Revell 1/48 - F-4 C/D Phantom II - Pros/Cons

Great kit! I say it compares very favorably with a Hasegawa for a fraction of the money.

Here is a recent build of mine:

Airplane itself is totally out of the box.. Not even aftermarket seats (the kit seats are very good). Decals are my own creation with kit stencils. Weapons are spares box specials.. Intake covers are from Sprue Brothers. Fit compared with Hasegawa, a little top seam issue and where the intakes meet the fuselage.. Standard F-4 issues.

Cons: No fans inside the shallow intakes (hence the covers) no afterburner detail (doesn't matter, its on a shelf) Kit markings are nothing to brag about (markings for two obscure aircraft in SEA camo). Kit weapons lack a centerline tank. However, they do include a gun pod, at least one ECM pod (not sure if its the one shown, I know the Vietnam era pod of operation BOLO fame is in there).. and I think a Walleye datalink pod.. Well, What I have standing in for a Walleye datalink pod on another phantom.

Nose is not detachable so no E/F/G model likely.

Aircraft shown is 66-7554 from the 906th TFG. Wright-Patterson AFB. Group commanders A/C late 1980s.

Both kills were scored on the same day, with the gun pod- useless trivia.

paintsniffer,

Thanks for the quick reply and your take on this kit. I just ordered 1 and now I just need to find some decals.

Again, Thanks!

IBuild148

I will be buying the HobbyDecal Black Bunny Decal Sheet for the F4-J since the ones with the kit are to bridle

If you find that you can't get a suitable set of decals, pick up a jar of MicroScale Liquid Decal Film. It's a coating you apply to the decals to keep them in one piece, and it's a life saver..   I've used it on decals which otherwise broke up simply from the paper curling when I put them in water. For $3.00 (US) it's very cheap insurance.

If you can't find the Microscale film, Testor's Decal Bonder works great as well..

Hans & Phil - Thanks for the tips!

I did find and purchased the HobbyDecal Black Bunny Decals for this Phantom.

IBuild148

Now that I received my e-bay "Monogram" F4-J Black Bunny and have it washed I will be begin work on this one Friday.

However I want to buy a "Revell 1/48 - F-4 C/D Phantom II" and would like to know if anyone has Pro/Con comments?

I will be buying the HobbyDecal Black Bunny Decal Sheet for the F4-J since the ones with the kit are to bridle and also looking for something unique for the C/D.

Thanks,

The F-4J and F-4C/D are basically the same kit with some detail differences.  For example, the J has the straight-edged wing pylons, where the C/D has the Air Force pylons with the curved leading edge. 

The J actually has a C/D rear cockpit with the side consoles which is not accurate for the J. (It's fairly easy to correct with some simple scratch-building if you have some good reference photos to work from).

The J also has the triangular reinforcement plates on the rear stabilizers, which were not used on Navy Phantoms.

The J kit has a centerline tank while the C/D has a gun pod.  The J also has TERs on the wing pylons with MK82s with fuse extenders.

IMHO, the biggest drawbacks of the kits are the fit of the engine intakes ( an issue with most Phantom kits) and the raised panel lines.

I think the Revell/Monogram kits match up well with the Hasegawa 1:48 Phantoms, and are significantly less expensive.

Mark 

I haven't built post-Korean War jets in a couple decades, but that kit was one that I did do, and it rocked, IMNSHO... I did the Black Bunny version as well and it just "jumped" off the shelf (as in a eye-catcher that is)...

As for the 1/48th Revell Phantom, are you talking about the Revell of Germany release? Or the old 1970s Revell kit that was a scaled-down version of their horrible 1/32 bird?

It's RoG release. 

I've got the kit.  It's O.K. and I'm making it into the ADF version used by the ANG.

I don't like the AIM-7s but that is me. 

I worked as a weapons tech from '77 to '81. 

Side note:  remember that "brew-ha-ha" a few months past on some modeler who built an F-15 with missiles, had the maint. bays all open, and some snarky guy from the USAF got on and said it was not safe, ya-da, ya-da, ya-da.

Well, he was sort of right.

Back in '79 things got a little dicey in the USAFE.  The F-15 was broke all of the time and the defense cuts of fiscal '78 and '79 were really hitting home.

There HAD to be 4 alert birds and 8 alternates.  Half of the Eagles were flat out broke in the summer of '79 and it was murder getting half the wing to fly. 

I've seen more than one F-15 with maint. doors open and the operations officers were bending the rules because all the other jets were broke.  Safety is first but if you can't do the mission then you're screwed.

The weirdest day came in summer of '79.  All 12 alert fighters launched in minutes because the Soviets had sent a flight of MiG-23s to test our defenses (the wife of my load crew "jammer" driver worked in the radar room at Bitburg).  The sergeants and officers told us to start slapping the missiles on the aircraft and screw the safety checks...

Twenty weird minutes later the jets all landed and the senior sergeants and officers were full of nervous laughter.

31 years past the cold war got hot for a hour....

Hans von Hammer

As for the 1/48th Revell Phantom, are you talking about the Revell of Germany release? Or the old 1970s Revell kit that was a scaled-down version of their horrible 1/32 bird?

I was talking about the original Monogram 1/48 kits (now Revell), not the old Revell 1/48 kit that was scaled down from the 1/32 kit.

Actually, the original 1/32 Revell Phantom wasn't so bad when it was first released back in the early 70's. It was pretty much state-of-the-art back then.  I've still got a couple of them in my stash.  Been thinking about building one gear-up in Blue Angel colors to hang from the ceiling.

Mark

Mark,

Read and re-read your post.

Regarding your comment, "The J also has the triangular reinforcement plates on the rear stabilizers, which were not used on Navy Phantoms"

Since this is going to be a Navy build I have 3 choices:

1. Leave as is and hope IMPS doesn't show up in my hobby room

2. Carefully remove it

3. Find an aftermarket Navy J stabilizer. Since Meteor Productions is out of business I would like to know if there is a AM stabilizer on the open market.

Any thoughts?

Excellant insight and I thank you ALL for sharing your knowledge.

Hans,

I bought the Revell of Germany C/D release.

IBuild148

...Regarding your comment, "The J also has the triangular reinforcement plates on the rear stabilizers, which were not used on Navy Phantoms"

Since this is going to be a Navy build I have 3 choices:

1. Leave as is and hope IMPS doesn't show up in my hobby room

2. Carefully remove it

3. Find an aftermarket Navy J stabilizer. Since Meteor Productions is out of business I would like to know if there is a AM stabilizer on the open market...

iBuild,

Hey, you joke about the IPMS guys peeking in your window, but I have it on good authority that they're the guys flying around in the black helicopters.  Also, since I have no modeling budget, I can't help you with option three.  My opinion?  I'd say go with number 2.  Pick yourself up some raised panel lines and rivets from Archer Details and replace whatever you sand off.  That's what I did for the -J I'm building for the Phantom GB.  There are some shots of my stabilators on this page of the GB.  Scroll down about 1/2 - 2/3 of the way to check out what I did.  They look pretty good, and now that they're covered in paint, you can hardly tell!

Good luck!

(DISCLAIMER: I am not an Archer employee or investor, I am simply a satisfied customer.  And I was joking about you IPMS guys.  Please don't come and snatch me up in the middle of the night to probe me.  Again.  Thank you.)

Cheers!

-O