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Finally; a new 1/72 Phantom


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44 minutes ago, GeneK said:

 

Good eyes, Jackman.

 

The helmet "back then"  featured a plastic housing under which the visor was stowed. To lower the visor, the crewmember loosened the knob in the center of the housing and slid it down, then tightened the knob to keep the visor in place.

 

1c995440684233e7e029f189316b0a2b.jpg

 

 

The illustration appears to show this later (lighter) helmet where the visor rested atop the helmet when not in use  (elastic straps on side). To lower, the visor was pulled out and down. When the helmet was not in use, the visor was protected by a leathery cover held on by velcro. 

 

s-l1600.jpg

 

I love the illustration (!!), and even "cleaned it up" to use as my desktop (still need to fix the bare metal area on the stab, and the inboard pylon needs new paint).

 

HvmCbN6.jpg

 

Gene K

 

Serial number looks off, is it 80-xxx?  that would make it a post-VN order.

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15 minutes ago, Da SWO said:

 

Serial number looks off, is it 80-xxx?  that would make it a post-VN order.

This aircraft serial number is 68-0313 and it was common to only have the last five digits painted on the tail. Google Korat F-4E's and you can see a number of aircraft displayed as such. Wiki has a photo of this aircraft but the opposite side.

Edited by Craig Baldwin
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Thanks Gene :thumbsup:

 

Most informative. I didn't know the Vietnam era helmets had the visor-cover made of plastic. I had always assumed it was some sort of metal.  Great to learn something new.

 

This forum needs a 'Like' button. 😀

Edited by JackMan
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On 12/26/2020 at 1:06 PM, JackMan said:

I didn't know the Vietnam era helmets had the visor-cover made of plastic. I had always assumed it was some sort of metal. 

 

So you had me thinking, and I tried to find out exactly what the visor cover material was ... but didn't find anything.  Vice plastic, It could have been the same material as the shell --reinforced fiberglass.  The cover had metal reinforcement on the sides. Good descriptions of the various iterations of the USAF helmet here.

 

An interesting sidelight is that the visor cover had vents at the back to release forced air in the event of an ejection.

 

Gene K

 

Edited by GeneK
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  • 1 month later...

Gene K has drawn the attention to an interview which shades some light on the question raised earlier about the Black or Silver stars on the Blue version of the commemorative Phantom last year.

 

"Therefore, we asked Mr. Hiroshi Kumazawa of Fine Molds Co., Ltd., who was involved in the development of the "F-4 series", about the development process and tips on how to assemble.

 

"F-4EJ Kai Last Flight Memorial" Blue "" Why the star color is different from other companies?

 

Kumazawa:  We have decided to release the last flight commemorative model in the flow of the first release" (that is in December 2020).

 

"Actually, in the case of "blue", the color of the stars on the actual machine changed from black to silver on the way! We were able to commercialize the "silver" version in a timely manner.

 

Suzuki: By the way, some of the models of other companies have black stars. It's interesting that the paint is different even for the same model depending on the time of production of the kit."

 

As to the future of the FineMolds Phantoms. It seems that they want to produce as many special scheme boxings (I would imagine primarily for the local market) and mainly the long nose versions but . . .

 

"Suzuki: Will the "F-4 Series" continue to develop in the future?

 

Kumazawa: We have received many requests from our customers. Currently only long nose, so of course I would like to make a short nose. Also, I would like to try the spema of Japan's flashy tactical competition."

 

 

Best regards

Gabor

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An interesting photo was shown on FineMolds twitter page today. It shows a board with a list of differences that need to be made IF other versions of the Phantom are made. It is important to add that (as far as it is possible to understand) this is only an internal study and not a production plan for the future!!!

 

O9wTLWs.jpg

 

 

A small personal comment.

A friend in Tokyo has been trying to find the FineMolds Phantom kit in local model shops and could not in the past months. As far as he knows the company is producing far far less than what is the demand and there are no changes in this policy.  

 

Anyway in the end he did get one kit from a friend and promptly sent it to me in January with Express Parcel. According to international tracking the parcel left Tokyo on 30th of January and it has not been seen since then! Two seeks passed and absolutely nothing. 

Well done Post Office!!!!!!!!! Somewhere there is a happy post man with my kit!

 

Stay Safe!!!

