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Zoukei Mura F-4

Vince Maddux

By Vince Maddux,
in Jet Modeling

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jpk

jpk

Posted
Posted (edited)

I saw the ZM Phantom on Wednesday and Thursday at the Nationals at the ZM kiosk. I held the sprues and examined the built up pretty closely. It is as much of an improvement over the Academy kit as the Academy kit was over the Hasegawa kit. The detail while extensive is restrained. I think it will blow all other 1/48 Phantom kits into the distant past. I talked with a ZM rep and he said the first release will be the J version. After that will be the C/D. The S will follow the C/D. No B/N is planned at this time. Nothing on any other variants were discussed. Release date, sometime before Christmas. I definitely will buy some. I'm a huge Phantom fan, well, USN Phantom fan.

Edited by jpk
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tony.t

tony.t

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Hasegawa have been doing that for ~20 years, FWIW.

The one piece canopy came along after my 1980s love affair with Monogram and Hasegawa F-4s had ended.

Moreover, the Z-M part allows the front quarter panels to remain unpainted without unsightly glue. (There were no frames at the bottom (like, say, on an F-14), just a glimmer of phenolic fibreglass reinforcing tape - though badly masked jets sometimes had a line ofpaint that resembled a lower frame).

And, even with resin inlets added, the Hasegawa offerings still suffer from a skinny spine.

This Z-M offering seems the best proportioned of all kits to date. Really seems to have captured the nuances accurately, which even Tamiya (in 1/32) have not done - especially the empennage and fuselage/engine bulge aft of the mainplanes.

T

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Edited by tony.t
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Janissary

Janissary

Posted
Posted

I saw the ZM Phantom on Wednesday and Thursday at the Nationals at the ZM kiosk. I held the sprues and examined the built up pretty closely. It is as much of an improvement over the Academy kit as the Academy kit was over the Hasegawa kit. The detail while extensive is restrained. I think it will blow all other 1/48 Phantom kits into the distant past. I talked with a ZM rep and he said the first release will be the J version. After that will be the C/D. The S will follow the C/D. No B/N is planned at this time. Nothing on any other variants were discussed. Release date, sometime before Christmas. I definitely will buy some. I'm a huge Phantom fan, well, USN Phantom fan.

Hmm. I thought the J to S would be a much easier transition than the J to C/D. I mean I would love to see the C/D next, but perhaps I am confused. Somebody please educate me!

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jpk

jpk

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I just finished correcting the Hasegawa F-4S. You're welcome.😄

From what I understand the Hasegawa S is a factory kit bash of the J and their E slated wing. The E wing is incorrect for a navy S. But at the moment it is the only game in town so close is close enough.

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mingwin

mingwin

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Hmm. I thought the J to S would be a much easier transition than the J to C/D. I mean I would love to see the C/D next, but perhaps I am confused. Somebody please educate me!

i've build a F-4C from the hasegawa F-4J and it was way more easier than tooling a brand new wing! modeling wise, the C/D have more in common with the J, than the S variant.

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Gene K

Gene K

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It is as much of an improvement over the Academy kit as the Academy kit was over the Hasegawa kit.

I totally agree. The surface detail is better, the pylons are better, the stab is better (you can actually see through the slots!!), the shape is better at the rear end, ... and the beat goes on. The bleed air holes on the intakes are extremely fine, as are the tops and bottom openings at the end of the ramps. The sprue not shown is the one that has the full intake trunking and engines ... but the rep there graciously unpacked a complete kit and showed it to me - excellent!! The reps explained that The Old Man (a long time Phantom fan) looked at all available 1/48 kits and came up with over 50 areas to improve -- all the improvements are incorporated in these new kits.

... the first release will be the J version. After that will be the C/D. The S will follow the C/D. No B/N is planned at this time

I also talked to several reps (I had to keep going back to fondle the sprues), and also talked with the "The Old Man" though his interpreter. Each stated that there will be a B/N ... the order being J, C/D, B/N, and S. Then, if sales are good, they'll move on to the long nose variants.

