1/48 Tamiya F-4B Phantom II - VMFA 323 Death Rattlers - USMC - South Vietnam 1966

[a4s4eva]

I generally prefer the long nose Phantoms over the short nose variants as there are more variations in operators and paint schemes.  I'm also not really a fan of the colourful USN schemes.  That said, when Tamiya released a Phantom I was always going to build it, even if it was a F-4B.

 

This is the finest engineered kit I've built to date, and yes it's better than the F-14, which until now was at the top. The detail in the F-4B is better than the F-14's as well.  I expect the F-35's are better but I have zero interest in that subject from a modelling perspective. .

 

Tamiya's clever engineering makes this a joy to build. I found myself smiling many times at how things were deliberately engineered to ensure you can't stuff things up.  The detail in the kit is also pretty good.  You really don't need much after market, Seats and wheels are probably all I'd bother with if I was going to do another.  if you aren't into the kit schemes then weapons and decals may be needed. Hopefully Tamiya will release more F-4's but considering it's 2024, and this kit out in 2021 I'm starting to think they won't.  That would be a sad waste of an excellent kit.

 

There is a full article with all the stuff I used along with more pictures at my blog (here) but here are some images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ExchefAndy]

Dare I say... Superb!

Dead set... fantastic work

Andy

[phantom]

Excellent.

[Mr.Happy]

Absolutely stunning!

 

Thank you for posting a link to your website and build.

 

 

Mr.Happy 

[Joerg]

Fantastic build. The weathering is spot on. 👍

[bluedot25]

Outstanding work…. Absolutely stunning!👍👍👍

[A-10 LOADER]

Superb build.

Steve

[a4s4eva]

Thanks all

[strikeeagle801]

OOHHH Napalm. Someone is going to have a toasty morning! The model looks wonderful. I love it! I've got one in the stash. The F-4 is one of the few aircraft I have more than one of. I've got the Tamiya F-4B, the Meng F-4E (early) the Meng F-4G, and the new ZKM F-4E (late).

 

Aaron 

[Dutch]

Nape!  Superb build.  Love it!  These Rhinos were heavily weathered at Da Nang and you have captured it perfectly.  

[a4s4eva]

On 7/31/2024 at 1:12 PM, strikeeagle801 said:

OOHHH Napalm. Someone is going to have a toasty morning! The model looks wonderful. I love it! I've got one in the stash. The F-4 is one of the few aircraft I have more than one of. I've got the Tamiya F-4B, the Meng F-4E (early) the Meng F-4G, and the new ZKM F-4E (late).

 

Aaron 

 

14 hours ago, Dutch said:

Nape!  Superb build.  Love it!  These Rhinos were heavily weathered at Da Nang and you have captured it perfectly.  

Thanks gents. The AoA decals give you a number of weapons loads and this one was different from the usual Bombs that I'd normally fit

[scorvi]

beautiful

Steve

[Ichitoe]

Gotta love a Marines mud mover phantom! Well done!

[usmcski6502]

As a former Deathrattler (‘93-96), I wholeheartedly love this build, great work!

 

S/F,

 

Ski

[BillS]

Totally nailed the subject

[habu2]

Very impressive - and realistic - weathering !!!

[Thadeus]

Sometimes there is a single point in the entire model that just catches my full attention. While the entire paintjob is very nice, I absolutelly love the radome weathering.