 

Best regards

Gabor

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1 hour ago, ya-gabor said:

Anyway in the end he did get one kit from a friend and promptly sent it to me in January with Express Parcel. According to international tracking the parcel left Tokyo on 30th of January and it has not been seen since then! Two seeks passed and absolutely nothing. 

Well done Post Office!!!!!!!!! Somewhere there is a happy post man with my kit!

 

Stay Safe!!!

 

Best regards

Gabor

Sorry to hear that they lost your parcel... strange, because Japanese post EMS has excellent service!! I am waiting too one small package from Plaza Japan shop, maybe there are some problems regarding covid??

 

Edited by mario krijan
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1 hour ago, mario krijan said:

Sorry to hear that they lost your parcel... strange, because Japanese post EMS has excellent service!! I am waiting too one small package from Plaza Japan shop, maybe there are some problems regarding covid??

 

Yes, Japanese Post EMS is working perfectly, in just under one day they delivered the parcel for international sending. It is when it departs Japan when problems start!!!

 

From the same person parcels to other European destinations with exactly the same EMS have been delivered in 4-5 days at the end of January! Just days before my parcel. I dont think Covid has anything to do with this!

So the systems works, in principle, but there are countries where even the local post office "admits" unofficially that the postman are underpayed and if "by accident" something is "undelivered" then it is considered to be a kind of "work benefit" or "extra pay" for the postman.   : (   : (   : (

 There is absolutely nothing that one can do about this!!!!!!!!!!!

Best regards

Gabor 

Edited by ya-gabor
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Anyone with knowledge of Japanese language should be able to tell. Anyone PLEASE, can you make a translation for us???

 

It is important to add that THIS IS NOT A LIST OF FUTURE RELEASES just a thinking out loud by someone at FineMolds and making a note of it.

 

Certainly it would be Phantastic if all those versions are made by FineMolds. What are the realistic chances for it??? Little I would say, but one can hope!

 

It would be great if for the start they would be making bigger quantity of the already released Phantom kits in accordance with demands! After all it is a source of income so any future versions can be financed!

 

Best regards

Gabor

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On 2/12/2021 at 10:29 AM, ya-gabor said:

An interesting photo was shown on FineMolds twitter page today. It shows a board with a list of differences that need to be made IF other versions of the Phantom are made. It is important to add that (as far as it is possible to understand) this is only an internal study and not a production plan for the future!!!

 

O9wTLWs.jpg

 

 

A small personal comment.

A friend in Tokyo has been trying to find the FineMolds Phantom kit in local model shops and could not in the past months. As far as he knows the company is producing far far less than what is the demand and there are no changes in this policy.  

 

Anyway in the end he did get one kit from a friend and promptly sent it to me in January with Express Parcel. According to international tracking the parcel left Tokyo on 30th of January and it has not been seen since then! Two seeks passed and absolutely nothing. 

Well done Post Office!!!!!!!!! Somewhere there is a happy post man with my kit!

 

Stay Safe!!!

 

Best regards

Gabor

Common problem Gabor, I preorder mine that was sent on 20th October and arrived last week!!!

The problem was/is that, at least at the time and for Italy, that the Jap post don't use air delivery or SAL for the Covid

emergency.

 

 

Gianni

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On 2/12/2021 at 6:42 AM, ya-gabor said:

Anyone with knowledge of Japanese language should be able to tell. Anyone PLEASE, can you make a translation for us???

I asked a friend in Japan  ... whose wife gave the following  candid translation of the "sloppy kanji" (her words).

 

B N -- upper and lower wings
C D -- nose is short
J -- front (same as C & D), aft (lower wings)
S -- upper and lower wings
E -- upper and lower wings
F -- a combination?
G -- various things are different 
RF -- don't even wanna think of it
overseas F -- No way
British -- Gimme a break

 

Of course it's an incomplete and not very correct list, but it's really encouraging if, in fact, this indicates that FM is looking at future variants ... however encompassing!

 

In doing my part to encourage FM production :thumbsup2:, I've already started my conversions of FM kits to an F-4C, RF-4E, slatted F-4E, and an F-4J. 

 

Gene K

 


 

Edited by GeneK
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35 minutes ago, GeneK said:

In doing my part to encourage FM production :thumbsup2:, I've already started my conversions of FM kits to an F-4C, RF-4E, slatted F-4E, and an F-4J. 

 

Gene K

Thanks Gene for the translation!!! 

