I purchased this 1/48 Hasagawa F-4J back in the early 80’s when it was
newly released. The box art was beautiful. I built and painted the ejection
seats and pilots at that time. The pilot figures were fantastic and the seats
were nicely detailed too. Separately molded oxygen hoses on the pilots’ masks
looked awesome. The rest of the kit sat and waited to be built. The cool looking
crew and their seats waited about 15 years before they had an aircraft to sit
in!
I decided to build this model straight from the box. Starting with the
cockpit as usual, I painted, applied a wash, and drybrushed the consoles,
instrument panels, and sidewalls. The rest of the kit went together very well
except for the intakes. A fairly large mismatch exists when the intakes are
attached to the fuselage requiring some major scraping/filling/sanding.
The subassemblies were finished and primed with Floquil primer and set aside
to dry. The box art persuaded me to finish the model in the dress code of VF-84.
After doing some modern two-tone grey models, a plane with a lot of color was
much needed. I started by painting the bottom, weapons, pylons, and gas tank
Tamiya white. Model Master Acryl grey FS36440 for the tops, Tamiya black for the
vertical tail, and a combination of Metalizers for the horizontal stabilators
and exhaust area. This scheme required a lot of masking but it was well worth
the effort.
After three coats of Testors Glosscote the long but fun task of decaling
began. Most of the kit decals were used with the exception of the national
insignia and red intake warnings which came from an old Revell sheet from the
spares box (I don’t remember ever owning a Revell F-4 !??). Microscale’s
walkway set was used – Hasagawa’s color for the walkways looked way off
base. Also, various stenciling from spare sheets finished the process.
After wiping the model down with a damp cloth to remove any decaling residue
it was sprayed with two coats of Dullcote. All weathering was done with pastels.
A mix of black and grey was used for the belly surfaces. Flesh ocre was used
all-over to give a worn ‘carrier use’ look. A final light spray of Dullcote
completed the model. The base was made from mat board and painted with Tamiya
acrylics. 84 individual decals were used to represent the tie-downs.
I’ve never been an F-4 junky – that’s probably why it took so long to
build this kit – but now that it’s finished I can really appreciate the
overall appeal of this awesome jet.
