My first
submission on ARC! This is Hasegawa’s old 1/48 Collector’s
Hi-Grade Phantom, the F-4J in VX-4 markings. Well, you can see that.
My first model after the customary 15-year lay-off, completed in February.
It’s all from the box, since it included white metal and photo-etched
undercarriage and other details, mainly in the cockpit.
This was my first go with
PE and I’m not too sure about it. I find it's nasty, fiddly stuff
that doesn’t add as much to the overall finish as you might expect for
the cost. But perhaps I’m being unkind. I bought the kit in
about 1987 or 1988 so the art of etching must have advanced a bit since
then. Still, these old eyes aren’t getting any better, nor the
fingers any more wieldy, so my general rule is, to perdition with the
stuff.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The gloss
black coat is, to use the technical term, pants. There are brush
strokes everywhere. This will not make me buy an airbrush; it
will, though, keep me off gloss black aircraft in future. The
annoying thing is, you can’t use matt black and gloss varnish. If
you look at the anti-slip panels along the intakes, they’re grey - but
that’s matt black paint.
I found the
decals were mainly fine. They settled down well with Humbrol
Decalcote (gave me a nasty turn when I saw stage 1 of the process, mind).
The only problem was that the blue flashes around the wingtips were too
brittle and the edges frayed. I didn’t have a serious problem with
their thickness and it was quite nice to find that twenty-year-old decals
survived and hadn’t even changed colour all that much.
I’d
recommend this as a typical Hasegawa F-4 kit, but for two small things.
One, it’s the old version with the raised panel lines. Two, it’s
a limited edition, and although you might find one second-hand, the price
may be a bit daunting. With the recent release of brand-new Black
Bunny decals, plus Hasegawa’s even better modern F-4 kits, plus all the
nice resin goodies available these days (and PE too, if you feel you
must), you can get there much easier.
Coming soon
from the stash: the limited-edition Phantom FG.Mk.1 in A&AEE colours
with the 25th anniversary markings. I intend to do a
basic raspberry ripple finish and live without the gaudy extras. So
if anyone wants them for another A&AEE Phantom, drop me a line.
Seán
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