This is my Tamiya Phantom. I'vealways liked the big Tamiya jets and when the local hobby shop had thisone on sale I couldn't pass it up. The kit is 'phantastic'. Excellentdetail is provided right out of the box. I wanted to use the Eduard PEset for the cockpit but it was taking forever (over two months) toarrive from Squadron so I started without it. Of course soon after Ibegan the set arrived. Arrrggghhhh! Oh well, the kit detail on theinstrument panel is good enough to begin with so I added what PE stuffI could and pressed on. I also used the Cutting Edge "seamless"intakes. These were very nice despite what others may have said whencomparing them to the Seamless Suckers F-4 intakes. The CE intakesrequire a bit more care, pre-planning and filler but in the end lookjust as nice.

For the bang seats I had started outwith the CE MB Mk 5 seats but several forum members pointed out thesewere all wrong. Now here I am with complete, painted and weathered MBMk 5 seats...what to do? I ordered a set of True Details MB Mk 7 seatsand painted and weather them. Another week wasted...<sigh>.Construction went right along with no major hang-ups. The only fault Ican find with the Tamiya Phantom is how they deal with the horizontalstab. The way the kit is engineered the stab is a one piece assemblythat is held in place with a keel fitting. Know that this area has tobe painted it seems to me that the stabs should be separate and beallowed installation later, after painting. One could try to wait andinstall the keel piece and stab assembly after painting but there wouldbe an unsightly seam. So, I had to engineer a way to separate the stabhalves then provide a way to attach them later. I ended up using wirepins in the stab roots to mate with match drilled holes in the centerstab fitting. It worked like a charm. The Eduard PE set contains quitea few details for the entire aircraft. One particular portion thattakes quite a bit of time and patience are the canopies. These arealmost kits unto themselves. It took about a week just to completethese. The end result though is very pleasing and realistic. Whenattaching the outboard wing panels I even used a template to achievethe 12.5 degree bend in the wing. (I heard the Tamiya had made theangle much greater than that).

Once major assembly was done it wastime for paint. One good thing about these Tamiya jets is that verylittle filler is required. Most all of the seams are nicely hidden orblend very well. After masking the cockpit off I gave the model a shotof Mr Surfacer 1000. Minor imperfections were taken care of followed byanother light coat of Mr Surfacer. Panel lines were pre-shaded withPollyScale grimy black. The underside and radome were sprayed withTamiya white, masked at the demarcation line then the top sprayed withPollyScale Light Gull Grey. The anti-glare shield area was masked offand painted with Tamiya black. The next job was the stainlesssteel areas on the aft fuse and stabs. These were done with variousshades of MM metalizers and Alclad II lacquers. I used CE resin nozzles(which I found out are too small in diameter but look good anyway) andpainted them various shades of steel and gave them an enamel wash.Matching the green trim on the external tanks to the fin flash decalrequired a bit of work. I was able to find an acrylic craft paint thatwas a close match and after a bit of mixing I had something reasonableclose. I masked the tanks off and brush painted the green on. It wastime now for the PollyScale gloss clear coat and decals.

I wanted to do a Marine Phantom usedin Vietnam but I didn't want to use the kit decals since theyrepresented a post-war Marine bird. I used a mix of kit decals andCAM's decal set for VMFA-333. I really like the Triple Shamrock bird.Both the Tamiya and CAM decals went on nicely. I did need to use theSolvaset in certain areas but several applications made sure everythingsnuggled down. An enamel wash was applied to bring out the panel lineand rivet detail. A final coat of satin was applied to everything andit was time to add the fiddly bits (landing gear, drop tanks,ordinance, pylons, nozzles, seats, canopies, wheels, flaps, stabs, geardoors, etc. etc.). CE resin wheels and tires were also used (ratherthan the kit furnished vinyl tires). The Tamiya sidewinders asfurnished are incorrect. The forward fins are too far aft. I fixed onlytwo of the missiles and mounted them on the out'bd rails. I went withthe kit furnished C/L tank. I have heard that F-4's used a less ogiveshaped C/L tank (similar to the wing tanks) but in all my research Ididn't find many pictures to support this and none of the VMFA-333pictures I had showed anything but the C/L tank as furnished in thekit. I went with a CAP war load (since that’s what comes with thekit). Marine Phantoms would routinely fly either CAP or ground attackmissions so the same plane could be configured either way. Once all theextras are added it really looks like a Phabulous Phantom. So there youhave it; my big F-4J. It even took 2nd place at the local St. LouisGateway IPMS contest this past September.

Now, where did I put that F-4D?