1/48 Hasegawa F-4J

[StevenJ]

I was building an F-8E for this GB but I really enjoyed my 1/48 Hasegawa F-4J for the Phantom II GB but unfortunately I had to rush the build and it isn't quite the quality that I would want. Thus, I'm motivated to build another F-4J Phantom II and I would like to switch my efforts in this GB to the Hasegawa 1/48 F-4J Phantom II. I started on this new build this past weekend 9/20/2008 and I am currently working on the Aires cockpit set. I've glued the side panels to the fuselage but the cockpit tub is not glued in yet. I still have more work on painting the Aires cockpit set before I'm ready to glue the fuselage together. Based on my experience from the last build, this should be where the most work is to be done and the rest should be smooth sailing. This is now only my 2nd 1/48 Phantom II build and I learned a few things from the other one.

The below is a photo of my F-4J build for the soon-to-end F-4 Phantom II group build (due to end in less than a week) next to my new build I just started a few days back. I don't really want to rush completion just to meet a deadline. The build was less than two-months for me to get that VF-21 Phantom II that far which is an incredibly fast build-rate for me and thus some mistakes happened and I maybe didn't spend as much time as I should on some areas. It's not a bad build, it's just that I see great potential in the kit and I know I can do better! Thus, I'm motivated to start anew. I'm almost tempted to re-do the VF-21 build because I'm really liking the markings and so if anyone has the Hasegawa VF-21 kit's markings available, I am interested. Otherwise, this will have to be a VF-96 Fighting Falcons build...maybe the line-jet that comes with the kit and not Showtime 100.

New and Old:

Cockpit work-in-progress:

And yes, it is normal for me to have more than one or two builds going at the same time.

Edited September 24, 2008 by StevenJ

[twhite80]

The seams on the aires cockpit, especially with the side walls look great. It just gave me fits! I ended up losing a lot of the cockpit sill detail. Did you cut the kit sills all the way off and then glue the sidewalls to the fuselage? I really want to know so I don't struggle so much again.

[StevenJ]

I snapped a photo for you and maybe it'll help you to see my method:

I sanded out all the raised relief on the fuselage and thinned the canopy sill on the fuselage but it's not entirely gone. Basically, I attached the Aires side panels to the interior of the Hasegawa fuselage halves with superglue being very careful that nothing oozes up and out of the seam. It left a hairline seam between the Aires sill and the fuselage part's sill which you can see I'm filling with liquid putty.

To get the fuselage to close up better, I sanded as thin as possible the very front of the Aires cockpit tub angled inward so the front can better pinch together and close up. As you can see in the previous photograph, the cockpit tub dry-fits just fine after gluing the side-panels to the fuselage.

So you know, I did the same thing with that VF-21 build and all worked out well but while watching the Olympics in the evening I was working on the sil and ended up sanding off some of the raised relief. It was probably the most important sil of the four, the pilots left sil. I ended up sanding off all the Aires sil relief on the VF-21 build with plans to later replace with metal etch but so far have not bought any. That's one of the reasons why I'm not entirely happy with that build and why I'm anxious to start over. So word to the wise, work under bright lights! LOL

[twhite80]

Thanks for the how to. I think it would have made so much more sense to make the sills photo etch like the Eduard set. It is so tempting to just go hog wild and buy both and use the Eudard sills on the Aries pit, but that is really over board. I dearly love aries detail, but sometimes I wonder if they actually ever tried to install them in the kits they made them for.

Keep up the good work!

T

[StevenJ]

I re-read what I wrote and I may not have been entirely clear. I did thin the kit's sil but not all the way. I am not sure by how much because I just did it by gut but I would say by at least 2/3rds. I did leave a little bit of lip to it.

I too think Eduard dropped the ball by molding the raised relief to the sils and not providing metal etched parts for it. Though I never had any problems fitting any of the set, you do have to be extra careful when trying to fill and sand the hairline seam you get when mating the Aires to the kit. It's not a huge deal, but the metal etch would be at least a nice backup.

The trouble I had with my other build as I already mentioned was I sanded the sil-seam while watching tv in low-light and I accidentally obliterated some detail. I wouldn't have done that had I been paying attention. And like you, I then considered buying the Eduard set just for the metal etch sils but by the time I got to the end of the build (or near it), I figured I could do a better overall job by just starting over due to a couple other little errors/accidents.

I hope I helped.