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Building F-4F 37+65 (72-1175) "Polly Grey" 1/32 scale


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Hello all.

This is the start of the first Phantom I'm going to build on this particular site.

I come from The Netherlands and when I was young, those big birds were flying right over our school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Phantoms! From what I remember above our town Groenlo they started the low fly zone to their shooting on Vlieland in the north of the Netherlands.

I have chosen the 37+65 bird because I saw a photo with "Polly Grey" on the tail. Leeuwarden squadron always had this bird as their Insignia and is a 'sister unit of the JG71 'Richthofen'.

Purchased the ADL 008 - Modern Luftwaffe Unit History Series / Jagdgeschwader 71 "Richthofen" / or fighter Wing 71 "Richthofen" period 1975 - 2013.

Did a lot of research already on what to expect when building it if I want to depict such bird. Focus is mainly on the cockpit when it comes to the F-4F from this epic Phantom. Besides the pictures the WWW and knowledge from the Phantom experts on this site, still a lot of questions remain. Loads of AM is already purchased, seats, resin cockpit, resin engine nozzles, resin seamless intakes, tires and etched cockpit detail sets for scratch building the IP.

One thing left, the Tamiya kit. Will purchase this in June / July, loads of these kits are still available.

My question is, should it be the plain F-4E or the F-4E/J? Need some advise on that>

Hope to start however end of this month with the cockpit. It's the Avionix set. Need, I think, advise from people who know more than I do.

If you're interested please feel free to give your comment, tips etc.

Will take some pictures over the coming weeks to get you all informed on the materials to start with.

 

Kind regards,

 

Robert Jan   

Edited by Speedy
Wrong name for Insignia Leeuwarden Squadron
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Sorry I can't help you with the details; I am not an expert on the F-4F (or any other variant!). I will be following this, though, because I love the Luftwaffe camouflage scheme. When I was in High School at the Canadian base in Baden Soellingen (West Germany), these F-4s used to fly by all the time. I have always wanted to build one in that colour scheme.

Have you considered using the Revell F-4F kit in 1/32? Since you will be using lots of AM, it may make sense... the Tamiya kits are really nice, but they are quite expensive. I don't know if the basic Revell kit is OK if used with lots of AM.

ALF

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Hi ALF. Thanks for your comment. I decided to go with the Tamiya because the Revell kit has the incorrect nose issue, to straight from what others experienced and write about it  The canon seems to be a problem too. So the Tamiya it will be, just want to avoid to much surgery on such critical areas. From what I have learned from building blogs over the last years, is that the F-4E has it's issues too, but mostly on the level of flatten raised panels, adding new and filling panel lines. Surgery is almost nil, except for the wings when adding the detail of slats in forward/down position. There are more little details, for sure. Have to dig deeper by the time I start building. Purchased the HaHen decal sheet for Norm 91scheme, which gives options for already 3 F-4F's. ALQ 119 ECM Pod, Sidewinders and High Speed Centreline shown on the pictures  I have in my stash. Will have to find a decal of the "Polly Grey" Parrot, but I'm almost sure where to find that.

 

Kind regards,

 

Robert Jan

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Hi. Found the "Polly Grey" decals. They are on the sheet that goes with the first release of the Italeri F-104G kit. Thought AM was an option but could not find anything so far.

So if there are people out there, who did not use this decal and are willing to share / sell it? On the other hand it is a long way to go before I need it, so other options may come.

 

Kind regards,

 

Robert Jan

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