 

Well I dont know if I should be happy or sad based on the list. 

 

Other thing is that FineMolds is basically only planning limited kit releases, no matter how big the demand is. It is a strange business thinking from a Western point of view. It could be normal there in Japan but I would imagine if a manufacturer produces a kit for which there is big demand then it would make sure to produce as much as possible. 

From economic viewpoint one would imagine that to retrive production/tool making costs and make a profit the tools would be used to its maximum. But who am I to . . .

 

Best regards

Gabor

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Wonder what they mean by 'overseas F'?  Unless they mean making accurate versions for all the different users of the E, and that it'd be too much much work doing, say, an Australian-specific release... but there isn't that much to change.

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On 12/26/2020 at 6:52 PM, Craig Baldwin said:

This aircraft serial number is 68-0313 and it was common to only have the last five digits painted on the tail. Google Korat F-4E's and you can see a number of aircraft displayed as such. Wiki has a photo of this aircraft but the opposite side.

Korat actually had two tails 313 assigned. The 469th TFS had 66-313 and the 34th TFS had 68-313.

Michael

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1 hour ago, jenshb said:

The German Air Force based some F-4Fs in the US for training, but surely they would be similar or identical to the home based ones...?  Noone else used the F-version, so can't think of any other explanation.

That is correct. They were later replaced by new built FY75 E-models which had more capability than the Fs actually had since they were just bought straight from the then current production line. That is, they had for instance the APX-80 IFF installed. The TISEO housing was empty though and was later removed.

Michael

Edited by SCOUT712
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For those specially interested in Japanese forces F-4 Phantoms there is a new book or should I say Manual on the subject. Believe it can be an important reference book for those who plan to build many of FineMolds different special camo version.

 

3JRclHq.jpg

 

The book is, what can I say with its 290 pages is more than comprehensive review of the Phantom history in Japan, versions used, special schemes, some fine details for modellers and year by year collection of some amazing photos. Quality of printing and of photos is astonishing, but I think this is a standard for Japanese publications. Have to add that it is an all Japanese language book.

 

PaZ4nNL.jpg

 

sOKJJLY.jpg

 

1VbxPFn.jpg

 

Best regards

Gabor

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6 hours ago, ya-gabor said:

For those specially interested in Japanese forces F-4 Phantoms there is a new book or should I say Manual on the subject. Believe it can be an important reference book for those who plan to build many of FineMolds different special camo version.

 

3JRclHq.jpg

 

The book is, what can I say with its 290 pages is more than comprehensive review of the Phantom history in Japan, versions used, special schemes, some fine details for modellers and year by year collection of some amazing photos. Quality of printing and of photos is astonishing, but I think this is a standard for Japanese publications. Have to add that it is an all Japanese language book.

 

PaZ4nNL.jpg

 

sOKJJLY.jpg

 

1VbxPFn.jpg

 

Best regards

Gabor

 

Great looking book, where did you find it??

 

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I received it from a very good friend in Japan. As mentioned before it is all Japanese text including details of publisher on inner cover. As far as I can tell it was released in late January this year. It has some photos even from late last year, so it is brand new. On the cover it has the logo of J-Wings so I suppose they are involved in publishing it in some sort.

 

One thing which one can read (well I can anyway) is:

ISBN978-4-8022-0930-4

I dont know if it is much help in searching for the book.

Sorry that I dont have more info on it.

 

Best regards

Gabor

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5 hours ago, Craig Baldwin said:

I've placed my order with HLJ but says it is backordered. Just search F-4 then narrow your search to books and you will see the cover.

 

Thanks for that info.  I search on another site as well and it was backordered but I still put in the order. 🙂

 

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In about two weeks the next version of the FineMolds F-4 Phantom is to be released. The Short Nosed USAF Phantom with Vietnam era decals.

 

Boxes to be filled with plastic. : )  : )

 

paTLUf3.jpg

 

Sprues are ready for packing.

 

xWuCNHF.jpg

 

The short gun muzzle is on a separate part of the sprue.

 

dCVa0Yh.jpg

 

Looks nice and interesting! Will want one!

The only question will be how easy it is to get the kit. Last week I have seen some sellers with FineMolds Phantom from Japan with a price of 75 US Dollars plus postage. A “little” overpriced for a 72nd scale kit in my opinion but if one wants to get the kit then . . .

 

Best regards

Gabor

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