1/144 F-4 Phantom information

[bucklehead101 29]

Dont know how many people are doing 1/144 kits, but from building F-4s in this scale since a young child, I have put the following together.

 

 

In the realm of 1/144 F-4s, there isn’t a whole lot to choose from. There is the really old Otaki F-4B, which I think Arii reboxed early on. The kit in itself looks like an F-4. There aren’t many options for it however. 4 very skinny AIM-7s are provided. The canopy while it fits, isn’t the most accurate representation either. For the longest time, if you were looking for a short nose F-4B, this was the only game in town. I am aware of only one decal option ever being produced with this kit, a very basic VF-102 Diamondback.

I want to say that Crown produced the next F-4, an E model. This kit generally looks ok, but it has a strange hump. Im not sure if its because the way the canopy comes up and meet the spine, and then meets the tail. Not inherently bad, just looks odd. Anyway, this kit comes with 3 bags of gas, sidewinders and sparrows.  The current Minicraft offering is this kit..

Then there is the LS kit. A generally all around good looking kit. Its been reboxed by Lee Models, Aoshima, Heller,  Arii, and AMT. Included in this kit are 2 bags of gas (no centerline), and two AIM-7s. LS did produce several 1/144 weapons kits, but they are getting ever increasingly hard to find.

Ahhh, the Academy F-4E. This is the one you can find online for under $5 and at hobby lobby’s all over discounted for $2. Essentially the same kit as the LS. It has the same breakdown, same weapons, same gas tanks. The only difference I am aware of is the nose profile being a bit more slender, and the gun which has a weird "sugar scoop" profile. I’ve seen. Airfix, Revell and Hobbycraft have reboxed this kit. Again, its very similar to the LS kit.

Recently, Platz models has put out some very nice Japanese F-4EJ Kai’s. They also recently released an F-4J that comes in a two pack. These are really nice kits complete with cockpits and pilots. Unfortunately, there are only wing tanks, no centerline. They provide the sidewinder rails as well, but no missiles.

 

 

Below is a list of decal options I have personally seen. I know there are more out there.

Minicraft: HO, Iceland ADC, JV, RAAF

Heller: MI ANG

Hobbycraft: OT, FC, UK
Academy: FC, JV

Revell: CR

Airfix: RAAF

Lee Models: OS

LS: OS

Arii: OS

AMT: PN
Otaki: VF-102

Platz: VF-84, VF-114, VMFA-451

 

 

Ok, so you’ve gathered up a squadrons worth of Academy F-4s from several arts and crafts stores in your town for under $20. You are not going to want to make 12 clones of the same bird. Luckily there are some decal options out there.

Recently, there is a Vietnam Phantom decal sheet which is the downscale of a similar 1/72 sheet. You can find it on ebay. It comes with F-4C, D, E and RF along with a VF-111 option.

 

Oh no! My historical correctness compulsiveness disease doesn’t allow me to simply apply short nose markings on a long nose kit! I’ve run into this problem, and contemplated grafting on a 1/72 F/A-18 fuel tank on the nose as someone else had. Used google to its maximum potential and ran across Liliput Air Force.

http://www1.odn.ne.jp/citropen-cafe/liliput/index-e.html

This guy makes resin parts for F-4s. I ordered a few of the RF-4 noses and short nose F-4 parts. He also sells centerline tanks and pods. The resin parts themselves are real nice. The short nose kits come with it ready for a J/S model, and have two different bulges you can attach to make a C or D (B or N I assume as well).  While I havent used a short nose kit yet, the RF-4 nose seems to be designed for the LS kit. I have used it on an Academy kit, and its a few MM wider than the remaining nose section. A little bit of filler and sanding should fix it though. In addition to the F-4 parts, for sale are RF-8 conversion pieces, and a whole swath of decals. I am looking forward to using the 466^th TFS F-105 decals.

 

If you have any questions regarding 1/144^th decals, I’ve been doing a whole lot of searching and would be happy to let you in on my findings.