polar Lights 1/1000 USS Enterprise original series $20 Polar Lights 1/1000 Klingon D-7 battlecruiser $20 RESIN Renaissance 1/24 Porsche 917K corrected rear body $15 Cutting Edge MB Mk. 2 seat $5 Hi Tech 1/48 MB Mk4 ejection seat $5 PENDING Quickboost 1/48 QB48-464 Sea Vixen FAW.9 Air Intake for Airfix kit $5 PENDING GT Resin F-4J afterburner nozzles for Z-M kit $12 PENDING Scale Aircraft Conversions F/A-18A/C landing gear (for Hasegawa) $10 Cobra Company 1/48 Martin-Baker H5 seats $8 PENDING Steel Beach 1/48 F-4 Phantom arrestor hook for Hasegawa (have 2) $4 ea. 1 PENDING High Flight F-16 Pratt & Whitney afterburner nozzle for Hasegawa $5 True Details 1/48 P-40B/C cockpit for Hobbycraft kit $5 Squadron 1/48 Ki-46III canopy $1 True Details 1/48 He-162 wheels and vacuformed canopy $2 PENDING PHOTO ETCH Reheat Models RH052 1/48 Aircraft canopy details (Modern) $5 Teknics 1/48 Japanese seatbelts, buckles, & rudder pedals $5 Model Technologies 1/48 Sidewinder missile fins $2 DECALS Scaleliners 1/144 AirTran DC-9-30 $10 (Xtracolor paint 2 tins, $4) Flight Path 1/144 United A320 Blue/Gray livery $8 Jbot 1/144 Jetstar Reader’s Digest corporate jet (ALPS-printed) $2 JBot 1/144 Piedmont 737-200 delivery scheme (ALPS-printed) $4 EagleCals EC32-87 1/32 He-162s $8 Tridecal 48-2001: 1200 1/48 He-162A-2 decals $10 Techmod 48032 Ju-88A-4 II/KG3 North Russian Front 1941/ LG 1 Libya $8 Aeromaster 48-172 Ju-88 Collection $6 RooDecals 1/48 Mirage IIIO $8 Experts Choice 48-2 RF-84Fs $6 Microscale 48-0181 F-106As 5th FIS, 49th FIS $8 Aeromaster 48-319 Ki-43 IJAAF Falcons Part II $8 Superscale 48-938 AV-8B Harriers $6 Fred Cady 229 1982 Z28 Camaro Indy Pace Car $2 Buyer pays shipping. PayPal preferred for US buyers. International buyers must use Paypal. No trades, please. Thanks for looking! Ben Brown North Carolina, USA bebrown1[AT]bellsouth[DOT]net

I read in another post that I now can't find that Model Master, White Ensign, and Aeromaster Flat Gull Gray are all pretty good for the old version found on the old USN gray/white camo scheme. Over to you, Rex! 😁 Ben

You could get away with using them interchangeably, but according to forum member Rex, the gloss and flats are not the same color, even though they have the same last 3 numbers. There's at least one other thread here about the Gull Grays, but here's Rex's blog with more detail: LINK. I'm sure he'll be by shortly with more info. Ben

I saw a built Combat kit, once. It looked like an RF-101C from across a dark room. It was more like a caracture of a Voodoo. Ben

My wish list has been shrinking, for various reasons. 1/48 Falcon 20 1/48 T-37 1/48 F11F And, since I've lately become bored with airplanes: 1/24 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1/24 Acura NSX GT3 1/24 Ferrari 488 GT3

Has anyone tried any decals produced by the above companies? They have some interesting subjects. Thanks, Ben

I always forget to scroll this far down the forum. Your Lotus is looking great! I've never heard of Ebbro. Ben

Thanks! It was a learning experience. I learned enough by working on it and by reading Joel's posts that I feel more comfortable tackling that Fujimi 917, next. Ben

Hi Redwood, Thanks for the links to the great photos! I would be a little surprised to find the fuselage to be way off, since it looks like KH might have looked at the Monogram kit as part of their "research." It will be interesting to compare the RF-101A/C nose with Koster's and C&H's. I'm not sure I trust that drawing. D&S had some very good ones, like Dana Bell's F-100 drawings, but that F-101 drawing looks off. Note they got the intakes wrong, too. These from McDonnell might be slightly more accurate (Source: McDonnell via Aviation Archives blog ), although station diagram drawings aren't really intended to show accurate shapes. As for the afterburners, the photos of the sprues show the appropriate short nozzles (LINK). I'm not sure what the comment regarding the afterburners on the FB page is talking about. It's pretty obvious when comparing photos of the built kit with the photo of the real jet that the commenter provided that the kit nozzles are the correct short ones. They could have been done a lot better, but they're definitely not F-101B afterburners. I'd still like to see someone release some nice resin ones for both versions. Cheers! Ben

Wow, nice! Think we can convince them to do some 1/48 F-4B/C/D nozzles for the Z-M kit? Ben