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JASDF F-4E Sea Camo colours


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Hi everyone
Does anyone know what alternative brands and corresponding colours I can use are for this aircraft? Hasegawa call out for Mr Colour but I can't get the right colours here, so what are my options? The colours in the instructions are: 374 "Shallow Ocean Blue" and 375 "Deep Ocean Blue"

thanks for an input you can give here
MH

 

(edit - bit more info)

Edited by The Madhatter
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Thanks for the info guys. I found a set on eBay for quite cheap. The only thing is, is that the bird I am going to do is #901 and it appears to be a brighter blue than the other ones. I'm hoping that is just the way it was photographed

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like the blues used by modern BMW the blues on JASDF Ocean Camo is very reactive to ambient light.

in sunshine it appears quite a bit lighter than it appears under overcast conditions.

Much more so than say a grey like flat gull.

A look at photos of F-2's and F-4's will show that with lots of variation in the blue between photos of the same aircraft where the only difference is the light.

its a great camo scheme! Enjoy..

Edited by dehowie
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The F-4ej's that were painted with the ocean camo scheme were all Kai upgrade versions. There were some earlier experimental two blue schemes that were painted in the same fashion but with different blues. These occurred in the early '90s.  The maritime squad using the current ocean scheme was much later, around 2002. I'm pretty sure they are all be disbanded now. All that to say that you need to be careful about what aircraft you are looking at. According to my references, aircraft 901 was an RF-4EJ, not a F-4EJ. I would confirm the aircraft number and type and if possible post the picture you have or a link to it.

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Hi again,

I found a pic of the aircraft you mentioned in a two blue scheme. It was taken in 2015 at an air show. If is an RF-4EJ. The photo info states this is a "Kai" aircraft. This is incorrect as the RF-4EJ Kai has no internal cameras and still has the gun mounted in the nose.

The aircraft was possibly repainted for display purposes as I do not think there are any F-4 aircraft still on active duty. Edit: It does appear there may still be active F-4 variants in service as late as 2015. Here is a link to the photo:

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Japan-Air-Force/McDonnell-Douglas-RF-4EJ-Kai-Phantom-II/2722819/L

The colors do look a little lighter than the maritime scheme but it is hard to tell. As mentioned in another post, the colors tend to look different in different light and angles.

Edited by Mstor
Updated information obtained
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They just missed one letter in that caption.

 

It is an RF-4E Kai (no J was actually used for Japan's RF-4E) You can see the "Kai Tail" on it.

 

This is a common error, and if you think about it for a bit, you will realize that there wouldn't have been two different Phantoms with "RF-4EJ", there was always just the St Louis built RF-4E that were shipped to Japan, and the F-4EJ that were built in Japan, and then some of those F-4EJ were converted to RF-4EJ,,,,,,,and then both "got Kai'd" later on.

 

The "J" in Japan's designation meant "built in Japan",,,,,,not the commonly thought of "served in Japan." (Japan's RF-4Es had USAF serial numbers and fit in the US build block system,,,,,,,,the F-4EJs did not)

 

The only "dual use" Phantom designation was the G, and long after those were converted to Bs, the G was dusted off and used by the USAF for aircraft converted from F-4E.

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Thanks Rex for the clarification. You're definitely right about the aircraft in the photo being a Kai. It also has the Kai wing tips that I didn't notice. Evidently there were plain RF-4Es converted to the Kai standard and then a number of F-4EJs that were converted into RF-4EJs but as I indicated above, they had no internal cameras and retained the gun (at least according to Wikipedia's info which I had also read somewhere else). That's where I confused myself:hmmm:

Edited by Mstor
Correct error
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  • 1 year later...
  • 7 months later...

I have seen a pic of one model of this bird. Here's the pic...

35645497_996579103834519_9124476978890539008_o

 

I'm not so worried about the colors. Should be able to mix up some matches. It the masking that puts me off this one. I keep hoping someone will do a mask set for this. Or maybe decals. This is something that would be up DXM's alley. Trying to mask it by hand would put me in the loony bin. Here's another pic to tempt you...

30727231_1351329868300853_5438436196063641600_o

 

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3 hours ago, Mstor said:

It the masking that puts me off this one. I keep hoping someone will do a mask set for this. Or maybe decals.

 

 

Fujimi ( 1/72) :

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10555560

( decals only but for 3 different Special schemes)

 

Kit:

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10515077

( not sure why boxart shows a grey bird but the kit is definitely the digital scheme one)

 

Blue RF-4E

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10368218

( But Fujimi kit doesn't contain the parts to make it a Kai version)

 

Hasegawa also made a proper Blue RF-4E Kai in both 1/72 & 1/48.

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10460353

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10363789

 

The sold-out ones sometimes pop-up on Ebay and sometimes HobbyLinkJapan or HobbySearch re-stock them.

 

By the way, with regards to what has been mentioned about the blues appearing brighter or darker depending on the conditions, the boxarts from the 1/48 Hasegawa kit (the first 2 pics from the top) might be of some interest:

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10363789

 

 

 

Edited by JackMan
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Unfortunately, I don't do 1/72. I've got one of Hasegawa's "Sea Camouflage" F-4EJs. Also have DXM's new decal set for the blue scheme. Very nice. But, I still want someone to do either masks or decals for the waco digital scheme.

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If someone wants one of Hasegawa's 1/48 F-4EJ Kai Sea Camouflage kits, there's one on eBay going for the low, low price of $454.88. Free shipping from Japan. What a deal! :whistle:

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