Zoukei Mura 1/48 F-4E "Late" Announced

[scotthldr]

On 12/13/2023 at 4:01 PM, Illu said:

 

Virtually every unit that flew F-4Es had them at some point.  I can't think of one that didn't.  

 

All F-4Es from serial number 71-0237 and higher had TISEO.  The only exceptions were the late block aircraft that went to Turkey, Greece, and South Korea.  They decided they didn't need TISEO, which is why the Ghost Gray F-4Es and the 5000th special didn't have it.  

Not quite true, all Greek Peace Icarus I a/c 72-1508 to 72-1535 were delivered without TIESO, although the later Peace Icarus II a/c 77-1743 to 77-1765 were TISEO equipped with one exception 77-1743. 

 

TIESO was removed from such equipped a/c as they went through the AUP program, however the Ghost scheme began being rolled out prior to the program and I’ve seen evidence of at least one TIESO equipped a/c in the Ghost scheme.

 

 

[Miramar Road]

I just grabbed this kit from the Volks Shop at the Radio Kaikan building in Akihabara yesterday. 

 

Overall it has most of the sprues you'd see in the early F-4E kit, but with the late F-4G sprue that includes the slatted wing with the belly strap. If you're doing a pre-1971 F-4E airframe you'll be ok since those had belly straps. However, if you are doing one after the "71-" serial cutoff point, those Phantoms don't have the strap. The option in the kit is the MO ANG commemorative with MiG kills 68-338 so you have what you need in the kit for that particular Phantom.

 

If you wanted to do a strap-less F-4E, one option is to order the strapless wing sprue used in the early F-4E or F-4EJ Kai kit from ZM themselves and fit the slatted wingtips to those parts.

 

The most notable sprue is the new "O" tree, which includes later F-4E instrument panels and side-consoles. Most importantly it includes the TISEO and the ARN-101 antenna mods used on some F-4E's. Even though ZM doesn't have you using these parts since the MO ANG Phantom doesn't have them, its a nice extra. 

 

If I were to guess, ZM might issue a later boxing with decals for an F-4E that has the TISEO and ARN-101. They've done different boxings for the F-4J and the F-4EJ with different decals so it would make sense. They also could do a huge variety of foreign F-4E's since most exported E Phantoms were the slatted-wing types. If not ZM, the aftermarket can provide parts for other foreign F-4E's like the Greek AUP, Turkish Terminator 2020 and Israeli Kurnass 2000.

 

I do remember hearing that the German F-model Phantoms are next up on the long-nose Phantom pipeline, so that's probably what we will see next from ZM. Then they will move on to the recon Phantoms down the line.