I'd go back and ask again about the B/N, but I'm already home. Hopefully someone there will specifically ask again.

Gene K

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Ben Brown

Ben Brown

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From what I understand the Hasegawa S is a factory kit bash of the J and their E slated wing. The E wing is incorrect for a navy S. But at the moment it is the only game in town so close is close enough.

Yes, the slats on the Hasegawa kit are wrong for an S. Both the inboard and outboard slats need to be reshaped. Not too hard to do with Milliput, but if one were molding a kit wing, I would think it would require a complete new wing to get everything right. At the very least, they'd have to have an insert on the inboards to allow for the difference between the Air Force and Navy slats. There are also quite a few smaller differences in the S that are often missed, such as the vents that run alongside the nose gear well.

I'm looking forward to the upcoming J! It might be time to finally build that Blue Angels jet I've been wanting to build.

Ben

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jpk

jpk

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I totally agree. The surface detail is better, the pylons are better, the stab is better (you can actually see through the slots!!), the shape is better at the rear end, ... and the beat goes on. The bleed air holes on the intakes are extremely fine, as are the tops and bottom openings at the end of the ramps. The sprue not shown is the one that has the full intake trunking and engines ... but the rep there graciously unpacked a complete kit and showed it to me - excellent!! The reps explained that The Old Man (a long time Phantom fan) looked at all available 1/48 kits and came up with over 50 areas to improve -- all the improvements are incorporated in these new kits.

I also talked to several reps (I had to keep going back to fondle the sprues), and also talked with the "The Old Man" though his interpreter. Each stated that there will be a B/N ... the order being J, C/D, B/N, and S. Then, if sales are good, they'll move on to the long nose variants.

I'd go back and ask again about the B/N, but I'm already home. Hopefully someone there will specifically ask again.

Gene K

The rep I talked with said no on the B/N but if they do one that will be great. From a sequence perspective it would make more sense to do the S before a B/N as the J, C/D and S all have the thick wing. You won't hear me complain though.

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The Scaremonger

The Scaremonger

Posted
Posted

Looks like 1/32 for Trumpeter kit.

Too bad it ain't the scale in which I build. :crying2:

I think it's GT Resin, he makes a lot of items for those kits

http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=52001

Ken

Very nice casts! I wish Gary did the quarter scale as well.

Thanks a lot to you both, Ken and F4D, for your replies. :thumbsup:

Cheers,

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Gene K

Gene K

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Price of the ZM vs Academy would also be a factor...

Standard reply would be something like, "Don't forget to factor in all the correction and augmentation sets required to get the Academy kit close to the ZM". :thumbsup:

Gene K

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mawz

mawz

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Posted

maybe you're confusing with the 1/32 spey phantom HK models announced a while back...

I doubt it, the ZM phantom was thought to be 1/32 when rumours originally surfaced.

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Dave Roof

Dave Roof

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Posted

As a couple of others have already stated, the Z-M F-4J pretty much leaves every other kit far behind in overall accuracy. Upon seeing it in person, it just captures the look of the Phantom better than any other kit previously made.......in any scale. My test shot should arrive within the next couple of weeks and I'll have more time to go over it, but suffice it to say that I was very impressed with what I saw in Columbia.

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Incaroad

Incaroad

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I sure hope you are right Dave Roof, I agree it sure captures that look, however, it wouldn't be very hard to eclipse the Academy kit!

One very important feature for me is the leading and trailing edge flaps are separate FINALLY!

The area that is somewhat disappointing though is the windscreen attachment, man they could have done it like Tamiya's F4U or the new F-14A. That would have sent it over the edge for many copies for me.

Can't wait to see the Intake trunk too, not having one is better than Academy's weak attempt.

I can't wait to get this one in my hands!

Cheers

Larry

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