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F-4S seatbelts - Which should I get for ZM kit


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Since the Zoukei Mura F-4S doesn't come with seatbelts, I was looking at the Eduard range, but I'm not sure if they are usable in the ZM kit, since they're made for the Academy kit (but I'm guessing they should, as it's just seat belts).

Should I get the green or grey ones? I've seen photos with both.

 

 

Best regards,

Ricardo

 

 

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the grey ones. i'm using the HGW ones right now for one of my build. it's not the easiest task i've been facing in modelling, but i think they'll look awesome when done...if i don't screw it too much.

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Hi Larry,

I'm still thinking if I should get it or not. Not because I don't think it will look better, but because I'm not sure if I want to saw a kit that costs almost 100 dollars (95 Euros here in Spain). That's a lot of money for me and I already feel a bit guilty about having bought the kit instead of saving the money 😑

 

Since the only people that will see the finished kit, apart from me, won't even know the name of the airplane, much less that it has a fuselage error, I think I can live in silence, knowing deep inside me that it's not accurate.

 

Regarding the seat belts, I have just realised what Mingwin said. The HGW and Eduard sets are alike, but the Eduard ones are pre-painted.

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4 hours ago, madcow said:

Since the only people that will see the finished kit, apart from me, won't even know the name of the airplane, much less that it has a fuselage error, I think I can live in silence, knowing deep inside me that it's not accurate.

 

My feelings exactly, I build my kits for myself.

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I have another opinion. USAF and USN harnesses were actually sage green and ultimately would fade a bit to look a little gray. The USAF replaced all belts andcstraps on a regular basis to insure integrity. Many of the resin aftermarket seats have the harness pulled out of the inertia reel and locked the way it is sometime depicted  in photos. In actuality, the harness was routinely left retracted and not much was exposed except a little of the webbing and the silver Koch fittings which attached to the occupant’s torso harness. The D ring stayed attached to the left harness. The belts in the bucket comprised the lap belt with simple silver colored buckle almost like a car seatbelt and the survival kit straps with black buckles that again attached to the torso harness. You can easily replicate the webbing with thin tape painted sage green with fittings from sprue, wire or whatever. Other straps would be the pack i

ening bands on the side of the chute housing (sage green) and the pack retaining straps attached to the main beam and routed through the arch of the chute. They were cream colored cottone until thecearly 80s when the changed to olive colored nylon. 

The Brits had a totally different harness system so these comments dont apply to those guys.

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Hmm... I ended up buying Eduard's 49076 set (in grey). The store has more types in stock (also in green) so I'll take a look, but I think I've seen an F-4S seat with grey belts, but it could be another version.

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Madcow,  You made the correct choice.  The belief that the seat belts start out as green and fade grey is a bit of a misnomer.

 

The attached shot is from a VMFA-321 (NAS Andrews MD) F-4S.  the seat was pulled for maint on the AC and seats.   Look on the webbing going over the chute, it's both "green" and "gray".

 

If anything the seatbelts new are "Sage Gray", similar to the flight suits.  But they primarily Gray to Lt Gray.  If you look at the shot you can see there are several different colors on the webbing, ranging from orange to gray.  Some where I have a cockpit shot of a 321 F-4S, have to find it.

 

As pointed out in one of the earlier posts the belts displayed in most models are not quite correct.  They "should" be pulled back into the seat back by the Inertia real, the lt green unit peaking out from the chute pack.  The only way you can run them out and keep them out is by locking the reel.  The only time you would lock the unit is if you're going to crash, or do an arrested landing.  The inertial real is set to "auto lock" when it gets on the order of a 2 G pull.

 

The harness is pulled back so the pilot can get in and easily connect to the (Older) RocketJet) or Koch fittings.  I actually got a chance to sit down with Mr Kotch when I was researching seats, fascinating guy.

 

F-4S_VMFA-321_MB_MkH7_1-92_SM_BryanWilburn.jpg.2d73f538264569fc5bcdb5f680241979.jpgAnywayn, hope this helps!

 

- Bryan Wilburn

Edited by BWDenver
SP
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I'll have to dig up the shot of the 321 cockpit.  I was standing on a main platform next to the bird and was looking down into the cockpit.  I have a several pages of slides from multiple trips to the 321 ramp.

 

321 used a rather interesting IR tracker that would "track" where the pilots helmet was pointed, and was used to slave some of the (I think) A-A weps.  They were interesting boxes on the canopy rails.

 

Bryan

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