RF-4C Phantom II

Testors put out a kit of the RF-4C in 1/48 and 1/72 scale. Both kits were inaccurate and poor fitting. You still might be able to find one on ebay. I have heard Hasagawa (I think it is hasagawa) will be releasing the RF in 1/48 scale in the near future.

thanks .....
myt dad used to be a crew chief on one when i was a kid, and was hoping to find one to build for him as a gift, now that i am better at this

If you really want a kit of the RF-4C to build for your dad, go with the Revell 1/32 scale RF-4C. It would be easier to find and is a better kit than the Testors kit. The testors kit is an RF-4C by shape only. The cockpits look nothing like the real thing. The seats are never before seen blobs of plastic. The nose gear strut is not accurate. The main struts and wheels are not accurate.

Go with the revell kit and to really make it look good get the aftermarket cockpit, seemless suckers intakes and resin wheel and tires. The kit cockpit is very bare. The real F-4 had a lot of hardware on the canopy decks, bulkheads behind the seats and vertical consoles. The kit wheels are incorrect and the resin ones look a lot better. After these improvements the finished model will be a proud collection for your dad.

I am also a former crew chief on the RF-4C.

Phantoms Phorever Phrom a Phormer Phantom Phixer

Yes it is Hasegawa that is releasing a new 1/48 RF-4C kit in the next few months. Keep waiting. It might be better than that 1/32 scale kit. As you are already aware of Revell can give you a good or a bad kit.

Phantoms rule the skies!!!!!

If anyone has any info on where I could buy or trade for a Revell 1/32 RF-4C Phantom II I would certainly appreciate hearing from you.

I've tried ebay and done some searching online, and I'm beginning to believe my best source will be somebody's closet!

Thanks!
Jack

wish hasagewa would hurry up !!!!! ive had good luch with there kits in the past, hury hury hury

Hi all, I know this may be a little off topic, but I just wanted to throw in here, that I painted the real RF-4C while in the USAF, back in the mid 80's.

Long Live the Phantom !!

have you found one yet? evil bay has one up for auction now. search rf-4c

nope, havnt found one yet.....still waiting on hasagewa. From what ive seen thatll be my best bet. thanks though, i may go see what evil-bay has
jim

Don´t pay more than five bucks for the Revell bird. I remember having one or two of ´em as a kid. Do, however, get all the listed aftermarket stuff. This I beg of you!

You`ll also want to scrath build the internals for the nose. When built you can look straight through the nose via the camera windows.

the 1/32 kit on ebay now it the newer version of the RF-4C with the cockpit set from verlinden it cuilds into a pretty sharp kit. This from the ex-crew chief of RF-4C #69-350
71st Tac Recon Squadron. Bergstrom AFB 1983-1986.

RF-4C #69-350
71st Tac Recon Squadron. Bergstrom AFB 1983-1986.


That's one of the A/C I painted,this coming from an ex-42751,
assigned to the 67th EMS 1984-1987

350 is now sitting outside the Guard base at Gowen Field, Boise ID. She's in the newer gray cammo. When I had her she had a white belly and standard green,green, brown cammo, then went to a wrap around.

While I was employed as an Interstate Processed Poultry Relocation Engineer. I use to backhaul a lotta spuds out of Nampa, Boise, Heyburn and Burley, ID.
While waiting for them to get my load ready, I used to sit at the "Flying Hook" and watch the RF-4s take off. Ahhh, the good old days when I was everywhere and saw lots of interesting aircraft.

Randie

chasblake99-

When I arrived at Bergstrom, the A/C were in the lt. green, dk.green, tan wrap around, and were just starting to change the tan to 36081 gray. Man, did we go through alot of lacquer!

I remember more than once, that when one would go to Hill for Depo Maintance, and a new polyurathane paint job, we would repaint that same A/C within weeks,due to chips and scrathes, because our paint didn't match theirs.

Other times, we would do a complete paint job, and without it ever flying, would come out of our hanger, and moved into another for a 600 hr. inspection, and then we would touch-up the paint afterwords, go-figure!?!

Just for others who may read this, Bergstrom was 12th AF Headquarters, and those RF-4Cs were,"The Best in TAC"

Thanks for the memories!!!!!!!

i remember going out on the flight line in reno with my old man and getting to see alot of the aircraft that most people didnt get to see....it was really cool for a 15 year old kid. Unfortunately the ANG unit there transitioned to C-130's shortly after i graduated in 1988. too bad the got rid of the old bird. Those are some of the best memories of my childhood/early adulthood
jim

FYI, a kit of the RF-4E Phantom in 1/48 scale has just come out in Japan from Hasegawa. HLJ.com is currently backordered after selling their first shipment and this kit I imagine is being shipped to stateside distributors as we speak. It has a lot of tooling in common with the other Hasegawa Phantom kits, so parts swapping should be a piece of cake. The cockpit of course will probably be swapped out in most examples for the Black Box one since that looks a lot busier internally, but it does have correct RF-4 instrument panels in it.

The kit will build a JASDF F-4E, and it is a little different from a stock F-4E in terms of the wings (i.e. a couple rectangular bulges up top and extensions on the wing tips around the formation lights), but the kit does have other lumps and bumps in it, so an F-4C is at least planned even if not announced yet. Since it is an RF-4E and not a C, it has different burner cans. The camera nose is the later style "rounded" nose on the bottom instead of the earlier style flat nose. Hopefully the announced RF-4B kit will have the flat nose for those that desire it.

So, in order to do an RF-4C from this kit, you need to get some C style burner cans (either kit scrounged or aftermarkets), remove the JASDF bulges from the wing or swap it with a standard unslotted "E" wing out of the Pro Modeler F-4E kit (Hasegawa tooling). Then apply your aftermarket decals and viola, an RF-4C! Now with the "EJ Kai" style wing leftover from a swap, other JASDF spec parts and the JASDF decal sheet, you should still have enough parts to do a JASDF F-4EJ Kai from the PM F-4 kit (back instrument panel for the Kai is molded on the wing sprue).